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Product discounts have been widely applied in digital commerce as a method to attract and retain customers to purchase in China. Given that digital channels differ in their attributes, customers may behave differently when they respond to the same discount across channels. However, little attention has been paid to explore the heterogeneity of customer responses to discounts across channels. This study aims to fill in the gap by exploring how customers’ purchase responses to price discounts differ across digital channels.

This study applies a Poisson regression to an unbalanced data set of purchasing history from Chinese footwear brands with 3,510 customers in a two-year time window across the three digital channels (i.e. personal computer [PC], app and mobile website), with a correction for endogeneity by using the Gaussian copula method.

This paper finds that price discounts have the strongest positive effect on consumers’ purchase volumes on the PC channel, followed by the app channel, while discounts show the weakest impact in the mobile website channel. By so, this paper demonstrates that customers respond differently to online and mobile channels, and they also respond differently within mobile channels when they purchase products with price discounts.

This study is original in analyzing the difference in customers’ discount responses across digital channels, offering valuable contributions to existing research on multichannel marketing as well as mobile marketing and providing helpful insights for multichannel merchants to design digital discount strategies.

The usage of augmented reality (AR) in online shopping websites provides a “try-on” experience for consumers. AR technology combines the virtual and real world. Previous studies have addressed AR usage’s benefits to consumers’ online shopping experience. However, this study aims to explore the dark side of AR usage in consumers’ online purchasing process.

The authors conduct six experiments to examine whether AR usage leads to adverse effects on consumers’ purchase intention and explain the mechanism of its dark side.

The result shows that AR usage in online shopping websites reduces consumers’ purchase intention. The authors further reveal that the usage of AR leads to more vital psychological ownership of the product, and psychological ownership positively relates to cognitive conflict. Cognitive conflict explains the negative influence of AR usage on purchase intention.

First, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore the impact of embedded AR function of websites on consumers’ decision-making process. Also, it is the first study on the application of AR in a real shopping scene, which makes the study of AR close to reality. Second, psychological ownership is introduced in this study. Although there are many types of research on psychological ownership, few scholars have explored it in AR research. Third, most studies stress the advantages of using AR during purchase; this research demonstrates that embedding AR function in a shopping website may negatively affect purchase intention.

This paper explores the driving factors of parasocial relationship (PSR) in the virtual reality (VR) shopping environment, and how this relationship affects brand equity. The study also investigates the moderating role of the celebrity endorser dynamism (CED) in the relationship between PSR and its antecedents.

The primary data collection tool is a survey administered to Chinese consumers (n = 531) who have experienced the products of UNIQLO brand on Taobao Buy + platform, and who had a PSR with the endorser in their VR shopping process. Structural equation modeling is employed to examine the hypothesized relationships among all variables.

The findings show that VR shopping factors (i.e. physical attractiveness, social presence and technology novelty) perceived by consumers to affect PSR, and this relationship and brand equity are positively associated, while CED moderates the relationship between PSR and its antecedents.

This study sheds light on how PSR in the VR shopping environment can improve brand equity. It contributes to the theory of PSR and persuasion as well as marketing strategies. From a managerial perspective, guidelines are provided for firms to implement value communication activities using VR, and to increase their brand equity.

Based on the involvement and customer-delivered value theories, this paper proposes a comprehensive framework with which to examine the relationships between food traceability system, consumer perceived value and purchase intention. The study also investigates the moderating role of consumer expertise in the relationship between food traceability system and perceived value.

Survey approach is the primary data collection tool, through which a total of 238 useable responses were obtained. Structural equation modelling is employed to examine the hypothesized relationships among all variables.

The findings show that the information quality, perceived reliability and product diagnosticity of food traceability system affect consumer perceived value, and the perceived value and purchase intention are positively associated, while consumer expertise acts as a moderator on the relationship between food traceability system and consumer perceived value.

This study sheds light on how consumer perceived value of food traceability system can enhance their intention to purchase traceable food. It contributes to the theory of customer-delivered value and involvement as well as traceable product marketing strategies. From a managerial perspective, guidelines are provided for traceable food producers and marketers to implement reasonable strategies to attract consumers to purchase and promote the sustainable development of food industry.

The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on supply chain management (SCM) practices in small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) and outlines the key insights.

The paper describes a literature‐based research that has sought understand the issues of SCM for SMEs. The methodology is based on critical review of 77 research papers from high‐quality, international refereed journals. Mainly, issues are explored under three categories – supply chain integration, strategy and planning and implementation. This has supported the development of key constructs and propositions.

The research outcomes are three fold. Firstly, paper summarizes the reported literature and classifies it based on their nature of work and contributions. Second, paper demonstrates the overall approach towards the development of constructs, research questions, and investigative questions leading to key proposition for the further research. Lastly, paper outlines the key findings and insights gained.

Survival of SMEs will be determined first and foremost by their ability to provide/produce more, at less cost, in less time, with few “defects”. The key to this is effective SCM. The issue is much explored in the context of large enterprises but less attention is paid to SMEs. Paper aims to surface out some facts for the same. Originality/value The paper reports‐classifies the literature and development of construct and propositions.

The purpose of this paper is to overcome the application limitations of other multi-variable regression based on polynomials due to the huge computation room and time cost.

In this paper, based on the idea of feature selection and cascaded regression, two strategies including Laguerre polynomials and manifolds optimization are proposed to enhance the accuracy of multi-variable regression. Laguerre polynomials were combined with the genetic algorithm to enhance the capacity of polynomials approximation and the manifolds optimization method was introduced to solve the co-related optimization problem.

Two multi-variable Laguerre polynomials regression methods are designed. Firstly, Laguerre polynomials are combined with feature selection method. Secondly, manifolds component analysis is adopted in cascaded Laguerre polynomials regression method. Two methods are brought to enhance the accuracy of multi-variable regression method.

With the increasing number of variables in regression problem, the stable accuracy performance might not be kept by using manifold-based optimization method. Moreover, the methods mentioned in this paper are not suitable for the classification problem.

Experiments are conducted on three types of datasets to evaluate the performance of the proposed regression methods. The best accuracy was achieved by the combination of cascade, manifold optimization and Chebyshev polynomials, which implies that the manifolds optimization has stronger contribution than the genetic algorithm and Laguerre polynomials.

This paper aims to analyse which firm-level characteristics drive their location decisions when investing in a foreign country. Focusing on origin clusters, the authors will study the potential influence of the home country context and, in particular, the impact of firm-level factors, both investor- and investment-related, underlying heterogeneity in their location choice decisions.

The empirical analysis draws on data gathered from mainland Chinese MNEs that have invested in Germany between 2005 and 2013 (269 firms). The authors chose a single host (Germany) and a single home (China) country for their representativeness and for methodological reasons to control for country effects. The authors used a multinomial logit model to assess the effects of the independent variables on the probability that each of the three location possibilities would be selected.

The results suggest that investors preferring co-location in origin clusters have distinct structural and strategic characteristics. From a more structural point of view, Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) undertaken by smaller firms and those without prior experience in the EU prefer an area where there are other Chinese investors. From a more strategic perspective, these FDI flows are more likely to tap into industry agglomerations when the investors’ objective is strategic asset seeking, and they have less knowledge-intensive investments.

The findings may be of great practical value to practitioners and policymakers. Knowledge of the advantages and disadvantages of the types of agglomeration networks can help managers to balance the rewards and risks in their decision-making and to select a suitable development path for their FDIs. For policymakers, an understanding of the structure and formation of different groups of firms in one location and the characteristics of investors who may enter the location can help them to improve their regulatory work and to develop policies to attract investments, thereby enhancing local economic development and community stability.

The research shifts the emphasis of the location choice decision beyond just where to locate toward with whom to collocate. It also contributes to the growing research on emerging market multinationals by providing further insight into understanding of FDI location behavior by firms from emerging economies.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of founding team experience (industry and venturing) in new venture creation. This paper posits the following questions: How does founding team experience influence the likelihood of new venture creation, in the nascent stage? How does industry context moderate this relationship? The study aims to fill an important gap in the literature by unpacking the impact of different types of founding team experiences on venture outcome, and by focusing on the influence of founding team in the venture creation process, specifically at the nascent stage.

The paper utilizes data from the Second Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics, a longitudinal data set of 1,214 nascent entrepreneurs in the USA. Logistics regression was employed to analyze the effect of founding team experience on new venture creation. Post hoc analysis was conducted to ensure the confidence of the findings.

The paper provides empirical insights about how founding team experience influences the likelihood of new venture creation in the nascent stage. At the nascent stage, founding team industry experience positively affects new venture creation while founding team venturing experience does not. However, in the high-technology industry environment, the influence of the founding team’s venturing experience on new venture creation is stronger than that in the low-technology industry environment.

Due to the design of the data set, there is a risk of “right-censoring” problem. Also, because the study used archival data on founding teams, the methodology did not allow for uncovering the underlying team processes and dynamics during the venture creation process based on learning from experience. Future studies are encouraged to examine other types of founding team experience and the underlying process-level factors on venture creation.

The paper provides important practical implications for nascent entrepreneurs/entrepreneurial teams on team assembling and composition. In general, a team with higher-level industry experience is critical for venturing success. A team with higher-level venturing experience is more desired in the high-technology industry.

This paper fulfills an important gap in the entrepreneurial team literature by highlighting the complex and nuanced ways in which founding team experience influences the likelihood of venture creation in the nascent stage of the firm, especially after incorporating the additional impact of the industry context.

The purpose of this paper is to review and critique the existing literature on entrepreneurial teams (ET) by taking a multi-disciplinary viewpoint and provide a future research agenda based on the identified themes and trends.

A systematic literature review (SLR) was undertaken using “business source complete”. Further scrutiny and application of exclusion criteria led to a final sample consisting of 139 papers from 27 different journals belonging to not just entrepreneurship and strategic management but also other disciplines like OB, finance, sociology, psychology, etc. Using qualitative thematic analysis, the authors identified 11 major themes.

The paper reviews both the eleven themes and the linkages between the themes. Thereby identifying areas that have been understudied and those that have received comparatively more attention. The review revealed that the research stream possesses certain conceptual and methodological concerns apart from its cross-sectional and primarily bivariate nature. Five such main concerns have been identified and discussed in detail. Other elements of the resulting research agenda include calls for more clinical process-oriented research, further attention to context, shifting the level of analysis, and a need to integrate across disciplines.

This paper incorporates a broad insight of ET across academic disciplines to show how future contributions could benefit by incorporating research from other fields. In doing so, provides a starting point for more nuanced discussions around the interrelationships between the different conversations that are taking place in the ET literature.

Cognition, conflict and cohesion constitute an inseparable body of group dynamics in entrepreneurial teams. There have been few studies of how entrepreneurial team members interact with each other to enhance venture performance. The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a model that explains the trinity of cognition, conflict and cohesion in terms of social interaction between entrepreneurial team members.

Drawing upon the existing literature concerning entrepreneurial teams, the hypothesized model posits that shared cognition influences team cohesion through the mediating effects of intra-team conflicts. The model also postulates that team cohesion is positively associated with new venture performance and entrepreneurial satisfaction. Structural equation modeling is used to test the hypothesized model, using data that were collected from 203 entrepreneurial teams from technology-based companies in Taiwan.

The results show that shared cognition in entrepreneurial team members maintains team cohesion by restraining conflict and that team cohesion has a positive influence on entrepreneurial members’ satisfaction and new venture profitability.

The leader of a new venture team must endeavor to improve shared cognition between entrepreneurial members. To strengthen shared cognition, the leader can hold formal workshops to build consensus, informal meetings to share views, or use social media to enhance common understanding.

This paper verifies the connections between shared cognition, conflicts and cohesion in entrepreneurial teams in predicting new venture success and highlights the importance of cultivating a shared cognition in an entrepreneurial team to manage conflicts.