Search results

Drawing from resource orchestration theory, this research proposed an integrative model that leverages insights into counter resource constraints and uncertainty in start-up business model innovation (BMI). It investigated the influences of entrepreneurial networks and effectuation on BMI through bricolage in uncertain environments.

The research surveyed 481 start-ups in China. LISREL 8.80 and SPSS 22.0 were employed to test the validity and reliability of key variables, respectively. Additionally, hypotheses were examined through multiple linear regression.

First, entrepreneurial networks and effectuation were positively related to BMI, and combining these two factors improved BMI for start-ups. Second, bricolage contributed to BMI and played mediating roles in translating entrepreneurial networks and effectuation into BMI. Third, environmental uncertainty weakened the linkage between bricolage and BMI.

Future research should replicate the results in other countries because only start-ups in China were investigated in the study, and it is necessary to extend this research by gathering longitudinal data. This research emphasized the mediating effects of bricolage and the moderating influence of environmental uncertainty, and new potential mediating and moderating factors should be explored between resources and BMI.

There are three significant theoretical contributions. First, the findings enrich the literature on the complex antecedents of BMI by combining the impacts of entrepreneurial networks and effectuation. Second, an overarching framework is proposed explaining how bricolage (resource management) links entrepreneurial networks and effectuation and BMI. Third, it demonstrates the significance of environmental uncertainty in the bricolage–BMI linkage, deepening the understanding of the bricolage boundary condition.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the legitimacy needs and legitimation strategies of Internet start-ups in the context of industry dynamism.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the legitimacy needs and legitimation strategies of Internet start-ups in the context of industry dynamism.

The authors found that Internet start-ups are in great need of acquiring market and relational legitimacy at their nascent stages. Conformance to the environment is widely adopted by them as a legitimacy-enhancing strategy. There is an inverted “U” relationship between the maturity of the industry and the proactivity of any legitimation strategy in the sector. In the face of high- and low-level industry maturity, start-ups tend to employ prudent strategies to build up legitimacy. While in medium-mature industries, ventures are more likely to adopt proactive and aggressive strategies.

Due to the very nature of case methodology, this study is based on a small number of observations and it is set in the context of the Internet industry. The generalizability of its findings needs to be reinforced by further concrete studies.

This paper suggests that industry dynamism should be taken into account carefully when implementing a choice of legitimation strategies.

This study makes an attempt to further our understanding of how industry dynamism influences firms’ choices of legitimation strategies.

In the context of China, the purpose of this paper is to empirically answer three related questions: Could circular agriculture (CA) attain economic, ecological and social benefits simultaneously? What is key to a successful CA business in emerging economies? And who plays the vital role in building and sustaining a circular business?

The paper is based on a field study and looks at a farm in China. It uses a triangulation methodology to collect information. Besides longitudinal filed work at the farm, the researchers have also interviewed multiple stakeholders and conducted field research at the local markets.

With concrete performance data, the study proves that a circular approach can help achieve ecological, economic and social goals together. It shows that economic viability is essential to succeeding in circular operation, sufficient production pathways are required to make such operation sustainable, and entrepreneurship is key to build and grow a circular business.

The findings point to the crucial role of entrepreneurship in promoting the circular model in emerging economies. These findings, however, may not be readily generalizable, given the limitations of the case study approach.

The study highlights a few areas in which government assistance can make a difference, including financial incentives, information provision, technical support and most importantly the creation of a positive environment for entrepreneurial development.

While prior research emphasizes the role of government in promoting circular economy in developing and emerging markets, the study proves that entrepreneurship is key to turning government initiatives into economically viable and sustainable circular operation.

This study aims to analyze the basic information of visitors of the Macau Science Center to assess their leisure involvement, satisfaction and behavioral intention, along with the interaction of these factors. Suggestions are made for museum policy modifications to improve visitor experience quality.

The analysis methods used in this study included reliability, descriptive statistics, independent-samples t test, ANOVA, correlation analysis and regression analysis.

The results showed that there was no significant relationship between gender and satisfaction, involvement of leisure or behavioral intention; age and educational level had significant impacts on satisfaction, leisure involvement and behavioral intention; significant differences were found in terms of visitors’ point of geographic origin, namely, local residents, mainland residents and Hong Kong residents; occupation was found to have no significant impact on satisfaction, leisure involvement or behavioral intention; monthly income was found to have no significant impact on leisure involvement and behavioral intention, but did have a significant impact on satisfaction; number of visits had no significant impact; there was no significant difference in leisure involvement and behavioral intention among different types of visitors, but there was a significant difference in terms of satisfaction; and significant correlations were found between leisure involvement and behavioral intentions.

The value of this study is to identify problems and offer potential solutions for the improvement of the Macau Science Center by studying the leisure involvement, satisfaction and behavioral intention of museum visitors. The proposed measures can improve the visibility and quality of the science museum, attract additional visitors and improve Macau’s branding through promoting science education and tourism.

The purpose of this paper is to construct diverse granules and coverings derived from a semi‐equivalence class and then to reveal the relationships between granules and coverings and even relations, and to help one to study pansystems relations in a trans‐cross view.

Forms regarding semi‐equivalence classes as primitives, blocks or granules such as tolerance class, join class, meet class, optimist/pessimist selected compatible class, and tolerantly kernel class in an incomplete information system are defined and compared. Different approximations are also introduced. Furthermore, diverse coverings are also suggested.

A tolerance class of an object is proved to be the join of semi‐equivalence classes containing it, i.e. a result of acting union operation on some primitive classes. A compatibly kernel class of an object is a meet of semi‐equivalence classes including it, i.e. a result of acting intersection operation on some primitive classes. Related coverings can also be regarded as coverings derived from the covering consisting of primitive granules. Several necessary and/or sufficient conditions for a general covering to become a semi‐equivalence or complete covering are obtained. Meaningful property and relationship results are also exploited.

Constructing diverse granules naturally from an incomplete information system to form a different knowledge expression system looks promising for data mining in the information society. It widens the approach and schema.

The paper shows that the formation process of granules is natural, newly defined, and not similar and theoretic to those existing in a neighborhood system. The relationship between diverse granules and coverings is described by mathematical theorems in sufficient or necessary condition form.

The planning and construction of innovative university science and technology parks are facilitated on the basis of urban planning reconstruction, and the sustainable development of our country is the main basis for the implementation of the innovation plan and future design of university science and technology parks. However, some aspects of the transformation of a city have impeded the planning and development of university science parks. In order to solve this problem, in this study, the overall planning and successful establishment of science and technology parks in well-known universities were analyzed; and “Cambridge Future” was selected as the practical example and basis for the construction of innovative university science and technology parks; and then CATIC Science City in Nanjing was used as the object of empirical analysis. In addition, the construction of these parks in universities was evaluated through the case analysis and the excellent design strategies and results, and the planning model and construction concept of these parks were proposed after the contradiction between the transition stage of cities and the design of university science parks was resolved.

This study aims to undertake a review of how carbon trading contributes to a reduction in emission of greenhouse gases (CHGs).

A narrative literature review approach was adopted to identify and synthesise existing literature using the Scopus and Web of Science databases. Articles were limited to the past 10 years to obtain the most current literature. The various ways in which carbon trading leads to reductions in emissions were identified and discussed.

The results showed that the main ways in which carbon trading contributes to reductions in emissions are through innovation in low-carbon technologies, restoration of ecosystems through offset money, development of renewable and clean energy and providing information on investment related to emissions.

The value of this study is to contribute to the built environment’s climate change mitigation agenda by identifying the role of carbon trading.

The output of this research identifies and contextualises the role carbon trading plays in the reduction of CHG emissions.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how relative power and mutual commitment affect partners’ choice of influence strategies and how national culture may moderate these effects in the context of international strategic alliances.

In two experiments involving US and Chinese managers, respectively, the study looks into situations wherein a party’s power is lower, equal or higher, all relative to the other party, and there is high versus low mutual commitment between the two parties. The effects of relative power and mutual commitment on influence strategies are also compared between US and Chinese managers.

There is no significant difference between low and equal power with regard to choice of influence strategies. However, moving from a low/equal power to a high-power position, a party’s use of integrative (non-mediated) communications decreased significantly, whereas the use of coercive (mediated) communications increased significantly. The results also show that the effect of relative power is greater when mutual commitment is low than when mutual commitment is high. Finally, there is evidence that the effect of power is stronger for the Americans, whereas the effect of commitment is stronger for the Chinese.

The paper offers a finer account of power relations wherein a party’s power is lower than, equal to or higher than that of the other party and explores the moderating effect role of national culture on the linkages from relative power and relationship commitment to influence strategy use.

The purpose of this paper is to critically review the extant guanxi literature to identify the major inconsistencies in the way guanxi is currently conceptualized. The authors develop a conceptualization of guanxi which views guanxi as a complex adaptive system.

Electronic databases were queried for the keyword guanxi. This study offers an extensive review of the current literature, highlighting four major inconsistencies, namely, the breadth, linguistic-cultural depth, temporality and level of the conceptualization and analyses of guanxi.

In reviewing the extant literature, the authors find four levels of inconsistency that contribute to a lack of clarity in the way guanxi is conceptualized. They define guanxi as a complex adaptive system involving a dynamic formed by the strategic establishing, evolving, utilizing and maintaining of personal relationships based on social norms of trust and reciprocal obligation unique to the Chinese culture.

This approach has the advantage of capturing the dynamic and emerging nature of guanxi over time, while encompassing the underlying principles of the evolving networks as part of the definition.

The authors' new definition makes it easier to explain to people of other cultures. The appropriate level of breadth allows guanxi to be distinguished from associated concepts. This provides guidance for non-Chinese people to help understand guanxi and avoid cross-cultural misunderstandings and conflict.

Having a clear and inclusive definition of the cultural practice of guanxi will integrate the growing literature and theoretical dialogue surrounding the phenomena. This will allow for consistent study of guanxi and its underlying principles, making integration of the various studies conceptually easier.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the co-seismic and post-seismic behaviors of an existed soil-foundation system in an actual alternately layered sand/silt ground including pore water pressure, acceleration response, and displacement et al. during and after earthquake.

The evaluation is performed by finite element method and the simulation is performed using an effective stress-based 2D/3D soil-water coupling program DBLEAVES. The calculation is carried out through static-dynamic-static three steps. The soil behavior is described by a new rotational kinematic hardening elasto-plastic cyclic mobility constitutive model, while the footing and foundation are modeled as elastic rigid elements.

The shallow (short-pile type) foundation has a better capacity of resisting ground liquefaction but large differential settlement occurred. Moreover, most part of the differential settlement occurred during earthquake motion. Attention should be paid not only to the liquefaction behavior of the ground during the earthquake motion, but also the long-term settlement after earthquake should be given serious consideration.

The co-seismic and post-seismic behavior of a complex ground which contains sand and silt layers, especially long-term settlement over a period of several weeks or even years after the earthquake, has been clarified sufficiently. In some critical condition, even if the seismic resistance is satisfied with the design code for building, detailed calculation may reveal the risk of under estimation of differential settlement that may give rise to serious problems.