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While previous research has demonstrated the positive effects of digital business strategies on operational efficiency, financial performance and value creation, little is known about how such strategies influence innovation performance. To address the gap, this paper aims to investigate the impact of a firm’s digital business strategy on its innovation performance.

Drawing on the dynamic capability view, this study examines the mechanism through which a digital business strategy affects innovation performance. Data were collected from 215 firms in China and analyzed using multiple regression and structural equation modeling.

The empirical analysis reveals that a firm’s digital business strategy has positive impacts on both product and process innovation performance. These impacts are partially mediated by knowledge-based dynamic capability. Additionally, a firm’s digital business strategy interacts positively with its entrepreneurial orientation in facilitating knowledge-based dynamic capability. Moreover, market turbulence enhances the strength of this interaction effect. Therefore, entrepreneurial-oriented firms operating in turbulent markets can benefit more from digital business strategies to enhance their knowledge-based dynamic capabilities and consequently improve their innovation performance.

This study contributes to the understanding of how a firm’s digital business strategy interacts with entrepreneurial orientation in turbulent markets to shape knowledge-based dynamic capability, which in turn enhances the firm’s innovation performance.

Although social networks play an important role in individual ambidexterity, few studies have examined the impact of salespeople's social networks on sales-service ambidexterity. The purpose of this paper is to explore how salespeople's internal and external social networks affect sales-service ambidexterity.

The unique data of 331 salespeople from 39 units in retail banking industry and insurance industry were collected, and the hierarchical linear model was adopted to test the hypotheses. Finally, the alternative measure of the dependent variable and the alternative estimation method were adopted for robustness test.

The results show that the strength of salespeople's internal social networks and the extensiveness of salespeople's external social networks could facilitate sales-service ambidexterity of salespeople separately and synergistically. Salespeople's role breadth self-efficacy partially mediates the influences of internal and external social networks on sales-service ambidexterity, while empowerment climate and transformational leadership positively moderate the aforementioned mediational process by strengthening the relationship between salespeople's role breadth self-efficacy and sales-service ambidexterity.

Practical guidelines are provided for managers to shape ambidextrous salespeople by facilitating salespeople's internal and external social networks, promoting transformational leadership and creating empowerment climate within the unit.

To the best of the author's knowledge, this paper is the first to systematically examine the impact of salespeople's social network on sales-service ambidexterity. Drawing from social cognitive theory and the ambidexterity literature, this research reveals the mechanism of how salespeople's internal and external social networks contribute to sales-service ambidexterity.

This paper aims to examine the relationships between the group affiliates’ dual legitimacy (membership legitimacy and societal legitimacy) and dual resource acquisition (intra-group and out-group), and the moderating roles of environmental uncertainty and munificence in the emerging economies.

This paper adopts hierarchical regression analysis to test the hypotheses based on the unique data of 251 group affiliated firms in China and applies the alternative measurements and alternative methodology of structural equation modeling into robustness check to confirm the results.

The results show as follows: the group affiliates can benefit from membership legitimacy for intra-group resource acquisition and out-group resource acquisition through the mediations of societal legitimacy and intra-group resource acquisition. However, in the linkage between affiliates’ membership legitimacy and intra-group resource acquisition and the linkage between societal legitimacy and out-group resource acquisition, environmental uncertainty plays the positive moderating roles while environmental munificence plays the negative moderating roles. Under the condition of high environmental uncertainty and low environmental munificence, the linkage between membership legitimacy and intra-group resource acquisition, and the linkage between societal legitimacy and out-group resource acquisition reach the strongest level.

The findings highlight the importance of dual legitimacy building for group affiliates to acquire resources both inside and outside the business group when they operate in emerging economies characterized by high environmental uncertainty and low environmental munificence. However, it does not explore the contextual factors (e.g. institutional distance) affecting the relationship between the affiliate’s membership legitimacy and societal legitimacy. Then more group-level factors are expected to be included and explored with multi-level models in the future studies.

The findings reveal the mechanism of how group affiliates benefiting differently from dual legitimacy to acquire resources in the emerging economies, which also provide a new interpretation for the questions of who benefiting more from the group affiliation, how and why (Carney et al., 2009). This research also explores the moderating roles of task environmental characteristics (environmental uncertainty and environmental munificence) on the affiliate's dual legitimacy and dual resource acquisition, which helps understand why legitimacy building is more important in terms of resource acquisition in the emerging economy characterized by uncertainty and non-munificence.

The purpose of this paper is to quantify the benefits to farmers from using alternative marketing arrangements (AMAs) in the USA. The authors first estimate a behavioral model explaining farmers' joint decisions on which commodities to produce and which marketing channels to use when selling their outputs. The authors then use the estimated model to quantify the benefits to farmers from using AMAs.

The authors use the discrete choice random utility maximization model to examine farmers' choices on production regimes, where a regime is defined as a possible combination of all the individual commodity/marketing arrangement channels that the farmer can choose to use. The farmer is assumed to compare the utilities he gets from each of the possible production regimes and then selects the production regime that yields the highest utility to him. The benefit of having access to a particular AMA is measured as the negative of the welfare loss associated with forcing the farmer to abandon that particular AMA.

The results indicate that AMAs yield an economically significant amount of benefits to farmers who rely on them to market their outputs. At the national level, the benefit of using production contracts to hog farmers is valued at $336.4 million. The benefits of using marketing contracts are valued at $374.2, $156.6 and $92.1 million for corn, soybeans and wheat producers.

The paper is the first study that uses the farm-level data to study the welfare effects of marketing contracts in the grain sector. The results show that considering a multi-enterprises farm, farmers' welfare loss might be smaller when the hog production contract is no longer existed.

Retailers have recently leveraged store-loyal customers’ store attachment to maintain customer relationships and motivate patronage intentions. However, the COVID-19 outbreak has driven customer migration from offline to mobile channels. Mobile retail applications (APPs) have been used by numerous retailers to reach their customers. Nonetheless, it has yet to be determined (1) whether store attachment can facilitate (or impede) the adoption of mobile retail APPs and (2) whether store-loyal customers will continue visiting offline stores in the post-pandemic era. To address these questions, we propose a theoretical account using integrated theories on trust transfer and store attachment.

We conducted multi-stage, longitudinal field surveys in two cities of mainland China: Beijing and Guangzhou. From two rounds of data collection, 237 and 103 responses were obtained in March 2022. Hypotheses were tested by partial least squares – structural equation modelling (PLS–SEM).

Results showed that customer trust in an offline retailer can be transferred to the retailer’s mobile APP at the pre-adoption stage, facilitating APP adoption. Notably, store-loyal customers who exhibited a strong attachment to the physical store of a retailer were more inclined to transfer their trust to the mobile APP of the retailer. This occurrence leads to an increased adoption rate, enhanced post-adoption satisfaction and increased inclination to continue (rather than discontinue) usage.

This study is the first to investigate the changes in store-loyal customers' shopping behaviour in the mobile retail era and in the post-COVID-19 pandemic recovery. Our findings elucidate the role of physical store attachment in the trust-transfer mechanism. Furthermore, store attachment may not prevent customers’ channel migration behaviour. Retailers may have to re-consider how to manage channel cannibalisation issues in the post-pandemic recovery.

This paper investigates whether China's R&D tax deduction policy triggers firms to manipulate their R&D expenditures upward.

This paper employs the ratio of actual tax savings as a proxy for the benefits of the R&D tax deduction policy based on manually collected and systematically cross-checked data. The relationship between tax benefits and abnormal R&D spending is estimated in a sample of Chinese A-share listed companies for the period 2007–2018.

The findings suggest that tax deductions lead to positive abnormal R&D spending and that this deviation in R&D spending may be attributed to firms' upward R&D manipulation for tax avoidance. The results also indicate that this behavior is more significant for the period after the policy revision, in non-HNTEs (high and new technology enterprises), and in firms with a high ratio of R&D expenses.

It is difficult to establish a sophisticated and unified model to identify the specific strategy of upward R&D manipulation that firms use to obtain tax benefits.

Managers should take into account upward R&D manipulation when designing governance mechanisms. Policymakers in developing countries may further pursue preferential tax policies that cover every stage of innovation activities gradually; the local provincial governments need to leverage their proximity and flexibility advantages to develop a tax collection and administration system.

This study contributes to the understanding of the complex effect of R&D tax incentives and helps more fully illuminate firms' upward R&D manipulation behavior from the perspective of tax planning strategies, which are underexplored in previous research.

Currently, lubrication analysis of piston ring is generally done under engine rated operating condition. However, the engine (such as the vehicle engine) does not always operate in rated operating condition, and its operating condition changes frequently in actual use. In addition, the lubrication status of piston ring is generally assumed as the flooded lubrication or a certain form of poor lubrication in most of the lubrication analysis.

In this paper, based on the equations about the flow rate of lubricating oil and the variation of control volume, the flow model of lubricating oil in the piston ring-cylinder liner conjunction is established. The lubrication analysis of piston ring for a four-stroke engine under different engine operating conditions is done, in which the lubricating oil at the inlet of piston ring is considered as the lubricating oil attached on the relevant location of cylinder wall after the piston ring moves over at the previous stroke.

There is remarkable difference for the lubrication characteristics of the piston ring under different engine operating conditions. The worst lubrication status of piston ring may not take place under engine rated operating condition.

In this paper, based on the measured engine cylinder pressure, the lubrication analysis of piston ring for a four-stroke engine under different engine operating conditions is done in which the lubricating oil supply condition at the inlet of piston ring is considered. The results of this paper are helpful for the design and research of engine piston ring-cylinder liner conjunction.

Under normal conditions, there are different protection objects inside and outside the gas station, so two sets of independent cathodic protection systems are adopted. At the same time, an insulating flange is applied at the position where trunk pipelines access to the gas station, which realizes electrical isolation of the structures inside and outside the station. However, as a result of short distance between the two cathodic protection systems, there will be stray current interference between them. The purpose of this paper was to study on the interference between cathodic protection systems of gas station and long distance trunk pipeline.

Based on the above, in this paper, first, the mathematical model of interference between cathodic protection systems was established and the control equations solved using the boundary element method. Second, the influence of cathodic protection system of gas station on long distance trunk pipeline and the influence of cathodic protection system of long distance trunk pipeline on gas station were studied separately using BEASY software. Finally, a new thought of cathodic protection design for local station was put forward.

It was concluded that there were serious interference problems between the cathodic protection systems of gas station and long distance trunk pipeline. By moving the potential control point to area outside the influence scope of anode ground bed could avoid the influence of cathodic protection system of gas station on long distance trunk pipeline. By moving the auxiliary anodes away from gas station could avoid the influence of cathodic protection system of long distance trunk pipeline on pipelines in gas station. The new thought of cathodic protection design could avoid the interference between the cathodic protection systems effectively.

It is considered that the results can guide cathodic design for gas station and long distance trunk pipeline. The results can also avoid the interference corrosion between the structures in gas station and trunk pipeline.

As the US-China conflict intensifies, the United States is pursuing a ‘decoupling’ strategy to build a new world trade order, arguing that the current World Trade Organization (WTO) system does not properly regulate China's non-market economic system. The WTO provides special and differentiated treatment (S&DT) for developing countries. The United States argues that China should give up its developing country (DC) status. Sufficient research on the DC status and S&DT has not been conducted as a means of resolving the US-China conflict. Decoupling means the collapse of the global supply chain (GSC), which will bring substantial shock to the global economy and a catastrophe for China. This paper examines the re-classification of DC status and S&DT in the context of US-China conflict and seeks an approach for China to avoid decoupling and coexist with the United States. It would be an optimal way for China to revive the WTO first and to improve its economic system through negotiations under the WTO.

In recent years, the People's Republic of China has made remarkable progress in science and technology. The Chinese industry is competing for leadership in cutting-edge technologies such as 5G, robotics, artificial intelligence, aerospace and green energy. This article aims to analyze: What role do industrial parks, especially Suzhou Industrial Park, play in upgrading technology to encourage independent innovation and economic development? How SIP is related to the Belt and Road Initiative?

This research summarizes China's most important scientific and technological reforms and policies and in particular the Torch Program. In addition, it develops a case study of the Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) by analyzing documents, bibliography and presenting data. It ends with a case study of the role of SIP in the Belt and Road Initiative analyzing the Great Stone Park in Belarus.

This article highlights that: China's experience clearly shows that the "visible hand" of the State plays a very important role in economic development and technological catch-up. All of them are implemented from a strategy linking the national objectives with the local ones, this is done from a top-down perspective. As an important aspect of economic and social development, China's experience in promoting indigenous innovation in science and technology provides a relevant example for developing countries.

There are few academic literature on Great Stone Industrial Park.

The international cooperation of the SIP with the technology parks throughout the BRI-countries provides relevant information to deepen collaboration in this field and could contribute to closing the technological gap in developing countries.

The role of the SIP in the Belt and Road initiative is an under research topic. There is few bibliography discussing the impacts of the cooperation in science and technology in the framework of the BRI.