Nowadays firms are increasingly hosting open source software (OSS) projects to garner external contributions from unaffiliated developers. This study is a pioneering investigation into the impact of external contributions to firm-hosted OSS projects on firm performance as well as the moderating effects. Using a panel dataset of 536 publicly listed firms hosting OSS projects on GitHub, we employ an instrumental variable (IV) approach to address potential endogeneity issues. Our findings show that external contributions to firm-hosted OSS bolster firm performance. Moreover, this beneficial effect is strengthened when firms and their external contributors have engaged in more distinct OSS projects, or when there is increased comment activity within the firm-hosted OSS projects. Our study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of how firms can strategically leverage external contributions to enhance their financial performance and provides valuable managerial insights for both the broader OSS community and firms navigating this domain.
By proposing a curvilinear, inverted U-shaped relationship between CEO attentional uniqueness and firm innovation, our study moves beyond the conventional linear assumptions. Analyzing S&P 1,500 firms (2000-2018) via textual analysis of CEO letters and patent data, we find that moderate uniqueness triggers innovation by identifying novel opportunities. However, excessive uniqueness proves detrimental, causing cognitive overload and communication barriers that discourage implementation. Furthermore, we argue this relationship is context-dependent: environmental dynamism exacerbates the negative effects of high uniqueness, while CEO power mitigates them. Our findings highlight that CEO cognition’s benefits are not boundless, offering a more nuanced understanding of how executive attention shapes organizational innovation.
In this talk, Professor William Yeoh shared his research journey in the field of human-centric cybersecurity, highlighting key milestones and lessons learned along the way. His work focuses on the human and organisational dimensions of cybersecurity, encompassing topics such as Zero trust cybersecurity maturity, Critical success factors for organisational cybersecurity, Blockchain applications for cybersecurity, and Simulated Phishing Attacks and Embedded Training Campaigns. These studies have been published in leading peer-reviewed journals. Drawing on this experience, Professor Yeoh discussed the common challenges faced during the research process, including interdisciplinary collaboration, industry engagement, and navigating publication pathways. Finally, he will offer practical tips and advice for early career researchers (ECRs) on career planning, research impact, and building a sustainable academic trajectory.
Various feature engineering approaches have been utilized to extract valuable features for tourism demand forecasting. However, the interactive effects and relationships between different features in multi-modal Internet big data have been largely ignored, as with the short- and long-term intra-feature relationships within these data in models for tourism demand prediction. This study develops a novel inter- and intra-feature relation–based cross-modal fusion model for tourism demand forecasting. We forecast the tourist arrivals at Kulangsu Island and Jiuzhaigou Valley in China using search engine data and online review data. Empirical results show that the proposed deep network–based cross-modal fusion method surpasses most typical feature engineering methods in tourism demand forecasting. Meanwhile, incorporating interactively inter- and intra-feature relations from multi-modal Internet big data into forecasting model can remarkably enhance forecasting accuracy.
During this presentation, Dr Ruiz Serrano shared three research ideas he had been developing over the past year, each addressing critical intersections of psychology, marketing, innovation and cultural dynamics. These research ideas are in their conceptual stages, and thus, there is no preliminary data or pilot studies. The first examines how the personality traits of “cool” individuals influence territorial behaviours within innovation contexts. The second attempts to explore the relationship between gender diversity (LGBT+), vulnerability, shame and creativity traits, and their collective impact on driving social innovation. The third explores the cross-cultural effects of unclothed cognition on territorial behaviour, shedding light on how attire influences psychological and spatial dynamics in diverse cultural contexts when aiming to adopt social innovations.
Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles are reshaping corporate responsibilities to the extent that the role of directors in common law jurisdictions is undergoing a profound transformation. This paper examines how fiduciary duties of directors are evolving, weaving traditional shareholder obligations with broader environmental and societal imperatives.
Historically, directors in common law systems prioritised the company's best interests which often equated with accumulation of shareholder wealth. Yet, the rise of ESG frameworks challenge this narrow focus. Courts and stakeholders now view sustainable practices as integral to long-term corporate health.
Directors must now address climate risks, social equity, and ethical governance and embed these into strategic decisions. For example, mitigating environmental harm, like reducing emissions, is no longer optional but a critical component of the duty to act prudently, as such risks directly impact financial stability of an organisation.
Jurisdictions like the UK, Canada, and Australia illustrate this shift of embracing a stakeholder-oriented model. The UK's Companies Act 2006 explicitly codifies directors to weigh environmental and community impact. Certain Canadian court rulings similarly permit prioritising sustainability over immediate profits, reflecting a broader interpretation of fiduciary duty. Social issues—diversity, fair labor practices, and community welfare—demand directors' attention to safeguard reputation and operational continuity. Undermining these risks may lead to the risk of breach of director duties holding directors accountable for their oversight failures.
Using case laws like ClientEarth v. Shell Plc (2023), the paper analyses the complex terrain of derivative action and environmental litigation against directors and how their fiduciary duties can be challenged legally.
In this seminar, Dr Hernandez Soto examined the relationships among outward foreign direct investment (OFDI), the adoption of green technologies, and the generation of municipal waste among European Union countries from 2000 to 2022. This relationship is situated within the context of transitioning to green economies and theoretically aligns with the pollution haven and halo hypotheses, which suggest that engaging in FDI has environmental impacts. By employing FGLS (Feasible Generalized Least Squares) and PCSE (Panel Corrected Standard Errors) estimation techniques to ensure robust estimators, our findings indicate that OFDI contributes to a reduced generation of municipal waste, thereby filtering out companies that generate externalities and facilitating the transition to cleaner economies within the framework of green economies. This process can be further facilitated by the adoption of green technologies; however, the operationalization of the variable used in our estimation may not accurately reflect this relationship. To strengthen the progress made during this transition process, governments should promote policies that encourage the adoption of more sustainable processes and technologies, thereby reducing waste generation. This entails supporting the most efficient companies and encouraging the transformation of firms that still rely on polluting production processes.
The luxury hospitality industry is pioneering technological innovation through virtual AI humans, enhancing guest experiences via personalized services and recommendations. However, the increasing reliance on AI-driven personalization raises ethical concerns, particularly around transparency. This study explores how transparency can be effectively integrated into AI systems, balancing personalization with ethical considerations. Drawing from qualitative interviews with 50 diverse guests, findings reveal an appreciation for personalization, a demand for transparency, and a preference for AI as allies rather than data collectors. The study introduces Dynamic Transparency Protocols (DTPs), a novel framework that adjusts transparency levels based on guest preferences and technological literacy. By connecting insights from the luxury hospitality sector with transparency practices from industries like e-commerce and healthcare, the research provides actionable design recommendations. These include fostering trust through clear communication, ethical data practices, and culturally adaptive AI systems, ultimately addressing critical gaps in AI ethics and enhancing guest satisfaction.
Entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) are considered inclusive, supporting growth-oriented start-ups. Yet, inclusiveness reaches its limits when confronted with self-marginalized entrepreneurs who resist dominant values of growth. We examine the case of canal-boat dwelling entrepreneurs in the United Kingdom. Drawing on identity theory and data from semi-structured interviews, participatory observation, and documents, we identify EE features that turn inclusionary intent into exclusionary effects and self-marginalized entrepreneurs' practices to balance inclusionary pressures and their desire for exclusion. We contribute to EE research by broadening our understanding of 'inclusion' and proposing design principles that better accommodate diverse entrepreneurial identities and broaden the inclusivity of EEs.
This study investigates the impact of macroprudential policies on the finance-growth transmission, employing an Error Correction Autoregressive Distributed Lag (EC-ADL) framework to differentiate between short- and long-term effects. Our findings align with recent critiques of the overly optimistic view of financial development’s role in fostering economic growth, revealing that an increase in the private credit-to-GDP ratio does not yield long-term economic benefits. Utilizing a system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimator to address endogeneity concerns, we demonstrate that macroprudential interventions can alleviate the negative feedback loop between finance and growth. Specifically, while contractionary macroprudential policies effectively mitigate adverse finance-growth dynamics, they do not sufficiently enhance the growth-promoting potential of financial development. Our analysis indicates that in emerging economies, lender-targeted macroprudential tools are essential for addressing the negative finance-growth nexus, whereas both lender- and borrower-based tools can be effective in advanced economies. These insights hold significant implications for policymakers, particularly in advanced markets where political pressures often favor borrower restrictions; thus, a strategic shift towards lender-targeted instruments could facilitate a more effective finance-growth transmission.
Although global brands have attracted much scholarly attention, little is known about whether a brand's internationalization affects the brand's price premium decisions in cities in a host country. In this study, we postulate that brands with higher levels of internationalization will appear more valuable to consumers, thus increasing the brands' price premium. We furthermore argue that this effect is contingent upon several city-level contingencies, including city internationalization, city human capital, and brand competition in a city. The results based on a sample of hotel brands expanded into China provide broad support for our arguments. Our findings contribute to the literature on global brands and cities.
This study investigates how psychological empowerment (PE) enhances subjective well-being (SWB) among Indian banking professionals, positioning job satisfaction (JS) and career satisfaction (CS) as key mediators. While prior research has predominantly treated SWB as an antecedent of PE, this study reverses the causal direction, proposing PE as a driver of SWB—a relationship that remains underexplored in management literature, especially within high-pressure, hierarchical service environments like Indian banking. Grounded in Hackman & Oldham's Job Characteristics Model and integrating Spreitzer's (1995) four-dimensional PE framework, the research addresses three critical gaps: (1) testing whether PE's influence on SWB holds in the demanding Indian banking context; (2) comparing the relative importance of JS versus CS as mediators; and (3) identifying which PE dimensions—meaning, competence, self-determination, or impact—most strongly affect well-being in regulated professions.
The quantitative study surveyed employees from India's top private sector bank using validated instruments and applied rigorous statistical analyses. Results reveal that both JS (β = 0.220, p < 0.001) and CS (β = 0.173, p < 0.001) significantly mediate the positive effect of PE on SWB, with JS emerging as a marginally stronger mediator. The robustness of Spreitzer's four-dimensional PE model is confirmed, with self-determination (λ = 0.788) and competence (λ = 0.786) showing the highest factor loadings, followed by meaning (λ = 0.714) and impact (λ = 0.637), all statistically significant (p < 0.001). These findings suggest that while all dimensions contribute to well-being, self-determination and competence are particularly pivotal in regulated, high-stress professions where long-term career trajectories often outweigh immediate job conditions.
This study challenges the traditional view by demonstrating that psychological empowerment (PE) drives subjective well-being (SWB) among employees in India's high-pressure private banking sector. Using Spreitzer's four-dimensional PE model, it identifies meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact as key factors influencing well-being. Job satisfaction (JS) and career satisfaction (CS) serve as important mediators. The findings offer practical guidance for banking leaders to implement empowerment initiatives that enhance immediate job satisfaction and long-term career fulfillment, ultimately improving employee resilience, reducing burnout, and fostering sustained well-being and productivity in a demanding work environment.
Time management is crucial for performance management and personal development. This research focuses on the cognition aspect pertaining to time scheduling, or the decision-making component of time management, without implementation. We assume that individuals differ in their attentional strategies adopted, and that task significance, time urgency, and time availability may jointly shape the attentional strategies employed during task fulfilment. Two experimental studies are designed to test the propositions. In Study 1, participants fulfilled assigned tasks with eye-movement data (i.e., fixation duration, the number of fixations, average pupil diameter) tracked. Results suggest that individuals apply distinct attentional strategies in time scheduling. We also examine and verify the moderating effects of the task importance and time urgency on attentional strategies based on Covey's Four-Quadrant Model. In Study 2, we further examine the interactional moderating effects of task importance, time urgency and time-availability within different scenarios. Despite ANOVA analysis on attentional strategies with varied task importance, urgency, and time availability, we employ Eye-Movement Hidden-Markov-Model (EMHMM) and Co-clustering methods in both experiments to integrate the patterned attentional strategies adopted by participants and further discuss the underpinning cognitive mechanisms beyond attentional strategies. Findings may offer insights into optimizing attentional strategies given different tasks and temporal perceptions for effective time-scheduling in professional settings.
The luxury goods market is experiencing significant growth, prompting luxury brands to expand their distribution channels. This study investigates whether increased distribution affects the perception of luxury brands. Utilizing two datasets of online survey data on buying leather goods, the research examines the relationship between perceived and purchased distribution and luxury brand attributes. The findings reveal that greater distribution, whether perceived or purchased, does not diminish the luxury status of a brand. Instead, brands with higher distribution are more likely to be associated with luxury attributes. These results challenge traditional views that luxury brands should restrict distribution to maintain exclusivity. This study extends the understanding of luxury brand marketing by highlighting that increased distribution can enhance luxury perceptions, offering valuable insights for luxury brand managers.
The recent shift in the U.S. administration's policy on aid has raised concerns about the sustainability of development efforts in African countries that are heavily reliant on such assistance. This study explores how competing institutional logics—needs-based versus market-based—shape the impact of monetary aid on entrepreneurship in 55 African countries. Our analysis reveals that, from the donor perspective, general aid reinforces a needs-based logic that undermines self-determination and suppresses entrepreneurial activity. In contrast, aid specifically aimed at equity financing aligns with a market-based logic, mitigating the adverse effects of overall development assistance on entrepreneurship. Additionally, we find that countries benefiting from greater natural resource rents can offset the negative impact of aid on entrepreneurial initiatives. By integrating insights from institutional logics and evolutionary psychology, this research advances the entrepreneurship literature by emphasizing the influence of historical context and natural endowments on entrepreneurial outcomes. Practically, it underscores the importance of negotiation and equitable exchanges in fostering economic development within emerging economies.
When designing the visual aesthetic layout of product rating distributions, retail websites use horizontal bars to indicate the percentage of submissions for each possible rating. In business practice, the bars representing higher ratings (e.g., 5-star rating) are placed higher than the bars representing lower ratings (e.g., 1-star rating). We argue that the current practice for visually presenting product rating distributions might be sub-optimal because the default horizontal-bar layout usually looks unstable and in turn jeopardizes consumers' perception of the product's functional performance and decreases their purchase intention. Moreover, we create an easy-to-implement remedy to optimize the visual layout of product rating distributions—to switch from the horizontal-bar layout to the vertical-bar layout to improve perceived structure stability, perceived functional performance, and purchase intention.
Consumer minimalism has emerged as a prominent trend in both marketing practices and research. However, little is known about who is attracted to consumer minimalism and under what circumstances. This research introduces a gender perspective to consumer minimalism. Five studies investigate how consumer minimalism is preferred by male consumers. Specifically, Studies 1a-1b provide initial evidence for our proposed effect, demonstrating that male consumers display a more positive attitude toward both the brand and the product when the product is designed with visual simplicity (vs. complexity). Furthermore, Study 2 demonstrates the underlying mechanism by showing that a reason-based (vs. feeling-based) decision process mediates the effect of gender on consumers’ preference for minimalist products. Consistent with this mechanism, the observed effect is attenuated when individuals are primed with a feeling-based thinking style (Study 3), and when the decision context is reason-based (vs. feeling-based) (Study 4). The findings of the current study contribute to the literature on consumer minimalism, gender differences, and to the marketing practices of (non-)minimalist positioned products and brands.
Purpose:
This study investigates the impact of perceived musical fit in a sporting retail environment on consumer purchase intentions. It also examines how emotional states (i.e., pleasure and arousal) mediate this relationship and how atmospheric responsiveness moderates the mediational path.
Methods:
A total of 224 participants were recruited from Seoul, South Korea. To validate the experimental stimuli, three pretests were conducted with 30 participants each before the main study. In the main experiment, participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions and viewed a video clip of a sporting retail setting accompanied by one of two musical stimuli differing in perceived congruence with the store environment.
Results:
Participants exposed to high-fit music exhibited significantly higher purchase intentions compared to those exposed to low-fit music. Furthermore, emotional states fully mediated the relationship between perceived musical fit and purchase intentions, indicating that the positive effects of musical fit on purchase intentions operate through enhanced emotional responses. Additionally, the mediating effect was significantly stronger among consumers with high atmospheric responsiveness.
Conclusion:
Many sport consumers in their twenties and thirties purchase sporting goods not only for athletic purposes but also as part of their everyday fashion. The vibrant image of sport, combined with the dynamic lifestyles of these consumers, contributes to a fun and energetic retail environment. Therefore, managers in the sports retail sector should strategically select and integrate music that aligns with their store's ambiance and brand identity to create a positive shopping experience. However, it is crucial to tailor the musical selection to the specific store setting and target demographic, as consumers' musical preferences may vary based on age and the type of sporting goods offered.
B Corporation, which is also referred as B Corp has emerged as a new kind of hybrid enterprise that plays a significant role in addressing unmet social needs through their business activities. In this paper, we have identified the key strategies adopted by eleven Hong Kong-based B Corps to integrate a for-profit model (market logic) with a for-purpose model (social logic) based on qualitative data. The current study indicated that benevolent stakeholder collaboration, formalization, network learning and adoption of social impact frames were the key strategies adopted by Hong Kong based B Corps to integrate divergent market (for-profit) and social (for-purpose) logics. These strategies enabled the focal B Corps to successfully pursue their dual goal of economic and social value creation. The findings may serve as a guide for non-governmental organizations (NGOs), multinational corporations (MNCs) and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) operating in other contexts on how to address unmet social needs of local communities by adopting divergent market (for-profit) and social (for-purpose) logics.
This study examines five foreign family-controlled firms that internationalised their supply chains to Laos, a least developed country (LDC). Although not typical social enterprises, these firms adopted a social entrepreneurship (SE) approach, innovating their supply chain business models shortly after entering the market. This study addresses two key questions: What drives these firms to adopt an SE approach in their supply chains? How do they implement these changes? The findings reveal that the owning families' desire to extend their family values, legacy, and socioemotional wealth (SEW) to the host country translated into SE motivation when confronted with the country's institutional realities. Recognising the dysfunctionality of existing institutional structures, they acted as institutional entrepreneurs, replacing them with new, more effective systems. The resulting financial and social improvements further enhanced their SEW, reinforcing the SE process. This study establishes conceptual linkages between SE and family business research. The findings offer practical insights for international firms and policymakers, presenting alternative approaches to market entry into underdeveloped countries and strategies for regional development.
Past research on venture capital has put more emphasis on developing financial models about capital budgeting; however, given that resource allocation is one of the most fundamental bases of strategic management research, the decisions venture capital firms face in the resource allocation process are under-explored. For instance, although venture capital firms often acquire critical resources from external resource providers, little research attention has been paid to the impact of resource providers' preferences in resource allocation choices. Premised on resource dependence theory, this research examines strategic investment choices made by venture capital firms with a focus on resource allocation as understood in the strategic management literature. Specifically, this research focuses on limited partners in venture capital funds, which has captured much less attention in studies on venture capital despite being critical resource providers in the venture capital market. The setting of this study is China's venture capital market, and a unique feature of it is that the government represents an important, distinct group of limited partners in many venture capital funds. Using data on China's venture capital market, this study examines if and how government limited partners, as resource providers, influence venture capital firms' internal resource allocation and strategic decisions in relation to portfolio firms. By studying if and how venture capital firms' strategies for portfolio firms in their venture capital funds are influenced by the presence of government limited partners as external resource providers, the findings of this research shed light on three important streams of literature in strategic management and strategic entrepreneurship: resource allocation, venture capital, and social entrepreneurship.
Acquisition is a key strategy for platform firms to drive market- or technology-driven innovation, addressing demand-side or supply-side needs, respectively. While prior research has focused on supply-side interests, recent studies explore demand-side perspectives, emphasizing customers' roles. Departing from literature that examines investor reactions, this paper investigates how acquisition motivations influence acquired firm customers' responses, particularly their co-creation contributions—a critical asset for platform firms operating in digital environments.
Customers' attention is shaped by the acquirer's public communication, affecting their engagement with the acquired platform firm. This study advances the attention-based view by analyzing how organizational communication impacts stakeholders' external attention. It posits that market-driven innovation reduces customers' uncertainty about product quality and development potential, retaining their focus on co-creation contributions. Conversely, technology-driven innovation prioritizes long-term goals over immediate customer concerns, diverting their attention to other products.
Using a 10-year dataset from the largest global video game distribution platform, empirical tests reveal that market-driven innovation enhances customer co-creation contributions post-acquisition announcement, while technology-driven innovation diminishes them. Additionally, prior collaborative relationships between the acquirer and platform positively moderate the effects of market-driven innovation but do not influence technology-driven innovation outcomes.
These findings provide insights into managing customer relationships during product innovation processes and highlight the importance of acquisition motivations in shaping customer engagement within platform ecosystems.
It is believed that entrepreneurship education and training are instrumental in promoting innovation and the establishment and growth of new ventures. How does entrepreneurship education assist marginalized groups in improving their business acumen? This study focuses on Indego Africa as a single case study, involving five refugee entrepreneurs and the CEO of Indego Africa. First, this study demonstrates how disruptive innovation theory broadens the scope of entrepreneurial education to include underrepresented populations. Second, it shows how an effective entrepreneurial vocational education training programs to the performance of transitional entrepreneurs. Using disruptive innovation theory, this study adds a new perspective on how education can encourage entrepreneurial potential in underserved populations, thus contributing to the literature on entrepreneurial education. This study offers insights to practitioners that disruptive entrepreneurial education approach provides disadvantaged artisans with a transformative journey, empowering them to achieve sustainable economic independence and also local economies promotion. This paper gets together disruptive innovation and transitional entrepreneurs offering novel insights on the entrepreneurial education transforming from sophisticated, high-end offerings to more accessible, low-cost alternatives.
This study explores the influence of voice pitch on consumer attitudes toward status-signaling products, with a focus on the spokesperson's gender. Grounded in evolutionary psychology and social learning perspectives, we propose that lower-pitched male voices serve as reliable indicators of status. We hypothesize that lower-pitched male voices enhance consumer attitudes toward status-signaling products, while this effect is attenuated for female voices. Through one field experiment and two laboratory experiments, our findings consistently support these hypotheses. This research contributes to sensory marketing literature by uncovering the nuanced interplay of voice pitch and gender in shaping consumer perceptions of status-signaling products. Practically, the study highlights the strategic value of employing lower-pitched male voices in marketing campaigns to amplify effectiveness in advertising high-status products.
The termination of existing investments is a significant decision for VC firms. This research explores factors shaping VC firms’ decisions to terminate their investments, with a particular focus on the characteristics of their syndication partners. We contend that factors such as prior investment experiences and the network size of the partner in the VC syndication diminish the likelihood of the focal firm terminating its investment. Furthermore, we put forth theoretical considerations regarding how the developmental stage of the portfolio venture and the competitive dynamics among syndication partners moderate our main hypotheses. This study expands the current body of knowledge on VC investment termination by shedding light on the factors that shape decision-making within VC investments from the perspective of syndication partners.
Despite the well-documented triggering effects of performance falling below aspiration levels on various kinds of organizational changes, the process of searching among different types of solutions remains a black box. This study investigates when firms search for deeper causes and adopt high-level organizational changes, as exemplified by governance reform in Japanese firms. Incorporating a historical dynamics perspective to the theory of problematic search and drawing insights from resilience literature, we argue that recovery duration and recovery frequency influence managerial pressures to search for high-level solutions, leading firms to adopt governance reforms. These effects become more pronounced when the stakeholder logic is stronger. Using a sample of 24,312 observations from 2,448 listed Japanese firms between 2013 and 2022, we find empirical support for our arguments. Based on the unique context of Japanese corporate governance, our study offers new insights into the critical impact of performance feedback dynamics on organizational change.
Urban transportation significantly supports economic activities and tourist mobility but is also a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, particularly through private cars and taxis. Encouraging tourists to adopt more sustainable modes like public transport is essential, yet limited research exists on how message framing can influence such mode-switching behavior within urban destinations. This study explores the effectiveness of gain-framed messages in nudging tourists toward sustainable transport choices when visiting local attractions. Data collected from the choice experiment is analyzed with the discrete choice modelling approach. Results indicate that gain-framed gamified messages effectively encourage tourists to select more sustainable transport options. Findings contribute practical insights for developing targeted nudging strategies to promote sustainable tourist mobility.
Hong Kong aims to become a thriving technology hub by attracting global tech start-up entrepreneurs, leveraging its vibrant expatriate scene. The 2024-25 Budget supports this with investments in research and development and new visa schemes. However, challenges remain in livability, attractiveness, and talent diversity. The research suggests using soft destination branding approach to attracting global talents, integrating insights from migration, entrepreneurship, and tourism. This research aims to position Hong Kong as a top tech start-up destination, providing policy recommendations for talent acquisition and startup ecosystem development.
