Chinese Manufacturing Companies Research Articles

The effect of cross-organizational governance on supply chain resilience: A mediating and moderating model

This study examines the effect of a novel antecedent, namely cross-organizational governance (which can be further divided into contractual and relational governance), on supply chain resilience. Additionally, it explores the mediating and moderating effects of supply chain collaboration and institutional environment, respectively, on the relationship between cross-organizational governance and supply chain resilience. Accordingly, a research model, together with four hypotheses, is constructed based on institutional theory. These are further tested based on data collected from a single-respondent survey of 358 Chinese manufacturing companies. The results reveal that contractual and relational governance have significant positive effects on supply chain resilience; supply chain collaboration plays a partially mediating role and institutional environment plays a moderating role in the effects of contractual and relational governance on supply chain resilience. This study enriches the understanding of the relationships between cross-organizational governance, supply chain collaboration, supply chain resilience, and institutional environment. It also provides a reference for supply chain managers’ decision-making activities.

Fuzzy Front-End Vertical External Involvement, Corporate Social Responsibility and Firms’ New Product Development Performance in the VUCA Age: From an Organizational Learning Perspective

Fuzzy front-end (FFE) innovation is the important initial phase of manufacturing companies’ new product development (NPD) process, which can be a factor that determines manufacturers’ NPD performance and sustainable growth. This study seeks to investigate the role of FFE vertical external involvement (FFE customer involvement and FFE supplier involvement) in advancing firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) and NPD performance in the COVID-19-influenced age of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA). This study adopts an organizational learning (OL) perspective as its theoretical foundation in constructing a comprehensive framework by developing a series of hypotheses. In addition, we test the mediating effect of CSR on the relationship between FFE vertical external involvement and firm NPD performance. We use the structural equation modeling method to examine our hypotheses empirically based on data collected from 548 Chinese manufacturing companies. The findings illustrate that FFE customer involvement and FFE supplier involvement are vital drivers of a firm’s CSR engagement. Furthermore, we find that FFE supplier involvement plays a more significant role than FFE customer involvement in contributing to NPD performance. Finally, we find that a firm’s CSR engagement positively mediates the relationship between FFE vertical external involvement and NPD performance.

The impact of supply chain social responsibility on sustainable performance

To achieve sustainable development and cope with growing socioenvironmental pressure, manufacturing companies are becoming increasingly committed to fulfilling their social responsibilities along the entire supply chain. However, it is still unclear whether fulfilling supply chain social responsibility can improve sustainable performance. On the basis of stakeholder theory and using structural equation modeling (SEM) and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), this study explores the complex relationship between supply chain social responsibility and sustainable performance using data collected from 209 Chinese manufacturing companies. The SEM findings show that supply chain social responsibility can improve sustainable performance, while the fsQCA results suggest that the impact of supply chain social responsibility on sustainable performance depends on fulfillment methods. In particular, three supply chain social responsibility patterns can help achieve highly sustainable performance. However, these patterns significantly impact economic, environmental, and social performance in different ways. Our empirical study provides theoretical and practical guidance for companies to fulfill their supply chain social responsibilities.

The impact of environmental regulation on executive turnover: Evidence from listed Chinese manufacturing companies

AbstractThis study explores the impact of environmental regulation on executive turnover based on a panel of A‐share listed companies in the Chinese manufacturing industry. Its findings indicate that the stricter the environmental regulation, the more likely it is to lead to executive turnover in the current period. The findings further show that environmental regulation has a significant negative effect on firm performance; that firm performance has a significant mediating effect between environmental regulation and executive turnover; and that in terms of firm heterogeneity, the above pattern is not significant in manufacturing state‐owned enterprises but is significant in manufacturing non‐state‐owned enterprises.

Impact of returnee executives and managerial discretion on excess perquisite consumption

AbstractThis study examines the impact of returnee executives on top management teams' (TMTs') unethical management behavior (e.g., excess perquisite consumption). Synthesizing insights from upper echelons theory and the psychological entitlement literature, this study proposes that returnee executives cause TMTs to generate a high degree of psychological entitlement, which subsequently leads to a high degree of excess perquisite consumption in their firms. In addition, this study proposes that returnee chief executive officers, product diversification, and regional institutional development moderate the aforementioned relationships by influencing managerial discretion. This study provides empirical evidence for the above view using a dataset that was constructed based on 1960 listed Chinese manufacturing companies from 2010 to 2019. From a psychological entitlement perspective, this study confirms, for the first time, that the introduction of returnee executives may have unintended negative consequences, for example, in promoting the excess perquisite consumption activities of TMTs.

How to leverage relational gatekeepers to improve sales performance: Moderating effects of gatekeeper-salesperson Guanxi and gatekeeper-buyer Guanxi

The literature rarely explores sales gatekeeping strategies empirically and fails to provide sufficient understanding of how and when this strategy can be effectively employed. This study aims to examine these issues by examining the impact on sales performance of using relational gatekeepers in the B2B sales process as well as the moderating effects of gatekeeper-salesperson and gatekeeper-buyer guanxi on the above-mentioned link. Based on a questionnaire survey of 245 pairs of sales managers from Chinese B2B manufacturing and service companies and their sales gatekeepers, the research results indicate that employing relational gatekeepers helps develop sales managers–purchasing manager guanxi, which in turn generates better sales performance. In addition, the gatekeeper's affective commitment to his/her relationship with the sales manager and relational power over the purchasing manager reinforces the sales gatekeeping strategy's effectiveness. These research findings significantly contribute to the theory development of gatekeeping strategy in B2B sales management and also provide insightful managerial implications for B2B sales managers on how to more effectively use relational gatekeepers to facilitate achieving their sales goals.

An Empirical Study on the Relationship between Corporate ESG Activities, Green Innovation and Corporate Performance: Focused on the Chinese Manufacturing Companies

An Empirical Study on the Relationship between Corporate ESG Activities, Green Innovation and Corporate Performance: Focused on the Chinese Manufacturing Companies

Study on the Relationship Between Intra-executive Compensation Gap and Corporate Innovation

The relationship between the internal compensation gap of executives and firm innovation in Chinese manufacturing listed companies is investigated using a sample of Chinese manufacturing companies listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen A-shares from 2015 to 2020. Robustness tests are conducted using propensity score matching method and replacement variable method, and the differences are further discussed based on the nature of property rights and the degree of industry competition. The results of the study show that there is a significant positive relationship, and this relationship is more significant among non-state manufacturing firms and manufacturing firms with high industry concentration.

How do Internet applications affect process innovation in Chinese manufacturing companies?

This study distinguishes between two dimensions of firm process innovation, namely, quantity and quality, and uses data from the World Bank’s China Manufacturing Firm Survey to analyse the differential impact of Internet applications on the quantity and quality of process innovation and their mechanisms of action. Internet applications have a significant facilitating effect on the quantity and quality of process innovation. However, from the perspective of the average marginal effect, the facilitating effect of Internet applications on the quantity of process innovation is greater than that on the quality of process innovation. Further analysing firm size, industry, ownership, and regional heterogeneity shows that in terms of the quantity of process innovation, Internet applications have a greater impact on small- and medium-sized firms, labour-intensive firms, non-state-owned firms, and eastern firms. As for the quality of process innovation, Internet applications have a stronger promoting effect on large firms, technology-intensive firms, and state-owned firms. The mechanism test reveals that open innovation and informatisation capability play a mediating role in the influence of a firm’s Internet applications on process innovation. This study provides micro-empirical evidence for firms’ Internet applications to promote process innovation and policy insights into China’s manufacturing transformation and upgrading.

Research on Financial Risk Crisis Prediction of Listed Companies Based on IWOA-BP Neural Network

<p>To avoid the risk brought by the financial crisis, the Improved Whale Optimization Algorithm-Back Propagation neural network (IWOA-BP) financial crisis early warning model is proposed. This paper selects the data from financial statements of some of the listed Chinese manufacturing companies from 2015-2019 as the research sample. First, the financial data of enterprises are screened by principal component analysis, and the early warning model is constructed from the financial and nonfinancial factors of six indicators: solvency, operating capacity, profitability, development capacity, cash flow and risk level factors. Second, the Whale Optimization Algorithm is optimized by the chaos strategy, as well as by the dynamic weight and sine cosine algorithm. Finally, the improved Whale Algorithm is optimized for BP neural network parameters. In the simulation experiments, the performance of the improved whale optimization algorithm is substantially improved. In addition, in the empirical analysis, compared to the prediction model with other algorithms, the prediction model of this paper has better results in terms of prediction accuracy.</p> <p> </p>

The impact of governmental COVID‐19 measures on manufacturers' stock market valuations: The role of labor intensity and operational slack

This study investigates the impact of the Chinese government's Level I emergency response policy on manufacturers' stock market values. We empirically examine the roles of human resource dependence (labor intensity) and operational slack within the context of supply chain resilience. Through an event study of 1357 Chinese manufacturing companies, we find that the government's emergency response policy triggered statistically significant positive abnormal returns for manufacturers. However, we also find that there exists a negative impact on abnormal returns for manufacturers that are labor‐intensive, giving rise to arguments based in resource dependence theory. In addition, the results indicate the positive role played by operational slack (e.g., financial and inventory slack) in helping manufacturers maintain operations and business continuity, effectively mitigating risks and adding to the manufacturers' resilience. With these findings, we contribute to operations and supply chain management by calling attention to the importance of human resource redundancy while at the same time identifying financial slack and inventory as supply chain resilience strategies that were able to mitigate pandemic‐related risks.

Digital Transformation, Ambidextrous Innovation and Enterprise Value: Empirical Analysis Based on Listed Chinese Manufacturing Companies

Text analysis was used in this study to construct the index of digital transformation degree in manufacturing enterprises. On this basis, an empirical test was conducted on the relationship between digital transformation, ambidextrous innovation, and enterprise value. The results show that: digital transformation has a significant positive impact on the enterprise value of manufacturing enterprises. Digital transformation can promote the rise of enterprise value through technological innovation, business model innovation, and their combination, where ambidextrous innovation plays a mediating role. For manufacturing enterprises, the impact of digital transformation on enterprise value has a single-threshold effect and a double-threshold effect, respectively, with technological innovation and business model innovation being the threshold variables. The synergy of technological innovation and business model innovation plays a stronger mediating role compared with a single innovation model. The conclusions of this study have certain theoretical and practical significance for systematically revealing the intermediate mechanism of digital transformation affecting enterprise value and then promoting manufacturing enterprises to make remarkable accomplishments in digital transformation.

Why Pushing Your Employees Too Hard Can be Dangerous? Performance Pressure and Workplace Safety

Employers are eager to enhance employees’ performance and place a strong emphasis on high performance. Employees thus are facing performance pressure at work, which has important effects on job performance and unethical behaviors. However, less is known regarding how performance pressure might influence workplace safety. Can employees still maintain their own safety behaviors when they are struggling with high-performance demands? Drawing upon the Job Demands-Resources model, we develop and examine an integrative model that identifies why and when employees’ safety behaviors can be impacted by performance pressure. Specifically, we investigated a health-impairment process through which performance pressure damaged safety behaviors (i.e., safety compliance and safety participation). Moreover, we examined whether employees’ job self-efficacy, an important personal resource, buffered this health-impairment process. Using a two-wave lagged design to collect data from 279 frontline workers in a Chinese manufacturing company and a three-wave lagged design to collect multisource data from 220 frontline workers in another Chinese manufacturing company, we obtained support for our hypothesized model. The results indicate that performance pressure increased emotional exhaustion, which in turn led to fewer safety compliance and safety participation. However, this indirect effect was only significant among employees with low job self-efficacy. Given that employers have ethical responsibilities to protect their employees from risks in the workplace, our findings suggest that decision makers should take cautions when they are setting performance benchmarks for employees. Interventions to protect employees’ psychological well-being and trainings on job skills to promote employees’ job self-efficacy are also needed.

The Impact of IT Capability on Corporate Green Technological Innovation: Evidence from Manufacturing Companies in China

In this paper, we theoretically discuss and empirically show how IT capability spurs companies towards greener strategies. Based on the data of listed Chinese manufacturing companies from 2008 to 2018, using a panel regression model, the results show that: (1) corporate IT capability can promote green technological innovation. (2) Compared with state-owned enterprises (SOEs), the IT effect is more significant for non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs); compared with regions with weak environmental regulation, the IT effect is more significant in regions with strong environmental regulation. (3) Additionally, we found that the promotion of IT software capability is stronger than IT hardware capability, and they have a synergistic effect on green technological innovation. Overall, our findings offer a new point view for a deeper understanding of green technological innovation, and provide microscopic evidence for the objective evaluation of corporate IT capability.

Benchmarking strategic core competencies of performance across Chinese and South Korean manufacturing companies

PurposeThis study empirically investigates the significance of the core competencies on various economic performance indices by utilizing accounting and market-based performance in Chinese and South Korean leading manufacturing companies.Design/methodology/approachThis research employs a series of hierarchical regression models to test the hypotheses concerning the significance of R&D and export strategy on firms' performance.FindingsThis study finds that R&D intensity and foreign trade activities through export are most likely to be significantly associated with firm performance, particularly market-based performance, across the Chinese and South Korea manufacturing companies. The significance of other core strategic factors such as capital intensity, leverage, inventory turnover, labor productivity, administrative cost efficiency, and collection policy on performance was also contemplated.Originality/valueThe relationship between R&D and firm performance has been an interesting issue concerning the performance measures employed across different country settings. Research issues addressed in this paper relate to how R&D, and foreign trade by export influence firm performance across two diverse economic environments inherent of Chinese and South Korean leading manufacturing firms. Particularly, this study explores the directions and magnitudes of the operational and strategic relationships between key strategic factors, such as R&D intensity, export by foreign trade, and the firm's economic and market-based performance.

Impact of Intelligent Development on the Total Factor Productivity of Firms – Based on the Evidence from Listed Chinese Manufacturing Firms

The new industrial revolution featuring artificial intelligence (AI) as its core is flourishing globally. However, there are many controversies surrounding the impact of AI on productivity owing to the different understandings of its development. Thus, this study adopts a text mining method to construct indicators for measuring the intelligent development of enterprises based on the information obtained from the annual reports of listed Chinese manufacturing companies from 2009 to 2019. To explore the impact of intelligent development on the total factor productivity (TFP) of enterprises, fixed-effect regression and panel threshold models are employed to empirically prove its overall and threshold effects. The result reveals that the impact of intelligent development on TFP of enterprises is significantly positive at the aggregate level. Regarding the stage characteristics, “Solow’s paradox” exists in the development of intelligence. The effect of intelligence development on TFP is not significant at its early stage; moreover, the rapid development of intelligence exerts a “promotion effect.” However, at the extreme stage (when intelligent development crosses the critical value), it exerts a negative effect on the TFP of enterprises.

How to enhance supply chain resilience: a logistics approach

PurposeLogistics capability is an important enabler of supply chain resilience (SCR). However, few studies have analyzed the underlying influence mechanism of logistics capability on SCR in extreme conditions, such as those of the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this study is to increase understanding of the role of logistics capabilities in constituting a resilient supply chain.Design/methodology/approachDrawing upon the dynamic capability perspective and contingency theory, the proposed conceptual framework aims to demonstrate the relationship between a firm's logistics capabilities and SCR. Furthermore, the conceptual framework is illustrated by empirical evidence from a case study of a Chinese manufacturing company, which focuses on extracting practical lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic.FindingsThe findings suggest that digitalization, innovativeness, and modularization comprise potential mediating pathways for firm logistics capability to affect SCR and government policies, risk management culture, trust and cooperation moderate the effect positively. The potential associations are identified and elucidated by detecting the corresponding strategies and practices of a Chinese manufacturer that performed well amid the COVID-19 pandemic.Practical implicationsThis study provides specific guidelines for logistics managers to enhance SCR during the COVID-19 pandemic. Seeing SCR as a dynamic capability, the framework is also instructive for manufacturers, supply chain members, and policymakers to achieve the sustained competitive advantage of supply chains.Originality/valueThe findings expand the understanding of enhancing SCR in a logistics approach. The empirical validation of propositions in the case study reveals a new vista for research on SCR.

Relationship between the digital economy, resource allocation and corporate carbon emission intensity: new evidence from listed Chinese companies

Many studies have focused on the relationship between the digital economy and carbon emissions at the macro level. However, there is a relative dearth of research on this relationship at the micro level. In this study, we determined the impact of the digital economy on the carbon emissions of individual companies and the mediating role of resource allocation in this relationship using data from listed Chinese manufacturing companies between 2011 and 2019. This analysis yielded three main findings. First, based on firm-level carbon emissions and the borderless organization theory, we found that the digital economy significantly reduced corporate carbon emission intensity. Second, the digital economy reduced resource misallocation and improved resource efficiency, which in turn reduced corporate carbon emission intensity. Third, market drivers and government regulations improved and hindered the ability of the digital economy to reduce corporate carbon emission intensity, respectively. These findings provide evidence for the need for government investment in the development of digital technologies and corporate digitization; the use of digital technologies by businesses to improve resource and energy efficiency; and minimal government regulation of the digital economy in favor of self-regulation through market forces. These measures are important for economic transformation and the achievement of carbon neutrality in emerging developing countries, including China.

The Cultural Dimensions of Hofstede in the Chinese Company Zhe Jiang Deman

The corporate culture in a company is essential to achieve organizational objectives. The objective of this research is to describe the cultural profiles of those who work as employees in a Chinese manufacturing company, taking Hofstede's cultural dimensions as a reference framework. Geert Hofstede describes organizational culture in a general way, using the following cultural dimensions: power distance, individualism-collectivism, masculinity-femininity, uncertainty avoidance, short- and long-term orientation, and indulgence-restraint. This article is a case study that uses frequency graphs and Cronbach's Alpha validation test, which allows us to contribute to a simple but scientifically orthodox and correct methodology to describe the organizational culture in any institution or company of any nationality. The results will allow companies or organizations to make strategic decisions.
 Keywords: organizational culture, Hofstede model, case study.

The Impact of Ethical Leadership on Employees' Green Innovation Behavior: A Mediating-Moderating Model.

To enhance environmental protection and sustainable development, green innovation (GI) is an inevitable choice for enterprises. This study incorporates social identity theory and social learning theory to explore the impact of ethical leadership on employee GI behavior. In addition, this study also examines the mediating effects of green organizational identity (GOI) and the moderating role of strategic flexibility (SF). Using the structural equation modeling, an empirical survey was conducted among 300 Chinese manufacturing companies. The study found that ethical leadership (EL) positively affects employees’ GI behavior (EGIB). It also positively impacts the GOI, which led to EGIB. In addition, the study also confirmed that GOI played a mediating role in the relationship between EL and EGIB. The results further indicated that SF positively enhanced the effect of GOI on EGIB. The findings have important contributions to theory and practice in the current research context.