Strategic Management Policy Commons^™

Scalable Growth In High-Contact, On-Site Service Firms: Ambidextrous Competitive Logics And A Dual-Governance Mechanism Of Replication Quality, Wei Han

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation examines how high-contact, on-site service firms scale up. The central challenge is the stable reproduction of a recognizable service template across dispersed branches under customer heterogeneity, frontline discretion, relationship continuity, and local capacity pressure. Replication quality is defined as the branch-level stability of the service promise, execution rhythm, and exception-handling logic. It is measured directly through retention outcomes and service-failure outcomes, which capture continued acceptance of the service promise and visible breakdowns in service delivery.

The theoretical argument centers on two ambidextrous competitive logics. Local responsiveness requires branches to adapt service timing, provider matching, communication, and recovery work …

The Anatomy Of Earnings Conference Calls: An Integrative Framework For Management Research, Matthew P. Mount, Gokhan Ertug, Wei Shi, Tengjian Zou

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Over the last decade, there has been an explosion in the use of diverse data sources by management scholars to observe and capture managerial and organizational constructs that have historically been difficult to access. This surge has been driven by the growing availability of rich, multi-modal data—textual, image, and audio (Luo, Jia, Ouyang, & Fang, 2024)—together with advances in analytical techniques to process and analyze data, such as computer-aided text analysis (Harrison, Thurgood, Boivie, & Pfarrer, 2019), machine learning (Choudhury, Wang, Carlson, & Khanna, 2019; Harrison, Josefy, Kalm, & Krause, 2023), and deep learning (Gouvard, Goldberg, & Srivastava, 2023). These …

Keeping Up With The Times? Rethinking Social Evaluations Research Under Contemporary Technological And Sociopolitical Forces, Marco Clemente, Michael Etter, Yuliya Snihur, Gokhan Ertug, Graffin Scott, Anastasiya Zavyalova

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The context within which social evaluations form has been fundamentally altered by contemporary forces, such as digital technologies, polarization, activism, politicization of business, and geopolitical tensions. While research on social evaluations has generated rich insights into the formation and development of constructs, such as legitimacy, status, reputation, stigma, trust, and celebrity, much of this work has been developed under the assumptions of relative stability, coherent audiences, and well-defined intermediary roles. These assumptions are increasingly challenged in this changing context, requiring us to rethink the formation and management of social evaluations. The articles in this special issue focus on these changes. …

The External Influence Of International Business Scholarship: Growth, Stabilization, Or Decline?, Gokhan Ertug, Andrew Delios, Yi Li, Zhengchu Zhang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The influence of international business (IB) scholarship is an active debate (e.g., Bello & Kostova, 2012; Cantwell et al., 2014, 2016; Doh et al., 2023; Tung et al., 2023). Although IB research has expanded in the number of publications, in its sophistication of research design, and in its thematic breadth over the past decades, questions remain regarding its influence beyond the core ecosystem of IB journals. Anecdotally, a pessimistic view has become more commonplace. The concern is that IB has become increasingly self-referential, relying more heavily on IB-related theory extensions and context-specific settings, which could limit its resonance in the …

Moving Beyond Entry Modes: Toward A New Paradigm Of International Involvement In An Era Of Digitalization And Global Transitions, Noman Shaheer, Sali Li, Liang Chen, Keith D. Brouthers, Dan Li, Peter Liesch

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We seek to reconceptualize internationalization strategy by shifting focus from static, single-entry mode choices to dynamic constellations of multiple involvement modes. In an era of rapid technological change enabled by artificial intelligence, blockchain, and robotics, geopolitical volatility fueled by trade wars and violent conflicts, and increasing sustainability demands, multinational corporations (MNCs) need to rethink how they are involved with diverse stakeholder expectations, prioritize flexibility and reversibility, and embed co-creation and legitimacy alongside efficiency. Extending Brouthers et al. (2022), we integrate transaction cost economics with resource-based, institutional, opportunity, and ecosystem perspectives to explain how MNCs configure and reconfigure various constellations of …

The Impact Of Successor Differences In Family Businesses On Firm Performance: An Empirical Analysis Based On China Listed Company Data, Xulong Zhao

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Family businesses are an important pillar of global economic development. Currently, Chinese private enterprises are ushering in an unprecedented wave of intergenerational succession. At this critical historical juncture, "who" takes over and how the succession behavior affects firm performance have become core issues of common concern to academia and practice. Traditional principal-agent theory usually posits that introducing professional managers can break the limitations of family governance and improve corporate efficiency. However, Chinese family businesses are deeply rooted in specific institutional environments and cultural soils, where blood-based "relational trust" and socioemotional wealth (SEW) play irreplaceable roles in power transitions. Therefore, how …

Research On The Spatial Diffusion Process And Influencing Factors Of Traditional Chinese Medicine Brands: Evidence From Beijing Tong Ren Tang, Yuehua Shen

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Against the backdrop of the dual drivers of the revitalization and development of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and the rising demand for health-related consumption, the nationwide expansion of TCM chain brands has become a prominent issue of shared concern for both industry and policy circles. However, existing research largely treats cities as mutually independent units and overlooks the spatial externalities arising from geographic proximity. It also implicitly assumes that the driving factors remain stable over a brand's expansion life cycle. This makes it difficult to capture the dynamic evolution of the logic governing store expansion across different stages. Accordingly, this …

Technological Strategy Paths, Dynamic Capability And Innovation Performance In Complex Product Industries: A Mechanism Study Based On China’S New Energy Vehicle Industry, Fan Zhang

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

In recent years, the new energy vehicle (NEV) industry has developed rapidly, moving from electrification toward an intelligent phase characterized by software-defined vehicles. NEV firms pursue product and technological innovation through diverse strategic paths, including internal research and development, collaborative development, and platform-based development, yet their innovation performance varies. Most extant research focuses on the industry level, offering limited insight into how, at the firm level, different technological paths shape the innovation outcomes through firms’ dynamic capabilities. It still remains unclear whether and how these relationships among paths, capabilities, and innovation outcomes differ across technological domains.

This study adopts a …

From Catching Up To Surpassing—A Multi-Case Study Of Chinese Latecomer Technology Firms, Baohua Chen

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

In recent years, a number of Chinese latecomer technology firms have grown rapidly and, in some cases, have even moved into leading positions in global competition. As global competition is being reshaped, technologies are evolving more rapidly, and traditional catch-up paths are becoming less viable, how these Chinese latecomer technology firms catch up with leading incumbents has become an important issue in strategic management research. Drawing on the theoretical lens of asymmetrical competition, resource orchestration, and dynamic capabilities, this study adopts an Eisenhardt-style multiple-case design to conduct a longitudinal comparative analysis of six firms—Insta360, Dreame, DJI, Unitree, Transsion, and Royole—and …

International Business And Sustainability: Towards An Interdisciplinary Research Agenda, Jonathan Doh, Ans Kolk, Heli Wang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The relationship between international business (IB) and sustainability is a complex and multifaceted one. Multinational enterprises (MNEs) both affect and are affected by the social, economic, and ecological (green environment) context in which they are embedded.1 As such, the study of how IB activity influences sustainability and the way that sustainability, in turn, impacts IB, involves incorporating a wide range of drivers, actors, processes, and outcomes. At the same time, sustainability challenges, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, resource scarcity, economic and social inequality and others, are increasingly systemic, multilevel, and intertwined with geo economic, biophysical and governance dynamics …

Research On The Impact Of Digital Transformation On Esg Performance Of Real Estate Enterprises, Lung Tim Tong

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

In the era characterized by the dual carbon goals driving the green transformation of industries and the exponential growth of the digital economy, the real estate sector is at a critical transformation juncture. From a policy-oriented perspective, building codes and energy consumption quota standards issued by the Ministry of Housing and UrbanRural Development and other regulatory bodies have rendered it imperative for real estate enterprises to reduce carbon emissions throughout the entire building life cycle. From the market demand side, consumers' preference for green and intelligent living environments has compelled real estate firms to break through traditional development models. The …

A Study On The Capital Market Valuation Effects Of Corporate Ai Adoption: An Empirical Analysis Of Manufacturing Firms In China's A-Share Market, Libin Ma

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation examines whether and how corporate adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) affects capital market valuation in manufacturing firms. As AI is increasingly embedded in R&D design, production organization, supply chain coordination, and operational management, its value implications depend not only on whether firms adopt AI, but also on how AI is deployed within business processes. Existing research has mainly focused on productivity, innovation, labor substitution, and digital transformation, while the enterprise value consequences of differentiated AI application strategies remain insufficiently examined.

Using Chinese A-share listed manufacturing firms from 2015 to 2024 as the sample, this study identifies firm-level AI …

From Suppliers’ Esg Performance To Corporate Bargaining Power With Customers: A Supply Chain Advantage Transmission Perspective, Minghao Du

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

With the growing awareness of sustainable development, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices has increasingly become a critical source for firms to meet stakeholder demands and gain new competitive advantages. In particular, under the backdrop of rising supply chain risks, stakeholder concerns are no longer confined to the ESG performance of individual firms; rather, they have expanded to encompass the entire supply chain, attaching equal importance to the ESG performance of both focal firms and their supply chain partners. With the continuous tightening of ESG regulatory requirements, customers may move beyond managing the ESG practices of first-tier suppliers to paying …

The Age Of Impact, Scott Fritzen

Asian Management Insights

Across Asia—and increasingly around the world—we are entering what can only be described as an age of impact. Organisations are no longer judged solely by what they produce, but by what changes as a result. Growth remains important, but it is no longer sufficient. Stakeholders—investors, policymakers, partners and the public—are asking a more demanding question: what difference does your work make, and how do you know?

Building The Foundations For Impact, Michael Rich

Asian Management Insights

For organisations to drive real change, they must treat impact as a strategic commitment and reshape internal structures to support it. An interview with Michael Rich, President Emeritus of RAND Corporation.

The Impact Imperative: Building Universities And Institutions That Demonstrably Matter, Scott Fritzen

Asian Management Insights

The university has never been more powerful— or more embattled. Research output has expanded sharply. Global collaborations span continents. Elite institutions, once concentrated in the West, have taken root across Asia, the Middle East and beyond. Universities anchor innovation districts, train professionals and generate discoveries that shape modern life. By the conventional measures long used by the academy to evaluate itself—publications, rankings, enrolments, revenue—higher education, taken as a whole, is thriving in many contexts.

Why Complex Risks Demand Multidisciplinary Action, Lisa Ng, Benny Chew, Julian Lai, Siti Naqiah Amrun

Asian Management Insights

The A*STAR Infectious Diseases Labs offers a model for how organisations can move from ad-hoc crisis response to sustained, shared preparedness.

Bold And Humble In The Age Of Impact, Robert Klitgaard

Asian Management Insights

How collaboration—supercharged by AI—can turn purpose into performance, and performance into accountability.

The Cost Of Silence, Sabine Benoit

Asian Management Insights

From wellness myths to financial hype, the real risk is not just misinformation—it’s misinformed decision-making. When confidence becomes a proxy for credibility, strategies and sensibility drift. Here’s how leaders can raise the evidence bar and institutionalise independent challenge.

The Impact Reporting Playbook, Julian Tang

Asian Management Insights

Ditch the proverbial laundry list and build impactful reports with evidence of change that leaders, partners and the public can trust and act on.

Standing Firm On Sustainability, Helge Muenkel

Asian Management Insights

As priorities evolve, sustainability continues to shape key business decisions for organisations.

The Impact Of R&D Team Diversity On Ambidextrous Innovation In Srdi Smes, Cheng Zhan

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

As a vital organizational form of R&D teams in specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative (SRDI) small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), distributed teams have gradually emerged as a dynamic source of innovation for such enterprises. Against the backdrop of the (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity) era, markets have imposed higher demands on enterprises' innovative and sustainable development capabilities, exerting substantial impacts on the growth of SRDI SMEs. Although the distributed R&D team model, developed through continuous exploration in=132=132enterprises' innovation practices, has drawn practical and scholarlyattention for its role in shaping ambidextrous innovation in SRDI SMEs, the internal mechanism underlying the relationship …

The Impact Of Brand Authenticity And Innovation On Stakeholder Behaviours, Jacky Xu

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This study employs a dual-perspective questionnaire survey, collecting data separately from corporate employees and brand consumers, and uses multiple regression analysis to test the hypotheses. The findings reveal the following: (1) both brand authenticity and innovation have significant positive effects on employee brand citizenship behaviour and consumer purchase intention; (2) brand commitment plays a negatively moderating role in these relationships, such that when stakeholders’ commitment levels are relatively low, the positive effects of brand authenticity and brand innovation on behaviour are stronger, whereas under conditions of high commitment, these effects are weakened, reflecting a substitution effect between emotional attachment and …

Enhancing Market Acceptance Of Sports Rehabilitation Services: A Perspective Of Public Health Literacy And Information Acquisition, Na Li

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This article takes public health literacy as its point of departure, constructs a theoretical model of “Health Literacy–Health Information Acquisition–Market Acceptance”, and introduces rehabilitation experience and service accessibility as moderating variables, in order to systematically examine the formation pathways and underlying mechanisms of market acceptance in the sports rehabilitation service sector.

This study adopts a combination of questionnaire survey and empirical analysis, collecting data from public samples across multiple regions and conducting statistical tests. The findings indicate that, Firstly, public health literacy has a statistically significant positive influence on the market acceptance of sports rehabilitation services. As the level of …

The Impact Of De-Familization Of Governance Structures On Corporate Performance During The Intergenerational Succession Of Family Businesses, Jing Qiao

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Intergenerational succession poses a vital challenge for family firms, with only 10% of global family businesses surviving to the third generation. Chinese family firms, growing alongside reform and opening-up, now face a critical succession period as founders average over 60 years old.

Based on 1932 A-share listed family firms from 2007 to 2024, this study theoretically and empirically examines how intergenerational succession affects corporate performance, investigates the mediating role of governance de-familization (management, ownership, control rights), and tests the moderating effect of intergenerational differences.

First, succession significantly harms financial and market performance: ROE falls by 1.330% and Tobin’s Q drops …

Compliance Supervision And Firm Performance: An Empirical Study On Digital Transformation Of The Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Industry, Jun Ma

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The biopharmaceutical industry, characterized by stringent global regulatory oversight, faces a pivotal theoretical tension regarding the nexus between regulatory compliance and corporate performance. The traditional perspectives often frame compliance as an “operational burden”, while the emerging viewpoints posit it as a “strategic asset”. Grounded in an integrated framework of the Resource-Based View (RBV) and Dynamic Capability (DC), this study investigates the moderating role of digital transformation in the relationship between Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) compliance and corporate performance.

Employing a mixed-method design, this paper conducted two complementary studies. Study 1 adopted a grounded theory based on interviews with nine industry …

The Impact Of Employee Equity Incentives On Enterprise Innovation Efficiency: From The Perspective Of Granting Restricted Stocks To Employees, Zongjie Ji

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Against the dual backdrop of the in-depth implementation of the innovation-driven development strategy and the continuous deepening of SOE reforms, restricted equity has emerged a mainstream instrument for medium- and long-term employee incentives in Chinese SOEs. However, the underlying mechanisms, effect characteristics, and boundary conditions through which employee restricted equity incentives influence innovation efficiency in SOEs remain to be systematically examined. Drawing on panel data of 4,880 firm-year observation from Chinese A-share SOMEs over the period of 2015-2024, this study develops a direct effect model of “Equity Incentives-Innovation Efficiency” from the perspective of employee restricted equity grants. It further introduces …

Research On The Influence Mechanism Of Digital Transformation On The International Competitiveness Of The Srdi Smes In China, Bo Sun

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

With the continuous advancement of digital technologies, the digital economy is increasingly becoming the dominant force in the global economic landscape. Against this backdrop, the digital transformation of China's specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative (SRDI) small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has transcended beyond mere technological upgrades and evolved into a crucial strategy for these enterprises to build core competitiveness. Despite SRDI SMEs' strong willingness to pursue digital transformation, research is still lacking on how digital transformation efforts translate into international competitiveness Additionally, existing studies on the degree of digitalization have focused on large enterprises or general SMEs, leaving an academic …

Organizational Characteristics And Business Transformation: An Investigation On Corporate Transformation In The Construction Industry, Wei Chen

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Draw on a structural decline in demand triggered by selective real estate industrial policies, this study explores how construction companies drive business transformation through organizational characteristics in environmental uncertainties. Extant research has largely focused on the independent impact of single organizational factors or capabilities on transformation, lacking a systematic exploration of the interactions between organizational characteristics and the external environment. Take a typical construction group as an example, this study adopts a mixed-methods approach, through interviews and questionnaires, to systematically examine the impact of organizational characteristics on business transformation. The key findings are: in environmental uncertainties, an organic organizational structure …

Research On Characteristics Of The Subsidiary, Business Environment, And Group Control, Xiaoning Yu

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

As a crucial pillar in the development of China’s national economy, corporate groups play an irreplaceable role in driving economic growth and promoting industrial upgrading. However, in the management practice of subsidiaries, they have long faced the control dilemma of "tight control leads to stagnation, while excessive decentralization leads to chaos." This study focuses on the fit between subsidiary characteristics, the business environment, and the degree of group control as its core research issue. It aims to uncover the underlying logic of group control in different contexts, providing scientific theoretical support and practical guidance for corporate groups in the new …