Individual Creativity in Digital Transformation Enterprises: Knowledge and Ability, Which Is More Important?

Digital technological innovation is reshaping the pattern of industrial development. Due to the shortage of digital talents and the frequent mobility of these people, the competition for talents will be very fierce for organizations to realize digital transformation. The digitization transformation of China’s service industry is far ahead of that of industry and agriculture. It is of great significance to study the organizational management and talent management of service enterprises to reduce the negative impact of insufficient talent reserve and meet the needs of digital development. Based on 378 valid questionnaires from China’s service industry, this paper applied polynomial regression and a response surface model to analyze the impact of two kinds of person-environment fit on work engagement and individual creativity. The results show that: (1) under the combination of high morality and high talent, work engagement and individual creativity are the highest; (2) individual creativity is stronger under the condition of high morality and low talent than under low morality and high talent; and (3) work engagement mediates the influence of morality and talent on individual creativity. The research reveals the internal mechanism by which morality and talent cooperatively promote individual creativity, which provides theoretical guidance for management practice of service firms to improve individual creativity in the process of digital transformation.

How can suppliers increase their buyers’ CSR engagement: the role of internal and relational factors

PurposeBuyer engagement proves important supports for suppliers' corporate social responsibility (CSR); however, little is known about whether and how buyer CSR engagement can be actively searched for by a supplier and what activities and policies of suppliers could enhance buyer CSR engagement. From the perspective of resource dependence theory, this study aims to explore how suppliers seek to achieve buyers' CSR engagement.Design/methodology/approachThe proposed model and hypotheses were tested by structural equation modeling methodology using survey data collected from 243 manufacturing and service firms in China.FindingsThe results show that instrumental CSR motives and internalization of CSR policies jointly improve buyers' dependence, which in turn increases buyers' CSR engagement. In addition, this study investigates the influence of suppliers' trust on the effect of buyers' dependence on buyers' CSR engagement and finds a negative moderating effect on the dependence–engagement relation.Practical implicationsThe findings show that suppliers can actively engage in CSR to strengthen their position and improve the buyer CSR engagement. In fact, proactive CSR policies and implementation do pay off in the long run for them.Originality/valueThis study offers a fresh perspective on the role of suppliers in improving CSR. In contrast to much of the literature that has considered buyer-initiated practices and policies, this is the first theoretical and empirical investigation into how suppliers can increase the buyer CSR engagement.

Disconnect to Connect to Different Age Group Customers

The present study aimed to identify the inabilities of service firms to connect to different age group customers whilst the era of smart technologies. Despite various service innovations customer services seem to be worsening across the world. It is imperative to understand different age group customers' experiences while using smart technologies to address current customer strategies and practices in the service sector. The study adopted the CIT method to collect participants’ experiences who were using smart technologies in various service settings. The study indicates that how staff and top management personnel of service firms are using smart technologies as a shield to avoid human contact with their customers presently. Additionally, the study highlights the relevance of people, empathy, and interactive marketing practices for improving services even in the era of smart technologies. It means that service firms should connect more and more customers through various smart technologies but get themselves disconnected from these technologies to keep a direct human interaction.

Studying Service SME Adoption of Mobile Marketing Technology (MMT) via Technology-Organization-Environment Framework

While the acceptance and use of mobile marketing technology (MMT) is playing a significant roles in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), few studies have explored how an appropriate framework for understanding the underlying factors that shape MMT adoption in Nigeria can be developed. This is because majority of practitioners in Nigeria often generalize and extend the findings from the developed economies as if there are no environmental differences. This paper attempts to propose a grounded theory approach for assessing factors within technology-organisation-environment (T-O-E) framework in attempt to explain and predict small service firms’ adoption of MMT. The data collection approach spans unstructured and semi-structured interviews with 26 respondents; and the proposed framework provides an organized way to explore MMT adoption, and a foundation for developing a model of MMT adoption in developing country.

The effect of customer orientation on financial performance in service firms: The mediating role of service innovation

In service firms, customer orientation and service innovativeness are the important strategic features to pledge sustainable wealth and growth for financial performance. Focusing on customer means, companies must have rigorous knowledge and understanding of customer needs, expectations, and demands. To satisfy those demands and expectations, new products and/or services need to be carefully designed. Customer orientation involves the introduction of something new or different in response to market conditions and can be perceived as an important driver for innovation. The literature on innovation in services demonstrates that this territory is still under-investigated. Our study is an attempt to slightly complement this shortcoming by empirically solving several issues related to service firms. In particular, we propose the service innovativeness as a mediating effect in the relationship between customer orientation and financial performance. A theoretical research model was investigated via structural equation modeling (SEM) using 686 survey responses from the service industry. The findings of the structural equation model indicated that customer orientation is positively related to financial performance and service innovativeness respectively. And service innovativeness was found as a partial mediating effect, which means that the service innovativeness intervenes for some part but not all of the relationships between customer orientation and financial performance.

Intellectual capital and sustainability reporting practices in Uganda

PurposeThe objective of the study is to investigate the association between intellectual capital (IC) and sustainability reporting practices in Uganda. The study further examines how individual IC elements (human, structural and relational capital) affect sustainability reporting practices.Design/methodology/approachThis study employs a questionnaire to collect data. Data are analyzed using multiple regression analysis.FindingsResults indicate that IC is significantly associated with sustainability reporting practices. The study also found that human capital and relational capital elements have a positive effect on sustainability reporting practices while structural capital element does not have a significant effect.Originality/valueThis study is one of the few studies that examine sustainability reporting by financial services firms in a country where the capital markets are still in their infancy and the major source of external financing are the banks. Its major contribution lies in its focus on how the key IC components explain variations in sustainability reporting practices among financial service firms in Uganda.

Linking Customization Capability with CRM Technology Adoption and Strategic Alignment

Building on contingency theory and the input–process–output model, this paper investigates the relationships between customer relationship management (CRM) technology adoption, customization capability, CRM effectiveness, and strategic alignment. By surveying senior managers of customized service projects from 288 information technology service firms in Taiwan, we find that CRM technology adoption has a positive relationship with customization capacity, which is, in turn, positively correlated with CRM effectiveness with the correlation being moderated by strategic alignment. This study suggests that CRM marketing and operational technologies can enhance CRM effectiveness via customization capability. This study also uncovers approaches to achieving enhancement.

The interplay between global accounting firms and national institutional contexts: The establishment of the Big Four in China from 1978 to 2007

This paper provides an analysis of the establishment of global accounting firms (the ‘Big Four’) in China between 1978 and 2007. Drawing on the extant literature on professional service firms, and the work of Faulconbridge and Muzio (2015) , this paper examines how the Big Four entered China following the country's ‘Reform and Opening-up’ and evolved from tentative representative offices to established accounting firms in the Chinese audit market. Based on an extensive analysis of archival materials and interviews, the findings of this paper show that the Big Four's establishment in China has been deeply intertwined with the country's socio-political and economic transition. It reveals important conjunctural moments in history that have provided the Big Four with important windows of opportunity to actively shape local institutional change to their own interests. This paper contributes to the extant accounting literature on the expansion of the Big Four in China by highlighting the interplay between their surrounding institutional context and their capacity for agency.

Surviving the hectic early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study to the supply chain strategies of food service firms in times of a crisis

PurposeThe COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown have hit the food service industry very hard. The COVID-19 outbreak has created a sharp downturn for firms in the food service industry, compelling actors across the whole food service supply chain to rethink their strategies. The purpose of this paper is to document the impact of COVID-19 on the food service supply chain, as well as to identify crisis management strategies food service firms use during the hectic early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic to survive the current and prepare for future pandemics.Design/methodology/approachWe performed a qualitative descriptive study using 21 semi-structured interviews with actors across the food service supply chain (i.e. farmers, wholesalers and food service providers). Data were collected to shed light on food service firms' decision making during the hectic early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic to uncover various crisis management strategies used.FindingsBy integrating the disaster and crisis pyramid and resilience theory, four core crisis management strategies to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic are conceptualized, i.e. (1) managing resources, (2) diversifying strategically, (3) prioritizing long-term outcomes and (4) bonding socially.Originality/valueThe theoretical contributions include documenting the performance impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the food service supply chain and exploring crisis management strategies food service firms employed during the hectic early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, functioning and survival during a pandemic, an emerging field in literature, are central to this study. Additionally, while recent research suggests that integrating crisis management and resilience literature may provide a more complete understanding of the organization–crisis relationship, these literature streams mainly developed in isolation. By integrating the literature streams of crisis management and resilience and applying these theories to the COVID-19 crisis, our study provides specific managerial guidelines.