Asia Pacific Journal of Management

Li, Yan; Ahlstrom, David

doi: 10.1007/s10490-015-9423-2pmid: N/A

Despite being generally well studied, emotional stability (ES) has not yet been widely accepted as a satisfactory and solidly valid theoretical construct. Without a clearly defined and validated construct, it is difficult to infer what ES means for the behavior and decisions of individuals as well as the performance of groups and organizations. Based on self-organization theory, this study infers a two dimensional construct for ES (threshold and recovery) under the framework of dynamic change and complexity. Two studies were conducted in China to develop and examine the construct of ES in an organizational context. The psychometric examination indicated that the newly developed construct of ES has discriminant and convergent validity with respect to different though related constructs such as the Big Five personality model and emotional intelligence (EI). It also demonstrates incremental validity in predicting group leadership, job satisfaction, job self-efficacy, and commitment. The findings also demonstrate that ES moderates the relationship between individual commitment and group relationship conflict. The results indicate that self-ratings effectively reflect the theoretical construct, whereas peer ratings and supervisor ratings create different biases. Additional theory, empirical, and methodological contributions are also discussed.

Bui, Hong; Baruch, Yehuda; Chau, Vinh; He, Hong-Wei

doi: 10.1007/s10490-015-9426-zpmid: N/A

Team learning should be an important construct in organizational management research because team learning can enhance organizational learning and overall performance. However, there is limited understanding of how team learning works in different cultural contexts. Using an international comparative research approach, we developed a framework of antecedents and outcomes in the higher education context and tested it with samples from the UK and Vietnam. The results show that a common framework is applicable in the two different contexts, subject to slight modifications. However, this study does not find that team learning (measured via the proxy of “attitude towards team learning”) exhibits any statistically significant relationship as a predictor of the proposed outcomes. Other findings from this study on educational contexts are important not only to scholars in this field, but also for practicing managers, particularly those who study and operate in the extensive global market.

Zhu, Yunxia; Konrad, Alison; Jiao, Hao

doi: 10.1007/s10490-015-9435-ypmid: N/A

We proposed a conceptual model arguing that stereotype violation and stereotype activation combine to create a narrow band of acceptable career strategies for women in management. Utilizing a sample of 324 Chinese managers (162 pairs of women and men matched on education, years of work experience, and employing organization), we examined the effects of gender on three career development outcomes: number of subordinates supervised, life satisfaction, and career satisfaction. Results indicated that being female had a significant negative main effect on all three outcomes. Ten significant interactions supported the theoretical effects of both stereotype violation and activation on women’s managerial career development, consistent with our conceptual model. The findings suggest that Chinese women in management face a narrow band of acceptable career strategies, especially in the area of creating social capital. The results highlight the importance of testing both stereotype violation and stereotype activation effects and of creating social capital through appropriate networking.

Shin, Kwangsoo; Kim, Sang; Park, Gunno

doi: 10.1007/s10490-015-9439-7pmid: N/A

The number of strategic alliances for R&D activities in the biotechnology industry is sharply increasing. Some studies show that each alliance partner type has different alliance motives, resources and capabilities, organizational structures and cultures, and degrees of competition with partners, which can lead to different performances of strategic alliances. In this regard, this study conducts an empirical analysis of the different impact of each type of alliance partner on technological innovation performance and finds the moderating effect of absorptive capacity and potential competition by categorizing strategic alliances for R&D activities in the biotechnology industry into three types: vertical-downstream alliances, vertical-upstream alliances, and horizontal alliances. This study analyzed 206 Korean biotechnology firms and their strategic alliances for a total of 292 R&D activities. The results of the analysis showed that vertical alliances have a positive impact on technological innovation performance, while horizontal alliances have an inverted U-shaped relationship with technological innovation performance caused by the effect of competition. Additionally, it was confirmed that the R&D intensity of biotechnology firms has a moderating effect of increasing the impact of vertical-upstream alliances on technological innovation performance.

Li, Xiaoqing; Zheng, Yu; Wang, Catherine

doi: 10.1007/s10490-015-9451-ypmid: N/A

High-tech firms increasingly rely on inter-firm collaboration (IFC) in new product development (NPD). While there is a growing research interest in exploring the economic rationale of IFC through the transaction cost economics (TCE) and the resource synergy of IFC through the resource-based view of the firm (RBV), little attention has been given to the institution-based view (IBV) that also has important implications for firms’ choice of IFC. In particular, how national institutional environment affects IFC in the NPD process remains under-researched. This study aims to contribute to the literature by extending our understanding of the role of IFC in firms’ NPD process, taking into account transactional, resource, and institutional factors. Based on a case study of two firms: a state-owned and a private pharmaceutical firm in China, our research identifies three key forms of IFC, which are dynamic at different stages of NPD and contingent upon an array of institutional, resource, and transactional rationales underpinning firms’ choice of different forms of IFC. Our study is the first one that investigates the role of IFC in the NPD process bringing together the IBV, RBV, and TCE perspectives.

Hou, Mingjun; Liu, Heng; Fan, Peihua; Wei, Zelong

doi: 10.1007/s10490-015-9431-2pmid: N/A

Academics and practitioners have long wondered whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) practice is beneficial for Asian firms. To better understand the relationships between CSR and business performance, we use meta-analytical techniques based on 31,773 East Asian firms reported in 28 empirical studies to provide cumulative evidence for the value of CSR. Meta-analytic results indicate a general positive association between CSR and business performance. We find that environmental CSR has a stronger impact than social CSR on business performance, and that CSR practice has a stronger positive effect on operational performance than on financial performance. Further meta-analytic evidence indicates that several moderating issues explain significant variances in the effect size across studies, including economic development stage (developed vs. developing), firm size (SMEs vs. non-SMEs), organizational form (public vs. private), and measurement methods (archival data vs. self-report). Moreover, we find that CSR importance in East Asia has not varied over the past 15 years. We conclude with theoretical contributions and practical implications.

Du, Xingqiang; Du, Yingjie; Zeng, Quan; Pei, Hongmei; Chang, Yingying

doi: 10.1007/s10490-015-9441-0pmid: N/A

Using a sample of 4186 firm-year observations from the Chinese stock market during the period of 2007–2009, we examine the influence of religious atmosphere on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the moderating role of law enforcement. Specifically, based on hand-collected data on religious atmosphere, our findings show that religious atmosphere is significantly positively associated with CSR, suggesting that religious atmosphere plays an important role in strengthening CSR. Moreover, law enforcement attenuates the positive association between religious atmosphere and CSR, implying the substitutive effects between religious atmosphere (informal system) and law enforcement (formal institution) on CSR-increasing. In addition, above conclusions are still valid after using the change model to control for the potential endogeneity between religious atmosphere and CSR.

Meng, X.; Zeng, S.; Xie, X.; Qi, G.

doi: 10.1007/s10490-015-9450-zpmid: N/A

Although the mainstream of current thinking in the business literature recognizes that firms should invest in environmental responsibility, the theory on how product market competition affects firms’ environmental responsibility remains undeveloped. Using cost-benefit analysis, we hypothesize that the relationship between product market competition (i.e., differential industry-level competition and heterogeneous firm-level market power) and corporate environmental responsibility (CER) will be curvilinear. We find support for this hypothesis through an empirical test on a panel of 792 listed manufacturing companies from 2006 to 2008 in China. The results show that (1) either too much or too little industrial competition and (2) either too much or too little firm-level market power lead to lower environmental responsibility. Our results reveal that CER is strategically chosen and related to competitive situations.