The blockchain technology and the scope of its application in hospitality operations

The recently emerged concept of the blockchain technology (BCT) can disrupt the traditional realm of tourism and hospitality operations. While some research has looked into the implications of BCT for tourism management and marketing, no studies have explicitly considered the scope of its application in the context of hospitality operations management. This is arguably a major omission as available evidence points at the foremost potential of BCT to affect the nature of hospitality business. This study partially plugs this knowledge gap and, by reviewing examples of existing applications of BCT in various economic sectors and across different consumption markets, evaluates its potential for future integration into hospitality operations management. The framework of prospective use of BCT in the hospitality industry alongside the related organisational, institutional and technological challenges that need to be overcome for its wider industrial adoption are outlined.     

Effect of disruptive customer behaviors on others' overall service experience: An appraisal theory perspective

Drawing upon the appraisal theory, this study proposes and tests a conceptual model to delineate customers’ evaluative process of disruptive customer behaviors in a shared service environment (e.g., theme parks, airplanes, restaurants). Using a scenario-based online experiment, two sets of data were collected from U.S. customers and analyzed by a series of regression analyses. Findings suggest that customers go through a systematic evaluative process of primary appraisal (e.g., congruence and relevance) and secondary appraisal (e.g., cognitions and emotions), which results in the development of coping behaviors (e.g., active and passive coping). Cognitions are found to have direct influences on passive and active coping. Perceived powerlessness, perceived betrayal, and perceived identity threat are identified as critical cognitions. Negative emotions are found to result in active coping. Primary appraisal (e.g., congruence and relevance) either directly affects coping behaviors, or indirectly through cognitions and negative emotions. Theoretical and managerial implications are further elaborated.     

装备制造企业颠覆式创新实现机理及路径研究——基于扎根理论的分析

颠覆式创新是我国实施创新驱动发展战略、加快装备制造企业创新发展的重要手段。以我国3家具有代表性的装备制造企业为研究对象，运用扎根理论研究方法，对装备制造企业颠覆式创新实现机理及路径进行多案例探索性研究，通过开放式译码、主轴译码和选择性译码，构建装备制造企业实现颠覆式创新的机理路径模型，归纳出装备制造企业实现颠覆式创新的3个阶段，并据此为我国装备制造企业实现颠覆式创新提出管理策略和建议。     

Creating technology candidates for disruptive innovation: Generally applicable R&D strategies

In this paper, we first examined the importance of technology creation in technological disruptive innovations (DIs), and found both academic scholars and industrial practitioners have underestimated the challenging nature and importance of technology at least in technological DI. We then moved upstream to study empirically how technology candidates could be created purposefully for potential technological DI. Four generally applicable R&D strategies were abstracted from intensive studies on 37 technological DIs, by applying the central thoughts of principal component analysis which transforms many correlated variables into a small number of uncorrelated ones. The four R&D strategies abstracted are miniaturization, simplification, augmentation and exploitation for another application. Their creation of DI was examined, postulated and then demonstrated by means of the Delphi method. The frequencies of their utilization were also compiled and the implications discussed. This study has further advanced the knowledge at the front-end of R&D, i.e. the technology perspective of DI. It hopes to facilitate more purposeful creation of technology candidates for potential technological DI in future.     

基于颠覆性创新的浙江省传统产业升级的战略路径研究——以地板产业为例

地板产品是以木材、竹等森林资源为主要原材料,但是森林资源日渐短缺,成为遏制地板产业发展的关键要素;此外,新兴电子商务模式对地板传统营销模式产生了巨大冲击,这两种背景都对浙江地板产业提出了颠覆性创新的升级需求。本文首先介绍了国内、国外林木资源供需的严峻状况与一些专家的相关研究成果,接着分析影响地板产业发展的因素,进而提出相应的对策与措施。     

智能制造核心企业如何牵头组建创新联合体——来自华为智能汽车业务的探索性案例研究

结合华为智能汽车业务探索性案例研究,提出智能制造核心企业牵头组建创新联合体的过程机理及路径范式,揭示智能制造核心企业在创新联合体形成中的角色和作用机制,即发挥数据赋能的驱动作用,从而实现创新联合体跨界战略网络协同、跨界组织网络协同、跨界资源网络协同、跨界制度网络协同,形成协同演化动态能力,实现产品功能、生产制造及商业模式颠覆式创新。凝练出智能制造核心企业牵头组建创新联合体路径范式：“智能制造核心企业—传统龙头集群企业—超级消费者”交互赋能。结论可拓展数字创新理论及价值共创理论,为传统产学研合作创新联盟数字化转型提供理论指导,为智能汽车领域创新联合体建设及颠覆式创新提供实践指导。     

中美贸易摩擦背景下“卡脖子”技术识别方法与突破路径——以电子信息产业为例

中美贸易摩擦背景下，研究科学合理的“卡脖子”技术识别方法对攻克“卡脖子”技术、提升国家技术实力、维护国家经济安全具有重要意义。通过对“卡脖子”技术的概念和内涵进行分析，得出“卡脖子”技术的识别原则和识别方法，以电子信息产业为例，通过问卷调查法搜集关键核心技术35项，从中识别出“卡脖子”技术13项，得出电子信息产业“卡脖子”技术基础性特征突出、集成电路“卡脖子”威胁大、高端软件相对安全的结论，并从技术、企业、产业、社会层面出发提出我国攻克“卡脖子”技术的政策建议。     

Disruption in the automotive industry: A Cambrian moment

The automotive industry is experiencing a moment of innovation. With electronics gaining importance, the need to find sustainable solutions and the rampant availability of sharing platforms, the dynamics of this sector is witnessing a paradigm shift. A host of startups is colonizing every niche of what seems to be the new architecture: shared and self-driven electric vehicles. Old incumbents and emerging startups are interacting to control key technologies and the user interfaces of the future. The mechanical machine is being converted into a computer. The connected car is creating a new ecosystem for entrepreneurial opportunities. This study analyzes a set of 156 venture-backed startups: the nature of the firms, their founders’ profiles, their origins, their technological capabilities, and their investors. Our findings and conclusions are: (1) a phase of instability and vibrancy is beginning wherein multiple emerging firms compete to impose their standards, (2) the competitive battle is conducted in the digital arena, (3) disruption is led by outsiders with entrepreneurial experience and deep knowledge of digital technologies, and (4) a final winning dominant design may emerge. Entrepreneurial outsiders and outsiders coming from consumer electronics, electrical companies, and/or digital platforms have a window of opportunity to enter this new market.     

Technologies of government in public sector's networks: In search of cooperation through management control innovations

In recent years, the public sector has been the subject of a thorough reassessment in a significant number of countries. During this process of modernization, issues such as inter-organizational collaboration and managerial innovation have been progressively placed at the forefront of practice and research. In particular, a number of countries have recently re-organized their public sectors around more or less formalized networks or hybrid inter-organizational forms, which are often led by a regulatory body and governed by a cooperation agreement. The literature on inter-organizational relationships in the public sector has evolved alongside the development of such cooperation agreements and innovative forms of organizing. Nevertheless, despite the fact that networks formed by public organizations, not-for-profit organizations, and private firms provide important services to their relevant communities, limited attention has been dedicated to studying the role of management control practices within inter-organizational relationships in public organizations. This is an important gap in the existing literature that this Special Issue intends to address. For this reason, and most importantly because public sector forms of inter-organizational collaborations are likely to differ significantly from those observed in the private sector, in the first part of this Editorial we draw attention to some of the themes that characterize the management and control of inter-organizational relations in the domain of public administration. Next, we introduce the six papers which comprise this Special Issue, and we briefly illustrate how each of them enhances our understanding of the role of control systems within public sector networks. Building on the empirical evidence and theoretical arguments offered by these studies, and after a brief review on the possible alternative ways of conceptualizing the process of adopting new management practices, we point to the further research that needs to be done if we are to understand the role that management control practices play in public sector networks. In particular, we suggest that there is a need to look inside management control practices, to explore what these practices are and, how and why they enable the cooperative “ideal” to become real, as well as to stimulate or hinder opportunities for public sector managerial innovation. It is concluded that there are a number of issues yet to be explored if we are to deepen our understanding of the formal and informal mechanisms of control which are the active elements of the so-called “regulatory hybrids” in the public sector.     

Consuming the Self: New Age Spirituality as “Social Product” in Consumer Society

In the late twentieth century there has been a proliferation, diversification and popularisation of New Age spiritual discourses and practices in Western industrialised nations. New Age spiritual thinkers such a Deepak Chopra, Ken Wilber, Gary Zukav and Shakti Gawain, have modified discourse and practices from Eastern and Western traditional religious beliefs, Western science and psychotherapy, to develop their own discourse and practices designed to assist individuals “transform” themselves. This article discusses the “commodified production of self‐actualisation” in consumer society and discusses how the discourses and practices in selected texts from four New Age spiritual thinkers take the form of an ever‐changing “social product”. The analysis shows how the discourse and practices of New Age spiritual thinkers align themselves with consumptive behaviour by secularising, homogenising and over‐simplifying scientific, social scientific and traditional religious discourse and practices into “social products” for consumption. The analysis also reveals that New Age spiritual thinkers are engaged in a process that could be described as the “consumption of the self”. The implications of the “consumption of the self” will be discussed in terms of the way consumer society requires New Age “technologies of the self” to be continually redefined, restructured and repackaged in new and different forms.