A global perspective on combating Shanzhai products: Cross-cultural solutions

To compete on the world market, companies from emerging economies often adapt their innovations to satisfy unique cultural needs. They do so, in part, by copying the products of their western counterparts with a degree of modification. This approach is referred to as Shanzhai, which is a Chinese neologism meaning “copycat.” In this article, we discuss the Shanzhai phenomenon and explain Shanzhai's development stages and threats to original brands across the globe. Then, we examine how cultural factors (i.e., power distance belief, face consciousness, and analytic vs. holistic-thinking style) influence consumers’ perception towards Shanzhai products. We further suggest that original manufacturers should adopt selected strategies to combat Shanzhai threats vis-à-vis three cultural drivers. One driver entails launching full product lines and developing new distribution channels in high power distance belief cultures but promoting brand originality in low power distance belief cultures. A second alternative involves embracing a sustainable and green brand image in low face-sensitive cultures but strengthening brand logo impacts and enhancing intangible brand benefits—such as social value (e.g., brand user profile, prestige)—in high face-sensitive cultures. The third entails communicating integrated product values in holistic-thinking cultures but highlighting an offering's most competitive and unique features in analytic-thinking cultures.     

Transfer of corporate governance practices into weak emerging market environments by foreign institutional investors

We advance the practice transfer theorising of corporate governance (CG) by developing a framework that uncovers how foreign institutional investors (FIIs) improve on CG practices of firms in weak institutional environments. Using hand-collected data for 85 listed Nigerian firms covering the 2011–2016 period, we show that FIIs bypass the weak regulatory environment in emerging markets by transferring good CG standards to host countries. Furthermore, FIIs’ ability to enhance the CG quality of firms in such environments is moderated by their home country’s legal system, with FIIs from countries with strong legal enforcement having an enhanced ability to improve CG practices of firms in weak institutional environments. However, cultural differences between the FIIs’ home and host countries negatively moderate this relationship. Our results are robust to the choice of estimation technique and various sources of endogeneity.     

The Eureka moment in understanding luxury brand purchases! A non-linear fsQCA-ANN approach

Although substantial research has been conducted to understand the luxury brand consumption at a global level, especially in the Western market, far less attention has been dedicated to the identification of factors driving such purchases in the Asia-Pacific region. This gap is addressed in the present study, which draws upon the extended theory of planned behavior (TPB) and complexity theory (CT) to identify the non-linear causal pathways pertaining to Chinese consumers’ luxury brand purchase intention. An online survey was conducted with a sample of Chinese consumers to gather data related to their attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, self-congruity, power distance beliefs, and gender. An asymmetrical-based approach was adopted by combining fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) with artificial neural network (ANN) analysis. The fsQCA results showed that there are seven solutions (i.e., various combinations of causal antecedents) that can facilitate the formation of luxury brand purchase intention, four of which are gender-specific. After completing the fsQCA, the ANN analysis was conducted to rank the causal conditions in terms of their importance, indicating that attitude and subjective norms are the most relevant antecedents. The present study contributes to the existing luxury branding literature by reevaluating and extending the well-established TPB with new variables and new research lens (i.e., asymmetric thinking). More specifically, this study represents the pioneering effort to apply set theoretic approach in understanding luxury goods consumption, thereby yielding more insightful results that reflect the complexity of reality, and thus advance the findings yielded by past studies that relied on variance-based methods.     

Officials' Foreign Experience and Firms' Exports: Evidence from China

This study examines how the foreign experience of local officials affects firms' exports in China. Using a matched sample from 2000 to 2012, we found that the foreign experience of municipal Party secretaries had a significant impact on the promotion of firms' exports, especially for private firms. This positive impact was more pronounced when officials went abroad at a younger age, stayed abroad for a longer period, returned to China for a longer time, and had greater promotion incentives. We found that officials' foreign experience helped to mitigate the negative impact of institutional distance and provided firms with better access to export subsidies, both of which could promote exporting. There was also a complementary effect when officials and executives both had foreign experience. Overall, our study provides some insights into the economic outcomes of officials' foreign experience and sheds light on the export performance of Chinese firms.     

Culture and bribe giving: Evidence from firm-level data

Bribery is prevalent in many countries and may be affected by the national culture. This study aims to examine the relationship between culture and firm bribery. This study thus combines country-level data from Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and firm-level data from the Enterprise Surveys, resulting in a combined data set covering more than 40,000 firms in 45 countries. Using a probit model with a dummy dependent variable indicating firm bribery, this study finds that firm bribery is associated with two cultural dimensions. Specifically, a country’s level of power distance is positively associated with firm bribery, while the level of long-term orientation is negatively associated with it. The effects of these cultural dimensions are not only statistically significant, but also economically important.     

Embedded in context: How time and distance affect the convergence of personnel selection practices

The debate on convergence versus divergence or stasis in human resource management (HRM) practices over time is still ongoing. We look at configurations of organisations' personnel selection practices and empirically analyse the role of geographic, cultural and regulatory institutional distance between countries for emerging similarity or dissimilarity in these practices. We also examine whether convergence occurred between 1995 and 2015. Based on the Cranet data of 25,869 organisations from 42 countries and statistical tests using energy distance, we find a pattern over time, moving from stasis to divergence. In addition, personnel selection configurations relate to cultural and regulatory institutional differences in the sense that smaller distances lead to higher similarity. This is not the case, however, for geographic distance. Our study adds to the debate on HRM convergence and offers a new method of analysis for other areas of HRM research where configurations instead of single HRM practices play a role.     

方言距离、城市包容性与流动人口的社会融入

采用2017年全国流动人口动态监测调查数据，在同一框架下研究方言距离、城市包容性及两者的交互效应对流动人口社会融入的影响及其作用机制。研究发现，方言距离不利于流动人口的社会融入，而城市包容性促进了流动人口的社会融入，同时能够缓解方言距离的负面影响。机制分析表明，方言距离阻碍流动人口的社会参与和社会交往，而城市包容性在促进流动人口社会参与和社会交往的同时弱化了方言距离的负面效应。进一步分析发现，收入并非方言距离的作用机制，跨方言流动反而提高了流动人口的工资收入，这意味着方言距离阻碍劳动要素实现边际收益最大化的流动和配置。     

When,where, and with whom during crisis: The effect of risk perceptions and psychological distance on travel intentions

We investigate how risk perceptions and psychological distance impacted people's travel intentions during Covid-19. Our findings reveal that traveling to a high-risk destination increased people's risk perceptions of Covid-19, and their risk perceptions at the destination, which, in turn, reduced people's travel intentions. We identify temporal, spatial, and social distance (the “when, where, and with whom” of traveling) as moderators of these effects; while social distance moderates the effect of risk, on risk perceptions, temporal and spatial distance moderate the effect of risk perceptions on travel intentions. We outline theoretical contributions and implications for tourism during crisis.     

To smile or not to smile: The role of facial expression valence on mundane and luxury products premiumness

A smile is an essential professional requirement for sales assistant and endorser as a means to give a stunning impression and to please customers. However, luxury brands, engrained as consumption symbols to create social distance, tend to act oppositely: they prefer endorsers and sales assistants in a neutral face rather than a smiley face. The purpose of this study is to investigate how and why facial expressions valence impact luxury product price estimation. A pilot study and three studies were conducted to test the hypotheses. We first test whether neutral faces combined with luxury goods can make the customer feel distant. Then we conducted an imagination task to assess whether the interaction between the facial expressions of sales assistants and product type affects product valuations. Further, we adopted an experiment to explore the proposed mechanism, social distance. The results show that commercial models and sales assistants' neutral facial expressions increase perceived social distance, further enhancing the valuations of luxury goods. In contrast, they estimated mundane products higher when they saw a smiley face than a neutral or a negative face. These findings contribute to the literature on the impact of facial expressions in advertising and services for luxury and mundane products. Our findings have potential implications for brands to manage their images and convey their value through employees’ facial expressions according to brand positioning.     

制度距离对跨国企业正当性的影响——一个被调节的中介效应模型

如何解决中资企业在“一带一路”沿线国家(地区)面临的正当性危机,是企业国际化实践中亟待解决的问题。基于“一带一路”沿线跨国企业280份调查问卷,运用制度逻辑理论,构建正式、非正式制度距离影响企业正当性的有调节的中介效应模型,采用逐层回归法对制度距离和跨国企业正当性之间的关系进行实证检验。研究发现:正式、非正式制度距离均对企业正当性有负向影响,网络关系在制度距离和企业正当性之间起部分中介作用,企业战略正向调节网络关系和组织正当性之间的关系。研究结论拓展了组织战略能动性在跨国企业走出去管理情境下的应用,为解释网络关系、企业战略和组织正当性之间的关系提供了新视角。