Abstract:The application of collaborative delivery systems based on trucks and drones have attracted more and more attention from the academia. This study investigates a routing problem of multiple trucks and drones cooperative delivery, and formulates a mixed-integer programming model with the objective of minimizing the total cost. A solution method based on column generation is proposed to solve the model. An accelerating technique based on variable neighborhood search is also embedded in the solution method to reduce the computation time. Numerical experiments are also conducted to validate the effectiveness of the proposed model and efficiency of the proposed solution method. Some potentially useful managerial implications are also outlined based on some sensitivity analysis.

Abstract:With the booming development of the network economy, B2B e-commerce platform companies generally adopt the freemium business model, accumulating the amount of platform users through free strategies and promoting seller users to pay with the help of network effects. Despite the proliferation of studies on the network effects of platform marketplaces, it remains unknown whether the presence of free users will promote or discourage seller users from paying. From the perspective of dynamic management of free user engagement differences, this study explores the dynamic impact of the increase in free users with different engagement levels （ad-led traffic users and registered resident users) on the payment behavior of platform sellers’ users in the context of B2B e-commerce platforms. This research uses the VAR model to analyze 366 days of data from a B2B e-commerce platform and finds that search ad-led users are more likely to motivate the participation of seller users and boost the number of resident sellers; while social media ad-led users are more likely to facilitate the participation of buyer users and boost the number of resident buyers; but in both the short and long term, the number of resident sellers is more likely to boost the willingness of platform sellers to pay than the number of resident buyers.

Abstract:With the emergence of new consumer behaviors and the continuous awakening of demand individuation on the service demand side, the innovation model of the service supply side needs to be reconstructed urgently. Deep digitalization represented by the Internet has become a new engine to bridge the “service divide”. This article focuses on the healthcare industry that is deeply integrated with the “Internet +” trend. It selects the service model cases of Xiamen “healthcare+Internet” and WeDoctor “Internet+healthcare”, and systematically explores the service reshaping mechanism that bridges the service divide based on digital empowerment. The study found that the service divide can be deconstructed into three aspects: information asymmetry, resource mismatch, and data islands. The process of service reshaping based on digital empowerment is the key path to bridging the service divide, which could be mainly manifested in the reshaping process of service design, service delivery and service interaction. The service reshaping mechanism of “healthcare+Internet” and “Internet+healthcare”follows the service digitization logic and digital servitization logic respectively. Specifically, the former focuses on service-dominant logic and the transformation of the service nature based on digital technology, while the latter focuses on the application and innovative diffusion of digital technology. The theoretical framework finally formed in this article can contribute to the theoretical gap caused by the existing literature on the path of bridging the service divide. The logic of service digitization and digital servitization, based on the service reshaping mechanism under digital empowerment, further deepens the exploration of the theoretical laws behind the deep integration of digital technology and service fields.

Abstract:The strategic change context is full of various paradoxical problems that are intertwined, influenced, pried, and transmitted, forming a complex and chaotic strategic change context. This context increases the difficulty for decision-makers to explore the root causes of new strategy formulation, making it urgent to summarize the linking law between paradoxes and systematically portray the strategic change contexts. Coupled with the fact that paradoxes tend to be hidden and not easily identifiable in non-change contexts but highlighted and easily identifiable in strategic change contexts, strategic change contexts offer the possibility of systematically exploring organizational paradoxes and their interlinked relationships. Using the strategic change data of ten firms as a sample, this study adopts a mixed research method consisting of classical grounded theory and cognitive mapping to analyze the paradoxical problems in strategic change situations from the perspective of multi-level paradoxes and to construct a model of an organizational multi-level paradox network. The study found that: 1) There are 18 pairs of paradoxes, such as “financial-responsibility” in strategic change contexts, categorized into six types of paradoxes, such as performing paradox, which align with the logic of the division of “policy orientation-requirements-objectives-directions-values-processes”; 2) The paradoxes are distributed vertically at the individual, operational, strategic, and institutional levels of the organization, and horizontally across the five functional departments of regulation, operations, R&D, production, and marketing, which intersect, constituting the positional form of the organizational multi-level paradox network; 3) Paradoxes consist of causal or sequential relationships between four primary conditions. There are two kinds of relationships between paradoxes of the same level, namely, “same-layer chain order” and “same-layer nesting,” and three kinds of relationship between the cross-layer paradox types, namely, “cross-layer chain order,” “cross-layer chain co-existence” and “cross-layer nesting,” which constitutes the relational form of the organizational multi-level paradox network; 4) Integrating the positional and relational forms of the organizational multi-level paradox network to construct a model of organizational multi-level paradoxical network, which systematically demonstrates the complexity of a strategic change situation composed of paradoxical relationships and positions. Based on the perspective of a multi-level paradox, this study clarifies the complex and chaotic strategic change context. It provides theoretical references for decision-makers to correctly perceive the strategic change context, accurately grasp the root causes of organizational dilemmas, and make effective strategic decisions.

Abstract:As the employees’positions rise, the stimulation of employee followership has become an important issue for organizations. Starting from the phenomenon that employees and leaders have unequal perceptions of their relationship quality (LMX), based on role theory, this study constructs a theoretical model of the effects of LMX combinations on followership and examines the boundary conditions of traditionality and perceived strength of human resource management. By collecting data from paired sample of 75 leaders and 350 employees and conducting latent profile analysis, polynomial regression and response surface analysis, the results show that: There are four combinations of LMX between employees and leaders. Specifically, “high-high” combination is more likely to stimulate followership than “low-low” combination, and “high-low” combination is more likely to stimulate followership than “low-high” combination. Moreover, the relationship between different LMX combinations and followership is moderated by employees’ traditionality and perceived strength of human resource management (PHRMS). Specifically, when employees’ traditionality is high, the relationship between the “high-high” combination and followership is enhanced compared to the “low-low” combination, and the relationship between the “low-high” combination and followership is enhanced compared to the “high-low” combination. What’s more, when employees’ PHRMS is high, the relationship between the “low-low” combination and followership is amplified compared to the “high-high” combination, and the relationship between the “high-low” combination and followership is amplified compared to the “low-high” combination. This study deepens our understandings of the different influences and boundary conditions of LMX combination on followership, and provides theoretical sights and practical implications to address unbalanced relationship between employees and leaders.

Abstract:China’s experiences during the reform and opening-up era have presented a novel model for the government to efficiently promote growth and manage fluctuations. As China’s economy enters a new era of high-quality development, how should the government proceed to boost structural transformation and promote steady growth? To answer this question, the paper presents a multi-sector dynamic general equilibrium model with government spending structure, based on the facts that the structural composition of government spending is different from that of private consumption or investment. The model is applied to China’s economy to estimate the effects of government spending on structural transformation through the mechanism of demand structure. It is found that a decrease of government spending or an increase of government investment rate would increase the share of industry and improve the structure of services, with the effects of the former being more significant than the latter. The paper offers a theoretical basis for China’s reform of government spending structure, and derives policy implications for the government to further promote high-quality development.

Abstract:With a sample of Chinese listed companies from 2009 to 2018, we adopt an event study approach to proxy the short-term capital market response of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Subsequently, a general difference-in-differences framework is employed to explore the long-term impact of the initiative on corporate performance and market entry with BRI as a quasi-natural experimental. Our findings are as followed: 1) The cumulative abnormal returns induced by the BRI are positive, but the proportion of enterprises with negative abnormal returns slightly exceeds those with positive returns; 2) The BRI significantly promotes the expansion of investment, the growth of scale, the increase in returns, and the enhancement of market entry. And we find financing constraints as the main mechanism of the above findings; 3) We further provide some heterogeneities according to firm features, regional institutional environments, and industry characteristics. This study provides empirical evidences for the construction of the BRI, the development of economic globalization, and how to build a new development pattern under the current background of trade protectionism.

Abstract:Given the limited scope and effectiveness of monetary policy and fiscal policy， how to stimulate the vitality of private investment is an important policy issue. This paper takes the industrial chain effect of zombie firms as the starting point to discuss how trade credit and product pricing affect the investment decisions of private firms， striving to provide new theoretical and policy perspectives for stabilizing private investment. The empirical results show that downstream zombie firms will significantly reduce the investment scale of upstream private firms. In terms of trade credit channel， when upstream firms suffer accounts receivable defaults from downstream zombie firms， their “endogenous financing” will be reduced and their financing constraints will be strengthened. In terms of product pricing channel， downstream zombie firms reduce the markup of upstream firms， thereby squeezing the marginal income of their investment and profit margins. Solving the debt payment default and downward pressure on pricing by zombie firms to private firms is an effective tool to stimulate private investment.