Zhilin Yang

City University of Hong Kong | CityU · Department of Marketing

The prevalence of personal connections in China, or guanxi, constitutes an institution that governs how people exchange favors. This study explores the effects of the guanxi institution on interfirm relational ties, information sharing, and the acquisition of skills across firms. According to social network theory, the marginal benefit of interfirm...

To understand the unique aspects of Asian business practice, we propose a conceptual framework of institution-based, legitimacy-embedded efficiency. We underscore the institutional foundations of Asian business practice and propose that gaining legitimacy takes priority in order to attain the efficiency that follows from legitimacy in Asian busines...

Firms doing business in foreign institutional environments face pressures to gain social acceptance (commonly referred to as legitimacy) and difficulty in evaluating market information, both of which undercut firm performance. In this article, the authors argue that firms can design governance strategies to deal with foreign institutions to secure...

This research explores the impact of business-to-business (B2B) firms’ efforts to construct technology-enabled multi-sided platforms (MSP efforts) on their ESG performance through an information processing theory (IPT) lens. Integrating the literature on digital transformation and MSPs, we delineate firms’ MSP efforts along with three dimensions (d...

Paleogene strata in Southwest Tarim Basin are important hosts of hydrocarbons with the highest quality reservoirs, a product of depositional environment, diagenesis and tectonics. The Paleogene interval is composed, in ascending order, of the Altash, Zimugen, Karatar, Wulagen and Bashbluk formations. Five facies associations are interpreted, respec...

From the perspective of institutional theory, prior studies mostly focus on the effects of regulatory and normative forces on firms' environmental practices. We argue that, as a cultural‐cognitive force, local community environmental orientation is another key factor determining firms' environmental practices and performance. With data collected fr...

Purpose The purpose of this study is to determine the dimensions of cultural differences, which are theoretically most relevant to contract functions in international marketing. Moreover, the contradiction between contract governance and opportunism is reconciled by exploring the boundary conditions of specific cultural differences. Design/methodo...

Purpose With the popularity of paid apps and increasing concerns about privacy hazards, this paper aims to investigate the impact of mobile services’ fee-charging models on consumers’ privacy concerns, and generate insights for app developers’ fee-charging strategies. Design/methodology/approach Three experimental studies including 550 participant...

The growing uses of algorithm-based decision-making in human resources management have drawn considerable attention from different stakeholders. While prior literature mainly focused on stakeholders directly related to HR decisions (e.g., employees), this paper pertained to a third-party observer perspective and investigated how consumers would res...

A general consensus has been reached among many countries that low-carbon development is important for the protection of the environment and the mitigation of climate change. In line with the attitude of a responsible country, China urges enterprises to participate in energy conservation and emission reduction through various policies. Based on the...

Purpose What are the performance implications of peer monitoring in a multiple-supplier context? Grounded in agency and social exchange theories, this study aims to examine how, when, and why peer monitoring works as a crucial control mechanism to reduce opportunism among suppliers. Design/methodology/approach A conceptual model and research hypot...

International purchasing and supply management (PSM) teams have long faced the visibility and understandability challenges of managing geographically dispersed and culturally distant suppliers. Problems arising from inadequate monitoring and control over suppliers can be attributed to geographical and cultural distance, capability gaps, weak instit...

Based on the social identity theory, this study investigates whether and how employee perceptions of corporate environmental behavior (CEB) influence the realization of an organization's internal value. Using employees' organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) as a direct agent for corporate internal value, the current study constructs a theoretic...

Nowadays, firms are expected to actively respond and take actions to respond to global warming and carbon emissions reduction. As a part of a circular economy, recycling improves waste management and reduces carbon emissions for firms. In the development of firms' strategies, the problem of enhancing the recycling performance becomes a challenge. T...

Purpose Existing empirical studies emphasize the role of customer preference measurement accuracy (CPMA) on customized product quality while neglecting the role of manufacturing flexibility. However, the rise of web-based technology has highlighted consumer-manufacturer interaction in mass customization (MC). This paper explores the relationships b...

Interactions between human beings and chatbots are gradually becoming part of our everyday social lives. It is still unclear how human–chatbot interactions (HCIs), compared to human–human interactions (HHIs), influence individual morality. Building on the dual-process theory of moral judgment, a secondary data analysis (Study 1), and two scenario-b...

Artificial intelligence (AI) has significantly affected business strategy in emerging markets. To understand how firms should adopt, utilize, integrate, and implement AI to gain a competitive advantage, we posit a conceptual model for developing AI-driven strategies. By identifying the primary drivers of AI-related institutions, firms can understan...

This study focuses on two specific privacy policies, namely privacy assurance and personalization declaration. Specifically, we investigate how these distinct privacy policies affect customers’ privacy concerns and subsequent purchase responses. We have developed a conceptual model that addresses the independent effects of privacy assurance and per...

The initial online publication contained a typesetting mistake in the author information. The original article has been corrected.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following: The evolution of sustainable marketing in China; Marketing models and strategies for sustainable marketing in China; The impact of responsible stakeholder behavior on sustainable marketing; The role of practi...

Purpose Smiles displayed at varying intensities by service providers may result in different social judgments by customers, affecting decision-making. This study investigates the joint effect of customers' sense of power (low vs. high) and service providers' smile intensity (slight vs. broad) on their warmth and competence perceptions in service en...

Purpose The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the effects of the numerical cues (NC) used in online review comments on perceived review helpfulness and the underlying psychological mechanisms. Design/methodology/approach An experimental design approach was employed to investigate the proposed research questions. Two experiments were...

Widespread unethical corporate misconduct in an industry triggers industry-wide crises. This research investigates how industry misconduct affects consumers’ trust in the industry, by incorporating insights from a micro-level psychological aspect of institutions. The conceptual framework proposes that consumer legitimacy judgement lies at the core...

Confucian philosophy, which lies at the root of Chinese culture, has been attracting attention from both business practitioners and academia due to China’s tremendous influence on the global economy. In this paper, we review the historical development of Confucianism and its managerial implications in China. We first identify key differences betwee...

Purpose This study aims to explore the overall relationship between a boundary spanner and a partner firm, i.e. boundary spanner closeness to partner firm. Drawing on consumer-service provider relationship literature and the tripartite model of affect-behavior-cognition, the authors identify three key dimensions of such closeness, namely, boundary...

Despite team-based works having been dominant in scientific production, little is known about the relationships between team size and research performance in cross-domain research contexts. Drawn from a collaboration network of 114,577 scholars, we first investigate the relationships between team size and both research productivity and impact. In t...

Purpose From an environmental psychology perspective, we aim to uncover the role that app discoverability facilitators play in enabling the various perceived values (e.g. social, information and hedonic) necessary for app adoption. Design/methodology/approach A survey study was conducted and data was analyzed using partial least squares structural...

Opportunism is vital in marketing channel relationships and existing research has identified several influential factors as antecedents of opportunism. Nonetheless, we have little specific knowledge of how manufacturer’s influence strategies or how reseller’s fairness perception affects reseller’s opportunistic behavior. This study examines the ind...

If conservative ideology encourages resistance to social distancing orders meant to mitigate a pandemic's spread, then under what conditions could this ideology cause people to obey such orders? We posit that community logic (i.e., community commitment, collective belief, and reciprocity) promotes compliance with public health policies in conservat...

Purpose How to determine the appropriate contractual structure for an outsourcing relationship has been a major theme in the business process outsourcing (BPO) literature. Drawing on transaction cost economics, this study aims to examine how anticipated coordination and adaptation costs in a BPO relationship affect the choice of contract types. Spe...

Purpose: To summarize the important contextual influences East Asian philosophy may have on marketing strategy and consumerism. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative approach is used to deconstruct (1) the literature on marketing as a contextual discipline, (2) East Asian philosophical underpinnings and their personal and institutional manifes...

In the era of the Internet of Things (IoT), emerging artificial intelligence (AI) technologies provide various artificial autonomy features that allow intelligent personal assistants (IPAs) to assist users in managing the dynamically expanding applications, devices, and services in their daily lives. However, limited academic research has been done...

Purpose Drawing on conservation of resources (COR) theory and the motivation-opportunity-ability (MOA) framework, this study examines how salespersons' self-monitoring and psychological capital influence sales performance. Design/methodology/approach This study uses survey data from 293 salespersons employed in China and their archival sales perfo...

Based on social embeddedness theory and institutional theory, we construct a research model that depicts how boundary spanners’ personal relationships affect dyadic embeddedness at the organizational level, under the varying influence of guanxi institution across different regions in China. We empirically test our model by analyzing data collected...

Confucian philosophy, which lies at the root of Chinese culture, has been attracting attention from both business practitioners and academia due to China's tremendous influence on the global economy. In this paper, we review the historical development of Confucianism and its managerial implications in China. We first identify key differences betwee...

This paper considers a dual-channel supply chain network consisting of multiple competing manufacturers, multiple competing retailers and multiple demand markets. Each manufacturer produces and distributes his products via direct e-commerce channel along with traditional physical channel. The manufacturers also provide services for the consumers in...

Purpose: This research intends to investigate the effects of formal market institutions on managers’ willingness to use personal networks, such as guanxi in China, for business success. Methodology: We collect data from a major cellular phone manufacturer and its 277 retailers across China. We employ Fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (FsQC...

Although marketing managers are relying increasingly on customer data, insight into the best approaches for resolving the personalization–privacy paradox remains limited. Specifically, we argue for the success of a personalization involving the integration of two stages: the self-disclosure stage and the personalization stage. Using a conceptual fr...

Purpose Previous literature suggests that people might purchase symbolic products to signal their social identity. However, in the organizational context, subordinates as customers might choose products with less brand prestige than what they want and can afford, just to make sure their choices are below the invisible “red-line” set by the brands o...

Call for special issue papers

Purpose Augmented reality (AR) has emerged as a novel communication tool, which adds virtual computer-generated information to a viewer’s real life. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of AR technology on consumers’ experience. Design/methodology/approach Four experiments were performed to test the effect of AR-based product dis...

The essential issue currently challenging marketing managers in the virtual world is: How can a virtual world feature be designed to elevate consumers' purchase of virtual items and usage in the virtual world? Previous scholars have investigated the issue and have published their predictions on the individual level. Yet, they have done so without s...

Enhancing compliance among channel members is a core, challenging issue in channel management. Building upon social comparison theory, we argue that distributors’ compliance with channel programs may hinge upon their motivation and their perceived ability to comply. To enhance distributors’ compliance level, manufacturers can proactively model rewa...

In dyadic business relationships, different levels of interdependence can form which, in turn, develop various levels of trust. We propose and test the three aspects of interdependence—mutual dependence, dependence asymmetry, and perceived difference of dependence. This empirical study of 300 mobile phone supplier–retailer dyads in China reveals th...

This research examines how and why reactions to other consumers’ unethical behavior differ among consumers and vary in different situations. Drawing on construal level theory, the authors propose that the relationship between other consumers’ unethical behavior and focal consumers’ unethical behavior is moderated by focal consumers’ construal level...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on the performance of service innovation (PSI), and the mediating effect of knowledge acquisition. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on social exchange and knowledge management theories, this paper establishes a relevant conceptual model and a...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of customer participation on role behaviors and customer satisfaction. The mediating role of role stressors is also examined. Design/methodology/approach Based on literature reviews, a survey of 317 bank customers was conducted in Central China, using a structured questionnaire. Structural...

Increasingly, scholars have been conducting team-based research with multinational collaborators to carry out internationally relevant studies, generate global impact, and promote academic exchanges. In this paper, we examine how four types of distance, i.e., geographic, political, cultural, and economic, relate to the output of international resea...

This study intends to expand the extant body of knowledge of customer-oriented and product attribute-based measures of new product performance. Based on personal interviews and a field survey of users of Personal Digital Assistants (PDA), we identify six key product dimensions perceived by customers. The results indicate that while customers employ...

Purpose This research examines the importance of channel partners’ government relations within channel performance and explores how institutional factors interact to influence channel performance. A theoretical framework, inclusive of hypotheses, is proposed to demonstrate the interaction of government relations and institutional environments on f...

Extant research has suggested that social exclusion could either increase or decrease consumers' subsequent self-regulatory food choice. From the novel perspective of Active-Self Account Theory, current research develops a theoretical framework to resolve the conflicting views by introducing individuals' time orientation as an important boundary co...

Purpose: This article aims to integrate consumers into a channel dependence framework and explores the influence of consumers’ brand loyalty and store loyalty on the dependence structure within the supplier–retailer relationship. It also examines effects of the dependence structure on perceived conflict. Methodology/approach: The authors test the p...

This research studies a unique type of personal relationship between boundary spanners, namely, guanxi (connection) in China. We maintain that such guanxi involves interpersonal ganqing (emotional attachment) and two elements of exchange of favor between organizations: information favor and business support. We empirically test our model in the con...

Purpose Grounded in agency and clan theories, this study aims to examine how, when and why joint liability works as a control mechanism to reduce opportunism among tea supplier groups in China. Design/methodology/approach Survey data from 82 supplier groups (three respondents per group) were collected. Findings Joint liability is related posit...

Interorganizational long-term collaboration plays an important role in buyer and supplier relationships. However, the specific tactics a supplier firm should adopt when the buyer firm is power-advantaged and reluctant to maintain long-term collaboration remain unexplored. Drawing on resource dependence theory, this study argues that buyer power adv...

This study seeks to understand how consumers make unethical decisions and how unethical consumer behavior (UCB) is formed in a relational society. By taking a relational interactive perspective and adopting a grounded theory approach, we have developed a theoretical framework for examining UCB’s developmental process in a relational society. The fr...

This paper develops a research model to examine the effect of e-service quality dimensions on customer-perceived value and customer loyalty. Based on a survey of 235 online customers, we identify five key e-service quality dimensions: care, reliability, products portfolio, ease of use, and security. Our empirical results show that all the five dime...

Why has the incidence of corporate crisis risen markedly in China? Why are foreign firms frequently targeted by the Chinese authorities and how should they deal with it? Addressing these pivotal questions is essential for effective management of corporate crisis in the Chinese market. Herein, we describe the background of relevant institutional and...

Prior research on interorganizational trust (IOT) has drawn on multiple theories across disciplines, resulting in mixed findings. This meta-analysis combines the three major theories of IOT, namely, transaction cost economics, social embeddedness theory, and resource dependence theory, to retheorize about these IOT relationships. Specifically, we c...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address two essential questions: do perceptual differences regarding dependence matter in determining channel performance, and if so, how? Design/methodology/approach – The paper conducted an empirical study of 347 cellular telephone supplier-retailer dyads in China. A questionnaire survey was employed. F...

Purpose – Reputational beliefs influence online purchase intentions but are difficult to establish in settings in which counterfeit products are common, especially in emerging economies. Drawing upon signalling theory, this work decomposes reputational beliefs into: an ability belief, as represented by web site investment, and a truthfulness belief...

Purpose:Extant literature has devotedmore attention to customer value co-creation and knowledge sharing, not only in business-to-customer (B2C) markets, but also in business-to-business (B2B) markets. This study explores and examines the antecedents and consequences of customer knowledge sharing in the context of B2B markets by applying the motivat...

Purpose – This meta-analysis aims to aggregate empirical findings from extant inter-firm opportunism literature. Design/methodology/approach – First, a quantitative summary on the bivariate relationships between the antecedents and the consequences of opportunism is offered. Second, a multivariate analysis is employed to identify significant antec...

To understand the unique aspects of Asian business practice, we propose a conceptual framework of institution-based, legitimacy-embedded efficiency. We underscore the institutional foundations of Asian business practice and propose that gaining legitimacy takes priority in order to attain the efficiency that follows from legitimacy in Asian busines...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify the key convenience dimensions of online shopping, as convenience has been one of the principal motivations underlying customer inclinations to adopt online shopping. Design/methodology/approach The authors first employ in‐depth focus group interviews with online consumers to identify the attributes...

This study examines how customer interactions in virtual brand community (VBC) affect perceived benefits and brand loyalty. We propose an integrated framework to conceptualize the relationships between VBC interactions, perceived benefits, participation and loyalty, with brand identity as moderating variable. Given the popularity of Apple’s product...

This research uses the three choice mechanisms, i.e., cognitive, normative, and affective processes, to examine the impacts of two interrelated aspects regarding online reviews, i.e., positivity of online reviews and empathy reflected by online reviews, on online purchase intentions through two studies. Results reveal that positivity of online revi...

The present study validated implicit animosity as a unique determinant of consumer behavior in the context of Chinese animosity toward Japan. The Implicit Association Test (IAT) was employed to measure implicit Chinese animosity toward Japan. The results showed that (a) implicit animosity was distinct from consumer ethnocentrism; (b) implicit animo...

This survey of marketing professionals' readership and ratings of marketing-related journals/publications was conducted to compare their reading behavior and opinions with those from past surveys of marketing academics. Although many professionals do read the academic journals and rate them much like academics, most professionals read more frequent...

This case-study focuses largely on the positive aspects of technology-transfer and on related human resource management issues, finance and international cooperation among SONAREM, Dravo Corporation, ALREM, Dravo Costruttori and Etablissements Dolléans. Specifically, the case examines 1) the primary para-statal and internal administrative structure...