Market development strategy and process performance of knowledge-intensive SMEs in the epidemic era: a process-oriented perspective

PurposeThis study analyzes in-depth how knowledge-intensive small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can achieve higher new product development (NPD) process performance in the epidemic era and examine the internal development mechanism of knowledge-intensive SMEs in the process of continuous digital transformation.Design/methodology/approachThis issue is tested with partial least squares on data collected via a survey conducted from November 2021 to February 2022. The sample comprises 487 knowledge-intensive SMEs operating in China.FindingsThe results indicate that one form of cross-functional ambidexterity, market development strategy (MDS), plays an important role in process performance from an inside-out financial perspective and an outside-in customer perspective. Simultaneously, product innovation efficiency (PIE) mediates the relationship between MDS and the above results. Big data analytics capabilities (BDACs) positively regulate the relationship between MDS and PIE.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors do not consider other contingency factors. Future research should introduce influential factors such as leadership and competitive intensity to further distinguish the effects of MDS on NPD process performance.Practical implicationsThe study findings offer suggestions to help knowledge-intensive SME managers better manage their NPD process by making better use of their limited resources in developing countries such as China.Originality/valueThis study is one of only a few to adopt a process-oriented perspective to specifically examine how one form of cross-functional ambidexterity, MDS, impacts knowledge-intensive SME process performance in the epidemic era. This study also extends the theoretical framework of cross-functional ambidexterity to BDAC research.

Does a Government Response to COVID-19 Hurt the Stock Price of an Energy Enterprise?

This research examines the shock of a government response to COVID-19 on the stock prices of 30 international energy enterprises spanning from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020. Overall, the empirical results denote that a government response stringency index, containment and health index, and economic support index all have a statistically significant negative impact on their stock prices. The negative impact from the containment and health index is especially the greatest, implying that a government's stringent responses have great negative effect on the stock prices of most energy enterprises.

Fuzzy Front-End Vertical External Involvement, Corporate Social Responsibility and Firms' New Product Development Performance in the VUCA Age: From an Organizational Learning Perspective

Fuzzy front-end (FFE) innovation is the important initial phase of manufacturing companies' new product development (NPD) process, which can be a factor that determines manufacturers' NPD performance and sustainable growth. This study seeks to investigate the role of FFE vertical external involvement (FFE customer involvement and FFE supplier involvement) in advancing firms' corporate social responsibility (CSR) and NPD performance in the COVID-19-influenced age of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA). This study adopts an organizational learning (OL) perspective as its theoretical foundation in constructing a comprehensive framework by developing a series of hypotheses. In addition, we test the mediating effect of CSR on the relationship between FFE vertical external involvement and firm NPD performance. We use the structural equation modeling method to examine our hypotheses empirically based on data collected from 548 Chinese manufacturing companies. The findings illustrate that FFE customer involvement and FFE supplier involvement are vital drivers of a firm's CSR engagement. Furthermore, we find that FFE supplier involvement plays a more significant role than FFE customer involvement in contributing to NPD performance. Finally, we find that a firm's CSR engagement positively mediates the relationship between FFE vertical external involvement and NPD performance.

The COVID-19 shocks on the stock markets of oil exploration and production enterprises

Using daily data from January 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021, this research explores COVID-19 shocks on the stock market of 15 representative oil exploration and production enterprises from 7 countries. We measure the COVID-19 epidemic from two levels, government response stringency index and number of confirmed cases, and employ stock prices and stock market returns to reflect the stock market. Our research results confirm that both the government response stringency index and the number of confirmed cases have a significantly negative influence on stock prices. We further find that the negative reaction of the stock market to the government response stringency index is greater than that from confirmed cases. Finally, we conclude that the government response stringency index have a significantly positive effect on stock market returns of oil exploration and production enterprises. Similar findings arise from analyzing specific enterprises. Overall, our conclusions provide some useful information for the decision-making of oil exploration and production enterprises’ investors and policy makers.

Patients with mild and general COVID-19 should be negative for at least 3 consecutive nucleic acid tests before discharged.

Given the global spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), strict discharge standard is of great significance for the prevention and control of the epidemic, thus, the purpose of this study is to formulate more strict and scientific discharge standards. A total of 845 patients with mild and general COVID-19 who were considered to be discharged from hospital were included in this study. The median time from the onset of COVID-19 to the occurrence of two consecutive negative nucleic acid tests of these patients was 21 days. 223 of the 845 patients were tested again after two consecutive negative nucleic acid tests and 17.49% of the patients were positive. Moreover, 82.51% (184 of 223) of these patients experienced negative results from three consecutive nucleic acid tests, the median time from the onset of COVID-19 to the occurrence of three consecutive negative nucleic acid tests was 23 days (range: 3-56 days), and 38 of which were further tested after three consecutive negative nucleic acid tests, while about 5.26% (2 of 38) patients showed positive nucleic acid test results. Thus, we suggested that the patient should be negative for at least 3 consecutive nucleic acid tests before discharge, and the test time should be no earlier than the 23rd day since the onset of the disease.