Suchergebnisse

Many FDI studies focus on the advantages that businesses can gain through internationalization and internalization. More recent research has indicated that such traditional theories or perspectives may not sufficiently explain the subsequent success or failure of a firm's operation in a foreign country, because the advantages gained through FDIs could be greatly affected by their strategic management in the host country environment. This study focused on the issue of a firm's resources on its subsidiary's competitiveness in a foreign country. A survey was undertaken in China. All companies participating in the study were small and medium‐sized Singapore‐China joint ventures and Singaporean wholly owned enterprises in China. The findings indicated that the variance in a firm's performance in a foreign country can be largely explained by the six dimensions of firm resources: (1) technological resources, (2) owner/top manager's managerial skills and capabilities, (3) employee's Guanxi skills, (4) employee's professional/technical knowledge, (5) the firm's internal relationships and, (6) the firm's external relationships. Among these six dimensions, employees' professional knowledge and Guanxi skills, as well as a firm's internal and external relationships, are significant predictors of Singaporean SMEs' success in China.

AbstractUsing complexity theory, we seek to better understand the configurations of causal factors stimulating joint ventures' cooperation in Chinese manufacturing context. To this end, we adopt two dominant perspectives of transaction cost economics and relational exchange theory to identify transaction cost‐related factors and elements of relational exchanges as critical factors in joint ventures' cooperation. We apply fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis on a sample of 268 joint venture partners to test research propositions. The findings indicate a need for competence trust and goodwill trust and also show that extorting rent cost should be emphasized. Results reveal those six configurations of causal factors that explain high intention to cooperate. Copyright © 2017 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PurposeAlthough considerable consumer research has focused on family purchase decision‐making in families in Western countries, only limited attention has been paid to family purchase decision‐making within Eastern cultures. This study was designed to explore for the possible differences and similarities in spousal influences in different cultural environments by comparing Singaporean family purchase decision‐making process to that of US families.Design/methodology/approachQuota sampling was adopted to generate primary data for the examination of Singaporean spousal influence in family purchase decision‐making; data previously reported on US spousal families was used to compare with the primary data collected in Singapore.FindingsDifferences in marital values between Singaporean husbands and wives were found to be associated with differences in perceived patterns of influence throughout the family decision‐making process. The findings indicate that family purchase decision‐making is a culture‐specific phenomenon. The study found that the level of egalitarianism, which usually indicates a more syncratic or cooperative family purchase decision‐making, was associated positively with higher levels of education and income.Research limitations/implicationsThis study revealed a positive relationship between joint decisions and the level of egalitarianism, however, such evidence is still limited. To depend the understanding of spousal influences in family purchase decision‐making in different cultural environments, future research may need to go beyond demographics to include more cognitive, psychological as well as social environmental factors, such as the involvement level, the time a spouse spent alone for shopping, the love, affection, trust and confidence a spouse would have for or earned from another spouse, the importance a spouse would attach to his or her marriage and family, etc.Originality/valueThe paper offers insight into family purchase decision‐making within Easlern countries.

AbstractEarly pregnancy loss (EPL) is the most common complication in assisted reproductive technology (ART). However, the precise causes for nearly 50% patients remain unexplained. In the current study, we aimed to discover the differentially expressed profiling of mRNAs and lncRNAs by RNA sequencing (RNA-seq). Human chorionic villi tissues were collected from patients with EPL and natural control (NC) group. RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) of these specimens was performed for transcriptome analysis. As a result, we identified a total of 141 mRNAs and 137 lncRNAs that were significantly differentially expressed between villi tissues from EPL and NC. Functional enrichment analyses indicated enrichment of differentially expressed genes involved in pathways were associated with growth hormone receptor binding, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, Jak-STAT signaling pathway, transcriptional misregulation in cancer, metabolic pathways and Rap1 signaling pathway. Additionally, the co-expression networks (lncRNA–miRNA–mRNA) was constructed based on the correlation analysis between the differentially expressed RNAs.7 mRNAs and 6 lncRNAs were successfully technically validated with RT-PCR. In conclusion, our results suggest a direction for the further study of EPL-related mRNAs and lncRNAs and may ultimately assist in understanding the pathogenesis of EPL.

Metal-organic framework (MOF) glasses have become a subject of study due to their novelty as an entirely new category of melt quenched glass and their potential applications in areas such as ion transport and sensing. In this paper we show how MOF glasses can be combined with inorganic glasses in order to fabricate a new family of optically transparent materials composed of both MOF and inorganic glass domains. We present the design rules for this family of materials, use an array of experimental techniques to propose the bonding between inorganic and MOF domains, and show that the composites produced are more mechanically pliant than the inorganic glass itself. ; This project received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (ERC grant UTOPES, grant agreement no. 681652). T.D.B acknowledges the Royal Society for a University Research Fellowship (UF150021), and a research grant (RSG\R1\180395). He wishes to thank the University of Canterbury Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha, New Zealand, for a University of Cambridge Visiting Canterbury Fellowship, and the Leverhulme Trust for a Philip Leverhulme Prize (2019). YX appreciates financial support from the European Commission through its European Social Fund (ESF) for Thuringia. LL acknowledges the EPSRC for a PhD studentship. A The authors gratefully acknowledge the provision of synchrotron access to Beamline I15-1 (EE20038), at the Diamond Light Source, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK.