TONGJI UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT

& THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY BUSINESS SCHOOL

JUNIOR FACULTY RESEARCH WORKSHOP

Date and Time:

11:30am-3:00pm (Shanghai Time), 2:30pm—6:00pm (Sydney Time)

November, 17th, 2021

Meeting ID:
Zoom ID: 845 076 52108; Code: 397713

Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84507652108

PAPER ABSTRACTS

Session 1:

Digital Platform Use and International Supplier Product Performance: An Information Economics Perspective

Although rapid technological development has resulted in the proliferation of digital platforms, our understanding remains limited regarding their roles in international supply chain contexts. Drawing on the information economics perspective, we investigate how and when the use of digital platform (i.e., live streaming) enables international suppliers to enhance their product performance in host markets. Using a unique longitudinal dataset consisting of 3,248 product-month observations from a digital platform in China, we find that digital platform use is positively associated with international supplier product performance. Moreover, this positive effect is stronger when legal or cultural distance is higher but is weaker when suppliers have long exchange history with the platform.  These findings provide rich insights into the role of digitalization in supply chain management.

Session 2: 

Organizational COVID-19 Prevention Measures and Employees’ Work Behaviors: Two Contrasting Views on the Role of COVID-19 Outbreak Size

Drawing upon perceived organizational support (POS) theory, this study examines the influence of an organization’s number of adopted COVID-19 prevention measures on employees’ POS and their work behaviors. We also pin two views against each other to explain the moderating role of COVID-19 outbreak size. The discretion view suggests that as the COVID-19 outbreak size increases so does employees’ perception that organizations are forced to offer prevention measures due to external pressures (e.g., harsh epidemic conditions), suggesting a greater number of prevention measures will have little impact on POS and employee behavior. The supply-needs view suggests as the COVID-19 outbreak size increases, so does employees’ need for protection, and so organizations matching employee need with more prevention measures should, therefore, enhance POS and employee work behavior. From samples of working adults in China (N = 113) and the U.S. (N = 320), we found that the number of prevention measures positively influenced POS and, indirectly, work behaviors. Interestingly, support for the discretion view of the role of COVID-19 outbreak size was found in the Chinese sample, while support for the supply-needs view was provided in the U.S. sample. Implications to theory and practice are presented.

Competitive Strategies for Ensuring Fintech Platform Performance: Evidence from Multiple Case Studies

The emergence of Fintech platforms has revolutionized the way financial services are provided. And yet, in spite of their growing prominence in the global financial sector, there remains a lack of understanding of the competitive strategies that are appropriate for these platform-based businesses, and the implications of those strategies for their performance. Examining four case studies of some of the most successful Fintech platforms in China from the theoretical perspective of the core logics of strategy, we develop a theoretical framework that suggests that the nature of the competitive strategies deployed by a Fintech platform should be contingent on the (1) heterogeneity and (2) corporeality of its services. More specifically, our framework suggests that a Fintech platform should pursue strategies aligned with the Logic of Envelopment or the Logic of Positioning when service heterogeneity is low or high respectively. In addition, our framework suggests that a Fintech platform should pursue strategies aligned with the Logic of Leverage when service corporeality is low and the Logic of Materiality when service corporeality is high. Finally, regardless of the type of platform and the nature of its services, our framework suggests that successful Fintech platforms tend to be underpinned by a common strategic core consisting of strategies aligned with the Logic of Social Congruence. With its findings, our study will provide specific guidance for Fintech practitioners on the appropriate competitive strategies to adopt in order to set their platforms on the path of commercial success.

Session 3: 

Do social media Dominate Government Report Cards in Influencing Nursing Home Demand?

Social media have emerged as important channels to disseminate quality information to consumers in a variety of service settings. Their influence has recently spread to healthcare services, for which government report cards have long been established to disclose standardized quality information to the public. Given the presence of government report cards, do social media affect consumer demand of healthcare services? If so, which quality information channel has a stronger effect? We seek to answer these questions in the context of U.S. nursing homes by studying consumer ratings on Yelp and government ratings on Nursing Home Compare, both of which adopt a five-star quality rating scale and are accessible on the Internet. We apply the method of difference-in-differences with continuous treatment intensity and instrumental variables to conduct our analysis. Using nursing home resident admissions as the proxy for consumer demand, we find that higher Yelp ratings positively influenced consumer demand, particularly the demand of Medicare-covered consumers. Furthermore, Yelp ratings exerted a stronger effect on consumer demand than government ratings. This dominance of Yelp ratings over government ratings was stronger in markets with higher Yelp penetration or markets with lower consumer education level. Although higher Yelp ratings were associated with increased net incomes and total margins, we find little evidence that nursing homes have made quality improvement in response to their Yelp ratings.