PurposeBased on signaling theory, this paper aims to explore the impact of supply chain transparency (SCT) on firms' bank loan (BL) and supply chain financing (SCF) in the context of voluntary disclosure of supplier and customer lists.Design/methodology/approachBased on panel data collected from Chinese-listed firms between 2012 and 2021, fixed-effect models and a series of robustness checks are used to test the predictions.FindingsFirst, improving SCT by disclosing major suppliers and customers promotes BL but inhibits SCF. Specifically, customer transparency (CT) is more influential in SCF than supplier transparency (ST). Second, supplier concentration (SC) weakens SCT's positive impact on BL while reducing its negative impact on SCF. Third, customer concentration (CC) strengthens the positive impact of SCT on BL but intensifies its negative impact on SCF. Last, these findings are basically more pronounced in highly competitive industries.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the SCT literature by investigating the under-explored practice of supply chain list disclosure and revealing its dual impact on firms' access to financing offerings (i.e. BL and SCF) based on signaling theory. Additionally, it expands the understanding of the boundary conditions affecting the relationship between SCT and firm financing, focusing on supply chain concentration. Moreover, it advances signaling theory by exploring how financing providers interpret the SCT signal and enriches the understanding of BL and SCF antecedents from a supply chain perspective.

Amid frequent supplier-induced disruptions, academic attention has increasingly focused on how suppliers respond to restore relationships with affected customer firms. While prior research has examined the influence of resolution justice, the individual and combined effectiveness of response tactics by suppliers, along with the conditional role of customers' attributions regarding disruption causes and stability, remains underexplored. Drawing from the attribution model of trust repair, this study explores how firms (suppliers) responsible for supply disruptions can respond verbally and/or substantively to manage these disruptions. Using data from 63 firms in China, the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) is employed to identify diverse response tactic configurations linked to successful and unsuccessful recovery outcomes (i.e., relationship continuance). The results reveal that the effectiveness of responses is associated with customers' attributions, dependence on the firms, and disruption severity. Notably, apologies are effective in managing unstable competence-based disruptions—those perceived to arise from firms' infrequent competence issues. In integrity-based disruptions—those attributed to firms' integrity issues—relationship preservation largely hinges on customers' dependence on the firms and perceived cause stability. When customers rely highly on firms, the firms may repair the damaged trust through substantive actions. Apologies alone may also work but often require the firms to possess strong power positions. In less dependent relationships, trust restoration may occur through apologies and optional substantive measures if disruption causes are perceived as unstable. This study contributes to the supply disruption management and interorganizational trust repair literature, offering salient implications for firms when addressing supply disruptions.

While an increasing number of firms outsource their logistics activities, the failure rate of logistics outsourcing is still high. To address such issue, this study draws upon transaction cost theory (TCT) and extended resource-based view (ERBV) to examine the mechanism through which transaction attributes (i.e., 3 PL providers’ asset specificity and logistics technological uncertainty) affect logistics outsourcing success. We argue that top management plays an essential role in mediating transaction attributes to exercise their influences on logistics outsourcing success. However, such a mediating mechanism is effective only when trustworthy alternative 3 PL providers are available in the market. The data from 250 manufacturing subsidiaries in China are used to test our model. Important implications for research and practices are discussed.

With the rapid explosion of the online technology, Internet Banking (IB) has been prevalent in recent years and attracts much research attention. Although intensive studies have investigated the determinants of users' initial acceptance of IB service, much less research has further explored the continuous usage of IB service. This study focuses on the continuous IB service usage intention by examining the role of users' psychological cognition (e.g., trust and commitment) in improving their continuous usage intention of IB service. Integrating the commitment-trust theory and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology, we argue that besides contributive effects to continuous usage intention, psychological cognition mediates the influences of usage experiences (e.g., perceived service value, quality of alternatives, and anxiety) on continuous usage intention. This model was tested using survey data from 173 non-traditional college students who were all full-time employees with several years of working experience. The results confirm the contributive and mediating effects of trust and commitment on continuous IB service usage intention. The study contributes to the literature by highlighting the role of trust and commitment in predicting IB service continuous usage, and the findings provide useful implications for bank management in retaining online customers.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how external pressures, internal capability and transaction attributes of logistics outsourcing synergically influence the extent of asset-based and non-asset-based logistics outsourcing. Design/methodology/approach Based on the data surveyed from 250 manufacturing companies in China, this study employed fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to deduce multiple configurations for logistics outsourcing decisions. Findings The results suggest that asset-based logistics outsourcing is primarily driven by external imitation pressures or internal demands for logistics technologies, while non-asset-based logistics outsourcing is mainly driven by the demands for external management-based logistics services. Asset specificity plays a positive role in promoting both asset-based and non-asset-based logistics outsourcing. The requirement for third-party logistics (3PL) management capability depends on the outsourcing types and outsourcing causes. Practical implications - This study provides guidance to practitioners for them to make outsourcing decisions. It suggests that asset-based logistics outsourcing is more appropriate when there are high external imitation pressures or more internal logistics demands, while non-asset-based logistics outsourcing should be used only when a firm needs management-based logistics services. Besides, 3PL users are suggested to outsource their logistics when their 3PL providers are required to make specific investments. In addition, managers should carefully evaluate firms' capabilities in managing outsourcing relationships. Originality/value Previous studies largely ignored the interaction effects of a set of factors on logistics outsourcing decisions, and to date, little research empirically examined how outsourcing is driven in terms of different types of outsourcing. Drawing on the institutional theory, dynamic capability view, and transaction cost theory and overarching under the complexity theory, this study examines how institutional, organizational and transactional factors interplay with each other to influence different types of logistics outsourcing (i.e. asset based and non-asset based). Methodologically, the configural analysis (i.e. fsQCA) is applied to explore complex causal configurations that drive logistics outsourcing.

Firms can strategically use organizational routines (dynamic capabilities) and cooperative linkages (relational views) to build competitive advantages. In the current study, we incorporated these theoretical lenses to evaluate how commitment, trust, and learning orientation affect performance in the supply chain. Data collected from 213 third-party logistics providers (3PLs) and their partner firms suggested that both learning orientation and commitment positively related to performance. Commitment was particularly salient as it mediated the relationship between trust and logistic effectiveness, as well as moderated the learning orientation and logistic service effectiveness linkage. Managerial implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have built web presence, but few have advanced further to embrace the Internet as an online direct sales channel (ODSC). This study proposes and empirically tests a research model on the role of two risk constructs--perceived risk and risk propensity-in the adoption and continued use of ODSC among SMEs. The results show that the roles of the two risk constructs differ substantially: risk propensity has a direct and an indirect effect, but perceived risk only has an indirect effect, on SMEs' intention to use ODSC. Furthermore, the impacts of the two risk constructs differ in the two temporal stages--the adoption and continued use--of ODSC. The findings of the study validate behavioral decision theories from a risk perspective that non-rational (i.e., risk propensity) as well as rational factors (i.e., perceived risk and perceived business value) shapes organizational decision-making.

Purpose The paper aims to explore the factors that influence the risk perception. The moderating roles of purchase experience and purchase involvement are also investigated. Design/methodology/approach The conceptual model is framed into the SOR (stimulus-organism-response) model, which was tested using data collected from the users of a leading group buying platform in China, with the help of LISREL. Findings The result indicates that both vendor- and intermediary-related factors exert negative yet significant influences on perceived risk. The relationships between vendor-related attributes and perceived risk are contingent on purchase involvement. The relationships between intermediary-related attributes and perceived risk are subject to purchase experience. Originality/value This study explores the moderating effects of purchase experience and purchase involvement based on the characteristics of group buying, demonstrating the differences from traditional online shopping.

The rapid development of China’s port industry has caused numerous problems, among which the most significant is environmental pollution. A major goal for government and port enterprises alike is the achievement of both effective environmental protection and operational efficiency. Therefore, environmental factors should be considered when evaluating port efficiency. However, most of the available data envelopment analysis (DEA) models that have been used in previous studies enable each decision-making unit (DMU) to choose its favorite weight-combination with a rather careless approach. This may have caused some DMUs with very good economic indexes but very poor environmental indexes to be evaluated as fully efficient. This paper proposes a non-radial DEA preference model, based on the assumption of variable returns to scale (VRS) and the Directional Distance Function (DDF). The proposed model has been used to evaluate and analyze the efficiency of Chinese-listed port enterprises. The efficiency results showed the average efficiency to be low for all ports when environmental factors are considered. The regression results show that port assets, berth quantity, and the geographical location can significantly impact the environmental performance of Chinese port enterprises. This study also classified all ports into four categories, based on throughput and efficiency. Recommendations for the implementation for improvements of different environmental policies have been made for the individual ports in each category based on the actual situation of each port.