Given the ever-changing business environment, organizations are forced to consider innovation as an essential prerequisite to enhance their efficiency, productivity, and sustainability. In this regard, organizations pay increased attention to enhancing employees' engagement (EE) and stimulating their innovative work behaviors (IWBs). Research emphasizes the importance of employees' IWBs in achieving competitive advantages and organizational sustainability. In this research, we address the question of whether employee engagement leads to stimulating IWBs of the Chinese millennial workforce in service industries. In addition, we explore the potential mediating effect of work-life balance (WLB) and the moderating influence of psychological empowerment (PE) on the relationship between EE and IWBs. Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect data from 372 Chinese senior employees working in the IT, trade, real estate, financial, and telecommunication industries. Our empirical findings showed that highly engaged employees are most likely to exhibit IWBs and maintain a WLB. In addition, the relationship between EE and IWB was partially mediated by WLB. Moreover, the interaction between EE and PE was found to strengthen employees' IWBs. Our study contributes to understanding the importance of EE as an essential prerequisite for millennials' IWBs and provides new insights for service organizations to encourage employees' IWBs. This study contributes to the human resource management field by offering valuable implications vis-à-vis how service organizations operating in a turbulent business environment stimulate the IWBs of their millennial workforce.
Research highlights the increasing engagement of SMEs in adopting sustainable practices to enhance their sustainable performance. This paper extends the current literature on sustainable manufacturing practices (SMPs) and SMEs’ sustainable performance by examining the mediating effect of competitive capabilities and the moderating impact of environmental regulation. Structured questionnaires were used to collect data from 288 manufacturing SMEs in China. Research findings using structural equation modeling with partial least squares (PLS-SEM) revealed that adopting SMPs enables SMEs to gain competitive capabilities and to positively influence their sustainable performance. In addition, gaining competitive capabilities have a positive mediating impact on the relationship between SMPs and SMEs’ sustainable performance. Further, the interaction between SMPs and environmental regulation strengthens SMEs’ sustainable performance. At the end of this paper, a set of concluding remarks and implications is drawn.
31 October 2020 in The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
The consumption of organically produced food is gaining ground around the world due to growing consumers’ concerns for personal health. Nevertheless, researchersaddressed the intention-behavior gap pertaining to buying organic food and called for more studies on consumers’ actual purchasing behavior. In order to understand this disparity, the current study examined the relationship among health consciousness, pricing policy, consumer trust, personal attitude, and purchasing behavior of organic food among university students. In addition, this research examined the moderating impact of word of mouth (WOM). This research adopted a quantitative method and employed convenience sampling to administer survey questionnaires to buyers of organic food in five Chinese universities between November 2020 and February 2021. A total of 335 questionnaires were collected and used for data analysis. Structural equation modeling results revealed that purchasing behavior is positively related to health consciousness and negatively influenced by pricing policy, while personal attitude and consumer trust had an insignificant association with students’ buying behavior of organic food. Further, WOM had a positive moderating impact on the relationship between health consciousness and purchasing behavior; and was found to strengthen the negative relationship between pricing policy and organic food purchasing behavior. This study presents some critical implications for researchers and organic food retailers and marketers.
Employee retention has attracted the attention of both scholars and practitioners, especially with the gradual entry of Gen Z employees into the workplace. HRM literature indicates that the employee retention research stream in the context of Gen Z employees requires further development. Based on an exploratory study, this research has identified four HRM practices influencing the retention of Gen Z employees: supportive working environment, pay, training and development, and role clarity. An empirical investigation using 529 questionnaires was used to examine the impact of these HRM practices on retaining Gen Z employees with an emphasis on the moderating role of employee gender. The findings of PLS-SEM showed that the four HRM practices have a significant effect on employee retention. The multi-group PLS analysis revealed that a supportive working environment and training and development practices are more important for female employees, whereas pay and role clarity had a salient impact on retaining male employees. Based on the empirical findings, HR managers may devise suitable intervention mechanisms to encourage the retention of Gen Z employees through maintaining a supportive work environment, providing fair and competitive pay, providing effective training and development, and clarifying job duties and responsibilities.