Informal enterprises and their activities dominate the economy of the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, despise the increasing volume of eco-innovation research in recent years, the drivers of the eco-innovation of small medium enterprises (SMEs) in the informal sector remain largely unknown. Drawing from a triple theoretical anchoring method (entrepreneurship theory, shareholder theory, and resource theory), this study tests the validity of a set of eco-innovation drivers developed around the concept among firms of the informal sector in Ghana. The conceptual framework was tested using structural equation modeling and the data were obtained using the World Bank’s Ghana Informal Enterprise Survey (GIFS) as an area-based frame to survey 285 local entrepreneurs (n = 285). The results confirmed that informal enterprises do eco-innovate (mainly incremental innovation), and that innovation activities are driven by a government’s incentive regulations, market demand, and local entrepreneurs’ characteristic of hometown identity. This research highlights the contributions of the informal sector to sustainable development and draws the attention of policymakers, non-government agencies, and researchers on the drivers leading eco-innovation activities in the informal sector. The results could be used for future policy formulation.

Despite the important role of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in government policy implementation, there is a lack of research on how SOEs owned by different government entities differ. We draw on an attention-based view (ABV) to understand how central government-owned (called central SOEs) and local government-owned enterprises (called local SOEs) differ in their response to digitalization, a major state objective in China in recent years. The two types of SOEs differ in the foundational feature of attention structure – the rules of the game (as embodied in their different goals, identities, and evaluation of top executives) – as well as important features such as governance structures and resources. These features can trigger more attention in central SOEs to digitalization. Given the interdependence of these features in shaping the structural distribution of attention, we further propose how governance structures and resources can influence strategic attention differently in SOEs with different rules of the game. The arguments are tested using data from all Chinese-listed manufacturing SOEs between 2009 and 2020. The study reveals different responses to national strategy between central and local SOEs due to their distinct attention structures designed by the state. It also extends the ABV and research on corporate digital transformation.

With the advent of the smart economy, Chinese digital platform companies have begun the process of digital innovation. The sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic in early 2020 has added a strong impulse to the acceleration of this process, highlighting the unique characteristics of the platform economy in resource allocation. Although digital platforms have already entered people’s daily lives, the profit mechanism of digital platforms remains a black box to be cracked for the industry. The main contribution of this paper is to propose a framework model for the profit mechanism of digital platforms, which to a certain extent solves the problems essential to the digital realm faced by many traditional enterprises in the Internet age—knowing that the profit theory of traditional monopolies is not suitable for the rapidly changing internet economy, but that most of the time people still must use it. In this new profit framework, we first use the symbiotic logic of value sharing to explain the underlying logic of platform profitability; secondly, from the perspective of resource complementarity, we find that the key to digital platform companies’ profitability lies in the symbiotic synergy between platform companies and massive userbases; lastly, our study finds that the profit condition of platform enterprises is digital capability, not system possession. This article will analyze the bottom layer of the digital economy and, by identifying the various drawbacks of the traditional industrial economic monopoly theory, propose three key factors for the profitability of platform companies in the digital age: flexible strategy, digital capabilities, and symbiotic synergy capabilities. On this basis, a theoretical model of the profit of a digital platform is constructed. Research shows that the hybrid structure of digital platforms and the need for external diversification together lead to a platform’s resilience strategy. The realization process of the platform’s strategic flexibility and the process of consumers obtaining the residual value will lead to an explosion in network effects, causing the platform and users to complete value co-creation and realize value sharing. The implementation of a flexible platform strategy also promotes the further development of a differentiation strategy and a more-refined division of labor for manufacturers, lowers the barriers-to-entry in the industry, and enables the platform and the manufacturers to realize value co-creation. On the one hand, platform enterprises can obtain greater market performance; on the other hand, users’ personalized needs can be more satisfied.

The sustainability of superior performance is a vital goal for complementor in mobile platform ecosystem, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to realize it. The previous literature about the sustainability of superior performance is insufficient and lacks deep research the mechanisms that affect the sustainability of superior performance. Based on user-oriented perspective, this study examines the direct and interactive effects of app’s iterative innovation and visibility on the sustainability of complementor’s superior performance. Using a two-way fixed effect model and monthly panel data, with the final dataset of 4596 observations from 384 apps of top-ranking positions by revenue available from December 2018 to December 2019 on the Apple iOS App Store in China, the results show that a) app’s iterative innovation and visibility (including platform recommendations and download rankings) promote the sustainability of app’s superior performance; b) platform recommendations and iterative innovation have a synergistic effect on the sustainability of app’s superior performance; and c) the download ranking has a substitution effect on iterative innovation to promote the sustainability of app’s superior performance. The findings of this study have theoretical and practical implications for improving the sustainability of app’s superior performance in the digital age.

Traditional wisdom suggests that the interchangeable design in process system engineering, such as modularity or commonality design, can lower the manufacturing cost and act as a revenue driver. Moreover, the interchangeable design will be efficient in both assembling for new production and disassembling for remanufacturing. As such, interchangeable design confronted remanufacturing processing often involves a balance of revenue from cost drivers and cannibalization effects from remanufacturing. Therefore, this paper studies how the original equipment manufacturers’ (OEMs’) interchangeable design impacts the remanufacturing decisions, as well as the economy and environment. Specifically, we develop two theoretical models, in which an OEM makes a strategic choice relating to design interchangeability when the remanufacturing operations are undertaken by itself (Model O) or outsourced to third-party remanufacturers (Model T). This study finds that, although the optimal level of interchangeability related to the product design in Model T is lower than that in Model O, the optimal quantity of remanufactured products in the latter scenario is always higher. This suggests that remanufacturing outsourcing deters the OEM’s strategic choice on design interchangeability, which may be consistent with the fact that Lexmark makes its products less interchangeable to avoid remanufacturing from third-party remanufacturers (TPRs). Conversely, although the OEM is always less likely to outsource its remanufacturing operations to independent remanufacturers, remanufacturing outsourcing may be more beneficial for the environment, industry, and society. These key insights on the environmental groups or agencies suggest that remanufacturing outsourcing may be more beneficial for the environment, industry, and society and depends on the OEMs’ attitudes towards its profitability loss. Furthermore, to eliminate the above contrasting effects between the OEMs’ profitability and other issues, two possible remedies, including a revenue-sharing contract and subsidy-incentive mechanism, are provided to achieve a “win-win” situation.

E-commerce provides suppliers with the flexibility to operate an online armviaa platform in addition to their pre-existing physical stores. Although such supplier encroachment is becoming increasingly prevalent in e-commerce markets, the literature on supplier encroachment traditionally assumes that suppliers sell products to consumers directly and argues that supplier encroachment can mitigate double marginalisation problems that can secure Pareto improvements. This paper narrows this gap by investigating the implications of the supplier encroachment with an online platform under two scenarios (i.e., the platform owner forgoing or retaining its entry options). A central result obtained is that, unlike supplier-owned direct channels and in addition to the “win–win” outcomes for the supplier and the traditional retailer, supplier encroachment with an online platform may also lead to “win–lose” and “lose–lose” outcomes. Furthermore, when the platform owner retains its entry option, such encroachment is always detrimental for the traditional retailer but beneficial for the supplier.