Jianping Peng

Mediation effect of business process and supply chain management capabilities on the impact of IT on firm performance

Motivated by the seeming presence of the productivity paradox in China, this research revisits the question of how information technology (IT) affects firm performance in China.It aims to find the mediation factors for the relationship between IT capabilities and performance.We find that a firms management capabilities to manage both its internal and external processes fully mediate the impact of IT on firm performance.The research advances our understanding of the IT-firm performance nexus in China as well as in other developing countries. It provides an avenue for exploring other mediating variables.Our findings suggest that firms should avoid the fallacy that IT investments are directly responsible for enhancing firm performance. Motivated by the seeming presence of the productivity paradox in China, this research revisits the question of how information technology (IT) affects firm performance. Leveraging the process-based view of IT, we establish a theoretical framework for the mediation factors for the relationship between IT capabilities and performance. Based on a survey of 127 companies in China, we find that a firms management capabilities to manage both its internal and external business processes fully mediate the impact of IT on firm performance. The two management capabilities in this study are business-process management capability and supply-chain management capability. Our results show that only the coherent integration of IT capability with firms ability to optimize business processes and to improve management of supply chains can enhance firm performance. Firms should avoid the fallacy that IT investments are solely responsible for better firm performance. Based on our findings, we discuss the implications for research and practice.

Mobile phone customer retention strategies and Chinese e-commerce

Using an extensive sample of 414,733 customers of three different calling plans of a mobile operator in China, we investigate the effectiveness of the companys retention strategies by examining the effect of such strategies on extending the customer lifecycle. We find that the incremental average revenue per user (ARPU) in the retention period and the retention bonuses are positively correlated. The retention policies are also positively correlated with the increments of consumption variables (the number of calls, the number of short messages, and the value-added services). Moreover, the significant and positive interactions between the retention bonus and the consumption increments in one of the calling plans suggest, to a certain degree, that the consumption variables moderate the relationships between the bonuses and the relative ARPU. Finally, the retention strategies demonstrate different levels of effectiveness for three different calling plans. Based on the findings, we draw implications for the development of Chinese e-commerce.

Impacts of essential elements of management on IT application maturity - A perspective from firms in China

This paper explores the impacts of essential elements of management on IT application maturity (ITAM). A game theoretical model is established to show that a firms IT application maturity should match with its essential elements of management. In order to further validate the analytical result, a data set with 137 firms was collected via a survey instrument. Using reliability and factor analysis on the dataset, a four-dimension measurement construct of IT application maturity is proposed together with a three-dimension measurement construct of essential elements of management. Empirical analysis is then conducted to address research questions on the impacts of essential elements of management on IT application maturity. It is found that while a firms strategic cooperation capability has no significant effect on IT application maturity, its internal coordination capability positively influences all four dimensions of IT application maturity. For the firms execution capability, although it shows no significant effect on the overall IT application maturity, it does positively affect the technology and man-machine synergy dimensions of IT application maturity. The findings of this study offer practical guidance for organizations to better align their IT application maturity with essential elements of management.

An empirical investigation on organizational innovation and individual creativity

Innovation is one of the critical success factors for organizations. It is essential for business to understand the driving forces of innovation. This study investigates the impact of the following three factors on innovation: employee relationship, knowledge sharing, and IT application maturity. 167 samples of firm level data were collected to construct the measurements of innovation, intensity of employee relationship, employee diversity, quality of knowledge sharing, and IT application maturity. It is found that all of these factors have significant impacts on innovation. We further extend the investigation to individual creativity as a corresponding concept to organizational innovation. An employee social network was constructed at a size of 149 nodes. It is shown that the centrality of each employee in the social network has significant positive impact on individual creativity. With these results from investigating organizational innovation and individual creativity, this study empirically illustrates the importance of enhancing employee relationship, knowledge sharing, and IT application maturity.

Effects of online advertising on automobile sales

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of online advertising spending on automobile sales through both search and non-search advertising. Design/methodology/approach – Sales data of the top 52 vehicle models were collected in two consecutive years in China. The advertising spending data of both formats were collected from a leading consulting company and a major search engine company. Then several empirical models were proposed to evaluate the effects of online advertising on automobile sales. Two extended models were further investigated for search advertising. Findings – The results revealed that both formats of online advertising have significantly positive effects on automobile sales. However, excessive spending on non-search advertising does not help sales and a moderate budget is preferred. On the other hand, spending on search advertising has no such constraint to improve the vehicle sales. Practical implications – The empirical findings have proved the importance of online a...

Knowledge Sharing, Social Relationships, and Contextual Performance: The Moderating Influence of Information Technology Competence

A firms core competitiveness results primarily from its ability to innovate. Knowledge sharing plays an important role in promoting sustained innovation. This research examines two factors that enable employee knowledge sharing. Using responses from a questionnaire that was distributed to professionals in a research and development (R&D) department of a Chinese commercial elevator firm, the investigation examines whether social relationships and contextual performance influence knowledge sharing through the moderating effect of employee IT competence. Study findings reveal that social relationships—which include both the degree of centrality of the employees social network and frequency of interpersonal interaction—and employee contextual performance have a significant positive impact on knowledge sharing. This association, however, is found to be positively moderated by employee IT competence. The findings provide managerial and future research insights pertaining to promoting knowledge sharing by enhancing employee social relationships, rewarding contextual performance, and providing regular IT training for employees.

An Exploratory Study of the Effectiveness of Mobile Advertising

This study examines factors related to the effectiveness of mobile advertising. Using a large data set with 115,899 records of ad tap-through from a mobile advertising company in China, the authors identify that the influencing factors for advertisement tap through are application type, mobile operators, scrolling frequency, and regional income level. They use a logit model to analyze how the probability of advertisement tap through is related to the identified factors. The results show that application type, mobile operators, scrolling frequency, and the regional income level are positively correlated with the likelihood whether users would tap on certain types of advertising. In addition, they use the Bayesian network model to estimate the conditional probability for a user to tap on an advertisement in an application after the user already taps on another advertisement in the same application. Based on the findings, the authors propose strategies for mobile advertisers to engage in effective and targeted mobile advertising.

Path analysis of IT application maturity

This paper studies effects of two management capabilities on IT application maturity. Data were collected from 123 companies in China. A basic regression finds that both capabilities have significant positive effects on IT application maturity as well as on dimension variables of IT application maturity. Further, a path analysis model is established to describe the intertwining relationship among two management capabilities and IT application maturity. Three hypotheses are accepted through model estimation. It is found that process management capability has a stronger positive direct effect on IT application than management institutional capability. Furthermore, process management capability has a positive indirect effect on IT application maturity through management institutional capability. The results provide companies with a practical insight: improvement through process management capability should be emphasised first, and it will lead to greater improvement of IT application maturity.

Characteristics of Social Networks and Employee Behavior and Performance A Chinese Case Study of a State-Owned Enterprise

Based on the social networks at a Chinese state-owned enterprise, the authors examine the factors that are correlated with employee performance. They delineate two types of performance: task and contextual. The factors in their study are the characteristics of the four social networks Job Advisory, Work Discussion, Friendship, and Email Networks and the individual attributes knowledge sharing behavior and IT capability. The network characteristics used in this study are the degree centrality and betweenness centrality. The authors find that 1 employee contextual performance is uncorrelated with the network characteristics; 2 it is significantly and positively correlated with knowledge sharing behavior, but significantly and negatively correlated with individual IT capability; and 3 task performance is correlated, both positively and negatively, with various network characteristics, but not with knowledge sharing behavior and individual IT capability. They discuss the cultural dimension of their results. The authors draw theoretical and managerial implications based on their research framework and findings.

Dynamic pricing for technology upgrades in telecommunication industry

In telecommunication industry, as a superior, but compatible, technology replaces old technology, consumers gradually abandon old service/device and adopt new counterpart that has more features and better performance. This process usually generates multiple externalities within the new technology adopters as well as the old technology users. While the increase in subscription of the new service encourages more consumers to join in, the decline in performance due to increasing network load deters the adoption process. In the mean while, the diminishing population of the old technology users alleviates the congestion of the old network, hence further discourages the growth of the new services. These concurrent externalities ultimately determine the market growth dynamics. We consider the case that the new service is downward compatible and model the new service adoption process with the two-side externalities. We also propose optimal pricing strategies such that the profit of the service provider is maximized for given other constraints. The results enable decision-makers to determine the optimal marketing strategies in many practical uses such as the deployment of Third Generation (3G) networks and upgrades of networking infrastructures.