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PurposeThis study aims at the sudden outbreak of COVID-19, which had an unprecedented negative impact on the Chinese economy, with firms being affected most. Firms differ in terms of their specific internal environment, shaping their ability to respond to the outbreak, so the impact may also vary.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper Chinese listed firms are selected as samples to investigate the mediating effect of prior digital technology on the relationship between R&D (research and development) investment (funds and staff) and firm performance during the epidemic. Firm size and diversification are then introduced as moderating variables to explore the conditional mediating effect of digital technology.FindingsThe results indicate that the higher the firm's prior R&D investment, the higher its digital technology level, and thus the stronger its resistance to the epidemic. Moreover, compared with large-scale firms, small-scale firms have the advantage of strategic flexibility to technological changes, which can help them accumulate experience from R&D activities for digital transformation, thus attenuating the negative impact of the COVID-19 on firm performance. Finally, the results also show that digital technology mediates more strongly between R&D investment and firm performance in diversified firms than in centralized firms.Originality/valueThe study builds a mediation model to reveal the process mechanism through which R&D investment affects firm performance via digital technology. Firm size and diversification are then innovatively introduced as situational factors to build the moderated mediation model, which opens up a new perspective for understanding the effect of firm internal factors on the relationship between R&D investment, digital transformation and firm performance.

Purpose This paper aims to examine how the firm’s global coopetition network position impacts market share and to explore the multiple moderating effects of trade network strength and structures on the relationship between firm global coopetition network position and market share. Design/methodology/approach This paper selects global automobile manufacturing firms as samples whose classification is “Automobile” in the Factiva database from 2014 to 2018 and develops the measurement for global coopetition network and trade network by using Ucinet6. Finally, Stata was used for data analysis. Findings This paper finds that structural holes and centrality are beneficial to improve global market share. And the trade network strength and structures have positive multiple moderating effects on the relationship between the firm global coopetition network position and market share. Originality/value This paper explores industrial international competitiveness according to the intricate trade relations among countries and the impact of industrial international competitiveness on the relationship between global coopetition network position of brand firms and market share. The results of this paper expand the current literature on the relationship between characteristics of coopetition network and trade network.

Social media technology provides users with opportunities to search and share information, purchase products, and communicate with others. Companies can also build relationships with users, conduct marketing activities, and sell their products through social media networks. The theory of social networks provides a basis for how social ties facilitate users’ behavior intention in the social commerce context. In this paper, by integrating theories of the social network and information sharing, we develop a model to explore how social ties impact users’ purchase intention and information sharing intention, the mediating effect of perceived information quality and perceived information incredibility and the moderating effect of professionalism. A survey of 455 users from social network platforms shows that the strength of social ties enhances the perceived information quality and information incredibility, and thereby facilitates the purchase intention and information sharing intention. These findings confirm the positive moderating effect of professionalism on the relationship between the strength of social ties and purchase intention. This paper contributes to the social ties and information sharing literature and opens the black box of users’ decision-making in the social network context. Collectively, these findings also have an impact on marketers to more effectively target users for spreading content with social media platforms.

PurposeThis study aims to explore the effect of competitive aggressiveness on firm performance and the moderating effect of firm 2019s ego-network structures in the international coopetition network.Design/methodology/approachFrom the perspective of strong cooperation of the global automobile industry in recent years, this study uses the global automobile firms in Factiva database as samples to test hypotheses using the least squares dummy variable (LSDV) model.FindingsThis study finds that there is different relationship between the number and variety of competitive actions and firm performance. In addition, ego-network structures have different coefficients for the number and variety of competitive actions.Originality/valueThe conclusions provide theoretical support and policy suggestions for firms to develop effective competitive strategies according to ego-network structures in the international coopetition network.