Firm performance, Competitive intensity, Organizational slack, Ownership,

Manufacturers often use relational governance to manage interfirm relationships with their distributors. Yet recent literature has cautioned that relational governance may only offer conditional benefits. In this study, the authors integrate the resource-, industry-, and institution-based views to examine whether there is a limit to the positive effect of relational governance on export performance. Furthermore, the authors investigate two conditioning factors: industry uncertainty and cross-national institutional distance. Using a survey of 184 export ventures from China, the authors find that relational governance has an inverted U-shaped relationship with performance. In addition, the findings show that the export performance effect of relational governance becomes less effective in uncertain industry environments, but cross-country institutional distance enhances the value of relational governance.

A major challenge to supply chain management in emerging markets is the relational coordination problem arising from variations in sub‐national institutions in which partners are situated. This study investigates role hazard, a critical yet understudied relational coordination problem. Drawing on role and institutional theories, we examine role ambiguity and role conflict as two facets of role hazard between buyer and supplier, their institutional source, performance outcomes, and firms’ action alignment mechanisms as potential remedies. A dyadic survey of buyers and suppliers in China reveals that both role ambiguity and role conflict can result from sub‐national institutional distance and jeopardize supply chain performance. The results also suggest that supply chain partners in different sub‐national institutions can mitigate role hazard through continuous information sharing and dynamic adaptation. This study provides novel insights into how buyers and suppliers can enhance their relational coordination in emerging markets by reducing role hazard caused by sub‐national institutional distance.

Cytokinins are one of the most important phytohormones and play essential roles in multiple life processes in planta. Root-derived cytokinins are transported to the shoots via long-distance transport. The mechanisms of long-distance transport of root-derived cytokinins remain to be demonstrated. In this study, we report that OsABCG18, a half-size ATP-binding cassette transporter from rice (Oryza sativa L.), is essential for the long-distance transport of root-derived cytokinins. OsABCG18 encodes a plasma membrane protein and is primarily expressed in the vascular tissues of the root, stem, and leaf midribs. Cytokinin profiling, as well as [14C]trans-zeatin tracer, and xylem sap assays, demonstrated that the shootward transport of root-derived cytokinins was significantly suppressed in the osabcg18 mutants. Transport assays in tobacco (Nicotiana benthamiana) indicated that OsABCG18 exhibited efflux transport activities for various substrates of cytokinins. While the mutation reduced root-derived cytokinins in the shoot and grain yield, overexpression of OsABCG18 significantly increased cytokinins in the shoot and improved grain yield. The findings for OsABCG18 as a transporter for long-distance transport of cytokinin provide new insights into the cytokinin transport mechanism and a novel strategy to increase cytokinins in the shoot and promote grain yield.

Relational governance and control mechanisms are important means of managing interfirm relationships. Yet, the effectiveness of different governance mechanisms remains equivocal, especially in the international context. In this study, the authors investigate the value of relational and control governance across relationship length. Using a survey of 217 export ventures from China, they find that relational governance is not effective for short-term relationships but that it becomes effective in the long run. Output control improves export performance across short- and long-term relationships, whereas process control has its limits and weakens export performance for short-term relationships. In addition, the findings show that relational governance positively moderates the effects of output and process control on export performance for long-term relationships.

Whether international ventures can benefit from their marketing capability in emerging markets is a critical but underresearched issue. Drawing on the resource-based view (RBV), the authors propose that marketing capability can enhance international ventures’ new product performance. However, its effect is contingent on environmental forces (i.e., market uncertainty and technological turbulence) in the highly uncertain and turbulent environments of emerging markets. Using survey data of international ventures in high-tech industries in China, the authors find that marketing capability is less effective for new product development when firms face high levels of market uncertainty or technological turbulence. At that time, enhancing knowledge breadth represents a critical strategic solution to address the decreased efficacy of marketing capability in driving innovation.

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This study examines the growth and performance impact of technological capability (TC) in China. The authors posit that foreign and local firms exhibit different TC growth patterns and that TC has differential performance effects for these two types of firms. From a multilevel analysis of five-year panel data of 448 technology-oriented firms, they find that, in general, foreign firms possess higher levels of TC, whereas local firms can develop their TC faster than foreign firms. Furthermore, compared with foreign firms, local firms experience a stronger performance return from their TC; however, foreign firms have a higher growth rate in the contribution of TC to their performance over time. Moreover, firms can develop TC faster in regions with better intellectual property protection, and TC exerts a stronger effect on performance when industrial uncertainty is higher.