Purpose This study aims to develop a comprehensive conceptual framework to investigate how green brand positioning strategies positively impact consumer response. It focusses on uncovering the causal mechanism in which such effect is mediated by brand stereotypes. Additionally, it outlines the moderating role of construal level in this formation process. Design/methodology/approach Three experimental studies were conducted to examine the hypotheses. Study 1 tests the positive influence of green brand positioning on consumer response. Study 2 tests the dual mediating effect of warmth and competence in the relationship between green brand positioning and consumer response. Study 3 further examines the moderating role of construal level in the effects of green brand positioning on brand stereotypes. Findings The findings reveal that green emotional positioning strategies are predominantly stereotyped as warm while green functional positioning strategies are predominantly stereotyped as competent. Both warm and competent mediate the effects of green brand positioning on consumer response. Furthermore, a congruency between green emotional positioning and high-level construal, as well as the match between green functional positioning and low-level construal, leads to more warmth and competence perception. Originality/value This study contributes to green brand management literature by proposing a brand stereotype-based mechanism to explain how green brand positioning strategies trigger consumers’ stereotyping process, leading to positive consumer response. This study also identifies the construal level as a moderating variable that impacts consumers’ warmth and competence perceptions towards two kinds of green brand positioning strategies. Managerially, the findings of this study provide managerial ideas for developing green branding strategies.

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This article investigates the discursive construction of social identity in a Chinese NGO involved in ongoing online discussions on WeChat, China's fastest growing social networking site. While there is extensive literature on various aspects of online interaction, the analysis of identity construction through online discussions and the extent to which such discussions affect the collective identity of a group, especially an NGO, constitute a gap in the existing literature. Through the analysis of ongoing interactions in a group on WeChat over a period of eight months, and within the framework of social constructionist organization theory, this article adds to the existing academic discussion by revealing the way in which key members of a Chinese NGO are engaged in a process of group identity construction. Keywords: construction; identity; social networking site; WeChat; NGO Social media have become ubiquitous in Chinese cities and very common in rural areas, changing practices of information consumption and the communication habits of users. A considerable amount of energy has been devoted to understanding these new practices for marketing purposes, but we know little about how Chinese non-governmental organizations (NGOs) use social media as part of their day-to-day operations. This article concentrates on the discursive construction of social identity in a Chinese NGO by analyzing ongoing discussions on WeChat, a phenomenon that has crucial implications for the members of such organizations in terms of the creation and maintenance of their cultural frameworks. For this purpose, we draw from literature on civic participation, social protest, social identity, and social media to support the argument that a WeChat group is a hybrid space that requires a widening of our understanding when it comes to identity construction. From social protest to social mediaFrom the 2000s onwards, many political scholars have studied the effects of the Internet on civic and political participation (e.g., Bennett, 2008;Jenkins, 2006;Levine, 2011;Manning & Edwards, 2013;Rheingold, 2008; Russell, Fiedhouse, Purdam, & Virinder, 2002;van Deth, Abendschön, & Vollmar, 2011;Wattenberg, 2008). A particular focus of such studies has been the role of social networking sites (SNS) in the social life of modern-day youth (e.g., Boyd, 2007;Buckingham, 2008). In more recent years, the emphasis has gradually *Corresponding author. Email: olivier.ruelle@connect.polyu.hk 2 Olivier Ruelle and Peter Peverelli shifted to the effects of SNS such as Facebook (Boyd, 2007;Ekström & Östman, 2013;Jenkins, 2011;Kahne, Middaugh, Lee, & Feezell, 2011;Zhao, 2010).Political participation is especially important to scholars of networks (Castells, 1996) and social protest. These scholars are interested in "how new norms guiding participation will emerge from the profusion of self-actualizing, digitally mediated DIY politics" (Bennett, 2012, p. 30) and how this might affect the collective identity of network movements. Melucci (1988Melucci ( , 1995Melucci ( , 1996...

This study investigates how firms invest in building and maintaining business–government (B–G) ties when they aim to innovate in regions where, due to institutional transitions, institutional contexts differ remarkably. Using data from the China Enterprise Survey of the World Bank, empirical findings suggest that the influence of B–G ties on Chinese firms’ product innovation is different in distinctive institutional contexts in China. More specifically, during institutional transition, B–G ties become less efficient for facilitating product innovation when regional legal institutions and infrastructural supporting systems in a region are more stable, fair, and efficient. By contrast, during institutional transition, a positive effect of B–G ties on firm product innovation in a region becomes more significant when financial systems are relatively advanced. In addition to this, the value of B–G ties for firm product innovation appears to be more stable when business regulation develops within subnational regions.

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This paper takes China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO)'s investment in the Piraeus Port as a case study to explore the development of the sensemaking of its CEOs in taking key strategic decisions. The extant literature assumes that decisions by CEOs of Chinese state own enterprises are informed by the interests of the State. This paper employs social constructionist organisation theory to investigate COSCO's then CEO Wei Jiafu's social interaction with various Chinese and Greek stakeholders from his multiple social identities in the Chinese corporate and political realms. It shows that the synergy of these identities was a driving factor behind the first encounters between Mr Wei and the Greek government officials and behind the initiation of the idea to invest in Piraeus during those first encounters. The following encounters gradually enlarged the critical mass of supporters for the investment, ending in the signing of the agreement.