Search

Prior research suggests the increasingly important role of employees in identifying and generating innovative opportunities in the digital economy, yet our understanding of the effect of employee protection on innovation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) remains limited. We integrate the resource-based view and institutional perspective to examine how employee protection affects SMEs innovation in emerging economies. The analysis of a national survey of Chinese private firms shows that employee protection has an inverted U-shaped effect on SMEs innovation. Furthermore, this curvilinear relationship is positively moderated by regional digitalization such that the inverted U-shaped relationship is intensified when firms are in regions with higher level of digitalization. Overall, this study contributes to the literature on SMEs innovation by examining how SMEs innovation is shaped by employee protection in the digital age. We also contribute to the employee protection literature by investigating its complicated effect on SMEs innovation in emerging economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is controversy on the role of a leader's socioeconomic status in corporate environmental actions since high socioeconomic status can both promote resource acquisition and help avoid penalties. We aim to reconcile the theoretical puzzle by examining the influence of an entrepreneur's socioeconomic status on positive environmental actions (green innovation) and environmental misconduct (environmental pollution) as well as the moderation effects of family ownership in emerging economies of China. The analysis of 3,664 private firms from a national survey in China shows that an entrepreneur's socioeconomic status not only can promote green innovation but also can stimulate more environmental misconduct. Furthermore, both effects become more salient in firms with a higher level of family ownership. Our study adds novel insights to green management literature by uncovering the complicated effects of an entrepreneur's socioeconomic status on corporate environmental actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]