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Purpose: The primary objective of this research is to explore the underlying mechanisms of social ties influencing lurking behaviour in Microblog by combing role theory and social identity theory. Design/methodology/approach: An online survey of 312 Microblog users in China was conducted to test the proposed research model and hypotheses. The partial least squares (PLS) approach was used to analyse the data. Findings: The results show that social ties affect lurking behaviour on Microblog in two ways, directly and indirectly through role stress. Social ties have a negative direct impact on lurking behaviour. Based on the multiple mediation analysis, social ties positively affect lurking through role overload and negatively affect lurking via role ambiguity. Perceived heterogeneity strengthens the positive effects of social ties on role overload and conflict, and weakens the negative impact of social ties on role ambiguity. Social identification weakens the positive relationship between social ties and role overload and strengthens the negative relationship between social ties and role ambiguity. Originality/value: This study extends the literature on the social interaction reasons behind lurking behaviour in Microblog by revealing the effects of social ties in Microblog. The theoretical mechanisms of social ties on lurking behaviour in Microblog are unveiled by discovering the direct effect of social ties, the mediating effects of multidimensional role stress, and the moderating effects of different kinds of social identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a comparative analysis of how people manage ways of communicating with their social ties. It thereby makes a qualitative contribution to the social ties literature [Granovetter, 1973. The strength of weak ties. American Journal of Sociology, 78(6), 1360–1380. doi:], which is dominated by quantitative approaches. Specifically, the article maps different criteria that people consider when they combine the affordances [Hutchby, 2001. The communicative affordances of technological artefacts. In Conversation and technology, from the telephone to the Internet (pp. 13–33). Polity Press] of various types of communication in their interaction with different social ties. The qualitative analysis is based on ethnographic fieldwork in China, Denmark and the US, adopting and adapting a shared interview-diary-interview method in each field site (Lai, S. S., Pagh, J., & Zeng, F. H. (2019). Tracing Communicative Patterns. Nordicom Review, 40(s1). https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2019-001.). Despite apparent sociocultural and infrastructural differences between the national contexts, we find that people, guided by universal aspects of sociality, share five criteria, namely efficiency, sensibility, ephemerality, insistency, and availability, that ground their everyday communications with both strong and weak ties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citizen-initiated contacts with the government considerably influence the outcomes of public management. Nevertheless, the following question remains inadequately explored and explained: Why are some citizens more likely to initiate contact with the government than others? This study examines how two distinct types of social ties, namely, daily and political ties, influence citizen contacting. We point out that daily and political ties can generally help reduce the information constraints involved in citizen contacting. Particularly, political ties may also increase citizens' civic skills and capability to punish unresponsive government officials. We use original data from a nationally representative survey conducted in China in 2015 to verify our expectations. We find that citizens with strong political ties are significantly likely to initiate contact with local one-stop governments. Although consistently positive, the effects of daily ties are not statistically significant and tend to be smaller than the effects of political ties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop insights into how analysts' social ties affect their objectivity and the information content of reports, based on quantitative measures of social ties and textual information content. Using a sample ranges from January 2006 to December 2016 in China, we show that with wide social ties to fund managers, analysts' ability to burnish their reputation with informative reports and to achieve career success with optimistic stock ratings is enhanced. Further evidence indicates that the trade-off between reputation and career success is dynamic. Specifically, after being elected as New Fortune stars, analysts attach more importance on textual information and are less subjective on stock ratings. These findings are robust across various robustness tests. Overall, our evidence highlights the role of social ties in the information-dissemination process in China A-share stock markets from the perspective of analysts and fund managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using manually collected data of Chinese listed companies, this study investigates the effect of CEOs' supply chain experience on corporate innovation. We find that such experience is positively associated with corporate innovation inputs, outputs, and innovative efficiency. The main findings withstand checks for endogeneity, self-selection bias, and robustness tests. Additionally, CEOs' supply chain experience improves corporate innovation performance through providing information more efficiently, reducing the financial constraints faced by firms, and improving the effectiveness of corporate governance. Further analyses indicate that the effect this experience on innovation varies in different environments. Overall, our results suggest that CEOs' supply chain experience, as an essential component of social ties, contributes to corporate innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: With the advent of the Digital 2.0 era, online doctor–patient (D–P) interaction has become increasingly popular. However, due to the fact that doctors use their fragmented time to serve patients, online D–P interaction inevitably has some problems, such as the lack of pertinence in the reply content and doctors' relative unfamiliarity with their individual patients. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to excavate whether potential D–P social ties and D–P knowledge ties accentuate or attenuate the influence of patient selection (online and offline selection). Design/methodology/approach: The authors used the methods of text mining and empirical analysis on the structured and unstructured data of an online consultation platform in China to examine the research hypotheses. Findings: The findings illustrate that the potential D–P social ties increase the influence on patient selection, as do the potential D–P knowledge ties. Specifically, the effect of social ties on patient selection is positively moderated by patient health literacy. Conversely, health literacy weakens the link between knowledge ties and patient selection. In addition, the doctor's title weakens the influence of social ties on patient selection, in contrast to knowledge ties (partially). Originality/value: This study provides guidance for doctors and patients on how to communicate effectively and alleviate tension within D–P relationships. The study's findings have both theoretical and practical implications for both doctors' and online platforms' decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the extensive attention to the role of entrepreneurs' business or political ties, few studies have distinguished the basis of those social ties. The aim of this study is to explore the different roles of the entrepreneurs' personalized and formal social ties on the firms' innovation performance. Based on renqing and formal rules, this study extends the social ties' typology into four categories, namely, transactional business ties, transactional political ties, guanxi business ties, and guanxi political ties. Using data collected from 209 Chinese firms, we further identify the distinctive contributions of the different ties on the entrepreneurial firm's innovation performance under different institutional environments and entrepreneurs' survival pressure. This paper will help researchers and managers better understand the function of social ties in innovation in emerging markets, such as China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the prominence of social ties in emerging economies, it remains unclear whether and how social ties matter in cultivating marketing channels for both local and foreign firms in China. Moreover, few studies have explicitly distinguished and examined the roles of business versus political ties. Drawing on the resource-based view and social network theory, the authors propose and test the moderating effects of political ties and business ties on channel capability-performance relationships. The findings from a survey of 342 firms indicate that the value of channel capability is conditional on political and business ties, but in opposite directions: business ties impede and political ties strengthen the effect of channel capability on firm performance. Furthermore, the moderating role of social ties is stronger for local, nonleading firms than for foreign, leading firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Characterized by infrequent contact, low emotional intensity, and limited intimacy, weak ties are found to be associated with better subjective well-being and other health outcomes. Drawing on the theory of weak ties and the convoy model of social relations, this paper aims to examine the association between weak ties and cognitive function among older adults in China. Methods: We used multilevel growth modeling to analyze panel data for adults aged 60 years and over (N = 2,650) selected from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS, 2011–2015). Weak ties were measured based on the frequency of social activity participation and the number of social activities. Results: Weekly or irregular social activity participation in at least one social activity was significantly associated with better mental status and memory. The number of participated social activities was also significantly and positively associated with mental status and memory. After controlling for age, gender, marital status, educational attainment, geographic residence, household expenditures, and health conditions (i.e., depressive symptoms and self-reported health), we found that participation in a greater number of social activities protected memory from declining by 4% for every 2 years (p < 0.001). Conclusion: These findings suggest that social interactions with peripheral members of a diverse social network may help prevent cognitive decline for older Chinese adults. Greater attention on weak ties might yield practical implications for non-pharmacological dementia prevention and health promotion for the general older population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on how government ties and financial ties as two important social ties in emerging countries differently moderate the relationships between two types of organisational learning (i.e., explorative learning and exploitative learning) and product quality. By using Chinese vendor samples in cross-border outsourcing, our empirical results show that product quality mediates the positive relationships between explorative and exploitative learning and financial performance. Furthermore, the moderating effects of government ties on the relationships between both two types of organisational learning and product quality are significantly positive. While financial ties positively moderate the relationship between exploitative learning and product quality, they negatively moderate the relationship between explorative learning and product quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite increasing attention to the role of social ties in emerging economies, few studies have explicitly distinguished the differential roles of business versus political ties. Drawing on relational governance and institutional theories, this study offers a contingent view of business and political ties in China. The findings from a survey of 241 Chinese firms indicate that business ties have a stronger positive effect on performance than political ties, and both effects depend on institutional and market environments. Business ties are more beneficial when legal enforcement is inefficient and technology is changing rapidly, whereas political ties lead to greater performance when general government support is weak and technological turbulence is low. These findings indicate that firms operating in China should be cautious in their use of business and political ties and adapt their tie utilization to changing institutional and market environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scholarship of entrepreneurship has identified the significance of institutional and social factors in accounting for entrepreneurial activity and firm innovation, especially in emerging economies and transitional societies. However, the lion's share of the existent literature focuses on entrepreneurs' characteristics and psychological traits and firms' structures and strategies. In this study, I develop a relatively comprehensive analytic framework to study the interactive relationships between economic actors' institutional trust, risk-taking activities and their risk-sharing with social and political actors in shaping firm innovativeness. By analyzing a nationally representative sample of Chinese private companies, I find that entrepreneurs' legal confidence, risk-taking and risk-sharing activities are positively associated with firm innovativeness, respectively. Entrepreneurs' risk-taking and risk-sharing activities can substitute for the role of entrepreneurs' trust in China's legal system in shaping firm innovativeness. Entrepreneurs' social ties serve as the most salient factor that modulates the association between entrepreneurs' institutional trust and innovative activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The rapid increase of temporary migrants in large Chinese cities has led to the need for a nuanced and comprehensive understanding of the factors contributing to the influx. However, previous investigation into this subject has been undermined by an oversimplification of the concepts and measurements related to settlement intentions and migrants' social network. This study uses a combination of data from a 2013 nationwide survey and multilevel logit regressions to investigate the settlement intentions of 12,807 rural-urban migrants across eight cities in China. It especially focuses on the ways in which social ties between migrants and people in their destination cities shaped their intention to settle there. This study makes an innovative contribution to the literature in three ways. First, it distinguishes between migrants' ties to non-residents (other migrants from the same place of origin), kin residents (local residents who are kin), and non-kin residents (local residents who are not kin). Second, it distinguishes between interactive social ties and supportive social ties. Third, it uses multiple indicators to measure the intention of migrants who decide to permanently settle, as well as hukou transfer and housing ownership. Findings from our analysis indicate that the newly formed intergroup ties of migrants and their existing intragroup ties exert different impacts on their intention to settle. Specifically, migrants' newly formed ties with non-kin residents are positively linked to their settlement intention, while their ties to non-residents are negatively associated with their settlement intention. Our findings also indicate that the social ties of migrants have different effects on the different dimensions of their settlement intention. The social ties of migrants play an important role in their permanent settlement and housing ownership intentions, but their effect on hukou transfer intentions is relatively weak. Additionally, our research discovered that supportive social ties play a more important role than do interactive social ties in shaping migrants' settlement intention. Highlights • Rural migrants who retain kin-based and home-based ties with other migrants in destination cities tend to have a weaker intention to settle in cities. • Rural migrants who maintain kin-based ties with local residents or actively construct social ties with non-kin local residents tend to have a stronger intention to settle in cities. • Compared to interactive social ties, supportive social ties play a more significant role in influencing migrants' settlement intention. • Rural migrants' social ties play different roles in different patterns with regard to settlement intention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how ties to large-scale state-owned enterprises and ties to banks affect firm performance in emerging economies. The findings, obtained from survey data collected from 208 firms in the Chinese manufacturing industry, indicate that both categories of ties improve firm performance. The value of the two categories of ties changes in organizational contexts that vary in terms of the moderators of size, age, and firm strategy. Specifically, ties to banks improve the performance of younger firms significantly more than that of older firms, while ties to large-scale state-owned enterprises improve the performance of smaller firms significantly more than that of larger firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, social media has become an important source of social support. People living with HIV/AIDS in China created an online support group (the HIV/AIDS Weibo Group) on Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, in January 2011. The current study examined how social support transmitted in this social media community. First, messages over five successive weeks (2 May 2011 to 13 June 2011) were randomly selected from the HIV/AIDS Weibo Group on Weibo. Next, we employed social network analysis to map the HIV/AIDS Weibo Group’s structure and to measure the study variables. After that, a multivariate analysis of variance was applied to examine the influence of frequency of contact and reciprocity on informational and emotional social support exchanged in each dyad. The results revealed that pairs with a high level of contact frequency or reciprocity exchanged more informational support than do pairs with a low level of contact frequency or reciprocity. Moreover, dyadic partners with high frequency of contact exchanged a larger amount of emotional support than those with a low level frequency of contact; but strongly reciprocal dyads did not exchange significantly more emotional social support than their counterparts with a low level of reciprocity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature of Chinese politics focuses on two determinants in selecting government officials-merits and social ties. On the one hand, local officials who produce higher economic growth are more likely to be promoted. On the other hand, local officials who have social ties with top Party leaders are more likely to become candidates of future leaders. Since1990 two major factions have dominated in the Chinese politics. Strong tie with one faction might be perceived as a threat to the rival faction. My empirical analysis will examine what determined the promotion outcomes of provincial Party chiefs from 1990 to 2007. Five indicators of social ties are used in the Cox event history analysis: ties built through family, college, birthplace, workplace, or mishu. In the analysis the factionalist argument holds better than the meritocratic argument. But the story of social ties is complex because different social ties have different effects on promotion outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the emerging literature on the health of rural-to-urban migrant children in China, few studies have addressed victimization stressors and stress-buffering mechanisms related to the social relationships that link migrants to their host cities (local ties) and home communities (trans-local ties). This study compared rural-to-urban migrant adolescents and urban native adolescents to examine the relationships between victimization, local and trans-local ties, and mental well-being that might be unique to migrants. Participants were 482 migrant students and 838 urban native students in the eighth grade in Guangzhou who completed a school-based survey in spring 2011. Victimization was associated with suboptimal psychological health in both the migrant and urban native samples. Social ties directly boosted psychological health in both samples, with the effects of trans-local and local ties proving equally important among migrant adolescents. While both local and trans-local ties moderated the effect of victimization on migrant adolescents, that moderation mattered less for urban native youth. These results highlight that a better understanding of victimization stress and how it is affected by the locality of social ties as a coping resource could help to protect the health of young migrants in urban China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the relational and knowledge-based views of competitive advantage, this study links leaders' social ties and knowledge acquisition capability to competitive advantage of a firm. Specifically, it posits that leaders' business ties and government ties have differential effects on firm competitive advantage. It further posits that the effect of leaders' business ties on firm competitive advantage will be positively moderated by knowledge acquisition capability, and the effect of leaders' government ties on firm competitive advantage will be negatively moderated by knowledge acquisition capability. The hypotheses are tested based on a survey of 386 firms in China. The results provide support for the hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social network and relationship marketing literatures urge firms to cultivate social ties to form favorable relationships with other business partners. We question the universality of this recommendation by examining the influence of guanxi (i.e., interpersonal social ties) between supplier salespersons and retail buyers in the retail industry in China. Using a mixed-method study combining both qualitative and quantitative stages, we find that guanxi between supplier salespersons and retail buyers may not enhance retailer-supplier relationship quality. Furthermore, our results show that guanxi between supplier salespersons and retail buyers may weaken the positive effect of supplier role performance on retailer satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution reports two studies that examined recruitment practices and applicant attraction in China. The first study explored the basic recruitment practices adopted by Chinese firms. With a sample of 168 Chinese companies, we found that (1) network-based recruiting practices were prevalent among Chinese firms especially in large companies and state-owned enterprises and (2) HR managers believed that compared with other recruiting practices, network-based recruiting practices could generate more effective pre-hire outcomes such as recruiting prospective applicants with speed and attracting highly competent employees. The second study further investigated the mechanism through which network-based recruiting practices were effective in generating applicant attraction. Using a three-wave panel survey research, we found that (1) the strength of social ties through which the companies were introduced to the applicant had positive effect on applicant attraction and (2) an applicant's perceived quality of information about the potential recruiting companies mediated the relationship between strength of ties and applicant attraction. Our findings had important implications to help firms design appropriate recruitment strategies in the Chinese context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stability of social network structure (SSNS) in historical towns is influenced by changes in built environments and demographic factors. The historical towns in China have evolved into massive rural-urban migration under the rapid urbanization over the past forty years. In this context, many of these historical towns experienced "declining built environment and disintegrating social networks," which does not contribute to the adaptive renewal of the built environment and social networks in historical towns, as well as the psychological health of residents. This article intends to explore the adaptive renewal of the built environment and social networks of historical towns based on the SSNS. Data on "households" and "social ties" (i.e., kinship, geographic, and job relationship) among households were collected via a field survey in seven historical towns in Chongqing, China. K-core models of social network analysis (SNA) were calculated to analyze SSNS. The result shows that the social networks of historical towns with centripetal-shaped structures were more stable than historical towns with divergent-shaped structures. Moreover, spatial layout forms and functions of households might affect the stability of social networks in historical towns. Based on the results of the analysis of SSNS, strategies for adaptive renewal of the built environments and social networks were put forward in two aspects. The built environment, such as the classification of public spaces and service facilities, can be designed based on the k-core indicator for increasing the spatial connection of households in the historical towns. In addition, increased social activities in historical towns with weak SSNS may promote social connection of households, and are also helpful in boosting public health in psychological aspects., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Shi, Huang, Zhang, Jiang and Zhang.)

Although it is widely acknowledged that older adults who have gone through negative life events are more likely to develop depression, there is limited evidence on whether and which type of social ties moderate this perceived relationship. Based on 2016 and 2018 waves of Chinese Longitudinal Aging Social Survey (4,466 individuals, 8,932 observations), we apply linear fixed effects models and confirm that negative life events are associated with depressive symptoms for older adults (Coef. = 0.35; 95% CIs 0.11-0.61), and social ties are negatively associated with depression (Coef. = -0.08; 95% CIs -0.10 to -0.07). Our study further suggests that the association between negative life events and depressive symptoms is significantly moderated by friendship ties (Coef. = -0.18, 95% CIs -0.30 to -0.07), rather than family ties (Coef. = -0.03, 95% CIs -0.09 to 0.15). Moreover, the buffering effects of friendship ties are more prominent for the less resilient and less privileged groups, namely male, rural, and less educated older adults. Our findings point to the importance of expanding and strengthening social networks for Chinese older adults in promoting their psychological health., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Ruan, Shen and Chen.)

By comparing rural migrant and urban native adolescents in Guangzhou, the largest city in south China, this study investigated the relationships between social stress, social ties that link migrants to their host cities (local ties) and to their rural home communities (trans-local ties), and the migrants׳ mental well-being. Non-migration social stress was more strongly related to poor psychological health than to weak self-efficacy in both migrant and urban native adolescents. This pattern also applied to the effect of migration-specific assimilation stress on psychological health and self-efficacy in migrants. Social ties directly enhanced these two well-being outcomes in both samples, with the effects of trans-local and local ties proving equally potent among migrants. Trans-local ties were somewhat more useful for migrants in moderating the effects of non-migration social stress and assimilation stress, whereas the stress moderation function of social ties was less pronounced in urban natives. These findings extend the migration, network and social stress literature by identifying how local and trans-local ties protect mental health and mitigate stress in migrants., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)