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Acknowledging the pivotal strategic importance of external suppliers in obtaining competitive advantages underscores the necessity for manufacturers to bolster their supply management capabilities. This involves meticulously structuring, developing, and efficiently managing the supply base to ensure alignment of suppliers with the manufacturing processes and business objectives, consequently generating value and enhancing market competitiveness. The processes of acquiring, assimilating, transforming, and exploiting pertinent supply chain knowledge are vital for continuously bridging the gap between the current knowledge and the complex requirements of supply management, consequently strengthening the purchasing department's supply management capabilities. Strategic purchasing orientation commits more strategic resources to the purchasing department, allowing manufacturers to access and assimilate a broader spectrum of knowledge within the supply network. Grounded in the knowledge‐based view, our research delves into the development process of supply management capabilities, examining the influence of strategic purchasing orientation and absorptive capacity. Through hierarchical regression analysis of data from 395 manufacturers, our findings reveal that a pronounced strategic purchasing orientation significantly enhances absorptive capacity, thereby facilitating the development of supply management capabilities. Additionally, our study identifies distinct mediating roles of potential and realized absorptive capacities in the relationship between strategic purchasing orientation and supply management capability. This research offers a novel perspective on the development of supply management capabilities, providing valuable insights for manufacturers to address the complexities of supply management by narrowing the knowledge gap. Key words: supply management capability; absorptive capacity; strategic purchasing orientation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although autophagy is most critical for survival of cancer cells, especially in fast-growing tumors, the mechanism remains to be fully characterized. Herein we report that PSMD10/gankyrin promotes autophagy in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in response to starvation or stress through 2 complementary routes. PSMD10 was physically associated with ATG7 in the cytoplasm, and this association was enhanced by initial nutrient deprivation. Subsequently, PSMD10 translocated into the nucleus and bound cooperatively with nuclear HSF1 (heat shock transcription factor 1) onto the ATG7 promoter, upregulated ATG7 expression in the advanced stage of starvation. Intriguingly, the type of PSMD10-mediated autophagy was independent of the proteasome system, although PSMD10 has been believed to be an indispensable chaperone for assembly of the 26S proteasome. A significant correlation between PSMD10 expression and ATG7 levels was detected in human HCC biopsies, and the combination of these 2 parameters is a powerful predictor of poor prognosis. The median survival of sorafenib-treated HCC patients with high expression of PSMD10 was much shorter than those with low expression of PSMD10. Furthermore, PSMD10 augmented autophagic flux to resist sorafenib or conventional chemotherapy, and inhibition of autophagy suppressed PSMD10-mediated resistance. We conclude that these results present a novel mechanism involving modulation of ATG7 by PSMD10 in sustaining autophagy, promoting HCC cell survival against starvation or chemotherapy. Targeting of PSMD10 might therefore be an attractive strategy in HCC treatment by suppressing autophagy and inducing HCC cell sensitivity to drugs.

Purpose: This study aims to develop a moderated mediation model to explain the practices of supply base management and how they can achieve innovation performance, and the authors explore the boundary conditions of this implementation mechanism. Design/methodology/approach: The authors used the bootstrap procedure to conduct empirical tests on 328 Chinese manufacturers to verify the proposed model. Findings: The results showed that supplier innovation focus, supply-base structuring and long-term relationship focus have a positive impact on innovation performance through supplier innovativeness, and the mediation performs differently under technology and demand uncertainty. Research limitations/implications: The authors only focused on innovation performance, and it does not explore the links between supply base management and other performance outcomes. This study involves part of the supply network which is easier to manage, i.e. supply base. The authors ignored the importance of other members in supply network. Finally, the data obtained in this study belong to the cross-sectional data during the same period but it accomplishes the research aim well. Practical implications: The focal firm needs to improve their supply base composition, establish permeable organizational boundaries, and build long-term strategic partnerships characterized by equality and trust with suppliers to stimulate supply base members to make innovative contributions. Originality/value: This study complements the implementation path of manufacturers around innovation, emphasizing multidimensional characteristics of supply base management. And this study clarifies the mechanism and boundary conditions between supply base management and innovation performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]