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Despite that a transformational shift has occurred in many organisations towards data-driven management, many organisations struggle to harness and translate new technology, such as “big data” into a competitive advantage. This study aims to undertake an empirical investigation into the enabling factors which lead to the practice of formulating an effective data-led strategy (EDLS). Leveraging the theoretical lenses of the resource-based view, absorptive capacity and attention-focus view, a range of various factors are hypothesised to influence EDLS.

The study takes place in South Africa and is based on primary survey data focused on the Fin-tech industry sector where the need to formulate and implement an EDLS has become urgent considering the move to technology enabled banking solutions. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) is used to test the hypotheses.

Results highlight that several factors are related to EDLS as significant predictors, which include the data platform, technical skills, knowledge management, transformation and focus-alignment. This latter factor has the largest influence on EDLS, which suggests that the alignment of focus across multiple firm divisions both vertically and horizontally significantly enables an EDLS.

Managers need to appreciate the intricacy of the range of factors involved in enabling an EDLS. Managers are advised to grow their organisational knowledge regarding which enablers offer the best pathway towards the development of a more robust framework when putting an EDLS into practice.

The article offers new insights into better understanding the relevant antecedents which enable the successful practice of an EDLS from an African emerging market perspective.

This paper examines the development of government-business relations in China’s recent economic reform and development. The paper first provides a review of theoretical issues about the role of government in economic development and the concepts of business promotion and government regulation. Next, the paper introduces major policies and changes that have been developed by the Chinese government. On the business promotion side, it includes major changes in incentive policy, government structure, and management operation that have been implemented during the reform years. On the government regulation side, the paper identifies new challenging issues in consumer, environment, and labor protection that may affect China’s future development. Finally, lessons and implications about the development of Chinese government-business relations are emphasized in the conclusion section.

To examine China's reforms and successes could have been replicated to other transition economies.

The applicability of the Chinese process as an alternative for transition economies involves an analysis of the necessary reforms regarding price liberalisation‐stabilisation; privatisation; institutions; monetary policy and the financial system; fiscal policy; international trade and foreign aid and social policy.

The transition process in China has maintained political‐ideological authoritarianism and state control of the whole economy. Therefore, it was not the “special initial conditions” of China that made the model inappropriate but, rather, the switch to a democratic political‐ideological‐economic structure in transition economies.

The paper contributes to the transition literature by demonstrating that the strategy was only rendered workable in China, as the governments of transition economies neither had the mandate nor wanted to reimpose tight state direction of the politics, ideology and economy.

This empirical study conceptualizes the institutional environment within which firms function in a transition economy as a number of dimensions, representing the externally set ‘rules of the game’ as perceived by senior managers. It then proposes a mediating model of the links between that environment and the commercial performance of enterprises in which incentive intensity is a key strategic choice, influenced by perceptions of the institutional setting and the influence of that choice is carried on to commercial performance by a set of managerial orientations. The model is tested using survey data from a sample of 959 Chinese enterprises.

Examines empirically the effects of the rationing system, open inflation and budget deficits on rural and urban consumption behaviour in mainland China. Employs a dynamic error‐correction model. Estimates the model by ordinary least squares (OLS) based on annual data for the period 1952‐1991. Employs a Chow test to test for structural changes in rural and urban consumption. The empirical results show that an income variable captures the distribution effect of rationing and has a significant impact on rural and urban consumption. Open inflation tends to underestimate inflationary pressure and has no impact on consumption in rural and urban areas, whereas per capita budget deficits show a significant influence on rural consumption. The results of the Chow test indicate that economic policies and reforms have significantly changed the structure of consumption since 1979. One such change is the shift in the relative importance of consumer durable goods in total consumption than equal to, or smaller than that under the tariff. This conclusion holds for both price‐setting and quantity‐setting duopoly with heterogeneous goods as well as quantity‐setting duopoly with homogeneous goods.

The current study aims to develop and extend existing research into online behavioural intentions of consumers' by proposing, operationalising, and testing a model of the antecedents of behavioural intentions that models and evaluates how switching costs and inducements moderate the behavioural intentions of online shoppers.

The study employed a personally administered structured questionnaire to gather data regarding consumer's interpretations and evaluations of one specific website. A total of 296 completed questionnaires were analysed.

Analyses found support for the theoretical framework and uncovered strong links between a number of hypothesised antecedent and moderating factors and behavioural intentions.

The study supplies an empirical contribution through conceptualising, and subsequently empirically verifying, a model of the antecedents and moderators of online behavioural intentions. Empirical contributions also stem from the findings of moderated associations as well as from the strength and magnitude of uncovered associative links. Finally the study also generates a more general contribution to existing knowledge of e‐loyalty.

The findings of the study also have numerous implications for practitioners. The moderated regression equation indicates that the exogenous factors studied explain nearly 68 per cent of variance in behavioural intentions. As such, the findings supply valuable insights into which factors practitioners should focus their attention to better tailor their approaches and content.

The value of the current study centres on the conceptual and empirical contributions regarding the moderation of links between antecedent factors and online behavioural intentions.

Examines the causal relationship between interest rates, savings and income in the Chinese economy over the period 1952 to 1999, using the cointegration test and Bayesian vector autoregression (BVAR) for empirical testing. The empirical evidence from the cointegration test confirms that there is a stable long‐run relationship between interest rates, savings and income, whilst the BVAR causality test shows unidirectional causality running from savings to income. For China’s transitional economy, it is therefore important to establish well‐developed financial institutions – particularly the independence of the Central Bank – interest rate liberalization and sound financial intermediation, all of which are important for the efficient allocation of capital, which, in turn, can help to establish sustainable economic growth.

Jefferson County, Alabama undertook a series of risky financial maneuvers in 2003 that included issuing large amounts of variable rate and auction rate securities as well as engaging in numerous interest rate swaps in order to lower the burgeoning costs of repairing its sewer system to comply with federal regulations. These complex financial instruments, intended to lower debt service costs on the countyʼs $3 billion in outstanding sewer warrants, led the county to financial bankruptcy in the wake of the financial markets collapse. This paper explores the choice of securities by analyzing the risk of adjustable rate securities and interest rate swaps, examining the Jefferson County case in detail, and providing some lessons for future financial management within the context of unexpected events such as the current recession.

In the spring of 1995, the Electronics Bureau of Shanghai [Shanghai Dianziju] changed its name to “Shanghai Electronics State-Owned Asset Management Company” [Shanghai dianzi guoyou zichan jingying gongsi]. As one official in the former Bureau explained, it had changed its name and its function: It was no longer set up to “govern” or “manage” [guan] Shanghai's electronics sector; instead it was now an asset management company whose function was to manage the assets of the firms that it owned.¹ At the time, the transformation seemed purely cosmetic. Calling itself an asset management company instead of a government bureau was one thing, but actually acting like an asset management company was quite another. Would firms under this former Bureau be any more productive as a result of the change? Would the work-life experiences of the people actually working in these firms change at all as a result?

This paper demonstrates that the agency problems within China's stated-owned enterprises (SOE) constitute the characteristics of corporate governance. It argues that the current corporatisation of SOEs in China has not improved the performance of the corporatised SOEs because it has failed to address the critical issue of corporate governance. For China, a neo-corporatist approach of corporate governance with a two-tier board structure may have advantages over a neo-liberal approach with a single board. However, the key issue is not to adopt a fixed set of governance models to copy, but to develop its institutional environment that lead to effective corporate governance.