Recently, the research work co-authored by Associate Professor Zhang Lin from the School of Management and his collaborators, entitled "How Do Firms Develop Safety Management Capabilities? The Impact of Institutional Forces and Digital Technology Resources", has been published online in Journal of Operations Management. Zhang Lin is the first author of the paper. Journal of Operations Management (JOM) is one of the 24 leading academic journals for business schools (UTD 24) selected by the University of Texas at Dallas. As a top international journal in operations management, it enjoys an outstanding academic reputation in the global management community, with fewer than 50 articles published annually.

This study focuses on digital safety management (DSM) in industrial enterprises. Drawing on institutional theory and the resource-based view, it constructs a mechanism model of "institutional pressures and digital resources — safety management capabilities — safety performance". The research defines safety management capabilities as dynamic capabilities for enterprises to perceive, respond to and restructure safety operations in the digital context. Based on time-lagged survey and secondary data collected from 216 industrial firms, the empirical results show that institutional isomorphism and top management support jointly facilitate the formation of safety management capabilities. The fit between digital technology resources and institutional factors significantly strengthens the development of such capabilities. Furthermore, safety management capabilities serve as a critical mediator in the relationship between institutional and resource factors and safety performance. The research theoretically enriches the explanation of safety management mechanisms in digital contexts and offers practical implications for enterprises to implement DSM.

About the speaker:Zhang Lin is an Associate Professor and Doctoral Supervisor. His research interests include the impacts of digitalization on firms and individuals, as well as theoretical and quantitative research methods in information systems. He has published 28 papers in renowned international journals including Journal of Operations Management (UTD24), Production and Operations Management (UTD24), Journal of the Association for Information Systems, European Journal of Information Systems, Decision Support Systems and Information & Management, among which 18 are first or corresponding author papers and 4 are ESI Highly Cited Papers. He has presented more than 10 international conference papers at prestigious conferences in information systems and management such as INFORMS Annual Meeting, ICIS, HICSS, AMCIS and PACIS, with one Best Paper Nomination. In recent years, he has presided over projects including the National Natural Science Foundation of China, China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, Shaanxi Provincial Natural Science Foundation, the Youth Talent Project of Shaanxi Sanqin Talents Special Support Program, and one Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Social Sciences) Project.

(Written by:Zhang Lin Reviewed by:Jia Ming)