Robustness test of moderating effects.

Fuzzy front-end is the research frontier of manufacturing industry. This study investigates the relationship between market-oriented FFE activities and manufacturing startup growth performance by adopting an open innovative ancient Chinese Taoism Yin-Yang approach under this post-pandemic circumstance. This study also examines the moderating behavioral effect of Chinese Zen-originated CEO mindfulness between market-oriented FFE activities and manufacturing startup growth performance. Data for this study were gathered from 343 Chinese manufacturing startups’ CEOs across different manufacturing industries, including both high-tech and conventional manufacturing industries. The collected data were analyzed by using structural equation modeling and Bootstrap method. The quantitative analysis results show that most market-oriented FFE activities have positive effects on manufacturing startup growth performance and the Chinese Zen-originated CEO mindfulness positively moderates the relationship between most FFE activities and startup growth performance.