Search results

This paper aims to investigate the influence of socially- responsible human resource management (SRHRM) on employee fears of external threats during the COVID-19 outbreak, based on social support and event system theories. COVID-19 caused sharp profit declines and bankruptcies of hotels, restaurants and travel agencies. In addition, employees faced threats to their health and job security. How to overcome employee anxieties and fears about the negative impacts of this crisis and promote psychological recovery is worthy of attention from researchers and practitioners. This research investigated the impacts of SRHRM on employee fears through organizational trust, with the COVID-19 pandemic playing a moderating role between SRHRM and employee fears.

The hypotheses were tested through multiple linear regression analysis based on a survey of 408 employees in hospitality and tourism firms in China. Qualitative data were also gathered through interviews with selected managers.

The results showed that SRHRM had a negative influence on employee fears of external threats by enhancing trust in their organizations. In addition, the strength of the COVID-19 pandemic positively moderated the effect of SRHRM on employee fears. When the pandemic strength was more robust, the negative effects of SRHRM on employee fears were more significant.

This research illustrated the contribution of SRHRM in overcoming employee fears of external threats in the context of COVID-19. It shed light on the organizational contribution of SRHRM to hospitality and tourism employee psychological recovery during the crisis.

This research explored strategic HRM by examining the effects of SRHRM on employee fears in the midst of a severe crisis, specifically COVID-19. The moderation effect of event strength and mediation effect of organizational trust were tested. It is of great value for hospitality and tourism firms to foster employee psychological recovery during a crisis such as COVID-19.

The purpose of this study is to unpack the relationship between employees’ perceptions of organizational politics and their counterproductive work behaviour, by postulating a mediating role of organizational disidentification and a moderating role of perceived external crisis threats to work.

The empirical assessment of the hypotheses relies on survey data collected among employees who work in a large banking organization.

Perceptions that organizational decision-making is marked by self-serving behaviour increase the probability that employees seek to cause harm to their employer, because they feel embarrassed by their organizational membership. This mediating role of organizational disidentification is especially prominent when they ruminate about the negative impact of external crises on their work.

This study details an important danger for employees who feel upset with dysfunctional politics: They psychologically distance themselves from their employer, which then prompts them to formulate counterproductive responses that likely make it more difficult to take on the problem in a credible manner. This detrimental dynamic is particularly risky if an external crisis negatively interferes with their work functioning.

This study adds to prior research by detailing an unexplored but relevant mechanism (organizational disidentification) and moderator (external crisis threats) by which perceived organizational politics translates into enhanced counterproductive work behaviour.

This study aims to explore the relationship between network position and innovation under major environmental turbulence.

The authors use a difference-in-differences identification approach using the 2009 Industry Revitalization Plan in response to the global financial crisis as a natural experiment with a sample of Chinese listed firms from 2001 to 2017.

The findings show that a major environmental turbulence can facilitate firm innovation, and firms that occupy central positions in the interlock network show worse innovation performance while firms with high brokerage show better innovation performance.

The literature on environmental implication has largely focused on the threats and overlooked the potential opportunities. Moreover, social network literature has elaborated on the benefits and constraints of network positions from a static perspective but largely overlooked their implications facing environmental change. By exploring the bright side of major environmental turbulence and including this factor as a key contingency in exploring the effects of centrality and brokerage, this study integrates external environmental context with social network research and provides empirical evidence responding to the call for more attention to network dynamics and extends our understanding of the context-contingent network effects on firm innovation.

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are an important strategic tool for continuous adaptation, sustainable corporate development and external growth. At the same time, M&As involve high levels of risk with mixed performance results even under normal circumstances. Even though the M&A market was continuously growing for the last decade, it was abruptly ended by the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic as executives were more concerned about liquidity than with long-term growth strategies. This raises the question how M&A behaviour is affected by the economic fall-out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The mixed method research design was employed in this study.

The authors particularly investigate how target selection as well as synergy management are affected by the pandemic. The study analysis reveals four archetypical responses to the COVID-19 crisis. The authors describe those responses in detail and analyse antecedents that seem to influence firms' acquisition behaviour during the pandemic.

The paper draws on survey and interview data of M&A practitioners.

Many scholars analyse networks and learning to understand how individuals successfully create and manage new ventures. Based on the assumption that entrepreneurs learn from networks, the purpose of this paper is to examine which types of difficulties encourage entrepreneurs to use networks to facilitate learning, whether entrepreneurs change networks to deal with such difficulties, and which network characteristics facilitate learning.

Networks are considered a potential source of learning, namely, the cognitive process of acquiring and structuring knowledge, creating meaning from experience and generating new solutions from existing knowledge. Through networks, entrepreneur share information and discuss opportunities and problems. Using an innovative approach combining story telling and network mapping, this study analyses how entrepreneurs use networks in learning. The data collected from six entrepreneurs working in knowledge-intensive sectors enables examining the learning process ensuing from the interactions between entrepreneurs and their contacts.

The findings show that entrepreneurs construct different types of networks in response to their difficulties, not in relation to products or technologies, but to learn to overcome self-crises, external threats, management and organisational issues. The findings reveal that entrepreneurs develop networks dominated by strong ties for exploitative learning and networks dominated by weak ties for explorative learning.

This study contributes to literature on networks and entrepreneurial learning. More specifically, the study provides evidence of learning in the context of networks, which is a relatively overlooked area in entrepreneurship literature, identifying the role of difficulties in determining the type of learning through networks and the related mechanisms.

Proposes stimulating future thought and research among service scholars and practicing service marketers as to the relevance of crises and crisis management issues in the service sector.

This article offers the author's perspective of the issues discussed. Eight crisis‐related questions are raised and discussed, with insights from various business leaders also woven into the discussion.

Several themes are addressed, including: crisis‐related issues (including crisis management) should be of particular interest to service organizations; although crises may be linked to specific dates or events, their occurrence is not necessarily random and unpredictable; a proactive approach to crisis management is called for; some organizations (e.g. small and powerless firms) may be more crisis‐prone than others; the term “crisis” means different things to different people and is used in both negative and positive contexts; and when organizations are interconnected with partners or constituencies, it is not always clear who “owns” a crisis – the organization or those affected by it.

To enhance service recovery efforts and ensure service continuity, the article promises to help practicing managers and service providers better understand the nature of crises and how crises might be effectively dealt with in their respective organizations.

The article takes a fresh look at the issues, highlights their particular relevance in the service sector, and includes the perspectives of numerous well‐known business leaders from around the world.

Global brands have become increasingly vulnerable to external disruptions that have negative spillover effects on consumers, business and brands. This research area has recently garnered interest post-pandemic yet remains fragmented. The purpose of this paper is to recognize the most impactful exogenous brand crisis (EBC) and its affective and behavioural impact on consumers.

In Study 1, we applied repertory grid technique (RGT), photo elicitation method and ANOVA comparisons, to identify the most significant EBC, in terms of repercussions on consumer purchases. In Study 2, we performed collage construction and content analysis to ascertain the impact of the identified significant crisis (from Study 1) on consumer behaviour in terms of affective and behavioural changes.

Study 1 results reveal Spread-of-diseases and Natural disaster to be the most impactful EBC based on consumer’s purchase decisions. Study 2 findings uncover three distinct themes, namely, deviant demand, emotional upheaval and community bonding that throws light on the affective and behavioural changes in consumer behaviour during the two significant EBC events.

The collated results of the two studies draw insights towards understanding the largely unexplored conceptualisation of EBC from a multi-level (micro-meso-macro) perspective. The integrated framework drawn, highlight the roles and influences of different players in exogenous brand crisis management and suggests future research agendas based on theoretical underpinnings.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study which identifies the most important EBC and explicates its profound impact on consumer purchase behaviour, providing critical insights to brand managers and practitioners to take an inclusive approach towards exogenous crises.

The present study aims to examine the relationships between digital business transformation, organizational learning, frugal innovation and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) resilience in emerging markets.

Empirical data collection has been implemented using a questionnaire method from 214 owners and managers of SMEs. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach was used to examine the measurement model and test hypotheses.

The results show that digital business transformation significantly impacts frugal innovation and SMEs' resilience in emerging markets. They also confirm the significant impact of frugal innovation on SMEs' resilience. Furthermore, the results revealed that organizational learning significantly impacts digital business transformation, frugal innovation and SMEs' resilience.

This study provides novel insights into the existing theories and literature regarding the determinants of SMEs' resilience in emerging markets. It also provides practical contributions, confirming the SMEs' need to develop their dynamic capabilities, including digital transformation, frugal innovation and organizational learning to maintain their resilience.

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize the implementation of educational reform processes by applying the concept of social innovation. The paper proposes a model of social innovation and test its applicability in the context of Estonian vocational education reform using two case studies of the school re-organization as an example.

A case study approach has been applied in the empirical study. Different data collection methods have been used including semi-structured interviews with the various change actors, observations and analysis of written documents.

The integrated model of social innovation proved to be a fruitful analytical tool. By focusing on five central aspects – the trigger of change, central change agents, social mechanisms facilitating the adoption of change, implications and social gains – it was possible to explain two school re-organization processes and the reasons behind their success or complications.

The analysis of the cases outlined some lessons that can be learned for the future planning and implementation of school reforms. School changes are more easily adopted if actors experience it as useful and rational, school staff are involved in the process as early as possible and the adoption is facilitated by building certain social mechanisms and network structures into the policy implementation process.

The paper makes a contribution to the literature on educational reform by applying the concept of social innovation. Up until now, the concept of social innovation has remained rather underused to explain the process of implementing and adopting reforms, and in particular, it is rarely used in the context of analyzing educational reforms.