Search results

1 – 10 of 26
Open Access
Article
Publication date: 29 March 2024

Anna Zhuravleva

Non-profit organizations (NPOs) are exposed to a highly competitive environment in which they are forced to grow their commercial activity to acquire additional financial…

Abstract

Purpose

Non-profit organizations (NPOs) are exposed to a highly competitive environment in which they are forced to grow their commercial activity to acquire additional financial resources. This study aims to create an understanding of how NPOs involved in textile reuse as a revenue-generating programme manage their reverse supply chains (RSC).

Design/methodology/approach

The research involves an embedded single-case study of NPOs in Finland involved in post-use textile collection. The main data sources are semi-structured interviews and participant observations.

Findings

This study is inspired by the microfoundations movement and identifies the underlying microfoundations of the NPOs’ capabilities for managing RSC for textile reuse. The study contributes to the literature by demonstrating NPOs’ lower-level, granular practices and their adaptations for achieving quality outcomes in textile reuse.

Research limitations/implications

The findings have context sensitivity and apply to the NPOs which operate in a context similar to Finland, such as in other Nordic countries.

Practical implications

This study continues the discussion on the adoption of “business-like” practices in the NPOs’ pursuit of additional revenue streams to finance humanitarian work. The findings of this study can also be transferred to the growing area of domestic textile circularity.

Social implications

Using the case of NPOs in textile reuse, the study illustrates how RSC management can serve a social, non-profit cause and transform unwanted textile products into a source of fundraising for humanitarian work.

Originality/value

This enriches the understanding of NPOs’ practices within the scope of revenue-generating programmes by examining one of them – textile reuse through charity shops from an RSC perspective.

Details

Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-6747

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 11 April 2024

Jiali Fang, Yining Tian and Yuanyuan Hu

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance of job-hopping executives at their former and subsequent…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance of job-hopping executives at their former and subsequent firms.

Design/methodology/approach

We conduct regression analyses using a sample of firms listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2010 to 2020 to examine whether CSR performance is similar from one firm to the next as executives switch jobs.

Findings

We find a positive relationship between the CSR performance of former and subsequent firms under job-hopping executives. This relationship is the strongest in the year of the job switch; it weakens in the second year and eventually disappears in the third year. In addition, we show that this relationship benefits different CSR stakeholder groups and is contingent on executive and subsequent firm attributes and job-hopping characteristics. Furthermore, we demonstrate that firms that hire a new chief executive officer from a firm with a strong track record in CSR, the new firm experiences a significant surge in CSR performance compared with firms that do not experience such a shock.

Practical implications

This study has implications for executive hiring decisions.

Originality/value

This study extends the understanding of CSR determinants through the lens of inter-organisational ties associated with job-hopping executives.

Details

China Accounting and Finance Review, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1029-807X

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 14 March 2024

Inma Rodríguez-Ardura, Antoni Meseguer-Artola, Doaa Herzallah and Qian Fu

There is an ongoing challenge to map the efficacy of e-retailing strategies in building both value co-creation opportunities for online customers and customer value for companies…

Abstract

Purpose

There is an ongoing challenge to map the efficacy of e-retailing strategies in building both value co-creation opportunities for online customers and customer value for companies. Based on the service-dominant (S-D) logic, an integrative model is provided that connects the impact of convenience and personalisation strategies (CPSs) on an e-retailer's performance – by offering co-creation opportunities and customer engagement.

Design/methodology/approach

The survey instrument is validated and the model is tested with data from active online customers using a novel methodology that blends artificial neural network (ANN) analysis with partial least squares (PLS) in both the measurement model and the path analysis.

Findings

The findings robustly support the model and yield evidence of the contribution of CPSs in effective value propositions, the interface between the S-D logic and customer engagement, and the direct effect of customer engagement on tangible forms of value for companies.

Originality/value

This study is the first scholarly effort to provide a comprehensive understanding of how and why CPSs can maximise customer value for the e-retailer, while simultaneously testing the customer value/engagement interface with a new blended ANN-PLS method.

Details

Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7122

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 13 March 2024

Keanu Telles

The paper provides a detailed historical account of Douglass C. North's early intellectual contributions and analytical developments in pursuing a Grand Theory for why some…

Abstract

Purpose

The paper provides a detailed historical account of Douglass C. North's early intellectual contributions and analytical developments in pursuing a Grand Theory for why some countries are rich and others poor.

Design/methodology/approach

The author approaches the discussion using a theoretical and historical reconstruction based on published and unpublished materials.

Findings

The systematic, continuous and profound attempt to answer the Smithian social coordination problem shaped North's journey from being a young serious Marxist to becoming one of the founders of New Institutional Economics. In the process, he was converted in the early 1950s into a rigid neoclassical economist, being one of the leaders in promoting New Economic History. The success of the cliometric revolution exposed the frailties of the movement itself, namely, the limitations of neoclassical economic theory to explain economic growth and social change. Incorporating transaction costs, the institutional framework in which property rights and contracts are measured, defined and enforced assumes a prominent role in explaining economic performance.

Originality/value

In the early 1970s, North adopted a naive theory of institutions and property rights still grounded in neoclassical assumptions. Institutional and organizational analysis is modeled as a social maximizing efficient equilibrium outcome. However, the increasing tension between the neoclassical theoretical apparatus and its failure to account for contrasting political and institutional structures, diverging economic paths and social change propelled the modification of its assumptions and progressive conceptual innovation. In the later 1970s and early 1980s, North abandoned the efficiency view and gradually became more critical of the objective rationality postulate. In this intellectual movement, North's avant-garde research program contributed significantly to the creation of New Institutional Economics.

Details

EconomiA, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1517-7580

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 9 February 2024

María Iborra, José Fernando López-Muñoz and Vicente Safón

This study analyzes antecedents explaining the lack of resilience in family-owned firms. Our model suggests that family-owned firms’ strategic behaviors and heterogeneity explain…

Abstract

Purpose

This study analyzes antecedents explaining the lack of resilience in family-owned firms. Our model suggests that family-owned firms’ strategic behaviors and heterogeneity explain a particular crisis outcome: a lack of recovery.

Design/methodology/approach

Our evidence is based on a sample of 842 European family-owned firms. We complement regression analysis results with fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA).

Findings

Our results show that lack of resilience is relevant. In fact, in our sample, 60% of family firms (FFs) failed to recover their sales. This evidence supports the role played by exploitation and exploration behavior as well as family heterogeneity in explaining the lack of recovery.

Research limitations/implications

Our results may offer guidance to practitioners and policymakers on the pathways that explain the lack of resilience.

Practical implications

Although it is unlikely that an external crisis such as COVID-19 will occur again to the same extent, other threatening events may occur and impact FFs. Understanding how FFs can avoid non-recovery is crucial: it can inform managers on how to deal with stressful events and provide guidance to economic authorities on how to help FFs around the world avoid non-recovery, which affects the economy.

Originality/value

First, the study contributes to FF research by offering a theoretical explanation for the different effects of FF attributes on non-recovery in the context of a global crisis. Second, it contributes to the literature on organizational resilience by examining explorative and exploitative behaviors as antecedents of FF non-recovery. Third, we show the usefulness of combining fsQCA and regression analysis to understand complex phenomena.

研究目的

本研究擬分析家族企業缺乏復原力的原因。我們的模型暗示了家族企業的策略性行為和異質性是可闡明一個特殊的危機後果:企業未能成功恢復。

研究設計/方法/理念

我們的證據是建基於一個涵蓋842間歐洲家族公司的樣本。我們以模糊集質性比較分析,去補充迴歸分析的結果。

研究結果

研究結果顯示,缺乏復原力是有相關性的。事實上,在我們的樣本裡,有百分之六十的家族企業未能恢復其銷售量。研究結果提供了證據,確認了若要闡明缺乏復原力的原因,我們必須瞭解開發和探索行為、以及家族異質性所扮演的角色。

研究的局限/啟示

我們的研究結果,或許可為從業人員和政策制訂者提供引導,幫助他們找出缺乏復原力的原因。

實務方面的啟示

雖然像2019冠狀病毒病的外部危機以同樣的程度發生的機會是很微的,但其它有威脅性的事件或會發生,並會影響家族企業; 因此,瞭解家族企業如何能避免缺乏復原力的弊端是非常重要的。這可讓經理瞭解如何處理令人憂慮的事件,亦可為經濟事務當局的高層人員提供引導,幫助他們瞭解如何協助世界各地的家族企業,去避免影響經濟的復原乏力。

研究的原創性/價值

首先,本研究在家族企業的探討上作出了貢獻。研究人員在一個全球危機的背景下提出了理論解釋,讓人們明白家族企業的屬性,如何會對復原乏力產生各種影響。其次,本研究在探討組織彈性的文獻方面作出了貢獻,因研究人員對作為引發家族企業復原乏力因素的探索和開發行為、進行了探討和研究。最後,研究人員展示了若要瞭解複雜的事物或現象,把模糊集質性比較分析和迴歸分析結合起來運用是有效的。

Details

European Journal of Management and Business Economics, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2444-8451

Keywords

Abstract

Purpose

This conceptual, multi-voiced paper aims to collectively explore and theorize family entrepreneuring, which is a research stream dedicated to investigating the emergence and becoming of entrepreneurial phenomena in business families and family firms.

Design/methodology/approach

Because of the novelty of this research stream, the authors asked 20 scholars in entrepreneurship and family business to reflect on topics, methods and issues that should be addressed to move this field forward.

Findings

Authors highlight key challenges and point to new research directions for understanding family entrepreneuring in relation to issues such as agency, processualism and context.

Originality/value

This study offers a compilation of multiple perspectives and leverage recent developments in the fields of entrepreneurship and family business to advance research on family entrepreneuring.

Details

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2554

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 7 March 2024

Shuwei Zang, Mengyuan Sun, Qimeng Wang, Haofu Wang and Shanwu Tian

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how enterprises can effectively perceive and use the digital opportunities brought about by digital technologies and dynamic environments…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how enterprises can effectively perceive and use the digital opportunities brought about by digital technologies and dynamic environments and how they can enhance their capabilities to realize digital transformation and adapt to the development of the digital economy era.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on the windows of opportunity theory and strategic cognition theory, this paper conducts an empirical analysis of the questionnaire data of 268 enterprises and discusses the influence of external windows of opportunity and internal windows of opportunity on the digital transformation of enterprises, as well as the action mechanism of strategic cognition and entrepreneurship.

Findings

The results show that both the external windows of opportunity and the internal windows of opportunity have significant positive effects on the digital transformation of enterprises. Strategic cognition plays a partial mediating role in the external windows of opportunity and the internal windows of opportunity influencing the enterprise digital transformation process. Entrepreneurship plays a positive regulatory role in the process of external windows of opportunity and internal windows of opportunity influencing strategic cognition.

Originality/value

This paper deepens the relationship between internal and external windows of opportunity and enterprise digital transformation and contributes a new theoretical cognition. This paper integrates the strategic cognition theory to clarify the complex process mechanism of digital transformation using external situational opportunities and internal capabilities. This paper introduces entrepreneurship into the path mechanism of digital transformation and expands the characteristics of the study of digital transformation antecedents to the individual level within the enterprise.

Details

Chinese Management Studies, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-614X

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 18 September 2023

Thomas Anning-Dorson

The business landscapes in Asia and Africa are predominantly characterized by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) facing significant resource constraints. Understanding the…

Abstract

Purpose

The business landscapes in Asia and Africa are predominantly characterized by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) facing significant resource constraints. Understanding the capability dynamics of these enterprises in such contexts carries significant implications for theory and practice. This paper aims to addresses a crucial question of whether increasing customer involvement capability consistently yields the necessary rent for enterprises operating under resource constraints in emerging markets in Asia and Africa. By investigating this question, the paper offers SMEs a more nuanced approach to capability development, enabling them to achieve better returns on their investments.

Design/methodology/approach

To ensure the robustness of the findings, data were collected from SME service firms operating in two emerging economies: India (Asia) and Ghana (Africa). Data were collected in two waves to allow for catering to specific environmental conditions not accounted for in the study. Two-stage data analysis was then conducted to test the hypothesized relationships across the two countries.

Findings

The findings reveal that customer involvement capability does not always lead to an increase in firm-level competitiveness, and the effect follows an inverted U-shaped pattern. However, the nature of this relationship varies under different market conditions in both contexts. Specifically, in periods of low customer demand and intense competition, the relationship is linear and positive. On the other hand, in periods of high demand and competition, the relationship becomes inverted U-shaped, returning to a direct relationship with firm-level competitiveness.

Originality/value

This paper provides a resolution to the critical issue of whether customer involvement capability consistently delivers firm performance benefits, particularly for resource-constrained SMEs in emerging markets. By explaining how SMEs in emerging markets can fully capitalize on their capability development to optimize their resources, this paper makes a distinctive contribution. Moreover, it sheds light on the importance of aligning involvement capabilities with prevailing market conditions for SMEs to reap the maximum benefits.

Details

Journal of Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2053-4604

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 28 May 2024

Kristina Leppälä and Hanna Lehtimäki

Social practices of work humor among engineering workers are a lesser studied phenomenon. We examine the social practices of an engineering work team through acts of a peculiar…

66

Abstract

Purpose

Social practices of work humor among engineering workers are a lesser studied phenomenon. We examine the social practices of an engineering work team through acts of a peculiar form of humorous expression we identify as installation humor. In these cases of installation humor, an anonymous member of the team created a temporary, inappropriate, yet neutral installation of a physical object to amuse the other members of the team. We provide three mini-cases of installation humor; these installations appeared as the team subtly resisted a managerial initiative. We contribute knowledge to the practices of engineers at work and to the practices of resistive humorous expression.

Design/methodology/approach

Qualitative, full-participant ethnographic research with multiple data collection methods and utilizing abductive analysis. During the data collection, one of the researchers was a full member of the engineering team.

Findings

We identified anonymous, artefact-based enactments of resistive humorous expression, which we named installation humor. We identify and describe installation humor, which occurred at the intersectionality of work and self-expression and served as momentary artefacts symbolic of engineering worker resistance in a high-tech environment.

Research limitations/implications

Managerial awareness of the unfolding forms of worker-led, fleeting signals of resistance, such as acts of installation humor, would provide another dimension of perception for identifying salient signals surrounding the phenomenon of resistance to managerial-led change initiatives. Further research is needed on engineering humor in the R&D workplace to better understand the complexity and dynamics of phenomena such as worker resistance through humorous acts. We suggest future studies on forms of humor in the engineering workplace, including incidences of installation humor as they exist in other professional work environments and organizations, to understand common and shared practices across professional boundaries.

Practical implications

We advance and extend the understanding of humor as a social practice in the context of professional engineers in their R&D workplace and we identify humorous acts serving as a response to negative emotions (Huber, 2022) toward the organization related to a newly instated form of managerial control. This paper contributes to the studies of social practices of humor and emotions (Fine and De Soucey, 2005) in the engineering workplace (Buch and Andersen, 2013; Buch, 2016; Mazzurco et al., 2021) as unsupervised activity at work (Gabriel, 1995), with the social practice of humor adopting a non-verbal form that we identified as installation humor. We named this specific form of humor that we observed as installation humor and defined its specificity and differences from more traditional methods of humor (t. ex. Fine and De Soucey, 2005; Martin and Ford, 2018), shop floor humor (t. ex. Roy 1959), workplace humor (t. ex. Rosenberg et al., 2021) and engineering student humor (Holmila et al., 2007; Bender, 2011; Berge, 2017).The results of this study also suggest that ethnography for studying humor as a social practice is useful in identifying micro-level occurrences of unfolding engineering humor, including humor as a form of resistance.

Social implications

The study of humor in high-tech engineering settings enhances the literature of engineering work (t. ex. Mazzurco et al., 2021) and emerging humorous phenomena (Jarzabkowski and Lê, 2017). This case study highlights and extends the understanding of the non-technical competencies of engineers and the role of peer-to-peer humor in the engineering workplace as a form of resistance during managerial initiatives within an organization.

Originality/value

The study extends and contributes new knowledge to research on emotions and humor by engineers at work, including the identification of a peculiar form of humor used by the engineers. This study also contributes to nascent research on the social practices of engineers at work. The research material was gathered as a full-member ethnography, increasing methodological knowledge of researching a site from within.

Details

International Journal of Organization Theory & Behavior, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1093-4537

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 5 June 2024

Christer Andre Flatøy

Organisations increasingly rely on professional interim managers (PIMs), i.e. independent contractors who perform managerial work. These managers, who are usually very experienced…

Abstract

Purpose

Organisations increasingly rely on professional interim managers (PIMs), i.e. independent contractors who perform managerial work. These managers, who are usually very experienced and skilled, could help organisations drastically improve their performance. However, research has found that they often fail to do so, indicating that PIMs face unique on-the-job challenges that challenge their capability to be effective managers. In the study reported in this paper, I explored PIMs’ on-the-job challenges and how they overcome them. To better understand the various on-the-job challenges, I developed the concept of the liability of outsiderness.

Design/methodology/approach

I applied an exploratory approach and conducted 32 interviews with 21 PIMs.

Findings

I uncovered three on-the-job challenges common and unique to PIMs – communicating the contract status and contract period, being quick off the mark and attaining power – and the ways they overcome these challenges.

Practical implications

This paper reports findings and theory that provide several valuable guidelines for practitioners involved with interim management.

Originality/value

Interim management has received little scholarly attention despite its increasing relevance. Empirical research, particularly on PIMs in executive positions, is lacking. This leaves us with little evidence to base our theories and guidelines for interim management. The study reported in this paper adds novel insights to an under-researched but important field of management. The study also introduces the liability of outsiderness concept, which holds much promise for future studies of interim management.

Details

Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2051-6614

Keywords

Access

Only Open Access

Year

Last 12 months (26)

Content type

Earlycite article (26)
1 – 10 of 26