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1 – 10 of over 1000Akhilesh Bajaj, Wray Bradley and Li Sun
The purpose of our study is to investigate the impact of corporate culture on sales order backlog.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of our study is to investigate the impact of corporate culture on sales order backlog.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use regression analysis to examine the relation between corporate culture and the level of sales order backlog, an important leading indicator of firm performance.
Findings
Using a large panel sample of US firms for the period of 2003–2021, the authors find a significant and positive relation, suggesting that firms with strong corporate culture have a higher level of sales order backlog.
Originality/value
The study findings contribute to two separate areas of research: corporate culture in management literature and sales order backlog in accounting literature. Prior study has focused on the impact of corporate culture on current firm performance. This study extends prior research by investigating the impact of corporate culture on order backlog, an important leading indicator of future performance.
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Ariane Ollier-Malaterre and Marianne Redston
Enterprise social networks (ESN) that enable faster communications and knowledge sharing at work are an integral part of many workplaces. Although the affordances potency and…
Abstract
Purpose
Enterprise social networks (ESN) that enable faster communications and knowledge sharing at work are an integral part of many workplaces. Although the affordances potency and actualization constructs identify work context as important, few studies to date have teased out how the interactions between ESN’s affordances, users’ goals and the work context drive affordances actualization.
Design/methodology/approach
This research is a case study of a technology multinational that made the ESN Chatter mandatory for all internal communications. We conducted a thematic analysis of 40 h of non-participatory observation, 15 in-depth interviews and eight informal conversations with employees.
Findings
There was considerable variation in how employees across different functional roles perceived affordances’ potencies, leading to differences in the nature and intensity of actualization: while sales and project managers embraced Chatter, technical support participants mostly resisted it; visibility was the central affordance for sales and human resources, but persistence was more important for project managers and association for technical support and billing. An organizational culture of accountability, urgency and efficiency interacted with Chatter’s affordances in a mutually reinforcing way, strengthening accountability and accelerating processes. Collaboration was enhanced but in a mostly coercive way. While sales participants' motivation was boosted, the mandated use of Chatter rendered tasks not inputted in Chatter invisible and created antagonism between departments.
Practical implications
Practitioners should not underestimate the influence of different work contexts and employees' goals when implementing an ESN. Since employees are concerned with managing their workload and how others perceive them, they may resist ESNs that they perceive as creating additional work and they may attempt to manage impressions at the expense of the work climate. Organizations looking to implement an ESN as their main communication tool would greatly benefit from establishing training programs and clear guidelines on positive communication practices across functional roles such as sales and technical support, and between peers.
Originality/value
Our study is one of the first to shed light on the role of the work context, i.e. functional role and organizational culture, in explaining the intensity and specificity of affordance actualization across an organization.
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Ines Küster, Natalia Vila and Amparo Kuster-Boluda
This paper first aims to examine associations between factors involved in business-to-business complaints management and results (satisfaction and loyalty) and analyses three…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper first aims to examine associations between factors involved in business-to-business complaints management and results (satisfaction and loyalty) and analyses three types of distributors based on their cultural profile (domestic, low context and high context). Second, the paper investigates whether the identified associations remain stable over time.
Design/methodology/approach
Data from a sample of distributors for a manufacturing company were gathered during two periods of time. A factorial analysis of correspondences and a cluster analysis were carried out to visually represent the associations among clients, complaints and results in the associations among clients, complaints and results. The stability over time of these relationships was also analysed by calculating the correlations between the Euclidean distances on the two maps (one per year) and their mobility ratio.
Findings
The authors found significant evidence that clients from different cultures are associated with varying profiles of complaint and different result types and that certain associations remain stable over time.
Originality/value
While many studies have analysed complaint behaviour in business-to-consumer contexts, there is a lack of research from an international business-business relations point of view, leaving questions virtually unexplored. Second, the last phases of supply chain management, specifically complaints management, have been undeveloped, limiting the cultural factor to the general scope of negotiation. In this vein, this paper compares different complaint profiles and results, comparing culturally different customers/distributors. Third, research has mostly referred to a single period, while this paper investigates two different periods of time for the same company (and their distributors) to analyse the relevance of the stability (or not) over time of the associations identified.
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Maria Krysfeldt, Jannick Friis Christensen and Thomas Burø
The paper discusses how the management of a sports and fashion company, which we refer to as NULMA, successfully applied the neo/normative control technology “karma organisation”…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper discusses how the management of a sports and fashion company, which we refer to as NULMA, successfully applied the neo/normative control technology “karma organisation” and gained employee engagement. Whereas other studies have documented employee resistance to organisational cultures when used for managerial control, our case demonstrates resistance to management practices that employees find inconsistent with the dominant karma culture.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on a six-year longitudinal organisational at-home ethnography conducted by one of the authors using methods of both participant and non-participant observation, semi-structured interviews and collaborative production of secondary data in the case organisation.
Findings
While our research shows that management can successfully apply neo/normative control which employees accept and support, we further show that employees mobilise the same values to resist management when it fails to deliver on the commitments and promises of the organisational culture.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the literature on organisational culture and, in particular, neo/normative control by theorising employee resistance as being by “accident”, by which we mean an inherent negative potentiality co-invented and released by managers establishing a “karma organisation”. Our theorising culminates in a discussion of the study’s implications for research and practice.
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Yao Chen, Liangqing Zhang, Meng Chen and Hefu Liu
Drawing on the knowledge-based view, this study investigates how IT–business alignment influences business model design via organizational learning and examines the moderating…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on the knowledge-based view, this study investigates how IT–business alignment influences business model design via organizational learning and examines the moderating role of data-driven culture in the relationship between IT–business alignment and business model design via organizational learning.
Design/methodology/approach
Using multi-respondent survey data collected from 597 Chinese firms, mediation and moderated mediation analyses were used to examine this study's hypotheses.
Findings
The mediation test results revealed organizational learning served as a mediator between IT–business alignment and two types of business model design (i.e. novelty- and efficiency-centered). In addition, data-driven culture strengthened the indirect effects of IT–business alignment on these two types of business model design via organizational learning.
Originality/value
This study extends current understandings of the relationship between IT–business alignment and business model design by revealing the mediating role of organizational learning and investigating its indirect effects under various degrees of data-driven culture. As such, it contributes to the literature on the business model and IT–business alignment and provides insights for managers seeking to achieve the expected business model design.
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Ehsan Aghakarimi, Hamed Karimi, Amir Aghsami and Fariborz Jolai
Considering the direct impact of retailers' performance on the economy, this paper aimed to propose a comprehensive framework to evaluate the performance of different branches of…
Abstract
Purpose
Considering the direct impact of retailers' performance on the economy, this paper aimed to propose a comprehensive framework to evaluate the performance of different branches of a retailer.
Design/methodology/approach
Through a case study, the weights of indicators were calculated by the best-worst method (BWM) and the branches' performance was appraised using data envelopment analysis (DEA).
Findings
The branches were ranked in terms of performance, and sensitivity analysis and statistical tests were conducted to realize the weaknesses and strengths of the branches. Then, some strategies were proposed using strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis to improve the performance of the weak branches.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to previous studies on the evaluation of retailers' performance by proposing a triple framework based on resilience, sustainability and sales-marketing indicators. This paper focused on branches' operations and branches' optimization by improving performance in terms of these three indicators. This paper also offers a qualitative and quantitative analysis of retailers' performance, which has received less attention in previous studies.
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Yosra Makni Fourati, Mayssa Zalila and Ahmad Alqatan
This study aims to examine the impact of culture on earnings management after changing to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the impact of culture on earnings management after changing to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).
Design/methodology/approach
The study’s sample selection comprises all publicly listed firms in 25 countries between 2000 and 2017 from DataStream database with cultural dimensions ratings from Hofstede et al. (2010). The initial sample contained 2,451 firms.
Findings
This study provides evidence that the interaction between national culture and IFRS adoption remains influential in explaining differences in the magnitude of earnings management behavior across countries.
Originality/value
This study higlights how IFRS and the cultural values interact with each other and affect earnings quality. In particular, the authors provide evidence on the relationship between individualism, uncertainty avoidance, power distance and masculinity of national culture and earnings management and, primarily, find that national culture significantly influences the decisions of managers after adopting IFRS.
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It is important for an exporting manufacturer to motivate its foreign channel partners to sell and promote its products. An excellent way to motivate such foreign channel partners…
Abstract
Purpose
It is important for an exporting manufacturer to motivate its foreign channel partners to sell and promote its products. An excellent way to motivate such foreign channel partners is to give them exclusive territories. Unfortunately, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the determinants of territorial exclusivity. This study aims to investigate the relationship between organizational culture and territorial exclusivity and the moderating role of firm size in this relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data were collected from manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Japan. To test the hypotheses, a regression analysis was conducted using the ordinary least squares technique.
Findings
Empirical evidence shows that the cultural values of collectivism and uncertainty avoidance influence territorial exclusivity; collectivist exporters are likely to use territorial exclusivity, whereas exporters with high uncertainty avoidance are not likely to use it. Furthermore, the larger the firm size, the smaller the impact of cultural values on territorial exclusivity; this suggests that large SMEs do not rely on their organizational culture to make decisions about exclusive territories.
Originality/value
The export marketing literature emphasizes the advantages of exclusive territories. By contrast, the channel management literature suggests that exclusive territories also have disadvantages. As exclusive territories have both advantages and disadvantages, it is crucial to answer the following question: What kinds of exporting manufacturers grant exclusive territories to their foreign channel partners? By addressing this question, this study contributes to a better understanding of export channel strategy.
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Fabiano Siqueira de Oliveira, Octávio Ribeiro de Mendonça Neto, Jose Carlos Tiomatsu Oyadomari and Claudio de Araújo Wanderley
This study aims to explore how management accounting practices act as drivers of organizational change in situations of institutional complexity.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore how management accounting practices act as drivers of organizational change in situations of institutional complexity.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study was carried out in a small company with a strongly rooted social culture, which was acquired by a large conglomerate and underwent a process of strategic change as part of a new control logic. Based on this, the study analyzes the evolution of this change, with a particular focus on the efforts to construct the meaning of the performance through the inscription of objects from the cultural system to which it is attached and the “situated rationality” of the managers who are involved in its production.
Findings
The authors show how managers link their own concepts of performance to accounting practices. At the same time, the authors show how accounting practices unfold through representational gaps that their production generates.
Research limitations/implications
This study acknowledges that bias may arise from reliance on retrospective views of past processes and events, gathered primarily through interviews, documentation and observations.
Practical implications
This study highlights that the way in which the performance concept is presented by accounting practices can have a constructive effect on the organization through the aspirations that its representations entail, thus having the potential to stimulate change in organizations.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the organizational literature by clarifying that accounting practices drive change by providing spaces for debates and questions that affect the way organizations understand and report their performance.
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Yingying Zhang-Zhang and Sylvia Rohlfer
The rapidly changing international business landscape, driven by dynamic factors such as technology, emerging markets, and unpredictable crises, demands that organizations…
Abstract
Purpose
The rapidly changing international business landscape, driven by dynamic factors such as technology, emerging markets, and unpredictable crises, demands that organizations innovate to survive while gaining and sustaining competitive advantages. Culture, an intricate multilevel construct, presents challenges for transnational enterprises and international business as a key “soft” element of organizational strategy.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper employs a triangulated method combining a systematic literature search, machine learning, and qualitative thematic content analysis to explore the relationship between culture and innovation within the context of international business. The analysis involved scrutinizing 697 journal articles indexed in the Web of Science database.
Findings
Using k-means, which is an unsupervised machine-learning tool in Python, and hypertext preprocessor language scripting, we identified seven topic clusters and 94 keywords. Qualitative thematic content analysis facilitated the recognition of prevailing patterns in researchers' conceptualizations of the interplay between innovation and culture. We identified influential relationships between cultural configurations and innovation.
Research limitations/implications
Our analysis contributes to developing a comprehensive research field map encompassing international business, innovation, and culture.
Originality/value
This study significantly enhances our knowledge of culture and international innovation. Future research that recognizes culture as a dynamic configuration at multiple levels (e.g. national, organizational, professional, and individual) and employs more comprehensive measures of innovation and culture could substantially advance our understanding of the intersection of culture and innovation in international business.
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