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Managing megaprojects is challenging due to their inherent complexity and uncertainty. Collaborative project delivery models have been introduced as an alternative to traditional project management in public infrastructure megaprojects and are often realized through collaborative contracts. These project organizations act as institutional arenas for logic interaction as actors with differing institutional backgrounds interact within the project. This paper aims to study the delivery phase of three megaprojects through an institutional lens, investigating the institutional interaction and alignment of logics therein.

A multiple case study was employed to reach deep insight into the phenomenon. Sixty-one interviews were conducted over 3 cases with representatives from all levels of the project hierarchy. Respondents were selected through snowball sampling. In two cases, observations of the shared project office were conducted. Data analysis built on first-order codes and second-order themes, collected into a theoretical framework.

The empirical evidence demonstrates the dynamics shaping institutional logics and gives evidence for changing logics in projects with a well-applied collaborative contract. However, there is a risk of resistance and a return to traditional logics since institutional change is slow and an unsuitably applied collaborative contract can lead to adherence to the conventional way of work.

Current research has focused on the regulatory framework and procurement phase of such models, but little attention has been given to the delivery phase and the interaction of conflicting logics. This paper can serve as an exemplar of the different logics found within public infrastructure projects and their interaction and alignment. Contributions include a heightened emphasis on the start of the project as a meeting point for differing institutional logics and the role change necessary when using a collaborative contract.

This paper aims to provide a starting point to discuss how social enterprises can drive systemic change in terms of social impact through operations and supply chain management.

This paper reviews existing literature and the four papers in this special issue and develops a conceptual framework of how social enterprises and their supply chains create social impact and further enable systematic change.

Our paper finds that social impact and systemic change can be shaped by social enterprises at three different levels of analysis (organization, supply chain and context) and through three enablers (cognitive shift, stakeholder collaboration and scalability). Such dimensions are used to position current literature and to highlight new research directions.

This paper proposes a novel understanding of operations and supply chain management in social enterprises intended as catalysts for systemic change. Based on this premise we distinguish different practices and stakeholders to be considered when studying social impact at different levels. The conceptual framework introduced in the paper provides a new pathway for future research and debate by scholars engaged at the intersection of social impact, sustainable operations and supply chain management.

Medical disruptive innovation is essential for deepening the reform of health-care system. The theory of general disruptive innovation assumes that innovations can diffuse by benefiting and attracting consumers through observed and objective relative advantages. Yet decision-makers for adoption in health-care settings are safety-sensitive professionals whose cognitions barriers about underperformance in focal attributes will impede further evaluation of innovation's ancillary performance. Existing studies do not answer the question of how such innovations can overcome safety barriers, find early adopters and grow to the early majority. The purpose of this study is to investigate the process, mechanism, and path of early diffusion of medical disruptive innovation.

The authors conduct a longitudinal case study of the diffusion of Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) in China during 2011–2018.

The authors find that the diffusion process of medical disruptive innovations can be viewed as a cognitive evolutionary process that sequentially establishes conformity, differentiation and normalization. Cognition reframing of expert, meaning and benefit for professionals is its implicit mechanism. When adoption may trigger cognitive concerns, actors’ very early (dis)adoption is driven by a combination of structural position, innovation attributes and performance perceptions; central actors then play amplifier roles in the development from early adopters to the early majority.

This study proposes a process theoretical framework for the early diffusion of disruptive innovation. By dissecting the key processes and mechanisms from a cognitive perspective, the study offers theoretical contributions and practical insights into the diffusion of disruptive innovation in professional settings.

The aim of this study is to review the literature on how intellectual capital (IC) contributes to the decarbonization efforts of firms. It explores how carbon accounting can measure the components of IC in decarbonization efforts to balance profitability with environmental and social goals, particularly in promoting decent work and economic growth (Sustainable Development Goal [SDG] 8 and its targets [2, 5, 6, 8]). Moreover, it emphasises the importance of multi-stakeholder partnerships for sharing knowledge, expertise, technology, and financial resources (SDG17-Target 17.G) to meet SDG8.

As a consolidated methodological approach, a systematic literature review (SLR) was used in this study to fill the existing research gaps in sustainability accounting. To consolidate and clarify scholarly research on IC towards decarbonization, 149 English articles published in the Scopus database and Google Scholar between 1990 and 2024 were reviewed.

The results highlight that the current research does not sufficiently cover the intersection of carbon accounting and IC in the analysis of decarbonization practices. Stakeholders and regulatory bodies are increasingly pressuring firms to implement development-focused policies in line with SDG8 and its targets, requiring the integration of IC and its measures in decarbonization processes, supported by SDG17-Target 17.G. This integration is useful for creating business models that balance profitability and social and environmental responsibilities.

The integration of social dimension to design sustainable business models for emission reduction and provide a decent work environment by focusing on SDG17-Target 17.G has rarely been investigated in terms of theory and practice. Through carbon accounting, IC can be a key source of SDG8-Targets 8.[2, 5, 6, 8] and SDG17-Target 17.G. Historically, these major issues are not easily aligned with accounting research or decarbonization processes.

The timeliness and quality of information provided to board members are crucial for them to effectively monitor and advise a firm. This study examines the influence of board composition and structure on (1) the board’s actions to mitigate the information asymmetry problem by implementing enterprise information systems (EIS) and (2) the board of directors’ awareness of information asymmetry, their perception of its causes and their efforts to address it.

Our research employs a mixed-methods approach. First, using data from 115 publicly listed Chinese companies, we empirically assess the likelihood of top-level EIS modules adoption at the firm level. Subsequently, through 23 semi-structured interviews, we aim to gain deeper insights into the behavioral motivations behind directors’ attempts to reduce information asymmetry.

The study reveals that boards with a higher number of independent directors or with a strategy committee – indicative of a greater concern regarding information asymmetry problems – are more inclined to adopt top-level EIS modules. Additionally, we identify three primary sources of information asymmetry that directors consider significant in prompting the adoption of top-level EIS modules to alleviate perceived information asymmetry.

This study contributes to both the corporate governance and information systems literature. The implementation and utilization of EIS at the board level have not been extensively explored previously. Moreover, while the issue of information asymmetry at the board level is recognized as a critical governance challenge, the ways in which directors perceive and address this issue remain largely unknown. Our research seeks to illuminate this relatively less-explored area.

This paper aims to develop an alternative perspective on marketing informed by service scholarship to resolve marketing’s challenges as a discipline and practice.

This paper is conceptual and builds on the ongoing debate regarding marketing’s challenges and on service research to develop a new alternative marketing perspective and model, which could contribute to reforming marketing.

An analysis of the current understanding of marketing showed that the discipline’s myopic focus on activities, which disregards what marketing is as a phenomenon, is the primary reason for the prevailing problems and failure to reform marketing. Based on research into service logic (SL), the paper demonstrates that a higher level view of service can be characterized as the provision of help to the users of goods and services to ensure that these goods and services deliver meaningful assistance in their lives and work. This suggests that the ultimate objective for marketing is to make firms meaningful to the users of their goods and services.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, since this paper is the first to conceptually develop a perspective on marketing and a corresponding model informed by service scholarship, more conceptual and empirical research is necessary. Developing the new meaningfulness-based perspective and model for marketing brings a new approach to the process of resolving marketing’s current troubled situation.

The meaningfulness approach to marketing enables customer-centered marketing strategies to be implemented. Such strategies include both demand-stimulating and demand-satisfying programs.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper is the first to examine marketing’s troubled situation from a service research and SL perspective.

This study proposes a framework that demonstrates how the perceived value of augmented reality (AR) shopping influences the formation of psychological ownership of product and technology. The mediating role of flow experience and the moderating role of perceived control are identified.

An online survey study recruiting 480 participants who experienced AR shopping was conducted to test the hypotheses.

Functional value is negatively related to psychological ownership of product and technology whereas emotional value shows opposite effects. Flow experience mediates the relationships between functional/emotional value and psychological ownership of product and technology. Perceived control moderates the relationship between emotional value and flow experience, as well as the relationship between functional/emotional value and psychological ownership of product and technology.

The findings suggest the importance of AR’s functional and emotional values in developing psychological ownership of product and technology. To mitigate the negative effect of functional value, AR designers should focus on creating emotionally engaging apps that induce a flow experience, thereby enhancing psychological ownership. Furthermore, AR apps should be designed to empower users with a sense of control in the AR experience.

This research contributes to the AR and psychological ownership literature. It introduces a model that can explain both the formation of psychological ownership of product and psychological ownership of technology, thereby expanding the current understanding. By adding perceived values as antecedents of psychological ownership, it enriches the psychological ownership literature. Moreover, it enhances the flow experience literature by demonstrating the role of flow experience in the formation of psychological ownership of product and technology.

This paper aims to investigate how the technical logics of a World Bank-led performance management reform interacted with the social, political and historical logics within a developing country (DC) regulatory organisation. The institutional environment both within and outside the organisation was considered to understand the performance management reform experience.

An interview-based, longitudinal, qualitative case study approach was used to locate accounting in its technical, social and political space. A large regulatory organisation in Bangladesh was investigated as a case study to reveal how traditional organisational practices and public sector norms mediated a performance management reform. Informed by the institutional logics (IL) and economies of worth perspectives, interviews were used to locate IL at macro-level and associated organisational actors’ strategic responses that ultimately shaped the implementation of a performance management system (PMS).

This paper reveals how accounting, as a social and political practice, influences accountability reform within a regulatory organisation. It provides an account of both the processes and resultant practices of an accounting reform initiative. While a consultative and transparent performance management process was intended to enhance accountability, it challenged the traditional organisational authority structure and culture. The new PMS retained, modified and adjusted a number of its characteristics over time. These adjustments reflected an amalgamation of the influence of institutional pressures from powerful constituents and the ability of the local agents (managers) in negotiating and mediating the institutionalisation of a new PMS.

The findings of this paper carry major implications for policy makers, particularly with respect to the design of future reform programs on PMS.

This paper offers a theoretical mapping of IL and its organisation-level interpretations and practices. Thus, the authors locate power and influence at field and firm levels. The findings of this study reflect historical, political and cultural backgrounds of the case study organisation and how these contextual forces were active in shaping the meaning of reform logics. Though the institutional environment and agents were unique to the case study organisation, this research offers a “process generalisation” that reveals how a best practice PMS was translated and transformed by the traditional organisational practices in a DC regulatory context.

Forced labour is one of the most exploitative practices in supply chains, generating serious human right abuses. The authors seek to understand how relationships for reducing forced labour are influenced by institutional logics. The emerging supply chain efforts of social enterprises offer particularly intriguing approaches, as their social mission can spur creative new approaches and reshape widely adopted management practices.

The authors study supplier relationships in the smartphone industry and compare the evolving practices of two cases: the first, a growing novel social enterprise; and the second, a high-profile commercial firm that has adopted a progressive role in combating forced labour.

The underlying institutional logic influenced each firm's willingness to act beyond its direct suppliers and to collaborate in flexible ways that create systematic change. Moreover, while both focal firms had clear, well-documented procedures related to forced labour, the integration, rather than decoupling, of forced labour and general supply chain policies provided a more effective way to reduce the risks of forced labour in social enterprises.

As authors’ comparative case study approach may lack generalizability, future research is needed to broadly test their propositions.

The paper identifies preconditions in terms of institutional logics to successfully reduce the risk of forced labour in supply chains.

This paper discusses how social enterprises can provide a learning laboratory that enables commercial firms to identify options for supplier relationship improvement.

Entrepreneurial action under uncertainty has captured the interest of scholars and practitioners alike. However, this growing body of research has yet to connect entrepreneurial action with actual actions of entrepreneurs. We combine insights from effectuation theory and the psychology of entrepreneurship to investigate drivers of entrepreneurial actions involved in starting and running ventures, particularly optimism, self-efficacy and the use of causal and effectual logics.

The study employs a unique mixed-method approach combining a survey with experience sampling data. After measuring demographics, preference for effectual or causal logics and psychological variables, the 197 US entrepreneurs sampled entrepreneurs logged their daily actions in the form of asks during 60 consecutive days.

Results suggest that self-efficacy and causal logics are key drivers of entrepreneurial actions, while optimism serves as a deterrent. Interestingly, the impact of self-efficacy on actions is moderated by the entrepreneur’s experience level, measured both in years and past asking experience.

The potential of the ask as the basic mechanism for entrepreneurial actions is explored. Based on the findings, the authors offer new and fertile insights by linking psychological traits to entrepreneurial actions, causal and effectual logics and entrepreneurial expertise development.