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This paper aims to address an important theoretical shortcoming in the conceptualization of internal alignment by investigating the cognitive processes involved in aligning operations with strategy and the role of performance measurement (PM) in sustaining these processes.

A theory-building study investigates the process of using PM to drive the implementation of a new strategy in a large beer manufacturer in Italy. The study uses a sensemaking perspective to theorize the findings. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, field observations and company documents.

This study develops a theoretical model suggesting that establishing and maintaining internal alignment occurs through seeking, assembling, adjusting and finalizing the meaning of how strategic priorities inform local action. PM plays a central role in this process by providing interpretive support.

This article advances a cognition-centred view of internal alignment that complements the behavioural aspect of the phenomenon emphasized in prior literature.

Using PM for aligning operations with strategy is a complex and iterative process that requires time and effort and generates temporary stability. Managers may need to complement traditional approaches to alignment with providing space for sensemaking.

The paper proposes a view of internal alignment as an ongoing interpretive process that is sustained by PM. This process brings about the consistency of meanings that generates strategy-consistent behaviours.

It is recognised that an organization’s corporate reputation is affected by the actions of every business unit, department and employee that comes into contact with another stakeholder. However, the means by which employees can be directed or encouraged to “live the brand” is an area which has received relatively limited coverage. This article explores the management actions that are required if employees are to support and enhance the organization’s corporate reputation. The study illustrates the pivotal role of staff in the corporate reputation management process and presents ways through which organizations can encourage commitment, enthusiasm and consistent staff behaviour in delivering the brand values.

To address how organizations should be malleable, the purpose herein is to draw on complementarity theory to examine the interaction effect of customer integration (i.e. coordination) and shared relationship governance (i.e. cooperation) on supply chain adaptability and firm's performance.

A survey research design is adopted to collect primary data from 177 automotive components suppliers. After assessing the measures' psychometric properties, the hypothesized relationships are evaluated using hierarchical regression analysis supplemented by structural equation modeling and complementarity test.

In the context of industrial markets, and specifically the automotive component industry, a complementary interaction effect is found between coordination and cooperation. The complementary impact was significant in affecting the supply chain adaptability and the firm's performance. Our results refine the existing supply chain integration by highlighting the complementary effect of coordination and cooperation.

Understanding the true interaction effect between cooperation and coordination to develop supply chain integration avoids decision-makers' misperception over or underinvesting in activities. This research also provides key insights on the complementary effect of coordination and cooperation to establish structural flexibility in the supply chain and the ability to respond to the disruptions, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Understanding the true interaction effect between cooperation and coordination to develop supply chain integration avoids decision-makers' misperception over or underinvesting in activities. The implications for theory and practice are also presented.

It is no surprise that artists rely closely on their senses to create, develop, and perform their art. Musicians rely on what they hear, dancers rely on their proprioceptive sense and sense of movement, and painters rely on their vision. They rely on these senses to make decisions during creation and performance. At the same time their art can be seen as an exploration of what humans can experience through the senses. Developing the capacity to sense is an integral part of art education that is valued as highly as learning technical skills, such as the musician’s mastery of the instrument, the dancer’s mastery of the body, and the painter’s mastery of color and brush techniques.

In management education, things are different. Relevant techniques are taught, but no special attention is given to developing the ability to sense. There is an implied assumption that managers already know how to do this. However, on a two-day MBA course, it became clear that not only is this assumption wrong, but moreover the traditional pedagogical formats used seem to actively limit the participants ability to sense. The result is leaders who know techniques for enacting leadership, but due to their underdeveloped ability to sense, are unable to apply these techniques appropriately in practical settings.

The purpose of this study is to integrate research on competitive and cooperative repertoires and to simultaneously assess the direct, indirect and curvilinear effects of competitive and cooperative action repertoires in relation to firm performance.

The analyses are conducted using a longitudinal dual-industry sample of publicly traded firms, including over 6,500 competitive actions and 750 cooperative actions. The authors use fixed effects (FE) regression models to test the diminishing returns of action volume on firm performance as well as the moderating effects of action diversity.

The results suggest that increasing competitive and cooperative actions yields diminishing returns in relation to firm performance. Furthermore, in the context of competitive action repertoire diversity, increased diversity magnifies the diminishing returns of competitive action volume on firm performance.

The study provides a firm-level conceptualization of overall competitive and cooperative repertoires to extend the literature on competition and cooperation beyond dyadic interactions or structural determinants of competitive and cooperative actions.

This paper aims to review the evidence on Europe’s economic performance and on the role played by policies pursued at the European Union (EU) level, using the competitiveness framework as the conceptual lens.

Why has Europe not made more progress on upgrading its competitiveness over the past few decades, despite the many initiatives that the EU has launched?

It finds Europe’s sluggish performance to be driven by a failure to adjust the EU’s policy approach to fundamental changes in the competitiveness context and challenges faced by European economies.

Based on this analysis, the paper suggests a new role for the EU in supporting EU member countries and regions in achieving higher levels of competitiveness.

This paper explores the potential for family businesses (FBs) to play a pivotal role in advancing the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It seeks to elucidate how FBs' inherent strengths and values can be harnessed to integrate sustainable practices within their operational paradigms.

The authors employed a literature review to synthesize all the information and identify how FBs' desire to pass on a healthy company to future generations encourages sustainable practices.

FBs have the potential to contribute significantly to not only their own sustainability but also the broader well-being of society by aligning with the SDGs.

This paper provides practical insights for stakeholders, policymakers and business leaders seeking to foster a more inclusive and environmentally responsible economic landscape.

This paper aims to address how organizational routines paradoxically affect the process of organizational innovation based on a new construct of routines or to investigate the coexistence of both hindering and promoting effects from routines and their differentiated affecting paths.

This paper adopts an interpretive and exploratory case study on the business model innovation of Yimu Technology Company Limited (Yimu Tech) from product standardization to customization. Considering that this innovation reflects a successful down-up rather than traditional up-down innovation, this paper focuses on it to explore how the most micro routines affect the whole process of innovation. Almost two years were spent in collecting data from Yimu Tech and in following the innovation through approaches of semi-structured interviews, archival data and observation; the data were analyzed through a five-step process before a framework showing the paradoxical effects was finally set up.

This research specifies the construct of organizational routines and promotes a five-dimensional concept covering the organizational, collective and individual levels of an organization. It confirms the interaction between the performative and ostensive aspects of routines, by showing that the ostensive aspect may not only guide tasks performing but also allow multiple changes, and the performative aspect may affect the ostensive aspect through the down-up or up-down path. Also, it finds that routines may paradoxically affect all three phases of innovation, with a strong up-down hindering effect but a weak down-up promoting effect in the preparation phase, a strong down-up promoting effect but a weak hindering effect in the emergence phase and both significant effects in the consolidation phase.

This research is constrained by several limitations. The set up framework of routines and their paradoxical effects on innovation need a further confirmation in more contexts or organizations; more elements should be considered in exploring the evolution of routines and their effects on innovations; little attention has been paid to the relationship between these two types of effects, conflicting with each other, joining together or working independently.

The findings offered some valuable insights for further research on organizational routines and organizational innovation and hold important implications for management practices. This research enriched the two-aspect view of routines by constructing a five-dimensional framework; further research studies on routine dynamics by showing the interaction between the performative and ostensive aspects can contribute to the study on effects of organizational routines on innovations by showing how routines promote and hinder innovation simultaneously throughout the whole process. It reminds managers of the strong power from the microlevel of an organization in innovation.