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1 – 10 of over 1000Arthur Sserwanga and Gerrit Rooks
The purpose of this paper is to focus on the cognitive and motivational consequences of a business failure, and their relation with subsequent start up success. The paper…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to focus on the cognitive and motivational consequences of a business failure, and their relation with subsequent start up success. The paper hypothesizes that if previous business failure was attributed to an internal and stable cause, subsequent business would be less successful compared to where an entrepreneur attributed business failure to an internal and unstable cause.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors reviewed the literature on attribution theory in an achievement context and derived a hypothesis about the relation between causal thinking and subsequent business success. A survey amongst entrepreneurs in Uganda was carried out to yield insights on how attributions to past performance influence subsequent business performance.
Findings
Entrepreneurs who attributed previous business failure to an internal, stable cause were found to be less successful in subsequent business start up. When repeat entrepreneurs attribute previous shut down to a lack of ability, they are less successful in a subsequent business start up. However, attributing the failure to a lack of effort, does not affect subsequent business success.
Originality/value
The study reaffirms the importance of attributional thinking in entrepreneurship and provides empirical evidence on the relationship between the way entrepreneurs think about their previous performance and subsequent performance. Attributional thinking influences subsequent business actions and outcomes, which offers important practical applications. For instance training to change attributions of entrepreneurs may be used to influence their eventual performance.
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Paul Harvey, James K. Summers and Mark J. Martinko
We review past research on the relationship between attributional perceptions, emotions, and workplace aggression and develop a conceptual model that extends this research in two…
Abstract
We review past research on the relationship between attributional perceptions, emotions, and workplace aggression and develop a conceptual model that extends this research in two ways. First, we consider the influence of controllability attributions on the type (otherdirected, self-directed, hostile, non-hostile) and likelihood of aggressive responses to negative workplace outcomes and situations. Second, we consider the extent to which discrete negative emotions might mediate these attribution-aggression relationships. Implications for anticipating and preventing workplace aggression based on this conceptual model are discussed.
This paper aims to clarify a situational factor that might interfere with the intended outcome of a cause-related marketing (CRM) ad on social network sites (SNSs): statements…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to clarify a situational factor that might interfere with the intended outcome of a cause-related marketing (CRM) ad on social network sites (SNSs): statements about the motivation of the sponsoring company for supporting a social cause. This study also aims to explore how highly skeptical consumers and consumers with lower levels of skepticism differ in their responses to CRM ads.
Design/methodology/approach
In Study 1, a total of 409 college students took part in an online experiment through Qualtrics. The online experiment followed a 2 (statement of motivations: both of firm and public benefits vs public benefit only) × 2 (skepticism: high vs low) between-subjects design. Skepticism was determined post hoc as a two-category variable to analyze its effect on the relationship between the statement of motivations and attribution. In Study 2, a total of 533 adults took part in an online experiment. Multigroup analysis was used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
This study found that firm’s acknowledgments of firm-serving motivation, as well as of public-serving motivation, could be an effective marketing strategy to reduce consumer skepticism about the firm’s motives. The procedure by which a consumer perceived and evaluated the motives of a company determined the effectiveness of the company’s CRM ads. Temporary state of skepticism induced by an attributional thinking process is found to play a significant role in diminishing perceived corporate credibility. Finally, a consumer’s perception of a company’s credibility has a great impact on their intention to join that company’s brand page.
Research limitations/implications
This study advances theories about consumers’ defensive mechanisms that can help predict their favorable responses to the brand pages featuring CRM on SNSs.
Originality/value
This study extends previous literature by directing academic attention to consumers’ perceived attribution as a theoretical mechanism that can help predict consumers’ favorable responses to brand pages featuring CRM on SNSs. This study also extends previous research on skepticism by showing that consumer skepticism can be either an enduring trait or a temporary state. The findings suggest that marketers may be able to inhibit the development of consumer skepticism by publicly stating the potential firm-serving benefits of its actions.
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The purpose of this paper is to develop a positive and functional attributional model of leadership, using both leadership perceptions and leadership effectiveness as criteria…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a positive and functional attributional model of leadership, using both leadership perceptions and leadership effectiveness as criteria. Drawing from cognitive complexity theory, and attributional complexity theory, this article identifies attributional accuracy of managers as the fundamental component of the functional model developed here. The model of leadership developed here focuses on such key leadership constructs as leader information processing using complex schemata, leader attributions and their accuracy, leader behaviors that follow their attributions, mediating variables such as subordinate self‐efficacy, satisfaction, and motivation, and outcome variables such as leadership perceptions and subordinate performance. These variables are linked in a process model.
Design/methodology/approach
The article depends on a critical review of the literature to build a theoretical model consistent with theory building guidelines.
Findings
Accurate attributions and the avoidance of attributional biases are identified as key factors determining effectiveness and leadership perceptions. Leader interactive behaviors, feedback latency, and the development of strategies for improving performance are identified as key consequences of attributional accuracy.
Practical implications
This article has implications for the ways in which managers are selected and trained to provide leadership in organizations.
Orginality/value
The theory developed here breaks new ground in the investigation of the positive and functional attributional processes of leaders leading to organizational or unit effectiveness. This research contributes to knowledge by pointing to the functional role of accurate attributions and the delineation of the processes through which such attributions can lead to enhancing subordinate motivation and hence leadership effectiveness.
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Shay S. Tzafrir and Shlomo Hareli
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the interplay among promotion decision, emotions, and perceptions of organizational justice.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the interplay among promotion decision, emotions, and perceptions of organizational justice.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper adopts Weiner's attribution theory of motivation and emotion, using it as a tool in the analysis. By using this framework, this paper analyses potential positive and negative emotional, and consequently, behavioral reactions of promoted and non‐promoted employees. The analysis focuses on emotional reactions as a function of the cause and the process for the decision in question from the subjective perspective of the employee whose fate is determined by that decision.
Findings
This paper suggests that the decision and the process of promotion can lead to the experience of a myriad of discrete emotional states. It contends that such emotional reactions are resulting from considerations of justice related to the perceived causes of the promotion decision and the process that lead to it.
Originality/value
By integrating attribution theory of emotion and motivation with considerations of justice, this paper analyses the conditions that lead to specific emotions in employees who are promoted and non‐promoted, showing that procedural and interactional justice serves as carriers of attributions (i.e. causal information).
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Chen‐ya Wang and Anna S. Mattila
The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of culture (Western versus East Asian) on customers' perceived informational fairness of several types of failure explanations …
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of culture (Western versus East Asian) on customers' perceived informational fairness of several types of failure explanations – excuse, justification, reference, and apology. It also seeks to examine whether informational fairness influences post‐failure satisfaction and consequent loyalty intentions.
Design/methodology/approach
A two (culture: US and Taiwanese) × four (explanation type: excuse, justification, reference to other people, and penitence) between‐subjects experimental design was used to test the hypotheses. Participants were exposed to a written scenario describing a flight delay. A total of 286 undergraduate students served as the subject pool.
Findings
The findings of this study imply that customers from different cultures perceive service failure explanations somewhat differently. US customers perceive reference to other customers to be more just while Taiwanese customers perceive apology to be more just. Furthermore, such informational fairness influences satisfaction, and consequent loyalty intentions.
Research limitations/implications
Owing to the comparison of US and Taiwanese participants in this study, these results may not be applied to customers from other countries. Second, the stimuli involved service failures that are in the context of air travel. Third, though the student sample is appropriate for cross‐cultural research, it limits the generalizability of the study's findings.
Practical implications
The study findings indicate that explanations for service failures enhance customers' fairness perceptions, thus inducing loyalty. Yet, it is important for front‐line employees to keep in mind that customers' cultural backgrounds can affect their perceptions of specific types of explanations.
Originality/value
The findings of this study add to the evidence that culture is an important factor in determining the effectiveness of a service recovery effort. Specifically, this research shows cross‐cultural differences in informational fairness perceptions across various explanation types.
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Literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR) posits that organisational motives underlying corporate social initiatives play a key role in stakeholder responses to these…
Abstract
Purpose
Literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR) posits that organisational motives underlying corporate social initiatives play a key role in stakeholder responses to these activities. However, individuals do not always make attributions. This study aims to examine when CSR attributions shape consumer reactions to CSR initiatives.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on attribution theory and relevant literature on consumer trust, this study proposes a framework for explaining when attributions shape reactions to CSR initiatives. To test this framework, the study uses data from a random sample of 512 Polish consumers.
Findings
The results show that consumer responses to corporate social initiatives are largely independent of perceived corporate motivation when a consumer has a high trust in the firm. However, a low level of initial trust triggers causal thinking and its effects. Specifically, if a firm lacks credibility, self-serving attributions negatively influence consumer outcomes of social initiatives, but they remain neutral when trust is high. Accordingly, when trust is low, other-serving attributions have greater effects on the initiative outcomes than when trust is high.
Originality/value
The paper provides important insights into CSR literature by showing that initial trust in the company is a salient variable that moderates the link between CSR attributions and consumer responses to these actions. This role of trust has been largely unexplored as past studies considered trust in the firm to be a key outcome of corporate social performance.
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C. Min Han, Kyung Ae Kim and Hyojin Nam
The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate how corporate philanthropy (CP) can affect consumer perceptions of Japanese multinationals, for which there exists strong…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate how corporate philanthropy (CP) can affect consumer perceptions of Japanese multinationals, for which there exists strong animosity in Asia, and how this animosity can be attenuated.
Design/methodology/approach
The study first examines Japanese firms in China (Study 1) and then Japanese, European and local firms in Korea (Study 2).
Findings
The results suggest that CP activities can have a positive effect on the consumer recognition of company localness and they can also attenuate company animosity for foreign multinationals. In addition, the findings suggest that Japanese multinationals can benefit greatly from CP activities in Asia than for domestic and other foreign firms.
Research limitations/implications
The study found that consumers do not have ethnocentric attribution biases in evaluations of CP activities by foreign multinationals, as suggested by attribution theory (Hewstone, 1990; Nisbett, 1971).
Originality/value
There is limited evidence supporting the effects of CP activities by foreign multinationals from a country of origin for which there exists strong animosity.
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The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of some pressing but under-researched aspects of public leadership. Ten propositions about public leadership are set out and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of some pressing but under-researched aspects of public leadership. Ten propositions about public leadership are set out and these are intended to be thought-provoking and even controversial in order to stimulate researchers to design research which addresses key theoretical and practical questions about leadership in the public sphere. They will also help practitioners navigate an increasingly complex leadership context.
Design/methodology/approach
This invited essay uses ten propositions about public leadership, selected from three sources: the leadership literature, the author’s own research and from collaborative research discussions with academics, policy makers and practitioners.
Findings
The first proposition argues for distinguishing public leadership from public service leadership given that the former is about leadership of the public sphere. Other propositions concern context; purpose; conflict and contest at the heart of public leadership; leadership with political astuteness; dual leadership; leadership projections; fostering resilience; leadership, authority and legitimacy; and the challenge to researchers to use research designs which reflect the complexity and dynamism of public leadership.
Practical implications
While this essay is primarily addressed to researchers, there are many ideas and concepts which practising leaders will find insightful and useful in their work.
Originality/value
This essay draws on deep experience in undertaking high-quality academic research about public leadership which draws from and feeds into policy and practice. It utilises organisational psychology, public management and political science to create synergies in order to enhance the understanding of public leadership.
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The purpose of this paper is to expand the recent lines of inquiry into entrepreneurial cognition by focusing on the structure of values as an important aspect of cognition. Value…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to expand the recent lines of inquiry into entrepreneurial cognition by focusing on the structure of values as an important aspect of cognition. Value theory, or axiology, posits that the capacity to value and to make value judgments is a distinctly human function – one that is a higher order process than is pure cognition alone.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is designed as a quantitative discovery. A well-established assessment instrument from the field of value science is used to measure deep-seated, evaluative thought patterns for a sample of founders of early stage startups and a comparative sample of senior managers. Value structures underlying cognition for individuals across these samples are compared to reveal both similarities and differences between the groups.
Findings
This study identifies a cognitive process underlying opportunity recognition, evaluation and exploitation, known as integration. This study finds that entrepreneurs have stronger capacities for integrative thinking than do managers. In contrast to other published research, this study finds that early stage entrepreneurs are not characterized by hubris, an inflated sense of self-efficacy, nor an exceptional capacity for action.
Originality/value
This paper extends the study of entrepreneurial cognition by applying an empirical measure of the foundational levels of cognition. It reveals heretofore unarticulated differences, as well as similarities, between entrepreneurs and managers.
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