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This article aims to trace the historical development of the behavioral strategy (BS) field, which implements psychology in strategic management. Mainly, it provides a contextual understanding of how this stream of research has historically evolved and what relevant future trajectories are. This work is part of the “over half a century of Management Decision” celebrative and informal Journal section.

We consider BS literature produced in management decision (MD), the oldest and longest-running scholarly publication in management, as a proxy for the evolution of management thought. Through a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) process, we collected – via the MD website and Scopus – a sample of 97 BS articles published in MD from its foundation (1967) until today (2024). Regarding the analysis, we adopted a Reflexive Thematic Analysis approach to synthesize the main BS topics, then read from a historical perspective regarding three “eras” over which the literature developed. Selected international literature outside the Journal’s boundaries was considered to complement this historical analysis.

Historically, within the BS field, the interest passed from the rules to rationally govern strategic decision-making processes, to studying what causes cognitive errors, to understanding how to avoid biases and to being prepared for dramatic changes. The article also identifies six future research trajectories, namely “positive heuristics,” “context-embedded mental processes,” “non-conventional thinking,” “cognitive evolutionary triggers,” “debiasing strategies” and “behavioral theories for new strategic challenges” that future research could investigate.

The limitation of the study lies in its exclusive focus on MD for investigating the historical evolution of BS, thereby overlooking critical contributions from other journals. Therefore, MD’s editorial preferences have influenced results. A comprehensive SLR on the BS field is still needed, requiring broader journal coverage to mitigate selection biases and enhance field appraisal.

This contribution is the first to offer a historical evolutionary view of the BS field, complementing the few other reviews on this stream of research. This fills a gap in the study of the evolution of management thought.

This study aims to endeavor to shed light on the underlying causal mechanisms behind the failure of startups by examining the failure process in such organizations. To achieve this goal, the study conducted a comprehensive review of the literature on the definition of failure and its various dimensions, resulting in the compilation of a comprehensive list of causes of startup failure. Subsequently, the failure process was analyzed using a behavioral strategy approach that encompasses rationality, plasticity and shaping, as well as the growth approach of startups based on dialectic, teleology and evolution theories.

The proposed research methodology was a case study using process tracing, with the sample being a failed platform in the ride-hailing technology sector. The causal mechanism was further explicated through the combined application of the behavioral strategy approach and interpretive structural modeling analysis.

The findings of the study suggest that the failure of startups is a result of interlinked causes and effects, and growth in these organizations is driven by dialectic, teleology and evolution theories.

The outcomes of the research can assist startups in formulating an effective strategy to deliver the right value proposition to the market, thereby reducing the chances of failure.

This chapter uses cognitive psychology to understand how individuals deal with negative emotions using coping strategies. It discusses the coping process and reviews three current debates about cognitive appraisal theory, coping and emotion regulation. The use of coping strategies in tourism, services and business management is presented to understand different stakeholders' responses to negative emotions. The literature discusses various elements (antecedents, coping strategies, coping consequence) for emotion coping process and the chapter summarises a synthesised conceptual framework for emotional coping based on the cognitive appraisal theory. The framework is used to examine coping in the context of COVID-19. The chapter concludes with future research opportunities in this subject area.

Drawing on the paradox perspective and the Job Demands-Resources Model (JD-R), we investigate how paradoxical leadership behavior (PLB) affects employee adaptive performance.

Conducted a multi-wave field study with a sample of 64 leaders and 224 subordinates (study 1), and a quasi-experiment involving 156 participants (study 2). The collected data were analyzed using ANOVA and HLM techniques.

Both studies reveal that (1) PLB exhibits a positive association with employee adaptive performance, (2) employee paradox mindset and role stress partly mediated the relationship between PLB and employee adaptive performance, (3) the indirect effects of PLB on employee adaptive performance through employee paradox mindset and role stress are moderated by employee gender-role identity (GRI).

This research developed a moderated mediation model to examine the potential impact of PLB on employee adaptive performance, which contributes to the literature by integrating the paradox perspective and emphasizing the effectiveness of combining “top-down” and “bottom-up” leadership approaches. Moreover, we elucidate the underlying mechanisms through which PLB facilitates employees in effectively managing work role tensions to enhance adaptive performance Finally, this study also extends the investigation of the contextual efficacy of PLB by incorporating GRI as a moderator.

Despite the increasing attention given to product-service integration (PSI), little is known about this innovation strategy from a key decision-maker’s perspective. To address this gap, our study draws from personality psychology and decision-making (DM) logics theory to better understand why and how companies’ decision-makers strategize for PSI.

Using an abductive, empirics-first approach, we identify the study’s theoretical building blocks, followed by an exploratory quantitative analysis to generate new theory. We propose a fit-as-mediation conceptual framework suggesting that (1) specific personality traits [i.e. honesty-humility (H), emotionality (E), extraversion (X), agreeableness (A), conscientiousness (C) and openness to experience (O) (HEXACO)] make decision-makers more likely to include PSI in their company’s strategy and (2) depending on their personality, they apply different DM logics (i.e. causation or effectuation) to do so. To empirically examine this, we use data from 289 SMEs’ decision-makers.

We report several meaningful relationships among our key theoretical constructs. For instance, we find that conscientious decision-makers are more likely to develop a PSI strategy via causation, whereas extravert decision-makers are more likely to do so via both causation and effectuation.

This service study is the first to apply the well-established HEXACO Personality Inventory to companies’ key decision-makers. Moreover, it contributes to the microfoundations of PSI strategy and DM logic theories.

This paper aims to examine the relationship between CEO’s attributes and the level of compliance with financial instruments risk disclosure (hereafter FIRD) as required by International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 7.

A data set of financial institutions listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange over the period 2015–2020 has been analyzed. Panel regressions have been estimated to provide empirical support for the testable hypotheses.

The research findings reveal that chief executive officer (CEO) compensation and financial expertise are positively associated with the level of FIRD provided by Canadian financial institutions. However, the analysis does not document any significant statistical linkage between the compliance score and CEO tenure, gender and age.

This study has important implications for stakeholders evaluating the determinants of reporting quality, for boards of directors considering CEO compensation and expertise and for standard setters considering the compliance level with new standards requirements.

This paper provides novel evidence on the linkage between CEO attributes and corporate disclosure. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is among the first to explore the impact of CEO characteristics on compliance with International Accounting Standards Board disclosure requirements. The analysis is also among the first to investigate compliance with IFRS 7 before and after the amendments required by IFRS 9.

One of the most cited literature in SHRM is Schuler and Jackson’s (1987) behavioural model. This model proposes that organisational performance is dependent on the extent to which HRM practices can be effectively connected to competitive strategy and desired employee behaviours. Importantly, this model recognises the salient role of employee behaviour in performance outcomes and, moreover that different competitive strategies imply both promulgation and reinforcement of different sets of employee skills and behaviours. Surprisingly, despite its significant influence on SHRM, studies rarely examine this model in its entirety. Motivated by the need to better understand this model’s arguments in contemporary settings, our study uses a multi-actor design to explore the connections between competitive strategies (cost reduction and differentiation), employee behaviours, and HRM practices in service environments.

Adopting a multi-level, multi-actor survey design, our exploratory deductive study assesses the utility of strategic HRM’s (SHRM) behavioural model. Drawing on data from a sample of service organisations and using univariate analyses, we compare operationalised HRM practices and employee behaviours across different strategy types.

Results lend provisional support for the behavioural model, particularly in the case of a differentiation strategy where notable differences in HRM practices and employee behaviours were observed. Findings suggest growing levels of memetic and competitive isomorphism may be occurring, with this likely attributable to the increased incidence of idea generation and information sharing about best practices occurring amongst practitioners, as well as a growing nuance in operating markets, managerial preferences, employee expectations, stakeholder objectives, and the like.

Our study suggests refinements to the behavioural model are needed. Some support for the model’s key tenets is found, but these appear context specific. Thus, the merit in developing a priori typologies linking strategy type to HRM practices and employee behaviours where organisations operate in environments which are particularised and tumultuous appears debatable.

This study highlights the behavioural model’s nuance to modern service organisations and, by doing so, practitioners are provided with a behavioural pathway for achieving competitive advantage through their HRM practices. Findings also suggest that increasingly competitive environments might be encouraging practitioners to engage in isomorphic behaviours.

The use of a comparative research design allowed our study to contribute much needed empiricism to the largely conceptually informed stylised typologies depicting the linkages between different competitive strategies, implied employee role behaviours and HRM practices, thereby supporting the need for model refinement.

Studying the effect of social media advertising on consumer engagement, this study analyzes the impact of shared-experience versus personal message strategies, informational versus transformational creative appeals and low-involvement products versus high-involvement products. It aims to determine how best to combine ad elements to affect consumer engagement on different levels.

Using an online survey among 448 Facebook users, an experimental factorial design of 2 (message strategy conditions) X 2 (creative appeal conditions) X 2 (product types: TV vs. frozen pizza) was used. Each advertisement was evaluated on three facets of engagement: cognitive, psychological and behavioral.

Results indicate that informational appeal is preferable for all conditions. The effectiveness of message strategy differs by product type, and interactions between message and appeal are significant only for the high-involvement product. Additionally, it indicates that message strategy is most significant in affecting behavioral engagement and not necessarily cognitive or psychological engagement.

To develop effective Facebook ads, practitioners should use a personal/informational combination when working with high-involvement products and a shared-experience/informational combination when working with low-involvement products.

An original grid for integrating message strategy and creative appeal is constructed in this paper. Besides behavioral engagement, it also evaluates cognitive and psychological engagement. By comparing products with a high and low involvement level, it provides marketers with actionable recommendations to increase social media campaign effectiveness.

The sustainable development of the platform economy has been hindered by the absence and alienation of platform corporate social responsibility. Previous studies have mainly focused on the contents and governance models for platform corporate social responsibility. This study seeks to explore which strategy participants choose in the governance of platform corporate social responsibility and their influencing factors.

Using a platform ecosystem approach, a quadrilateral evolutionary game model was developed, and the stabilities of subjects’ behavioral strategies and their combinations in various scenarios were analyzed. Additionally, the effects of key parameters on the system’s evolutionary path were simulated.

The ideal steady state system is achieved when platform enterprises, complementors and consumers adopt positive strategies while the government adopts lax regulation. Moreover, the evolutionary strategies of the subjects are influenced by several factors, including the participation costs of governance, the rewards and punishments imposed by platform enterprises, as well as the reputational losses of platform enterprises and complementors due to media coverage.

This study offers insights into improving the governance effectiveness of platform corporate social responsibility for managers and practitioners.

This study contributes to existing literature by considering the rational orientation of platform ecosystem members and revealing the interaction mechanisms among members. Furthermore, this study combines collective action theory and reputation theory to clarify the influencing factors on members’ behaviors.

The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating effect of three coping strategies (i.e. active, expressive, and denial coping) in the relationships between service failures (i.e. high- and low-contact service failures) and negative behavioral intentions (i.e. switching intention).

The critical incident technique (CIT) was used to identify the conceptually categorized service failure types in the fitness industry, and then confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) were performed to examine the mediating effect of coping strategies among high-contact service failure and switching intention (study 1) and the mediating effect of coping strategies among low-contact service failure and switching intention (study 2).

While the mediating effect of coping strategies was significant in the relationship between high-contact service failures (study 1) and negative behaviors (i.e. switching intention and complaints), it was not significant in the relationship between low-contact service failures (study 2) and switching intention. Out of the three coping strategies, the impact of active coping was significant.

This study extends the understanding of the mediating effect of coping strategies in the relation between high- and low-contact service failures and switching intention.