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Article
Publication date: 20 April 2018

Colleen Marie Grady and C.R. (Bob) Hinings

Physicians are instrumental in healthcare reform and their capacity to employ both leadership and management skills can affect change at all levels. This paper aims to present the…

Abstract

Purpose

Physicians are instrumental in healthcare reform and their capacity to employ both leadership and management skills can affect change at all levels. This paper aims to present the challenges and opportunities for physicians in influencing system change and discuss how the two different but complementary skill sets may enable them to contribute to transformation of healthcare.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a conceptual paper and represents the viewpoints of both authors while incorporating current evidence through the literature.

Findings

Healthcare reform is important and underway in many Canadian provinces, yet it is difficult to achieve change. Leadership and management skills differ although these differences are often subtle in language. Physicians both lead and manage in the healthcare system; their capacity to do both is an advantage for healthcare reform.

Originality/value

This paper represents the opinions of both authors and is considered original as a conceptual paper.

Details

Leadership in Health Services, vol. 32 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1751-1879

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 March 2015

Mark Edward Pickering

The purpose of this paper is to explore the implications on former accounting firm partners becoming employees of a publicly owned accounting corporation, the responses of the…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the implications on former accounting firm partners becoming employees of a publicly owned accounting corporation, the responses of the former partners and impacts on the acquiring company. Partners of accounting and other professional service firms selling their firms to publicly owned companies often remain with the acquiring company as employees and receive company shares as consideration for their firms. Agency theory suggests public ownership will result in changes to the roles of senior professionals with potential resistance and motivation consequences.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses a case study approach involving the review of publicly available information and interviews with executives and senior professionals of an Australian publicly owned accounting company, Stockford Limited.

Findings

The Stockford case indicates that selling their firm to a publicly owned company can have significant negative implications for accounting firm partners. The former partners struggled to adapt to their new roles as senior professional employees and shareholders. Their responses had significant impacts on company performance, which ultimately contributed to the collapse of the company, thus reflecting the power senior professionals retain regardless of the change of ownership form.

Research limitations/implications

Care is required when generalising findings of a single case to other professions and other geographic jurisdictions.

Practical implications

This paper has significant implications for entrepreneurs and executives consolidating professional service firms, partners considering selling their firms and investors in publicly owned professional service firms.

Originality/value

Despite the emergence of publicly owned accounting and other professional service companies and the importance and power of senior professionals in professional service firms, this is the first study to explore the implications on senior professionals of selling their firms to public companies.

Details

Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change, vol. 11 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1832-5912

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 September 2021

Benjamin P. Dean

This inquiry aims to determine the features and mechanisms that specially enable a multiteam system (MTS) to develop ambidexterity that can deal effectively with rapid changes in…

Abstract

Purpose

This inquiry aims to determine the features and mechanisms that specially enable a multiteam system (MTS) to develop ambidexterity that can deal effectively with rapid changes in dynamic environments. The MTS is an emerging organizational unit comprised of tightly integrated networks of teams that may originate from one or more firms. The inquiry also considered how an MTS can engage those features and mechanisms to maximize ambidexterity as dynamic capabilities for increased innovation and long-term adaptation under complex, volatile conditions.

Design/methodology/approach

This conceptual inquiry integrates the emerging research on MTSs with theory and studies relating to ambidexterity and dynamic capabilities. This inquiry focuses on the attributes and linkages that specially characterize an MTS. It analyzes these to determine the key mechanisms and interactions enabling and engaging ambidexterity at MTS unit level.

Findings

MTSs can engage powerful mechanisms for ambidexterity functioning as dynamic capabilities at meso-organizational level. The attributes and linkages that distinguish an MTS from other units enable it to deal effectively and efficiently with near-term task demands by simultaneously balancing the essential tasks of exploration and exploitation, and by being able to rapidly adapt by reconfiguring taskwork and reallocating resources as required for sustainable innovation and long-term success within a dynamic environment.

Practical implications

This inquiry provides valuable insights for designing MTSs that are equipped with selected teams, flexible memberships, specialized skills and permeable interfaces. Autonomy for an MTS allows the unit to span internal and external organizational boundaries to gain access to new discoveries and to exchange information and material resources for increased innovation. Ambidexterity as dynamic capabilities facilitates exploitation of current resources by efficiently reconfiguring taskwork and reallocating materials for adaptation and competitive advantage.

Originality/value

This inquiry appears to represent the most integrative effort to examine the underexplored potential of MTSs for developing and engaging ambidexterity functioning as dynamic capabilities. The inquiry appears to be a first effort at articulating a concept of MTS ambidexterity distinct from organizational ambidexterity. The analysis synthesizes a systems model that guides organizational leaders and opens new opportunities for future research.

Details

International Journal of Organization Theory & Behavior, vol. 24 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1093-4537

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 May 2016

Krishna Chandra Balodi

Extant literature highlights the inadequacy of using just four domains – leadership, strategy, structure, and environment – for identifying firms’ configurations. The purpose of…

1044

Abstract

Purpose

Extant literature highlights the inadequacy of using just four domains – leadership, strategy, structure, and environment – for identifying firms’ configurations. The purpose of this paper is to answer the questions – what firm-level and external elements should be used to identify young firms’ configurations? Which among these is the core element?

Design/methodology/approach

This paper relies on literatures on configuration approach and entrepreneurial orientation (EO) to build the assertions concerning the issue of theoretical specification used for generating young firms’ configurations, and its core element. Crisp-set qualitative comparative analysis (CS-QCA) of the data collected from 70 young firms supports the arguments. Various robustness analyses reaffirm these assertions.

Findings

Literature review reveals that EO represents a firm’s decision-making proclivity concerning new entry and proactive risk-taking. CS-QCA supports the assertions that: inclusion of EO improves the configurational explanation of young firms’ performance; EO is the core element of young firms’ configurations; and market orientation or social capital cannot substitute EO in configurational studies of young firms’ performance. CS-QCA serves as a tool to support an alternative theoretical stance that questions the adequacy of extant domains used to identify configurations.

Originality/value

This paper theorizes for inclusion of EO as an additional domain for identifying young firms’ configurations, and exploits novel capability of set theoretic methods of CS-QCA to explore the issues of model specification and conjunctural causation, and ascertain the core element of configurations.

Article
Publication date: 19 January 2015

Karthik Dhandapani and Rajesh S. Upadhyayula

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of related diversification across service offerings and industry domains for professional service firms (PSFs) in emerging…

1226

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of related diversification across service offerings and industry domains for professional service firms (PSFs) in emerging economies by integrating the reputational and economies of scope perspectives of diversification. The paper also provides insights into how related diversification impacts small and medium sized firms differently.

Design/methodology/approach

Using unique data from the Indian Information Technology industry, the authors examine the impact of related diversification along service offerings and industry domains on export performance of firms.

Findings

The results show that related diversification across specializations and industry domains impact performance differently across different firm sizes. While the authors find that related diversification across service offerings has an inverted U shape with performance for the medium sized firms, they do not impact performance for small sized firms. Performance of small firms has a U shaped relationship with relatedness in industry domains. The study shows that reputation transfer across industry domains play a significant role in the performance of small size firms whereas the ability to realize economies of scope by cross selling multiple services across clients do matter for performance of medium sized firms.

Practical implications

Managers of small PSFs need to expand along related industry domains whereas managers from medium sized firms can experiment across service offerings to exploit economies of scope.

Originality/value

The study contributes to hitherto unexamined research on related diversification in PSFs. The study is one of the few studies to examine relatedness along more than one dimension in an intra-industry context.

Details

International Journal of Emerging Markets, vol. 10 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-8809

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 October 2020

Yefei Yang, Ciwei Dong, Xin Yao, Peter K.C. Lee and T.C.E. Cheng

With the development of social media and Internet technology, many firms have started to use various crowdsourcing innovation platforms to operate their open innovation business…

Abstract

Purpose

With the development of social media and Internet technology, many firms have started to use various crowdsourcing innovation platforms to operate their open innovation business modes. The purpose of this study is to explore how such platforms' assurance mechanisms enhance the effectiveness of crowdsourcing innovations and how to apply assurance mechanisms to handle different innovation tasks, thereby motivating more seekers to use crowdsourcing innovations.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors use a Python-based technology to collect the research data comprising 2,302 solvers and 8,390 trade records from zbj.com and apply statistical methods to test the postulated hypotheses.

Findings

The effectiveness of assurance mechanism is confirmed by its positive relationship with solver's behaviour, thereby improving seeker's retention behaviour. However, task complexity, task novelty and task professionalization have different moderating effects on the relationships among assurance mechanism, solver's (innovator's) behaviour and seeker's behaviour.

Research limitations/implications

This study enriches the literature on crowdsourcing innovations and extends the application of uncertainty reduction theory to innovation research. It also makes the theoretical contribution that the assurance mechanism adopted by the platform has different impacts on user's behaviour depending on the task characteristics.

Practical implications

The findings provide guidance to the platform operator on how to design the assurance mechanism to match the innovation task and innovator's behaviour to reduce seeker's uncertainty, thereby facilitating the seeker's decision-making.

Originality/value

A particular value of this study lies in exploring the impact of the platform assurance mechanism of social media-based crowdsourcing innovations on innovator's behaviour, which may further improve seeker's behaviour, based on uncertainty reduction theory.

Details

Industrial Management & Data Systems, vol. 121 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-5577

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 26 August 2014

Krishna Chandra Balodi and Jaideep Prabhu

– The purpose of this paper is to explore and compare causal recipes for high performance among young Indian and UK firms in high-tech industries.

1226

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore and compare causal recipes for high performance among young Indian and UK firms in high-tech industries.

Design/methodology/approach

The traditional configuration approach suggests using the leadership, strategy, structure, and environment domains to identify configurations. In response to calls to improve causal linkages, and drawing on work on start-ups’ configurations, entrepreneurial orientation is used with these four domains to identify configurations. Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis is used to analyze data collected via questionnaires from 70 Indian and 21 UK young firms.

Findings

In all five configurations identified in UK context, firms adopt high external integration, and employ inorganic development strategies, exhibit high internal integration, or do not operate in a highly competitive industry. These firms carve out niches, enjoy strong linkages with supply chain partners, and have strong enough reputations that their environment is not highly competitive. Although employees are told what to do, autonomy is provided on how to do it. Among the nine Indian configurations, a large number of managers with high-growth experience is absent in eight, high internal integration is lacking in six, and high external integration is missing in five. These firms employ alternative recipes for success, as discussed in the paper.

Originality/value

Comparing configurations in the Indian and UK contexts, the paper highlights similarities and differences across configurations, and that founders devise alternate pathways to achieve high performance. It also notes changes in relationships among variables across configurations.

Details

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, vol. 20 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2554

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 April 2019

Rodrigo Basco

The purpose of this paper is to compare the post-entry firm behavior of firms owner-managed by entrepreneurs who entered for family-oriented vs opportunity-oriented reasons.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to compare the post-entry firm behavior of firms owner-managed by entrepreneurs who entered for family-oriented vs opportunity-oriented reasons.

Design/methodology/approach

Using the institutional logics perspective, the author argues that firms under the influence of opportunity-oriented or family-oriented owner-managers may differ in their internal practices, purpose, strategies, and performance. The author follows an inductive research methodology strategy by performing multivariate analyses with a sample of 1,733 Chilean firms to explore the preliminary conjectures.

Findings

Firms owner-managed by entrepreneurs who entered for a family-oriented reason finance their investment with firm resources, are less dependent on one customer and are willing to put forth less innovation effort than firms owner-managed by entrepreneurs who entered for an opportunity-oriented reason. No differences were found in terms of employee productivity. Additionally, the results show that young firms owner-managed by opportunity-oriented entrepreneurs have higher growth ratios than young firms owner-managed by family-oriented entrepreneurs. Inversely, old firms owner-managed by entrepreneurs who entered for an opportunity-oriented reason grow much less than old firms owner-managed by entrepreneurs who entered for a family-oriented reason.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the literature at the intersection of family business and entrepreneurship by addressing the calls made by Aldrich and Cliff (2003) and Discua Cruz and Basco (2018) to better understand the family’s influence on entrepreneurship.

Details

Journal of Family Business Management, vol. 9 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2043-6238

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1993

Blake E. Ashforth

Two models of organizational behavior are reviewed. The apolitical model describes a relatively stable and centralized monolith, while the political model describes a potentially…

Abstract

Two models of organizational behavior are reviewed. The apolitical model describes a relatively stable and centralized monolith, while the political model describes a potentially unstable federation of self‐interested parties. It is argued that the apolitical model is largely predicated on social and generalized exchange and forces for stability, while the political model is largely predicated on economic and dyadic exchange and forces for instability. It is further argued that the contradictions inherent in these forces help fuel evolutionary change (where the apolitical model becomes most salient), punctuated by revolutionary change (where the political model becomes most salient). Thus, the two models apply simultaneously to organizational action, suggesting that the organization can be seen as both a stable monolith and an unstable coalition.

Details

The International Journal of Organizational Analysis, vol. 1 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1055-3185

Article
Publication date: 15 July 2014

Yair Aharoni

This paper argues that international business (IB) theory needs to adapt to the changes that have occurred in the global economy when the world was divided into rich market…

854

Abstract

Purpose

This paper argues that international business (IB) theory needs to adapt to the changes that have occurred in the global economy when the world was divided into rich market economies, communist countries and poor economies. Changes in ideologies and technologies has opened up opportunities for emerging market multinational enterprises and the paper offers guidelines for a dynamic IB contingency theory to acknowledge these changes and learning.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a conceptual paper which is designed to offer an alternative contingency perspective on IB theory.

Findings

IB scholars should recognize the influence of several contingent variables such as the institutional environment, political systems, government-business-NGO relations, social norms-ethical behavior, country size and industry. The structural characteristics of an industry, their importance to the country and the regulatory regime are major variables in understanding how and whether firms can become emerging multinational enterprises (EMNEs). The paper finds that emerging market government and enterprises have strategies for building knowledge intensive industries through mergers and acquisitions and exploit these on a global scale.

Research limitations/implications

IB scholars should recognize that multinational enterprises learn and they adapt to the global environment. Scholars should develop strategies or a way of thinking which is different to the status quo to take advantage of the new and changing circumstances where the rules of the game are different to those in the researcher's home country.

Practical implications

The removal of trade barriers and government restrictions on trade and technological developments means that EMNEs and governments should not rely on protection and subsidies but should compete on being unique and adopt differentiated strategies in niche but global marketplaces.

Details

International Journal of Emerging Markets, vol. 9 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-8809

Keywords

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