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1 – 10 of over 157000Wen Pan Fagerlin and Yueqi Wang
The purpose of this study is to map different kinds of tensions in product innovation and investigate how top managers use communication to shape subordinates' attention…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to map different kinds of tensions in product innovation and investigate how top managers use communication to shape subordinates' attention and thereby respond to these tensions.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopted an embedded case study of four innovation centers within a Nordic multinational firm.
Findings
This study identifies three kinds of tensions that reside in product innovation, namely dilemma, paradox and trade-off. Further, this study reveals how joint attention (among top managers and subordinates) as a response to tensions can be achieved through different aggregates of top managers' communication efforts.
Originality/value
In opening the black box of tensions in product innovation and identifying multiple tensions, this study contributes to advancing the understanding of the attention-based view. Different from previous studies that simply consider communication as channels for information processing, the findings indicate that the contents and practices of communication can help top managers to shape subordinates' attention and thereby respond to tensions. This study also extends the research focus of attention from top managers to the whole organization, by revealing the importance of building a joint pattern of attention among top managers and subordinates.
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Hanna Silvola and Eija Vinnari
The purpose of this paper is to enrich extant understanding of the role of both agency and context in the uptake of sustainability assurance. To this end, the authors…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to enrich extant understanding of the role of both agency and context in the uptake of sustainability assurance. To this end, the authors examine auditors' attempts to promote sustainability assurance and establish it as a practice requiring the professional involvement of auditors.
Design/methodology/approach
Applying institutional work (Lawrence and Suddaby, 2006) and institutional logics (Thornton, 2002; Thornton et al., 2012) as the method theories, the authors examine interview data and a variety of documentary evidence collected in Finland, a small society characterized by social and environmental values, beliefs in functioning institutions and public trust in companies behaving responsibly.
Findings
With this study, the authors make two main contributions to extant literature. First, the authors illustrate the limits that society-level logics related to corporate social responsibility, together with the undermining or rejected institutional work of other agents, place especially on the political and cultural work undertaken by auditors. Second, the study responds to Power's (2003) call for country-specific studies by exploring a rather unique context, Finland, where societal trust in companies is arguably stronger than in many other countries and this trust appears to affect how actors perceive the need for sustainability assurance.
Originality/value
This is one of the few accounting studies that combines institutional logics and institutional work to study the uptake of a management fashion, in this case sustainability assurance.
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Suresh Cuganesan and Clinton Free
The authors examined how squad members within an Australian state police force perceived and attached enabling or coercive meanings to a suite of management control system…
Abstract
Purpose
The authors examined how squad members within an Australian state police force perceived and attached enabling or coercive meanings to a suite of management control system (MCS) changes that were new public management (NPM) inspired.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a longitudinal case study of a large Australian state police department utilizing an abductive research design.
Findings
The authors found that identification processes strongly conditioned the reception of the MCS changes introduced. Initially, the authors observed mixed interpretations of controls as both enabling and coercive. Over time, these changes were seen to be coercive because they threatened interpersonal relationships and the importance and efficacy of squads in combating serious and organized crime.
Research limitations/implications
The authors contributed to MCSs literature by revealing the critical role that multifaceted relational and collective identification processes played in shaping interpretations of controls as enabling–coercive. The authors build on this to elaborate on the notion of employees’ centricity in the MCS design.
Practical implications
This study suggests that, in complex organizational settings, the MCS design and change should reckon with pre-existing patterns of employees’ identification.
Originality/value
The authors suggested shifting the starting point for contemplating the MCS change: from looking at how what employees do is controlled to how the change impacts and how employees feel about who they are. When applied to the MCS design, employee centricity highlights the value of collaborative co-design, attentiveness to relational identification between employees, feedback and interaction in place of inferred management expectations and traditional mechanistic approaches.
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Hayley Cocker, Rebecca Mardon and Kate L. Daunt
This paper aims to elucidate instances whereby celebrity endorsements by social media influencers (SMIs) embedded within online consumption communities are perceived as…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to elucidate instances whereby celebrity endorsements by social media influencers (SMIs) embedded within online consumption communities are perceived as transgressive by their fellow community members. In doing so, this study provides insights into the new challenges and considerations that such community contexts present for celebrity endorsement.
Design/methodology/approach
The research team conducted a longitudinal, netnographic study of the YouTube beauty community, involving an initial phase of netnographic immersion followed by an investigative netnography that examined community members’ response to celebrity endorsements by 12 SMIs within the community.
Findings
This study identifies five recurring celebrity endorsement transgressions, each violating an established moral responsibility within the community. The paper explores how community members attribute responsibility for transgressive endorsements and identifies consequences for both the SMI and the endorsed brand.
Research limitations/implications
This study focused on a single consumption community, developing a deep understanding of the distinct moral responsibilities that shape the reception of celebrity endorsements within this context.
Practical implications
The paper presents managerial recommendations that will aid both SMIs and brands in implementing celebrity endorsements that avoid communal perceptions of transgression.
Originality/value
The analysis extends prior study on celebrity endorsement by SMIs by explaining when and why SMI endorsements are likely to be perceived as transgressive by the community and providing new insights into community member responses to transgressive SMI endorsements. It also extends wider theories of celebrity endorsement by highlighting the influence of consumption community contexts upon endorsement reception and examining consumer responses to celebrity endorsements perceived as transgressive in and of themselves.
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Numerous studies have shown that community service during adolescence is associated with positive youth outcomes and future civic engagement (Reinders and Youniss, 2006;…
Abstract
Purpose
Numerous studies have shown that community service during adolescence is associated with positive youth outcomes and future civic engagement (Reinders and Youniss, 2006; Yates and Youniss, 1996). However, less is known about the ways in which students participate in and perceive intermittent, noncurricular community service. The purpose of this study is to examine seventh and eighth grade students' (N = 22) experiences during a common school-wide community service event: the canned food drive.
Design/methodology/approach
Data include students' journal responses to questions about the food drive including their feelings about the event, learning that took place, positive parts of the drive and challenges. An inductive qualitative analysis was used.
Findings
Analysis of students' responses revealed that most students perceived themselves and their classmates as being very helpful to the community and described feeling happiness and pride from the event, even when participation was minimal or nonexistent. While some students reported awareness of poverty and inequality after the food drive, many of their comments about those receiving the donations included deficit-oriented terminology and cognitive distancing by positioning those experiencing food insecurity as “the other” and different from themselves.
Practical implications
Findings highlight the benefits and shortcomings of community service, as class biases and surface-level ideas about helping may be unintentionally reinforced. Recommendations to address these issues are discussed.
Originality/value
Given the prevalence of community service in schools, qualitative research is needed to understand firsthand how students experience these events.
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This study examines the relationship between quality and quantity of open space in residential areas and the sense of community of Chinese older adults in Hong Kong.
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines the relationship between quality and quantity of open space in residential areas and the sense of community of Chinese older adults in Hong Kong.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey was conducted with 257 adults aged 55 and over in Kwun Tong, Hong Kong. The quality of open space was assessed from four dimensions: social and recreational facilities, entrance, location and environment. Geographic information system (GIS) was used to evaluate the quantity of open space in terms of size and amount.
Findings
The result shows that the environment has a strong influence on the sense of community, while the quantity of open space does not. The results provide urban planners with evidence for open space planning in the future. Urban planners should consider building more people-oriented environment; such as green areas instead of merely increasing the size, amount and facilities of open space. The Hong Kong Government also needs to review the current standardised planning guideline in order to maximise the social connection of older adults.
Originality/value
This cross-sectional study tried to understand the relationship between the quality and quantity of open spaces and sense of community in Chinese older adults in Hong Kong. It is one of the few studies to simultaneously examine both the quality and quantity of open spaces when studying its relationship with sense of community.
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Richard Canevez, Carleen Maitland, Ying Xu, Sydney Andrea Hannah and Raphael Rodriguez
Helping others use information and communication technologies (ICTs), such as mobile phones, can be beneficial for individuals and communities. In urban refugee communities…
Abstract
Purpose
Helping others use information and communication technologies (ICTs), such as mobile phones, can be beneficial for individuals and communities. In urban refugee communities, displaced and living far from home, collective behaviors with mobile phones can generate a sense of belonging. The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential for these offline behaviors to generate a sense of community among urban refugees.
Design/methodology/approach
Using quantitative evidence, the authors examined the relationship between collective behaviors, such as sharing or helping with a mobile phone, and sense of community. The authors analyzed survey data collected from urban refugees in Rwanda via multiple regression to test hypotheses related to the impact of collective behaviors on sense of community, as well as the mediating role of ICT self-efficacy and gender.
Findings
The findings suggest that collective behaviors with mobile phones have a positive relationship with sense of community, driven primarily by providing assistance as compared to sharing. ICT self-efficacy was positively related to sense of community. However, collective behaviors' impacts differed by gender, suggesting that social dynamics influence this relationship.
Originality/value
While the extant literature highlights the various roles of mobile phones in refugees' lives, less is known about the social aspects of use and its potential to help overcome isolation by fostering a sense of community. The authors extend this literature to a novel context (urban refugees in the Global South), testing a model that incorporates other factors that may play a role (e.g. self-efficacy and gender). These findings are valuable to urban refugees, due to difficulties in re-building a sense of community and increased ICT access.
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This study is aimed at providing a deduction on the necessity of social and cultural capital for entrepreneurial outcomes on a community-wide scale.
Abstract
Purpose
This study is aimed at providing a deduction on the necessity of social and cultural capital for entrepreneurial outcomes on a community-wide scale.
Design/methodology/approach
There is a drift from an individualised form of entrepreneurship to community-based entrepreneurship with a grand focus on social needs of current and emergent nature. This study is both archival and exploratory and has pictured culture and communality as drivers that are needful for enterprising communities.
Findings
This paper finds communality, social network, social capital and trust as push-factors for community-based entrepreneurship and development drives.
Originality/value
This study is an original exposé on the Abia Ohafia community’s Model of community-based entrepreneurship which thrives on strong institutions (like the Age Grade System) and age-long practices that have built trust and stability. This local community through its networks, culture and communalities creates relationships, rational innovation, consensual leadership and participatory followership under which resources, opportunities and solutions are deliberately advanced for meeting social and community purposes.
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Xiaoxiao Shi, Wei Pan, Wei Pan and Wei Shan
Crowdsourcing communities enable companies to post challenges that are completed by solvers (workers); their success depends on engagement, requiring both creativity and…
Abstract
Purpose
Crowdsourcing communities enable companies to post challenges that are completed by solvers (workers); their success depends on engagement, requiring both creativity and effort. This study explores solver engagement in online crowdsourcing communities, advancing the theory of trait engagement by investigating the mediating roles of: (a) task-related self-efficacy in linking conscientiousness, neuroticism and extraversion, with solver engagement, and (b) task complexity in influencing the mediation.
Design/methodology/approach
215 valid responses were obtained from solvers engaged in the popular Chinese crowdsourcing community, Epwk.com, using an online questionnaire. PLS was then used to analyze the data.
Findings
Results show that self-efficacy mediates the relationships for conscientiousness, neuroticism and extraversion, with solver engagement. Moderated mediation analysis revealed that self-efficacy mediates the relationships for: (a) conscientiousness and extraversion, for only solvers with high task complexity; and (b) neuroticism, for only solvers with low task complexity.
Originality/value
The authors’ findings underscore the importance of accounting for solvers' situational contexts when examining the relationships between personality, self-efficacy and solver engagement in online crowdsourcing communities.
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Martina Jordaan and Nita Mennega
The purpose of this empirical research paper is to investigate the self-perceived role of the community partner of a higher education service-learning and community…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this empirical research paper is to investigate the self-perceived role of the community partner of a higher education service-learning and community engagement module.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative approach was followed by distributing a questionnaire to the community partners of a community engagement module and coding the responses using ATLAS.ti. A total of 36 responses were received from community partners who work with students enrolled in a compulsory undergraduate community-based project module at the University of Pretoria's Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology.
Findings
The community partners share a common interest in the students' education. They are experts in their fields and can share their knowledge with the students and the university. Through these partnerships, long-term reciprocal relationships can develop. Community partners can become co-educators and partners in education. The pragmatist representations of community partners can be challenged when they understand their own stakes in service-learning or community engagement projects. This better aids higher education institutes in the management and evaluation of service-learning and community engagement pedagogies and curricula.
Research limitations/implications
Two main limitations underlie this study. Firstly, this research is based on data from one community module at a single university. Although a large number of students are registered in the module, the study would be improved by conducting it at more than one university countrywide. Secondly, the study was performed during the first coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown the country experienced. This was a completely unexpected event for which everyone was totally unprepared. Many of the community partners lacked the resources to receive or respond to an online questionnaire. The nature of the lockdown prevented the researchers from reaching these community partners for a face-to-face interview. The voice of these community partners is, therefore, silent.
Practical implications
The community partners reiterated their need to be seen as equal partners in the module and appreciated being part of a group of non-profit enterprises working together with a university to pursue a set of common goals. However, their status as peers depends on their willingness and ability to contribute sufficiently to the structure and demands of the service-learning module. The community partners who were able and willing to orientate each group of students to their organisation's mission and objectives, and who executed their roles according to the course requirements, experienced the greatest success in terms of project effectiveness and efficiency, and also in terms of future benefits when students returned to volunteer or provide donations. Given time, these community partners grew into an equal partner with the university's stakeholders, where both their own needs and those of the students were met during the various service-learning projects.
Social implications
Since all respondents in this study are non-profit organisations, the financial assistance and free labour afforded to them by the students are of paramount importance. The community partners also understand the longer-term value implications of successful student projects, as some students return of their free will to volunteer their services when gainfully employed after graduation.
Originality/value
Community engagement projects are rarely investigated from the community partner's point of view. This paper elicited their responses and examined them through the lens of Fraser's theory of social justice (Fraser, 2009).
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