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This paper aims to present that deliberate change is strongly associated with formal structures and top-down influence. Hierarchical configurations have been used to structure processes, overcome resistance and get things done. But is deliberate change also possible without formal structures and hierarchical influence?

This longitudinal, qualitative study investigates an open-source software (OSS) community named TYPO3. This case exhibits no formal hierarchical attributes. The study is based on mailing lists, interviews and observations.

The study reveals that deliberate change is indeed achievable in a non-hierarchical collaborative OSS community context. However, it presupposes the presence and active involvement of informal change agents. The paper identifies and specifies four key drivers for change agents’ influence.

The findings contribute to organisational analysis by providing a deeper understanding of the importance of leadership in making deliberate change possible in non-hierarchical settings. It points to the importance of “change-by-conviction”, essentially based on voluntary behaviour. This can open the door to reducing the negative side effects of deliberate change also for hierarchical organisations.

Examines the roles of conviction and doubt in organizational learning processes and focuses on the challenge of transforming individual learning into organizational learning. Explores the individual and organizational effects of too little doubt or too little conviction in terms of awareness of the need for organizational learning, the design of organizational learning processes, and active experimentation in implementing what is being learned. Using the concepts of conviction and doubt, presents a tentative model of organizational learning which posits a cycle that alternates between individual doubt and collective consensus and conviction. Presents a brief case study from an actual organization in order to illustrate how doubt and conviction might be employed to assist interventions in organizational learning.

In his economic writings John Paul II asserts the importance of placing the human person at the center of deliberations concerning the economy. Neoclassical economists show that free trade enhances the efficiency of society. However, a byproduct of free trade is greater competition, as countries and firms adjust to the introduction of new products and processes of production, made possible through technological innovation. Neoclassical economists assume that workers will move to where new jobs develop. In many cases, however, this means that they impose burdens on their family and become more distant from friends. Each human person establishes bonds with other persons; through such family bonds of friendship a person becomes more human. This essay explores the tension between greater productive efficiency and a desire to maintain and enhance friendships. Never merely objective analysts, neoclassical economists have strong convictions concerning dynamic efficiency, while consumers have convictions about friendship. These two sets of convictions have to be reconciled. In order for policy makers to assess the true costs of free trade, mobility measures must be developed, and the neoclassical model must be modified to incorporate geographical stability as a significant factor for consumers.

A collection of essays by a social economist seeking to balance economics as a science of means with the values deemed necessary to man′s finding the good life and society enduring as a civilized instrumentality. Looks for authority to great men of the past and to today′s moral philosopher: man is an ethical animal. The 13 essays are: 1. Evolutionary Economics: The End of It All? which challenges the view that Darwinism destroyed belief in a universe of purpose and design; 2. Schmoller′s Political Economy: Its Psychic, Moral and Legal Foundations, which centres on the belief that time‐honoured ethical values prevail in an economy formed by ties of common sentiment, ideas, customs and laws; 3. Adam Smith by Gustav von Schmoller – Schmoller rejects Smith′s natural law and sees him as simply spreading the message of Calvinism; 4. Pierre‐Joseph Proudhon, Socialist – Karl Marx, Communist: A Comparison; 5. Marxism and the Instauration of Man, which raises the question for Marx: is the flowering of the new man in Communist society the ultimate end to the dialectical movement of history?; 6. Ethical Progress and Economic Growth in Western Civilization; 7. Ethical Principles in American Society: An Appraisal; 8. The Ugent Need for a Consensus on Moral Values, which focuses on the real dangers inherent in there being no consensus on moral values; 9. Human Resources and the Good Society – man is not to be treated as an economic resource; man′s moral and material wellbeing is the goal; 10. The Social Economist on the Modern Dilemma: Ethical Dwarfs and Nuclear Giants, which argues that it is imperative to distinguish good from evil and to act accordingly: existentialism, situation ethics and evolutionary ethics savour of nihilism; 11. Ethical Principles: The Economist′s Quandary, which is the difficulty of balancing the claims of disinterested science and of the urge to better the human condition; 12. The Role of Government in the Advancement of Cultural Values, which discusses censorship and the funding of art against the background of the US Helms Amendment; 13. Man at the Crossroads draws earlier themes together; the author makes the case for rejecting determinism and the “operant conditioning” of the Skinner school in favour of the moral progress of autonomous man through adherence to traditional ethical values.

The purpose of the research paper is to examine customers' online purchase intention towards apparel in the online environment, with a focus on the role of conviction and brand reputation of the e-retailer.

Hypotheses are based on an extensive literature review and tested using adapted existing scales for the constructs-social media usage for apparel, electronic word of mouth (EWOM), conviction, apparel e-retailer's brand reputation and online purchase intention towards apparel, and data are collected from 362 online customers of apparel brands in eight major cities across the country. Structural equation modelling (SEM) is applied to analyze data and test hypotheses because of multiple dependent variables.

The quantitative results indicate that impact of social media and EWOM on online purchase intention towards apparel is mediated by conviction. The results also explain the moderating effect of apparel e-retailer's brand reputation.

Findings provide suggestions for the apparel business in an online environment that address the issue of breach of trust and implications for apparel e-retailers, managers and researchers. The study contributes to the existing retail literature by proposing concept of conviction and role of apparel e-retailer's brand reputation in this context.

Employers using criminal background checks to make hiring determinations must carefully balance the need to protect themselves and their clients against legal mandates designed to protect the rights of individuals with criminal records. Yet, surprisingly little research examines this balancing act. The purpose of this paper is to examine how one large agency, the New York Department of Health (DOH), navigates a myriad of mandates to convey and create legitimacy in compliance with complex legal mandates and contrasting interests.

Prior research on civil right legislation suggests that while companies may create regulations that appear to comply with such mandates, their actual practice does not always comply with their own rules (Dobbin et al., 1988). Therefore, this study addresses two key questions: do the DOH policies appear to comply with the relevant New York State law and does the DOH effectively implement the policies in a way that upholds New York State law. Specifically, this study estimates probit models on a sample of over 7,000 potential employees with criminal records to determine compliance with the criteria established by law and policy.

Findings show that the variables indicated by law/regulations such as offense severity and time since conviction work in the intended direction. Using only these criteria the models are able to correctly predict clearance decisions approximately of the time and that extra-legal factors such as race and gender do not further influence final determinations.

These findings have practical implications for employers as they show that it is possible for employers to design formal rules that navigate this complex landscape while still opening up employment opportunities for individuals with criminal records.

This is important as many employers either utilize criminal background checks without regulation or are fearful of embarking on efforts to meet regulations such as those promulgated by the EEOC. This research is the first of its kind to actually document and explore the ability of a large employer to conduct socially responsible criminal history background checks.

This paper examines the case of Nashoba, a Tennessee-based social enterprise founded in 1824 by Scottish immigrant Frances Wright. The Nashoba venture intended to diminish the institution of slavery in the USA through entrepreneurial activity over its five years of operation.

This study methodology entailed mining primary source data from Wright’s letters; communications with her cofounders and contemporaries; and documentations of enterprise operations. The authors examined these data using social enterprise theory with a focus on personal identity and time-laden empirical aspects not captured by traditional methodologies.

The social enterprise concept of a single, self-sustaining model generating more than one denomination of value in a blended form has a deeper history than the literature acknowledges. As an entrepreneur, Wright made strategic decisions in a context of supply-side and demand-side threats to the venture. The social enterprise engaged injustice by going beyond market and state contexts to generate impact in the realms of institutions and non-excludable public goods.

This study generates two formal implications for the development of new research questions in social enterprise studies. The first implication addresses the relation between social entrepreneurs and their constituencies. The second implication pertains to the effects of macro-level education, awareness and politics on social enterprise performance and impact. The implications herald new insights in social enterprise, such as the limits of moral conviction and the importance of social disruption.

This paper broadens the current understanding of how social enterprises redress unjust and unethical institutions. It also contributes new insights into social enterprise launch and growth based on shared values within communities and coordinated strategic intentions across communities.

The purpose of this paper is to propose the concept of conviction in online environment. It examines the vital role of conviction and firm’s brand reputation while understanding the impact of social media usage and electronic word-of-mouth (EWOM) on purchase decisions of Generation Y.

Literature review resulted in six constructs – social media usage, EWOM, conviction, firm’s brand reputation and purchase intention and customer loyalty. The authors adopted the concept of conviction from another field of enquiry (organizational learning), conducted a qualitative study and an e-mail survey with post-graduate management students (Generation Y) of a university to examine the impact of social media and EWOM on customer purchase decision. Data were collected and analyzed with the help of structural equation modeling.

Results indicated that impact of social media usage and EWOM on purchase decision is mediated by conviction. Firm’s reputation as brand (perceived by the customer) moderates the relationship between EWOM and purchase intention in a manner that this relationship is significantly stronger if there is more positive brand reputation.

This study validates the concept of conviction in online environment. The purchase decision is defined as purchase intention and loyalty of the customer.

This study of the growth history and practices of 1,238 companies over a decade by the IBM Institute for Business Value found that top growth companies excel in three vital areas: course, capability and conviction. IBM calls this the “3Cs model.”

The IBM research team developed a database of growth and shareholder return performance for companies included in the S&P Global 1200. Starting with the 2003 list, the team added the firms that “fell off” the listing over the preceding decade. The study worked with a final list of 1,238 companies with complete data over the decade. Collectively, this group recorded median annual revenue growth of 8.5 percent and median TSR growth of 8.8 percent.

The most successful growers: have a clear point of view on their industry, addressing both where it is headed and how they will create value in its new form or environment; are iconoclasts who evolve their product‐market portfolio on an ongoing basis; sustain the growth quest by developing multiple growth initiatives that are backed by ongoing cost and asset management to create funding; foster a culture that responds to the necessity of change, and a cadre of leaders with the passion and follow through to make the change stick

The article provides a sound intellectual background for researchers who want to compile in‐depth case studies.

The article advises corporate leaders to: assess their company's status against your growth ambitions and the 3C model winners follow; develop a point of view on the future and its opportunities; evolve your product market portfolio and initiatives; develop a competitive model; get to know your capabilities and align them with opportunities.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, firms with the will to be successful growers can break free of perceived constraints related to size, industry boundaries and geographic neighborhood.

The dynamics of drug use and trafficking in Poland have changed dramatically since the early 1990s. These changes include legal definitions of drug use, the actors involved in trafficking, and the types of drugs traversing the country. The Polish police force experienced two significant reforms in the 1990s and drug‐related legislation underwent significant reconstruction in 1997 and 2000, while drug trafficking operations continue to persist by organized criminal groups. The purpose of this study is to qualitatively investigate these police reforms and drug legislation developments since 1990, and empirically analyze the interaction effects of these reforms with drug trafficking arrests in Poland.

Officially reported annual data were tested using multivariate regression analyses.

The findings observed from this exploratory study suggest that both the police reforms and changes in drug‐related legislation positively affected the number of arrests for drug trafficking. Additionally, this study found support for an increase in efficiency of the policing model despite the recent decline in the strength of the police force. Interestingly, the number of police officers in the country had no effect on any of the variables.

Quantitatively, the small number of observations poses limitations on the interpretation of the multivariate regression results. In addition, future research should include additional explanatory variables to achieve a greater comprehensive summary of the interaction effects of policing reforms and drug‐related legislation with drug trafficking arrests.

This paper illustrates the need for accurate and timely national‐level, systematically collected data on drug‐ and police‐related indicators that will allow for more inclusive and comprehensive analyses.

This study is one of the first to empirically examine potential interaction effects of police reform and drug‐related legislation on drug trafficking arrests in Poland.