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Recent studies have highlighted the importance of adopting a contingency approach to configuring omnichannel warehouses. Nonetheless, research on how various contextual factors influence the selection of warehouse configuration is scarce. This study fills this knowledge gap by exploring how and why certain configurations fit in different omnichannel contexts.

A case study is conducted with six leading Swedish omnichannel retailers. Focusing on outbound warehouse configurations, data are collected through interviews, on-site observations, and secondary sources. A multistep analysis is made, including both pattern matching and explanation building.

The qualitative analysis reveals 16 contextual factors, of which assortment range, requested online order fulfillment times, goods size and total transactions are the most influential. The study shows how contextual factors create different challenges, thereby influencing the choice of the configurations. In addition to market dynamics and task complexity, the study describes four categories of the factors and related challenges that are particularly important in omnichannels: speed, space, economies of scale and tied-up capital.

The findings highlight the importance of understanding context and imply that multiple challenges may require trade-offs when selecting configurations, for example, regarding what storage, processes and resources to integrate or separate. To confirm, extend, challenge and further operationalize the ideas and observations put forward in this paper, an agenda with future research issues is given for this accelerating, contemporary phenomenon.

Managers could leverage the frameworks proposed for the contextual profiling of their current and future positions. The frameworks provide support for understanding the important challenges and potential trade-offs and developing aligned configurations.

This study is original in the way it provides in-depth, case study findings about contextual factors and their influence on omnichannel warehouse configuration.

Several comprehensive reviews are united in drawing the conclusion that the cumulative research evidence on work team diversity is equivocal. Rather than review the extant state of diversity research, in this paper we redirect attention to the context of workplace diversity as a possible explanation for these mixed findings. We discuss how diversity context may be conceptualized, specify various aspects of this context at multiple levels of analysis, and consider how contextual variables can shape the outcomes of work team diversity. We present findings from a literature review (1999–2006) to identify key trends and patterns of results reported in recent research as well as contextual factors that have received attention to date. This paper also considers how the non-significant, positive, negative, and curvilinear effects of diversity reported in studies can be explained by the contextual factors outlined. Implications for future research are also discussed.

This paper aims to examine the relationship between key contextual factors (type of strategic investment decision-making (SIDM), decision uncertainty, organizational goals, financial and non-financial corporate performance, firm size, and decision-maker background) and three significant dimensions of SIDM processes (procedural rationality, strategy formulation and political behaviour).

A survey was mailed to the financial directors of manufacturing companies selected from the UK Financial Analysis Made Easy database. Factor analysis and multiple regression analysis were used to analyse the survey results.

The findings reveal that SIDM is more complex and less systematic than the normative literature suggests, with a combination of contextual factors influencing the decision-making process. Further, the regression results suggest that SIDM is shaped by the interplay of procedural rationality, strategy formulation and political behaviour and that none of these on its own can sufficiently explain SIDM practice.

The survey data are drawn from UK manufacturing companies, so the findings may not be generalisable beyond that context.

The findings suggest a need for firms to recognise that strategy formulation and political aspects of decision-making are as important as “rational” financial analysis in SIDM practice. Further, since SIDM practice is shaped by a combination of contextual factors, a comprehensive overview of these factors is necessary to direct SIDM outcomes.

This study adds to the limited prior research examining the links between contextual factors and SIDM processes. Prior studies have tended to focus on only one dimension, or on limited factors, and have reported inconsistent findings. This paper provides a broader view of the complex nature of SIDM processes.

This paper aims to answer calls for more research on how contextual factors influence the effectiveness of knowledge reuse.

The findings are based on an in-depth case study conducted in the sales department of a large white goods company in Australia.

Six contextual factors identified include purpose, time pressure, language, accessibility, author and date. A mismatch in purpose between knowledge creation and reuse is most likely to reduce knowledge reuse effectiveness. Time pressures may lead to an increase in errors associated with search question definition as well as knowledge search and selection, while unfamiliar language is likely to lead to misinterpretations of content. Knowledge accessibility issues are of particular concern in time-sensitive situations. Authorship and creation date information may facilitate knowledge reuse by allowing consumers to filter unwanted knowledge.

This study contributes to knowledge management theory by providing an exploration of the ways in which contextual factors influence knowledge and reuse effectiveness, and of the possible relationships between those factors. The paper also provides knowledge management practitioners with tangible guidelines on how to increase the effectiveness of organizational knowledge reuse.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of managerial cultural values and the contextual environment (country of origin and country of operation) on corporate social responsibility (CSR) investments in three Asian countries.

A total of 150 questionnaires were collected from 150 companies located in Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore. The potential influence of ethnicity on cultural values was controlled by collecting data from ethnic Chinese managers.

The results show that senior managers, especially their cultural values, play a crucial role in directing Asian companies’ CSR investments. In addition, the context (a firm’s country of origin and country of operation) also differentiates the cultural values and CSR investments in these three countries.

The study adds to the understanding of the influence of managerial cultural values and context on various aspects of CSR. Especially, the study offers valuable managerial implications for CSR implementation from the Chinese management perspective. Considering the fast global expansion of Chinese companies, the results concerning how Chinese managers’ cultural values influence their CSR investments priority offer valuable managerial implications. The comparisons of cultural values and CSR investments priority among ethnic Chinese managers in different contextual environments also serve as good starting points for future studies.

The purpose of this paper is to develop taxonomy of sourcing decision-making (SDM) archetypes and explore how different contextual factors influence these archetypes when global sourcing of complex components is considered a viable option.

A multiple case study approach with five in-depth cases is employed. In total, 19 interviews as well as publicly available and internal data from large buying firms headquartered in Austria and Germany were collected and analyzed.

The results reveal three different SDM archetypes which are described in detail (i.e. “consensus,” “argumentation” and “cabal”). Furthermore, it is found that these archetypes are mainly influenced by three contextual factors: sourcing maturity, product complexity and leadership style. The final model comprises six propositions which illustrate how these contextual factors determine companies’ SDM archetypes.

The study contributes to theory development at the intersection of organizational buying behavior and the (global) SDM literature. Thereby, it answers the call for more rigorous investigation of the influence of contextual factors on SDM processes.

The findings enable practitioners to better understand and consequently manage SDM processes and their outcomes. By supporting decision-makers in identifying SDM archetypes, this study allows sourcing managers and teams to make better decisions by avoiding problems that occur in situations in which the preferred decision-making type would result in suboptimal decisions.

The study provides a first step toward taxonomy of SDM archetypes and is among the first that explores their underlying contextual factors.

Drawing on the entrepreneurial event model (EEM), entrepreneurship education programs (EEPs) and perceived contextual support (adapted from social cognitive career theory) and perceived contextual barriers, this study aims to unravel the differences in entrepreneurial activity among university students in higher education institutes in two diverse Asian countries.

This study uses a cross-sectional survey-based data collection technique using paper and electronic methods. The study analyzes data using descriptive statistics, principal component analysis, reliability analysis and logistic regression analysis via SPSS version 25.

The findings show the positive influence of perceived desirability and feasibility on entrepreneurial intentions; however, the stronger desirability was found among university students in China and stronger feasibility toward entrepreneurial intentions among Pakistani students. The study reveals the negative significant influence of EEPs on entrepreneurial intentions, and this finding is consistent across both samples. Furthermore, the findings show that university students in both countries show insignificant impact of perceived contextual support in predicting entrepreneurial intentions. Finally, the study confirms the negative influence of perceived barriers on entrepreneurial intentions in both contexts.

This study provides differences in entrepreneurial activity by combing EEM, EEPs, perceived contextual support and barriers in two diverse Asian countries, and to the best of author’s knowledge, no previous study considered these factors in a single framework. Furthermore, the findings of the study enrich existing literature and also provide policy recommendations for practitioners.