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Among world’s economies, the circular economy (CE) has become popular especially in the European Union and China, which opens several opportunities for sustainability leaders to gain a first-mover advantage and, consequently, to pursue organizational sustainability and growth. In spite of public policy support, since CE often requires entrepreneurial innovation among complex networks of companies, most companies are still learning how to manage knowledge dynamics at the inter-organization level. The chapter starts by defining the key characteristics of CE and identifying the peculiarities in terms of inter-firm cooperative and competitive relations, which help in delineating contributions from the green supply chain literature. The second section shows – through the discussion of term maps – how multiple- and inter-disciplinary streams of research are increasingly linked by hard (i.e., information communication technologies based) and soft (i.e., relational and organizational) aspects of knowledge management. The third section provides a discussion on key hard and soft factors that characterize four knowledge dynamics, i.e., knowledge creation, knowledge storage, knowledge transfer, and knowledge sharing that can improve the adoption and integration of circular processes within inter-organizational coopetitive strategies. Particular attention is here given to the cross-analysis of outcomes from theoretical papers, case studies, and quantitative empirical researches that contribute to shaping relations between internal and external factors that might play as predictors of a successful implementation of CE principles. Finally, the last section concludes with recommendations for improving organizational and managerial capabilities to manage inter-firm knowledge dynamics while pursuing CE objectives in international business environments. Beside this guidance for practitioners, directions for further research are suggested for each pillar of the emerging conceptual model.

Despite the much publicised advantages of a website for SME exporters, the level of website sophistication, as well as the factors which inhibit or stimulate exporting SMEs to develop their website beyond a basic level of sophistication, are still unknown. The literature is prone to discuss website establishment and development simultaneously, splitting firms into adopters and non-adopters, yet websites may be established and then neglected, or be continually developed. This paper introduces an instrument for measuring website sophistication within an export marketing context, and proposes and empirically tests a model that depicts factors impacting on perceived advantages of a website and website sophistication levels. The results identify export diversity and environmental pressure as key determinants of perceived advantage of a website which in turn is a good predictor of website sophistication. The firm internal resources, i.e. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) knowledge and time, in conjunction with entrepreneurship orientation also determine an SME exporter's website sophistication level.

This chapter addresses the criticisms that escalation of commitment research has focused only on individual (as opposed to team or group) decision-making. It has been suggested that research findings of individual-based decision on managers’ escalation behaviors may not be applicable in today’s business environment which is increasingly dominated by team or group-based decision. Specifically, this chapter examines the effects of information availability (public vs. private information) and type of responsibility (sole and joint responsibility) on managers’ project evaluation decisions. A laboratory experiment was conducted to test the hypotheses developed for this study. The results indicate that, consistent with prior research, project managers exhibited a greater tendency to continue a failing project under private information than public information conditions. In addition, in the private information condition, project managers with joint responsibility for an investment project expressed a greater tendency to continue a failing project than those with sole responsibility. Implications of our results for the design of management control systems are discussed.

Realizing that the Internet is a source of information and the possibility to transform it into knowledge, this study develops an IBK-Internalization process in which internationalizing firms in transition markets utilize the Internet to search for information about foreign markets, to assess its relevance, and then, to internalize it for their internationalization. It is found that IBK-Internalization underlies international orientation and foreign sales intensity, which in turn, has a reciprocal effect on IBK-Internalization. Further, learning orientation facilitates the IBK-Internalization process. These findings suggest that internationalizing firms should promote and value the IBK-Internalization process in order to mitigate their lack of foreign market knowledge.

This chapter uses agency theory and ethics literature to assess the moderating effect of manager's moral equity on the relation between budget participation and propensity to create slack. Moral equity is the major evaluative criterion for ethical judgment, is based on the overall concept of fairness, justice and right and is often very influential in contemporary moral thought (Robin & Reidenbach (1996) Journal of Business, 5(1) 17–28). The results indicate that a manager's moral equity moderates the effect of budget participation. For managers with high moral equity, the relationship between participation and manager's propensity to create slack is significantly negative while, for managers with low moral equity, the relationship is significantly positive. Further analyses indicate that high budget participation and high moral equity result in less propensity to create slack than high budget participation and low moral equity.

Information experience has emerged as a new and dynamic field of information research in recent years. This chapter will discuss and explore information experience in two distinct ways: (a) as a research object and (b) as a research domain. Two recent studies will provide the context for this exploration. The first study investigated the information experiences of people using social media (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) during natural disasters. Data was gathered by in-depth semi-structured interviews with 25 participants, from two areas affected by natural disasters (i.e. Brisbane and Townsville). The second study investigated the qualitatively different ways in which people experienced information literacy during a natural disaster. Using phenomenography, data was collected via semi-structured interviews with seven participants. These studies represent two related yet different investigations. Taken together the studies provide a means to critically debate and reflect upon our evolving understandings of information experience, both as a research object and as a research domain. This chapter presents our preliminary reflections and concludes that further research is needed to develop and strengthen our conceptualisation of this emerging area.

In this chapter we examine various human resource management (HRM) implications involved in the leadership of fluid teams. Leadership of fluid teams, which are distinguished by their dynamic composition, requires consideration of issues that may not be as pertinent for stable teams. In particular, we focus on the concept of familiarity. Composing and leading teams with members exhibiting varying degrees of familiarity with one another creates obstacles to effective and efficient functioning and may ultimately lead to poor performance. With this in mind, leaders must pay particular attention to issues of coordination, and composition such that a broad range of generalizable teamwork skills exists within the team. Within this chapter, we explain the concepts of fluid teams, team leadership within fluid teams, and other relevant concepts related to the formation of familiarity. Next, we thoroughly review extant empirical and theoretical research within these areas. We identify areas of correspondence among the various concepts and findings of the reviewed studies and generate an integrated model of fluid team leadership. To conclude, we highlight the distinct HRM implications associated with the use, and leadership, of fluid teams.