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The study aims to determine whether audited organizations experience differences between external audits and official controls.

A survey among 100 organic food producers was conducted to explore differences regarding the usability of external audits and official controls. The survey was conducted in 2020 using the computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI) method supplemented by the computer-assisted web interview (CAWI) method. Organizations processing organic farming products in Poland were chosen for the study.

Three primary benefits associated with external audits and official controls were identified, i.e. (1) enabling and initiating activities related to the improvement of the organization, (2) improving the financial performance of the organization and (3) enhancing credibility. For most organizations, the assessment of these features was at the same level for both external audits and official control. However, if these assessments differed, commercial audits were assessed at a higher level than official controls.

The study is limited to only one specific type of manufacturing organization and one European country.

The literature review shows some conceptual differences between audits and official controls, but the results of this study show that the business environment does not perceive these differences as significant. Thus, the value of the study is reflected in the conclusion that both external audits and official controls are considered useful and credible approaches to monitoring the quality within the organization, which allows us to state that external evaluation is generally seen as an opportunity to improve the performance of the organization.

Certified and non-certified organisations must make strategic decisions regarding ISO 9001 adoption, maintenance, renewal and abandonment. However, the ISO 9001 literature lacks a typology of the strategic options available to these organisations. The purpose of this conceptual study is to develop a framework of the alternative strategies for the stages of the ISO 9001 life cycle (implementation/certification, certification maintenance and recertification/decertification stages).

The research method is based on literature review, selection of relevant variables and synthesis of coherent alternative strategies.

Results include the main variables of relevance for the definition of the ISO 9001 strategies (e.g. life cycle stage, organisational motivations, barriers, benefits, internalisation degree and quality of the certification body), the main situations in which organisations can find themselves (in terms of ISO 9001 certification, maintenance and decertification), the strategic options for each situation (e.g.: certify, maintain certification, try harder, change certification body, intensify learning and experimentation with ISO 9001) and the implications and consequences of such options. Research results are integrated into a strategy framework, composed of three strategy matrices, one for each stage of the life cycle. The matrices present the strategic situations, available strategic alternatives and benefits of the strategies.

This study combines the results of previous research to develop an original strategy framework, which constitutes the main research contribution. As far as the author is aware, there is no such strategy framework in the literature. The framework has relevant implications for theory and practice and helps to identify future research directions.

The purpose of this study is to frame the dimensions of the external institutional environment, namely, cultural-cognitive, normative and regulative dimensions as the main actors in the organisational field. More precisely, Libyan commercial banks have been identified as empirical evidence, to identify constraints of the institutional environment governing the behaviour and decision-making of commercial banks, when adopting Islamic financial transactions.

A questionnaire has been designed for 14 Libyan commercial banks which is distributed to the Board of Directors, managers, directors of departments, and personnel. The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and the measurement model by using the first-order and second-order confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) have been applied as essential steps to embody the conceptual framework and test the research hypotheses.

The results of the EFA indicated sufficient correlation among the dimensions of the external environment. The CFA supported this study’s hypotheses. The modelling showed that the cultural-cognitive, normative and regulative dimensions are institutional constraints impeding Libyan commercial banks’ adoption of Islamic financial transactions. Interestingly, the findings of the CFA align with the EFA findings in supporting the conceptual framework of the research. They portrayed that the cultural-cognitive dimension has been identified by explicit and implicit cognition.

This study systematically embodies the dimensions of the external institutional environment, namely, cultural-cognitive, normative and regulative dimensions, as the main factors in the organisational field to be conceptually rich lenses to investigate social considerations to reinforce institutional thought broadly. The results of this study were consistent with extant Islamic financial literature, reflecting symmetry and similarity across commercial banks, particularly at the first stage of adopting Islamic financial transactions.

This article expands literature on user innovation by exploring the mechanisms that support user innovations in the context of a public organisation. Research has hitherto documented support mechanisms for user innovation in producer companies, where users contribute in early or temporary innovation phases as external non-employees or lead-users engaged by the producer. Complementarily, this paper explores a lesser known area of support mechanisms, those that support internal user innovations in a public sector setting.

Employing a qualitative study of a Norwegian public hospital at the interface between users (personnel and patients) and organisational support (facilitators who orchestrate user innovations), this article analyses in-house user innovation based on observations, text documentation and interviews over a four-year period.

In this public hospital, holistic organisational facilitation of “public user innovators” formed the key support mechanism built on “people” (facilitating co-creation), “process” (facilitating ideas, project realisation and implementation) and “coordination” (facilitating systems and communication). The findings show that public and producer organisational mechanisms both resemble and differ in many respects, as illustrated by the framework developed to describe these characteristics, such as that producers insource users, while the public organisation outsources production.

The originality of the article lies in the identification and description of “public user innovation”, a new term developed from this study of a public organisation in contrast to the dominant literature on producer companies. This article contributes new insights by differentiating the roles of user innovators and the mechanisms that support such innovations. New implications are drawn from the public side of organisational support in user innovation research.

For start-ups or growing firms, to effectively navigate the unpredictable nature of digital development and achieve superior innovative performance, it is crucial to have a workforce comprised of creative and innovative employees. Drawing upon the principles of social information processing theory, this study aims to investigate whether specific combinations of organizational internal and external environments, as well as work characteristics in the digital age, can foster a high level of employee innovative behavior.

By collecting a multilevel and multisource data set comprising 693 employees and 88 CEOs from 88 start-ups or growing firms, this study used fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to examine the distinctive configurations associated with achieving a high level of employee innovative behavior.

The study found that six solutions enabled employees to innovate more effectively, but six solutions led to the absence of employee innovative behavior.

The findings of this study offer important theoretical and practical implications to motivate employee innovative behavior in Chinese enterprises.

First, this study contributes to the literature on employee innovative behavior by addressing the need to explore the impact of the digital context on promoting innovation among employees. Second, this study adds to the existing literature on employee innovation and entrepreneurship by examining multiple organizational contexts and their influence on innovative behavior. Third, this study makes a significant contribution to the field of employee innovative behavior by examining the macroenvironment surrounding digital transformation within enterprises and integrating both internal and external organizational factors.

The importance of learning in development in increasingly dynamic contexts can help individuals and organizations adapt to disruption. Artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as a disruptive technology, with increasing adoption by various human resource management (HRM) functions. However, learning and development (L&D) adoption of AI is lagging, and there is a need to understand of this low adoption based on the internal/external contexts and organization types. Building on open system theory and adopting a technology-in-practice lens, the authors examine the various L&D approaches and the roles of human and technology agencies, enabled by differing structures, different types of organizations and the use of AI in L&D.

Through a qualitative interview design, data were collected from 27 key stakeholders and L&D professionals of MSMEs, NGOs and MNEs organizations. The authors used Gioia's qualitative research approach for the thematic analysis of the collected data.

The authors argue that human and technology agencies develop organizational protocols and structures consistent with their internal/external contexts, resource availability and technology adoptions. While the reasons for lagging AI adoption in L&D were determined, the future potential of AI to support L&D also emerges. The authors theorize about the socialization of human and technology-mediated interactions to develop three emerging structures for L&D in organizations of various sizes, industries, sectors and internal/external contexts.

The study hinges on open system theory (OST) and technology-in-practice to demonstrate the interdependence and inseparability of human activity, technological advancement and capability, and structured contexts. The authors examine the reasons for lagging AI adoption in L&D and how agentic focus shifts contingent on the organization's internal/external contexts.

While AI-HRM scholarship has primarily relied on psychological theories to examine impact and outcomes, the authors adopt the OST and technology in practice lens to explain how organizational contexts, resources and technology adoption may influence L&D. This study investigates the use of AI-based technology and its enabling factors for L&D, which has been under-researched.

This paper aims to explore the importance of knowledge-oriented leadership in the context of business model innovation (BMI) and open innovation. This study also seeks to explore the existence of a mediating effect of absorptive capacity.

Data were collected using a survey, from the information technology industry in India. The relationships proposed in the conceptual framework were tested with structural equation modeling (SEM) using Smart partial least squares (PLS) 3.

The findings highlight a positive influence of knowledge-oriented leadership on BMI and open innovation. Results also revealed that open innovation can facilitate BMI. Additionally, findings highlighted the mediating role of absorptive capacity in these relationships.

This study suggests that businesses should employ and value leaders who can create, transform, store and use knowledge resources. Companies that employ such leaders encourage the creation and exchange of new knowledge, which consequently would lead to the successful exploration of innovative approaches. A culture of open innovation would help managers break down barriers, overcome inertia and continuously test new business models to generate revenues, increase value, enhance organizational effectiveness and ultimately gain competitive advantage.

This study is one of the first to empirically contribute to the role of knowledge-oriented leadership and BMI from the perspective of open innovation.

This study aims to analyze the effects of the components of absorptive capacity (ACAP) – potential absorptive capacity (PACAP) and realized absorptive capacity (RACAP) on inbound and outbound open innovation (OI). In addition, this study investigates the moderating role that knowledge-oriented leadership (KOL) plays in the relationship between ACAP and OI.

This research adopts a quantitative approach, using structural equation modeling, in a sample of 218 companies in the Brazilian manufacturing sector, using a random sampling technique and self-administered questionnaire.

The results indicate that while PACAP positively influences inbound and outbound OI, RACAP has a significant relationship only with outbound OI. In addition, KOL moderates the significant relationships between PACAP and RACAP and OI, indicating that the development of a leadership that fosters learning and interaction between employees and sectors of the organization impacts the innovation results of companies in the manufacturing sector.

This study also shows that managers must have an active role in the construction of an organizational context that supports learning through initiatives that encourage the process of trial and error, teamwork and cooperation between employees.

This research advances previous studies by relating the two components of ACAP (PACAP and RACAP) with the two OI models (inbound and outbound), in addition to analyzing the moderating role that KOL plays in this relationship between ACAP and OI.

Driven by the development of the global digital economy, knowledge management in industrial enterprises offers more possibilities for green innovation. Based on the perspective of external knowledge sources, this study aims to construct a panel regression model to explore the relationship between digital economy and industrial green innovation efficiency.

Panel data from 30 regions in China from 2011 to 2020 were selected as research samples. All data are obtained from national and provincial statistical yearbooks. Coupling coordination degree analysis, entropy method, panel regression analysis, robustness test and threshold effect test by Stata 16.0 were used to test the hypotheses.

The empirical results demonstrate the hypotheses and reveal the following findings: the digital economy is positively related to industrial green innovation efficiency and external knowledge sources, and external knowledge sources mediate the relationship between them. Moreover, based on the threshold test results, the digital economy has a double-threshold effect on industrial green innovation efficiency.

Based on the perspective of external knowledge sources, the proposed mediating mechanism between the digital economy and industrial green innovation efficiency has not been established previously, further enriching the research on the antecedents and outcomes of external knowledge sources. Moreover, this study estimated the direct influence mechanism and double-threshold effect of the digital economy on industrial green innovation efficiency from theoretical and empirical analysis, thus responding to the call of scholars and adding to existing research on how the digital economy affects the green transformation of industrial enterprises.

The purpose of the study was to maximize team members' collaboration and develop relationships in a newly formed team to engage with internal and external partners to achieve open innovation (OI) in product development. The authors examine the role of collaborative human resource management (HRM) and relational leadership (RL) in this process.

The study took a two-stage qualitative methodological approach to examine relational leadership as it emerges in a newly formed cross-functional team at a large German fashion house. In stage one, 10 interviews were conducted with members of the new project team over three months and in stage two six external knowledge exchange partners were interviewed.

Collaborative HRM promotes greater social exchange, trust and commitment of team members internal and external to the organization to support the emergence of RL, which is critical for OI. The authors found that collaborative HRM practices such as team-based recruitment, team-based training, team-based performance management with rewards systems and job design support the emergence of RL. Moreover, RL practices such as congruence and commitment towards team goals subsequently promoted the development of knowledge sourcing and sharing (KSS) to support OI.

The study is the first to demonstrate how collaborative HRM enables RL practices to help newly formed teams overcome challenges with achieving KSS to successfully engage with internal and external partners for OI. The authors contribute to HRM theory development of the relationship between HRM and OI by conceptualizing the OI process as a social construction through collaborative HRM and relational leadership.