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To analyze the particular influence of leadership styles on voluntary collaboration between members of project groups.

Uses a field‐study approach to gather data of 24 project groups in an academic learning context. Takes measures of different leadership styles, affective variables (mood, group atmosphere), and pro‐social work behavior.

Supports theoretical assumptions about mediating influences of mood and group atmosphere. Shows that leaders of project groups may enhance cooperative support by considering the emotional impact of their behavior.

The field context (academic learning setting, students as project group members) may set limitations to the generalizability of obtained findings.

Helps personnel managers to look at project group leadership from a different point of view.

Provides evidence about an emotionality link between leadership and cooperation.

IT is fitting that a new series of this magazine should be introduced by some reflections on the whole question of book selection, both for the general public and libraries.

In the digital economy, what are the strategies of multinationals from developed countries and emerging markets? How do regulations in the home country affect their growth? Recent digital multinationals in diverse national and institutional contexts raise questions that require new approaches in international business (IB) studies. This chapter examines two leading firms in the global e-commerce industry: Amazon and Alibaba. We compare their digital capabilities and physical asset-building strategies over the past two decades and we connect the Internet governance environment in the United States and China with their business models and internationalization patterns. We argue that despite the platform and global nature of Amazon’s and Alibaba’s activities, the recent moves of governments across the world to regulate Internet governance poses an important challenge for digital multinationals. This research features a comparative analysis of two prominent digital multinationals and identifies a promising area for future IB strategy studies.

Information technology has been recognized as one of the keys to improved productivity in organizations. Yet, existing research has not paid sufficient attention to how information systems (ISs) influence the creative performance of individual users. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

This study draws on the theories of flow and cognitive load to establish a model of the predicted influences. The authors hypothesize that the information technology supports creativity by engaging individuals in a creative process and by lowering their cognitive load related to the process. To test these hypotheses, the authors employ a meta-analytical structural equation modeling approach using 24 previous studies on creativity and ISs use.

The results suggest that factors that help the user to maintain an interest in the performed task, immerse the user in a state of flow, and lower a person’s cognitive load during IS use can affect the user’s creative performance.

The findings imply that a combination of the theories of flow and cognitive load complements the understanding of how ISs influence creativity.

This paper proposes an explanation on why ISs affect creativity, which can be used by scholars to position further research, and by practitioners to implement creativity support systems.

Environmental and social problems are tightly linked in coupled social–ecological systems in the Arctic. This chapter will discuss the importance of equity as a factor in the adaptive capacity of a region undergoing relatively rapid climate change and simultaneous land-use change (petroleum development) in the northwest Russian Arctic. Relative to North America, attempts to implement some kind of economic or legal equity with regard to massive industrial development are token at best. Unfortunately, in the current situation, legal rights to land and resources are neither likely to materialize nor, even if they did, to facilitate adaptive capacity on the part of Nenets herders. As such, herders lack power over important decisions pertaining to the manner in which development proceeds on their traditional territories.

Russia's northern lands have been developed along starkly different lines than those of Europe and North America. Yet the limited literature of resilience in northern social–ecological systems is derived almost exclusively from North American experiences with co-management. Recent work on the Yamal Peninsula indicates that even with a sustained commitment to active engagement, only incremental change is expected. Western-style legislative campaigns and overnight blanket solutions are far less likely to bear fruit and may, in fact, be counterproductive. The prescriptive approaches from four different analyses of the Yamal situation are compared, with special attention devoted to their respective assessments of resilience. Fortunately, the retention of youth within the nomadic population of tundra Nenets appears to be high, providing a positive indicator of overall resilience in this particular social–ecological system.

The development of banking in Africa followed the demand of exchange networks from traditional indigenous economies to colonial exchange with the European world. The establishment of European banking institutions reflected the needs of the capitalist economy introduced by colonialism. The banking management of late nineteenth century and early twentieth century European banks adhered to the interests of shareholders. This chapter shows the emergence of well-managed banks in Africa, but after decolonization the political economy of African independence resulted in state capturing of financial institutions in most African countries. The South African banking system developed in close adherence to the British model. State-owned post-independence banks in Africa failed to deliver the development envisaged. The chapter shows the adverse impact of global economic developments on Africa, resulting in high debt levels. Structural adjustment of African economies and new market-oriented policies allowed the development of locally owned private banking institutions. The high-cost structure of the formal banking system from the dominant South African banks incentivised the mobile money innovation, an arena where African entrepreneurs lead global markets. Financial inclusion remains low in Africa.

This paper theoretically and empirically analyzes the effects of the elderly’s physical health status on their need for care and the choice of care models in China.

Empirically, the estimation results of a large-sample randomized intervention trial with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients through the difference-in-difference method indicated the following: (1) After the COPD intervention trial, the physical health status of the elderly in the treatment group improved significantly, the need for care was substantially reduced and the health improvement led to a 35.5% reduction in the probability of using elderly care. (2) The reduction in the need for care regarding the treatment group occurred mainly in social care. The probability of using social care decreased by 67.8% due to the elderly’s health improvement, while that of home care remained unchanged generally. (3) Further heterogeneity tests suggested that families with fewer potential internal resources for caregiving had a more pronounced decline in the need for social care.

Theoretically, these empirical results support the existence of the “pecking order” theory in the family’s choice of elderly care model, that is, families tend to employ all internal resources for caregiving before resorting to social care, resulting in a higher sensitivity of social care to health.

The main policy implication of this paper is that ex ante preventive health intervention policies can significantly alleviate the burden of care, especially social care, on families. And preventive health intervention policies are particularly effective in reducing the burden of the families with relatively few resources for informal internal care.

The chapter analyses the role of smart grid technology in the German energy transition. Information technologies promise to help integrate volatile renewable energies (wind and solar power) into the grid. Yet, the promise of intelligent infrastructures does not only extend to technological infrastructures, but also to market infrastructures. Smart grid technologies underpin and foster the design of a “smart” electricity market, where dispersed energy prosumers can adapt, in real time, to fluctuating price signals that register changes in electricity generation. This could neutralize fluctuations resulting from the increased share of renewables. To critically “think” the promise of smart infrastructure, it is not enough to just focus on digital devices. Rather, it becomes necessary to scrutinize economic assumptions about the “intelligence” of markets and the technopolitics of electricity market design. This chapter will first show the historical trajectory of the technopolitical promise of renewable energy as not only a more sustainable, but also a more democratic alternative to fossil and nuclear power, by looking at the affinities between market liberal and ecological critiques of centralized fossil and nuclear based energy systems. It will then elucidate the co-construction of smart grids and smart markets in the governmental plans for an “electricity market 2.0.” Finally, the chapter will show how smart grid and smart metering technology fosters new forms of economic agency like the domo oeconomicus. Such an economic formatting of smart grid technology, however, forecloses other ecologically prudent and politically progressive ways of constructing and engaging with intelligent infrastructures.