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Dialogue in Darkness (DID) is a global social enterprise, which provides products and services such as workshops, exhibitions and activities in the dark in China. The corporate workshops are designed for companies, institutions and government agencies to provide unique leadership training and some other training in teamwork, communication, innovation and change management. And education workshops are aimed at providing young people with unique leadership training and training in teamwork, innovation and empathy and so on for the educational institutions. Over the past five years, DID, headquartered in Shanghai, has expanded to Beijing, Chengdu and Shenzhen, realizing strategic coverage of East, West, North and South of China. DID achieved break-even within less than one year since its inception. Its sound and healthy development offers an innovative way for the sustainable development of social enterprises.

This case is designed to enable students to understand the role of women in artificial intelligence (AI); understand the importance of ethics and diversity in the AI field; discuss the ethical issues of AI; study the implications of unethical AI; examine the dark side of corporate-backed AI research and the difficult relationship between corporate interests and AI ethics research; understand the role played by Gebru in promoting diversity and ethics in AI; and explore how Gebru can attract more women researchers in AI and lead the movement toward inclusive and equitable technology.

The case discusses how Timnit Gebru (She), a prominent AI researcher and former co-lead of the Ethical AI research team at Google, is leading the way in promoting diversity, inclusion and ethics in AI. Gebru, one of the most high-profile black women researchers, is an influential voice in the emerging field of ethical AI, which identifies issues based on bias, fairness, and responsibility. Gebru was fired from Google in December 2020 after the company asked her to retract a research paper she had co-authored about the pitfalls of large language models and embedded racial and gender bias in AI. While Google maintained that Gebru had resigned, she said she had been fired from her job after she had raised issues of discrimination in the workplace and drawn attention to bias in AI. In early December 2021, a year after being ousted from Google, Gebru launched an independent community-driven AI research organization called Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research (DAIR) to develop ethical AI, counter the influence of Big Tech in research and development of AI and increase the presence and inclusion of black researchers in the field of AI. The case discusses Gebru’s journey in creating DAIR, the goals of the organization and some of the challenges she could face along the way. As Gebru seeks to increase diversity in the field of AI and reduce the negative impacts of bias in the training data used in AI models, the challenges before her would be to develop a sustainable revenue model for DAIR, influence AI policies and practices inside Big Tech companies from the outside, inspire and encourage more women to enter the AI field and build a decentralized base of AI expertise.

This case is meant for MBA students.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CCS 11: Strategy

Drawing on the Broaden-and-build theory, the study investigates the impact of team entrepreneurial passion (TEP) on team performance. This study further examines the mediating role of team cooperation between TEP and team performance. Thus, by expanding the conceptual model of TEP, the authors examine how three domains of TEP, namely inventing, founding and developing affect the entrepreneurial outcomes in the early stages of entrepreneurship.

Survey data were collected from 29 entrepreneurial teams, and the proposed relationships were assessed through Smart-PLS 3.2.8 structural equation modeling (SEM) tool.

Regarding the domains of TEP, the authors' findings show that the TEP for inventing is positively related to team performance. As for the influences of TEP for inventing and TEP for developing, both are the most beneficial for entrepreneurial outputs, such as team members' abilities to recognize and exploit opportunities.

Although there is an increased scholars' interest in entrepreneurial passion, there is a lack of research that examines the enabling factors and outcomes of entrepreneurial passion at the team level. This study is among the earliest research studies that not only empirically explores the relationships between TEP and team performance but also illustrates how each domain of TEP uniquely influences entrepreneurial outcomes by extending existing studies on entrepreneurial passion.

The purpose of this study is to explore to what extent passionate family chief executive officers (CEOs) increase the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) of the family firm. More specifically, the authors investigate the impact of the family CEO’s entrepreneurial passion (EP) on the firm’s EO and explore whether the generational stage of the family CEO alters this relationship.

A multiple moderated regression model was used to test the hypothesized relationships, based on a unique sample of 140 private Belgian family firms. All respondent CEOs are members of the controlling family, meaning they are in a unique position to influence firm-level outcomes.

The results reveal a significant positive effect of a CEO’s EP on the family firm’s EO. The generational stage of the family CEO moderates the EP-EO relationship, so the positive effect is strongest in first-generation family CEOs and becomes negative in third- or later-generation CEOs.

This research builds on insights from imprinting and upper echelon theory to explore how the EP of the family CEO impacts the family firm’s EO. This study thereby contributes to research regarding the antecedents of EO and introduces the concept of EP in a family firm context. The present study further contributes to the literature on imprinting, as it empirically shows how the EP-EO relationship differs depending on the generational stage of the family CEO. In a family firm context, the generational stage acts as a contingency variable, determining the dominant theory (i.e. upper echelon or imprinting theory) in explaining the EP-EO relationship.

The close link between fashion and from a historical and sociological point of view is the focus of this chapter. Since the Industrial Revolution, these two industries have been part of the path toward modernity in Western Europe. The new industrial society created a different relationship with leisure time and bodies. On the other hand, fashion tourism accelerated and intensified this process toward unforeseen outcomes: new social relations and the loosening of traditional morality constraints. The swimming costume represents the point of encounter and overlapping between these two spheres: a significant element of novelty despite its ever-shrinking dimensions.

This article tackles the intersection of mothering and labor through the author's own experience as a feminist mother/manager from Istanbul, Turkey. It aims to revisit the first years of motherhood, exploring the struggle to invent a peculiar maternal subjectivity in opposition and negotiation with the patriarchal institution of motherhood, the new definition of maternal labor in a highly digital, neoliberal context and the issue of marital fairness in a dual-income heterosexual marriage.

The article presents an autoethnographic, retrospective and introspective inquiry into the first seven years of the author's mothering experience in order to offer an in-depth exploration of the various aspects of contemporary maternal labor.

The article shows how maternal labor has shifted in nature and expanded in scope in a contemporary non-Western context. It investigates the dissolution of the spatial, temporal and sensorial boundaries between the managerial labor dedicated to the workplace, and to the family. Highlighting the similarities of the two forms of labor, the article manifests the materiality, tangibility and visibility of maternal labor.

Further intersectional studies shall be beneficial to redefine maternal labor in different contexts.

Departing and diverting from the terms “invisible labor” and “mental load”, the article suggests a shift in terminology to stress the multifaceted medley of managerial tasks mothers undertake today.

The article provides an original take on maternal labor through the first-hand experience of a middle-class, professional mother from Istanbul, Turkey.

The purpose of the paper is to describe the attempt of a family champagne house to redefine its business organization as a family in a large family of families. This choice involves defining their activities as entrepreneuring in a specific time and space that all actors experience as their sensible reality. To describe the whole process, the authors call this ensemble a “chronotope,” including the same space and time as part of a common story. The authors assess this narrative strategy in reference to both past conflict in the champagne business and to the present crisis caused by the pandemic in addition to a series of social, economic and environmental changes in the environment.

The design of the paper corresponds to the case of a champagne family house in its environment with a longitudinal, processual approach of the family business venture before and especially after its sale and buyback by the family. The authors use Bakhtin to insist on the fictional nature of the account of most events as most protagonists adopt different perspectives. The Taittinger family, at the head of the trade house, creates a story that fits in all these perspectives and makes sense to overcome key issues in the business.

Our findings illustrate the role of the chronotope as a way to broaden the scope of inter- and intra-family relations. This concept also shows the importance of shared experiences, stories and crafted practices to sustain collective work and the meaning associated with the result of this work, in this case, champagne wine. The authors also show the different styles of chronotopes and their role in binding together actors in relation to the transformation of their activities.

The research limitations are of two kinds. The first limitation comes from the choice to focus on the Taittinger family house, as it tends to focus the analysis on their point of view. The second limitation is due to the persistence of the pandemic situation that makes it difficult to test the chronotope idea as it is quite recent. Because of the current pandemic, it is complicated to anticipate what the future could look like and therefore, to imagine the future dimension of the chronotope. To overcome this limit, the authors suggest different scenario that leaves open different possibilities.

The practical implications of this paper could be to see how family business entrepreneurs may benefit from designing their strategy as a rich personal fiction in reference to a chronotope instead of referring to storytelling, communication and brand management or even competition strictly speaking. In turbulent times and to face grand challenges, long-term collaborations require stronger ties and imagination without leaving out emotions. Yet the entrepreneurs may become a victim of their own fictions if stakeholders perceive contradictions or if they were to dislike the new episodes the family invents.

The social implications of this case study show the role of business relations built on fiction reflecting strong ties and shared processes such as entrepreneuring in the world of heritage goods where sustainability and endurance matter. This perspective insists on a shared story and it contrasts with more discontinued approaches based on disruptive innovation, opportunism and competitiveness in turbulent times. The chronotope does not ineluctably evolve in different ways, making actors’ perspective shrink, expand or exile. Family entrepreneuring may actively influence this transformation and they may also be framed by it.

The originality of the paper comes from the description of a family business in its environment as a chronotope. Reflecting how related actors in a business field like champagne co-construct a representation, the authors looked for a concept that would accurately reflect this vision, researchers chose the concept of “chronotope,” borrowing from narrative approaches. This approach is transdisciplinary. It is also an attempt to bring researchers at work closer to what actors in the field experiment with and find inspiration in.

Shortly before the Second World War, a woman who had never accepted her orphan status, Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel, nicknamed ‘Little Coco’ by her father and known as ‘Coco’ to her relatives, became the first women in history to build a world-class industrial empire. By 1935, Coco, a fashion designer and industry captain, was employing more than 4,000 workers and had sold more than 28,000 dresses, tailored jackets and women's suits. Born into a poor family and raised in an orphanage, she enjoyed an intense social life in Paris in the 1920s, rubbing shoulders with artists, creators and the rising stars of her time.

Thanks to her entrepreneurial skills, she was able to innovate in her methods and in her trendsetting approach to fashion design and promotion. Coco Chanel was committed and creative, had the soul of an entrepreneur and went on to become a world leader in a brand new sector combining fashion, accessories and perfumes that she would help shape. By the end of her life, she had redefined French elegance and revolutionized the way people dressed.

This study extends the literature on top management team (TMT) diversity and innovation by introducing entrepreneurial passion diversity as an important TMT affective component in determining firm innovation performance. This paper draws on the knowledge-based view and proposes that TMT passion diversity, in terms of intensity separation and focus variety, may hinder the process of knowledge creation, and, in turn, reduce firm innovation performance.

The authors conduct a questionnaire survey using a simple random sampling technique and collect data from 195 small- and medium-sized enterprises in China. Ordinary least squares regression and a structural equation model are applied to test the hypotheses.

This study finds that TMT passion intensity separation has a negative effect on firm innovation performance via knowledge exchange and knowledge combination. TMT passion focus variety has a negative effect on firm innovation performance via knowledge combination.

This study highlights the affective diversity of entrepreneurial passion in TMTs and clarifies the detrimental role of TMT entrepreneurial passion diversity in innovation and knowledge creation. It contributes new insights to the literature on TMT diversity, knowledge management and entrepreneurial passion.

This study examines the case of an initial training, called “Dojo”, invented and implemented at a production site in the Czech Republic. It clarifies the initial training program implementation process and offers a conceptual framework for cooperative management of subsidiary activities at the site and firm.

This study conducts an in-depth analysis of qualitative data from the Czech production site over a five-year period. The theoretical base is the theorization and labeling phase of management innovation (MI), the final phase of which legitimizes a new management practice. Interview data, archival data, pictures and financial data are used for the analysis.

To legitimize the Dojo in the operational flow controlled by the site and firm, the Czech production site acquires validation of the Dojo from employees and board members of the Japanese and European headquarters, helping the site build trustful relationships with them. Training programs, process standardization and skills standardization of the workers offer benefits to the trainees, production site and firm.

The authors offer theoretical insights into MI at the subsidiary-level, which past studies have not differentiated at the firm-level. The authors also provide details of the implementation and management of initial training for newly hired blue-collar workers at the production site. The findings complement related literature on human resource management and operational management.