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This paper aims to analyze the process of producing a reported profit number to understand how different actors overcome the tensions arising from the often conflicting value frames that apply in different situations during this process and how the actors can benefit from the ensuing friction.

The tensions found in the profit production process are theorized in terms of dissonance (Stark, 2009), emphasizing how multiple voices, drawing on different value frames, contribute to the search for a profit number. The authors study this by means of a case study of a large listed company in the construction industry, where, because of how judgment pervades the profit production process, the search for profit is particularly exposed.

The authors find three important value frames – caution, control and compliance – which managers, accountants and auditors draw on in the profit production process, depending on the situation they find themselves in. With this finding, the authors contribute to the previous research on financial reporting and management work and the production of profits by demonstrating how the relationships between the involved actors – primarily the auditor–client relationship – can be characterized by principled and constructive rivalry in which competing value frames can coexist alongside each other and how the dissonance created in these situations can produce generative and productive friction.

Previous research has mostly focused on profit measurement, taking the existence of a “true” profit number for granted. The auditor–client negotiation literature typically suggests that actors endeavor to solve situations in a zero-sum game where different value frames are present. This paper, drawing on an incipient theoretical approach to accounting research which emphasizes multivocality and perspective, contributes to the nascent research on financial accounting and management work in general and the profit production process in particular. With empirical illustrations of the dissonance found in this process, this paper suggests that tensions resulting from dissonance (Stark, 2009) may be a resource in situations like the profit production process.

To achieve peace, harmony and stability in libraries, there is need to deal with internal strife ‐ both real and imagined. Brings out conflict from its closet in a Nigerian University Library. Examines the sources of internal conflict among staff, rather that the external environment. Addresses the issue from the destructive aspects of undesirably high levels of conflict in a university library. Results of the study revealed a bureaucratic structure, poor communication and organizational policies, and inadequate material resources as the major causes of conflict in the library. The close interdependency between units in the library has also been identified as a source of friction among staff. Provides evidence for the effectiveness of managing conflict through prevention, by means of improved communication and argues for a pro‐active approach to handling conflict.

The aim of this paper is to examine the inherent and actual conflicts between venture capitalists (VCs) and entrepreneurs, as well as the possible resolutions of these conflicts.

This paper is based on 42 semi‐structured interviews conducted with Israeli VCs and entrepreneurs (14 VCs and 28 entrepreneurs). In addition, quantitative data were collected about VCs' scope of involvement and their perceived portfolio performance.

It was found that conflict is inherent in VCs and entrepreneurs' relations as both parties have different conceptions of the venture and the contractual arrangements. Actual conflicts were found to be associated with VCs' level of involvement and perceived performance. The findings indicate that VCs' strategic involvement is associated with cognitive conflicts and collaboration, whereas VCs' managerial involvement is associated with managerial replacement and affective conflicts. The findings provide an insight into the dynamic nature of conflicts between VCs and entrepreneurs, suggesting that affective conflicts may sometimes evolve into cognitive mode, as managerial replacement enables both parties to restructure their relations.

The findings call for further examination of interorganizational conflicts involving asymmetry of power and resource dependence. In addition, the findings also call for deeper examination of how coordination mechanisms of interorganizational relations come to be a source of conflict and how such conflicts may vary in different contexts.

The findings of this paper suggest that both VCs and entrepreneurs should establish conflict management mechanisms, such as similar conceptions and a shared vision, to ensure better cooperation.

This paper provides an in‐depth insight into the embeddedness of conflicts in VCs and entrepreneurs' relations. The finding of this study contribute to theory building of VCs and entrepreneurs' conflicts suggesting that VCs' cooperation depends on both parties' ability to resolve inherent and actual conflicts.

Based on the business network view and cultural friction theory, this study aims to construct a theoretical model of the cultural friction effect and its mechanism of action during the transformation of Chinese enterprises from outsiders to insiders with equal and legitimate competitive status.

Data including cross-border M&As of Chinese enterprises in 17 major countries or regions and domestic M&As in China and host countries from 1982 to 2016 were used to test the hypotheses.

This study finds that the presence of cultural friction in cross-border M&As diminishes the probability that Chinese firms will adopt a more rapid pace of entry into the core position of the host country's business network.

First, this study has theoretical implications for studying Chinese firms' cross-border M&As from the perspective of the host country. Second, the theoretical construction of this paper reveals the double meaning from outsidership to insidership. Third, this study responds to the academic initiative that a more comprehensive and appropriate study should include factors such as the structural characteristics of the home or host market and stakeholders.

As ethical leadership has advanced as a construct, the degree to which healthy relational systems explain its effect on employee outcomes has been understudied. With this manuscript we conceptualize and test a model based on a Relational Systems approach to ethical leadership and its relationship with conflict and turnover intentions.

Two studies were conducted to test our hypothesized first- and second-stage moderated mediation model. In Study 1, online surveys were completed by 168 working adults across two different time points. Study 2 extended Study 1 by surveying 115 working adults across three time points using the Mechanical Turk platform.

The indirect relationship between ethical leadership and turnover intentions via relationship conflict was conditional based on follower moral identity. The negative influence of ethical leadership on relationship conflict and, in turn, turnover intentions was stronger for followers who had higher moral identities. In addition, our findings suggest that leader holding behaviors strengthen the negative indirect effects of ethical leadership on turnover intentions.

This paper demonstrates the usefulness of a Relational Systems theoretical approach to understanding ethical leadership. Specifically, ethical leaders, through their desire and ability to help employees feel known and not alone at work, are better able to reduce relationship conflict and, in turn, reduce employees' desire to leave the organization.

To treat childhood obesity, health education interventions are often aimed at the whole family. However, such interventions seem to have a relatively limited effect on weight loss. The purpose of this paper is to examine how families enrolled in a family-based health education intervention manage the intervention in their daily lives and to understand how and why intra-familial conflicts may occur.

Data consist of 10 in-depth semi-structured family interviews with 25 family members (10 children, 15 parents), who were enrolled in a family-based health education intervention for families with an obese child.

Actively involving all family members in the intervention proved difficult in many families. Often, the children experienced inconsistent family support, which led to intra-familial conflicts. When parents were unsuccessful in changing unhealthy habits, the responsibility for healthy living was often passed on to the obese child. Thus, several families managed the intervention by making specific rules that only the obese child was required to adhere to. This resulted in several children feeling stigmatized in their own family.

Professionals working with family-based health education interventions should understand that, in order to minimize the risk of intra-familial conflicts and stigmatization of the obese child, all family members must be equally committed to the lifestyle intervention.

The study contributes to the existing literature by adding specific knowledge about how and why conflicts occur in these families and what the consequences of these conflicts are.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the effects of inter-organizational conflicts on the project added value in the Chinese construction industry, and also to examine the mediating effect of conflicts on project added value and the moderating effect of conflict management strategies.

A conceptual model was developed, and a structured questionnaire survey was conducted with 667 professionals. The structural equation modeling technique was used to analyze the data.

The results showed that task conflict, relationship conflict and process conflict were influenced by subject characteristics of project participants, bilateral relationship characteristics and project characteristics. Similarly, these three types of conflicts interact with each other. Meanwhile, these three types of conflicts influence the added value in construction projects, which are moderated by conflict management strategies. Under a collaborating strategy, task conflict and process conflict were positively associated with project added value, and relationship conflict was negatively associated with project added value. Under a competing strategy, task conflict, process conflict and relationship conflict were negatively associated with added value in construction projects. Therefore, the constructive and destructive effects of conflicts on project added value under different conflict management strategies are verified in Chinese construction projects.

The variables may not be exhaustive for construction projects and most of them were applied in construction projects for the first time. As a result, their rationality and effectiveness could be further improved. The results implied that inter-organizational conflicts had a constructive effect on project added value and should attract broad attention for future research. Additionally, different driving factors had different influences on these conflicts, and even the driving factors can be divided into different dimensions.

This study provides a better understanding of the relationship between inter-organizational conflicts and added value in construction projects, and a reliable reference for the project manager to effectively deal with these conflicts. In addition, this research reveals the effects of conflicts on project added value and the path of conflicts transformation. This provides a useful reference for project managers to take advantage of the positive effect of task conflict and process conflict, and to avoid the negative effect of relationship conflict.

Very few studies attempted to examine the effects of inter-organizational conflicts on project added value in construction projects. Therefore, this research makes significant theoretical and practical contributions to the existing body of knowledge on the conflict management and project added value. This research provides an empirical evidence to support the viewpoint that different types of conflicts can be mutually transformed. Similarly, this study explains how conflicts present functional and dysfunctional effects in construction projects. Both of them are potential theoretical contributions to the existing body of knowledge.

Crimes and conflicts are seriously undermining African development. The purpose of this paper is to assess the best governance tools in the fight against the scourges.

The authors assess a sample of 38 African countries. Owing to the cross-sectional structure of the data set, the authors adopt a heteroscedasticity consistent ordinary least squares estimation technique. For further robustness purposes, the authors employ Ramsey’s regression equation specification error test.

The following findings are established. First, democracy, autocracy and voice and accountability have no significant negative correlations with crime. Second, the increasing relevance of government quality in the fight is as follows: regulation quality, government effectiveness, political stability, rule of law and corruption-control. Third, corruption-control is the most effective mechanism in fighting crime (conflicts).

The findings are significantly strong when controlling for age dependency, number of police (and security) officers, per capita economic prosperity, educational level and population density. Justifications for the edge of corruption-control (as the most effective governance tool) and policy implications are discussed.

The study is timely given the political instability, wars and conflicts currently marring African development.

This paper aims to examine the influence of the level of team virtuality on the effects of intra‐team conflicts on team performance, which have hardly been investigated.

A framework is proposed based on the extent to which team members use communication media to coordinate their actions and execute their tasks, taking into account the extent to which the communication media are synchronous and the extent to which the communication media convey para‐verbal and nonverbal aspects of communication. Data of 49 teams with 172 team members were analyzed using stepwise multiple regression analysis.

The level of team virtuality influences the relation between intra‐team conflict and perceived team performance. The higher the level of team virtuality, the greater the positive impact of task conflict on perceived team performance. In teams with a low level of virtuality task conflict has a negative impact on perceived team performance, and in high virtual teams task conflict has a positive impact. In addition, process conflict has a negative impact on perceived team performance.

The present study provides a framework for the effects of the level of team virtuality that can be used in further research and has implications for practice.

The study shows the effects of the level of team virtuality on team performance, which is important considering the emerging use of virtual communication tools in organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to examine local consumers’ acculturation process as they observe, encounter and shop with an influx of outsiders.

The multi-year qualitative study (involving in-depth interviews and netnography) investigates Hongkongers’ adaptation to encounters with Mainland Chinese shoppers in Hong Kong.

The authors focus on the world of luxury brand consumption, which plays a key role in signaling a newfound status for Mainlanders, and a change in identity construction for Hongkongers. Hongkongers’ acculturation process in response to large numbers of Mainland luxury shoppers includes emotional responses, behavioral adaptation and identity negotiation.

This research has theoretical implications for consumer acculturation theory.

This research has managerial implications for consumers’ luxury consumption experiences.

First, the authors extend the consumer acculturation literature by focusing on the adaptation of locals to visitors. Unlike other acculturation studies that focus on poorer immigrants from less industrial countries to a wealthy nation, the study focuses on local perspectives of elite Hong Kong consumers about Mainland Chinese visitors who are economically well-off but lack cultural capital. Second, emotions are found to be an important component of acculturation and their causes and consequences are analyzed.