Search results

The purpose of the study is to empirically extend and validate a measure of absorptive capacity (ACAP) and examine its role in leveraging the benefits of diversity on innovation within global virtual teams (GVTs). This study validates a multidimensional measure of ACAP for use within the GVT. GVTs are increasingly utilized in industry given their ability to bring together diverse knowledge and experience from geographically dispersed individuals.

The hypotheses of this research were tested using a field survey to collect real world knowledge about GVTs. The survey method is a research technique in which data is collected from a sample of individuals using a questionnaire.

Using a sample of GVT members, the authors find that ACAP significantly mediates the relationships between diversity (deep-level diversity, functional-level) and innovation.

The implications for the study of GVTs is discussed and recommendations are offered. GVTs, as investigated in this study, include members that use electronic media for some or all of their interactions and collaboration with other team members.

This study validates and operationalizes the multi-dimensional ACAP construct at the GVT level: its relationship with diversity and its influence on GVT innovation.

Teamwork has long featured in social science research. Further, with research increasingly “cross-national,” communication becomes more complex, for instance, involving different cultures, languages and modes of communication. Yet, studies examining team communicative processes that can facilitate or constrain collaboration are rare. As a cross-national European team representing varied disciplines, experiences, languages and ethnicities, we undertook to examine our communication processes with the aim to promote better qualitative research practices.

Viewing reflection as a tool for enhancing workplace practices, we undertook a structured reflection. We developed an empirically derived framework about team communication, then used it to analyse our interaction practices and their relative effectiveness.

The results highlighted two under-examined influences, the use of different modes of communication for different purposes and the need for face-to-face communication to address a particularly challenging aspect of research, negotiating a shared coding scheme to analyse diverse cultural and linguistic qualitative data.

The study offers a procedure and concepts that others could use to examine their team communication.

The communicative processes that can constrain and facilitate effective cross-national research team collaboration are rarely examined. The results emphasise the need for careful negotiations around language, epistemologies, cultures and goals from the moment collaboration begins in formulating a project, through applying for grant funds, to when the last paper is published – timely in a context in which such work is increasingly expected.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the top management team (TMT) intangible assets (demographical and managerial experience) diversity which influences firm performance in a diverse industrial context.

The paper analyses 159 whole TMTs from Latin American and European enterprises. The study focuses on three indicators (sales, return on assets and return on sales) as proxies of firm performance. The hypotheses formulated were tested using panel data and applying a random-effects model.

The paper reveals a large degree of volatility in the findings depending on the type of firm performance indicator. This provides insights regarding the controversy surrounding the black box Upper Echelon Theory and for entrepreneurial purposes concerning the relationship between TMT composition and the achievement of a high level performance.

This study could be extended by analysing other important variables, such as top mangers’ physiological traits and cultural differences within the TMTs. The analysis could also be applied to a wider geographical area.

This paper may help enterprises to reach a better understanding of their TMT’s internal complex diversity by providing appropriate insights for a better decision-making process required to achieve an accurate firm outcome.

The paper is an extension on prior studies not only by focusing on a different geographical area different from the traditional USA context but also applying a longitudinal study scarcely applied in the demographic literature. In addition, attributes for all the TMT’s members (not only CEOs), three different proxies of performance and a highly diverse industry context from Latin American and European companies have been considered.

El propósito de este artículo es determinar la diversidad de los activos intangibles del equipo de alta dirección (características demográficas y experiencia directiva) que influyen en el rendimiento empresarial en un contexto industrial diverso.

El artículo analiza 159 equipos de alta dirección completos procedentes de empresas Latino-Americanas y Europeas. El estudio se centra en tres indicadores como proxies del rendimiento empresarial (ventas, rotación de los activos y la rotación de las ventas). Las hipótesis fueron testadas utilizando datos de panel y aplicando un modelo de efectos aleatorios.

El artículo pone de manifiesto una gran volatilidad en los resultados dependiendo del tipo de indicador de rendimiento utilizado. Este resultado proporciona luz a la controversia existente en torno a la “caja negra” de la Upper Echelon Theory y para propósitos empresariales concernientes a la relación entre la composición del equipo de alta dirección y el logro de altos niveles de rendimiento.

Este estudio podría ser ampliado a partir del análisis de otras variables importantes como los rasgos psicológicos de los altos directivos y las diferencias culturales existentes dentro del equipo de alta dirección. El análisis puede ser también aplicado a una más amplia área geográfica.

Este artículo puede ayudar a las empresas a alcanzar una mayor comprensión de la de la complejidad de la diversidad interna de su equipo de alta dirección proporcionando necesario para adoptar el mejor proceso de toma de decisiones para alcanzar y asegurar los objetivos empresariales.

El artículo es una extensión de estudios anteriores que no solo se centran en un área geográfica diferente al contexto tradicional norteamericano sino que también es una aplicación de una estudio longitudinal escasamente aplicado en la literatura demográfica. Además, se han considerado atributos de la totalidad de los miembros del equipo de alta dirección (no solo aquellos referentes a los CEOs), tres diferentes proxies del rendimiento y todo ello aplicado en un contexto industrial altamente diverso integrado por empresas Latino-Americanas y Europeas.

Drawing on research findings from an ethnography conducted with young children, exploring notions of difference, identity and peer interactions, this study uncovers how four- and five-year-olds initiated and maintained peer interactions within a linguistically diverse Early Years setting in the North of England.

This study adopted an applied ethnographic approach to gain the emic perspectives of children in the reception class at Sunnyside over a full academic year. Over the course of this school year I spent a day a week with the class undertaking non-participant and participant observations alongside unstructured informal conversations and focused on visual research activities.

Language and identity were closely intertwined in children’s patterns of interaction at Sunnyside. For some children language had a functional value while for others it was a symbolic marker of identity. Similarly, for some children their minority language held valuable linguistic capital while for others their first or home language was viewed as being something to shun. For all the children language was only one factor that played a role in initiating and maintaining their peer interactions at school. These implications will be discussed in this chapter.

Situated in a particular local context, this study provides an in-depth insight into the experiences of a linguistically diverse group of children from North and Sub-Saharan African countries who have come together in a single school setting where Somali and Arabic are the two key languages that are spoken by children in the class. This chapter discusses how these children viewed languages within the classroom context and how other identity markers associated with ethnicity, religion and nationality intersected with language within the context of ‘being friends’ at Sunnyside.

This article aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.

The briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Creating the biggest steel company in the world is quite an achievement. Creating the conditions to ensure that the businesses within it restructure and merge into one coherent enterprise is a daunting task. When Arcelor and Mittal Steel merged in 2006, the new ArcelorMittal found itself with a genuinely global reach, with large workforces located in mature markets like the USA and Western Europe, as well as emerging markets, such as Brazil, China, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.

The article provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to‐digest format.

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualise and validate a scale to capture entrepreneurship behaviour at the human resource management (HRM) functional level.

Drawing from the HRM and entrepreneurship literature, this paper first conceptualises and operationalises entrepreneurial behaviour at the human resource (HR) functional level. Second, it uses a multi-phase, systematic scale development procedure to design a two-dimensional scale of entrepreneurial HRM. Finally, the scale is validated by testing its relationship with HRM innovation.

The findings suggest that entrepreneurial behaviour at the HRM functional level is characterised by innovativeness, pro-activeness, risk-taking and consensus-building behaviour. The scale shed new light on the roles of HR professionals.

This paper highlights the need for HR professionals to demonstrate entrepreneurial behaviour in HRM value addition. The scale development process, while providing a detailed understanding of the entrepreneurial behaviour at the HR functional level, will facilitate future research.

This scale provides HR professionals with the means to measure and improve entrepreneurial HRM, leading to higher levels of HRM-based value addition.

This is the first known attempt to capture entrepreneurial behaviour at the HRM functional level.

Many organizations have implemented various types of initiatives within the last few decades in an effort to deal with diversity. A possible missing vinculum (link) between how an organization deals with diversity and its impact on the bottomline is a corporate diversity strategy that is executed using a planned change approach to systemically manage diversity. While many organizations have implemented a corporate diversity strategy, most have not used a “planned change‐corporate diversity strategy”. The lack of a “planned change‐corporate diversity strategy” is quite likely to inhibit managing diversity from becoming systemic to an organization's culture and its way of doing business, thus tending to disallow the potential benefits of diversity to be maximized. Hence, this paper offers a framework for using a “planned change‐corporate diversity strategy” to: progress along the “diversity continuum” starting with acknowledging to valuing, and ultimately to managing diversity; and systemically managing diversity using a eight‐step “managing diversity process”.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether four different generations (Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y) hold different beliefs about career. Career type, career success evaluation and importance attached to organizational security are to be scrutinized for each generation.

A total of 750 people completed a vignette task, rating the career success of 32 fictitious people. Each vignette contained a different combination of five career features (functional level, salary, number of promotions, promotion speed, and satisfaction) at two levels (low and high). Furthermore, several items were added in order to determine each participant's career type and the extent to which they attached importance to organizational security.

The majority of participants still had rather “traditional” careers, although younger generations seemed to exhibit larger discrepancies between career preferences and actual career situation. Overall, satisfaction appeared to be the overriding criterion used to evaluate other people's career success. No significant differences were found between generations. With regard to importance attached to organizational security, the Silent Generation and Generation Y scored significantly higher than the other generations.

The convenience sampling strategy led to large differences in sample size per generation. Using a vignette design limited the amount and richness of information that could be offered to participants. Perhaps other criteria relevant to real‐life career success evaluation should have been incorporated in this study.

The study raises questions about the validity of career success operationalizations frequently used in research. It is the first study to examine career success evaluation by means of vignettes.

This paper explores ways in which different dimensions of sustainability can be addressed at the strategic level within organizations.

Building upon previous research, the authors provide a conceptual overview before developing a framework that outlines how sustainability can be addressed during the strategic decision‐making process and as part of the organization's corporate, business and functional level strategies.

Research has demonstrated that many managers do not understand how to make their organizations more sustainable, even though they recognize the benefits of doing so. The framework developed in this paper suggests a way for managers to integrate sustainability into strategy. It focuses on the strategic decision‐making process, including the cognitive characteristics of strategic decision‐makers and the strategy content at the corporate, business and functional levels. The authors also address the role of organizational culture and vision in supporting sustainable strategies. The framework is illustrated by case examples of BHP Billiton, Loving Earth, the Australian Wine Industry, and Migros.

The framework can be used by managers and scholars to assess the degree to which organizations have strategically addressed sustainability and to identify opportunities for further improvements.

The value of this paper lies in the treatment of sustainability as a strategic, as opposed to an operational, issue. By adopting a strategic approach to sustainability, organizations are more likely to include economic, environmental and social considerations in all aspects of business on an ongoing basis.

The purposes of this paper are to provide first a detailed description of the use of interfirm cooperation by a large sample of Dutch firms of different sizes and from different industries, and second, to examine the governance role of financial managers in the management of cooperative arrangements.

Research questions are developed based on a review of previous literature and data were collected using a questionnaire administered to a large sample of Dutch firms.

The paper finds that the sample firms are generally well engaged in various types of interfirm cooperation, in particular in outsourcing arrangements and joint ventures. In addition, larger firms are on average involved in more types of cooperation than smaller firms are, and different cooperative activities and forms are frequently used in combination. On average, financial managers report to be actively involved in the management of interfirm cooperation, which ranges from monitoring yearly results, providing advice, supervising performance, to managing daily operations of the cooperation. In this management role, they mostly use frequent detailed financial and non‐financial performance information, which often not only relates to their own firm, but also to the partner firm.

This research provides evidence of the extensive use of interfirm cooperation in practice and identifies an important governance role of financial managers in the management of interfirm cooperation. An analysis of differences in this role across different types of cooperation and functional levels of financial managers is provided.

The findings provide new insights into firms' use of a broad range of interfirm cooperative activities and into the governance role financial managers in these activities. Consistent with prior studies that document an increasing propensity of firms to engage in cooperative arrangements, the results support that interfirm cooperation constitutes an important area for research in accounting. This paper provides several suggestions for future research aimed at improving researchers' and practitioners' understanding of the management of interfirm cooperation.