Search results

Pakistan has experienced financial liberalization with rapid ups and downs in economic growth due to domestic issues during the last 2 decades. Motivated by inconclusive and conflicting time-driven findings about the performance of the business groups, this study examines the performance of business groups in Pakistan for a relatively long period from 2003 to 2018.

The study uses 3,821 firm-year observations from non-financial firms listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). For the estimation, pooled ordinary least squares (OLS) with industry- and year fixed effects and two-step system generalized methods of moments (GMM) are used.

The study finds that group-affiliated firms outperform independent firms in accounting performance, while underperform in market performance. The outperformance is mainly driven by medium-sized business groups, while underperformance is driven by small and large business groups. Further, the study documents that the underperformance in terms of market performance of firms affiliated with small and large groups is greater before the economic downturn, while outperformance in terms of the accounting measure of firms affiliated with medium-sized groups is greater during the economic downturn. These findings support our time-driven concerns. Overall, the authors' findings are consistent with institutional and transaction cost theories.

Business groups are important channels to reduce market inefficiencies. Business groups may enhance the affiliated firms' resources and resistance capacity through active utilization of the internal capital market, specifically when market conditions are not ideal for affiliates. However, effective utilization of internal capital markets depends on group size. Therefore, investors should deliberate on the size of business groups and diversification within business groups.

The authors extend the literature by providing fresh evidence related to the performance of business groups in the Pakistani context while accounting for the role of the size of business groups.

This study examines whether group-level homogeneity in telecommuting status is associated with performance differences between teleworkers and non-teleworkers at the individual level. The authors further investigate the impact of group-level task interdependence on this relationship.

A group of 225 employees in 41 work groups were surveyed, and employee performance data from the organization was used. A multilevel perspective was used to examine the influence of normative telecommuting on individual performance.

It was found that while performance differences between telecommuters and non-telecommuters in mixed groups favor non-telecommuters, those differences become non-significant as the proportion of telecommuters increases. Results further show that when group task interdependence is low, there are no performance differences between telecommuters and non-telecommuters. When group task interdependence is high, telecommuters perform better as the proportion of telecommuters in the group increases.

Future studies should examine the group norms that are formed in predominantly telecommuting groups that support successful telecommuting outcomes.

Telecommuters perform better in groups with proportionally more telecommuters, even when task interdependence is high.

This study furthers our understanding around how telecommuting can be managed at the group level to maximize performance potential.

This article attempts to contribute to the body of knowledge regarding the value of social networks, or social capital, within the group process towards group and team performance by exploring the explicit contribution of social capital towards a group or team's performance.

The research views the potential contribution of social capital through the perspective of the resource‐based view of organizations, where social capital's unique potential contribution to the organization's competitive advantage is highlighted. Data were collected from undergraduate student‐athletes (n=570) from 23 NCAA colleges and universities across the USA using a multiple hierarchical regression analysis.

Results show a significant connection between social capital and team performance. This contribution is above and beyond other input and process variables, such as past team performance.

Data were limited to a cross‐sectional view of social capital and team performance. Results, however, support past theoretical models where social capital maintains a significant presence in overall group effectiveness.

While social capital has been connected to team performance conceptually, few research studies have made this connection explicit. This article provides justification for maintaining social capital as a viable and ubiquitous element to the dynamic group process. Findings here also provide additional support for re‐examining social capital as significant contributor to a firm's competitive advantage.

The purpose of this paper is to compare effects of different monetary team‐based reward strategies on performance, pay satisfaction, and communication behavior in computer‐mediated groups.

In a laboratory experiment, 32 groups of undergraduate students, each consisting of three individuals, interacted electronically and performed a consensus‐reaching task. Team‐based incentives were distributed either equally (each team member received an equal share) or equitably (each team member's share depended on her/his individual contribution). A control group received no team‐based (or other) incentives.

Hierarchical multilevel analyses revealed that both types of team‐based rewards increased team members' motivation and pay satisfaction compared to the control condition. Moreover, the effects of team‐based rewards on performance were moderated by group members' assertiveness. In addition, team‐based rewards lead to more cooperative and task‐oriented communication in the computer‐mediated groups. Finally, equally divided rewards led to higher pay satisfaction on average than equitably divided incentives.

On a research level, this study shows that team‐based rewards have positive effects not only on performance but also on communication behavior in computer‐mediated groups. As a practical implication, reward effects should be considered cautiously as they might be influenced by team members’ personality. Moreover, whereas no major differences were found between equity and equality principles in terms of performance, the latter seems to be preferable when satisfaction is a major issue in virtual teams.

Knowledge sharing, as a kind of social behavior that incorporates collective intelligence to achieve a certain goal, has become a remarkable developing trend in recent years. Under the context of traditional teaching, this study aims to explore the manner in which students become effective in sharing knowledge to help optimize course design and improve our existing education.

Among 195 university students taking an elective, the effects of different incentives on group performance in completing tasks is explored on the basis of a randomized experiment.

Results show that intra-group cooperation can be helpful to student performance, whereas intra-group competition neither improves nor worsens student performance. The former is mainly driven by reciprocity, especially for that stimulated by inter-group competition, whereas the latter is stimulated by egoism. Thus, proper reciprocity can promote student behavior to increase voluntary contribution. In addition, intra-group differences do not interfere with group performance, especially task-oriented groups.

Certain suggestions are proposed to improve the curriculum design in large classrooms. Forming groups is the best way to strengthen student knowledge sharing. Within task-oriented groups, the incentives of inter-group competition can encourage students to deepen intra-group cooperation and thus effectively improve group performance under the conditions of external competition.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of work characteristics on members’ self‐efficacy and collective efficacy, and the subsequent effect on police officers’ performance.

A multilevel model is adopted to analyze quantitative data obtained by using 812 police officers and 54 chiefs of police stations in Taiwan as the research objects.

The authors found that work characteristics affected members’ self‐efficacy and collective efficacy, which further affected the individual‐ and group‐level performance and the contextual effect of social work characteristics (SWCs) and collective efficacy on self‐efficacy and individual performance. The authors also confirmed the cross‐level moderation of social characteristics on the relationship between motivational work characteristics (MWCs) and self‐efficacy, and between self‐efficacy and individual performance.

A limitation was the characteristics of the sample, which consisted of mostly first‐line uniformed police officers in Taiwan. From the perspective of managerial implications, it is felt that police organizations should beef up the training on police officers’ collective efficacy, such as building group spirit, improving members’ sense of responsibility, and building up trust with the organization.

The findings prove that the study of work design is particularly important for enhancing the management effectiveness of police organization, because it explains the causes of a number of organizational behaviors as well as a number of important results that influence the police organization (e.g. efficacy and performance).

The paper aims to examine the nature of competition within an industry by proposing and examining three separate sources of competitive heterogeneity: the strategies that industry members use, the performance that they obtain, and how effectively the strategies are utilized to obtain such performance results.

To do so, a restricted latent structure finite mixture model is devised that can quantify the contribution of these three potential sources of heterogeneity in the formulation of latent competitive groups within an industry. The paper illustrate this modeling framework with respect to COMPUSTAT strategy and performance data collected for public banks in the USA.

The paper shows how traditional conceptualizations via strategic or performance groups are inadequate to fully represent intra‐industry heterogeneity.

This research paper proposes a new class of restricted finite mixture‐based models, which fit a variety of alternative forms/models of heterogeneity. Information heuristics are developed to indicate “best model.”

Strategic group has been intensively studied since this term emerged in 1970s, but previous studies have been limited to the comparisons between groups such as performance comparison. The purpose of this paper is to explore the internal structure of strategic groups by examining the effect of strategic distance from a firm to the center of its strategic group on firm performance.

The research is based on data acquired from the annual reports of listed companies and some Chinese domestic databases, including CSMAR Solution, WIND financial database, and China Core Newspapers Full-text Database. After grouping listed pharmaceutical companies in China over the period 2010-2011, the authors test three hypotheses by using fixed effect regressions.

The paper finds that the strategic distance from a firm to the center of its strategic group has a significant negative effect on the firm's financial performance. Two factors are discovered to influence that effect: corporate diversification strengthens the negative effect of strategic distance on performance, while firm's media visibility weakens that negative effect.

The findings reveal the relationship between intra-group strategic positioning and firm performance, and specify how firms can gain competitive advantage through positioning choices and strategic actions. This study promotes the establishment of a more comprehensive strategic group theory by revealing the structure within strategic groups.

A central theme in the strategic groups literature is the theoretical relationship between groups and firm performance. The empirical evidence is conflicting, however. The aim of this research is to study this linkage through two analyses. Thus, the analysis that has been traditionally used – performance differences between groups – is complemented with an analysis of performance differences within each group. To set up strategic groups, we analyze firms operating in the construction industry, using specific variables associated with generic strategies.

We investigated the role of task and relationship conflict as mediators of the relationship between information sharing and group performance. We suggest that, in addition to the commonly studied effect of conflict on information sharing, the reverse causal direction is theoretically likely and relevant in today's business climate. Specifically, we hypothesize that information sharing will reduce both task and relationship conflict with beneficial effects on team performance in established groups. We also explore boundary conditions to these conflict‐reducing effects of information sharing, suggesting that the lower a group's task interdependence, the more information sharing reduces task conflict, and the lower a group's average general mental ability, the more information sharing reduces relationship conflict. Analysis of data from 38 groups supported our expectations, revealing the expected negative relationships between information sharing and both task and relationship conflict, as well as the expected moderating effects of task interdependence and general mental ability.