Search results

1 – 10 of over 5000
Book part
Publication date: 5 July 2016

Martin Weiss

The linkage between diversification and performance has puzzled scholars for decades. A vast amount of empirical studies, together with the help of meta-analyses condensing…

Abstract

The linkage between diversification and performance has puzzled scholars for decades. A vast amount of empirical studies, together with the help of meta-analyses condensing diverse results, established a widely shared understanding that related diversification leads to superior firm performance. The main rationale for this finding is that relatedness within a company’s portfolio of businesses allows the company to achieve synergies by sharing or transferring resources. Although the predominant importance of related diversification seems generally accepted, scholars raise severe concerns about our ability to precisely define and measure relatedness. In most studies, traditional measures of diversification such as the Berry index are used, which assess relatedness from a product/market perspective. However, these measures face strong criticisms for their low degree of content validity. So if we doubt our understanding of relatedness, how can we agree on the performance effect of related diversification? To reassure our understanding of the diversification-performance linkage, this study critically reflects upon the underlying phenomenon of relatedness. By compiling and evaluating the different perspectives of relatedness with their heterogeneous conceptualizations and measures, this study supports the view that the multi-facetted nature of relatedness can only be captured inadequately so far. Moreover, most prior work mainly focuses on synergy potential rather than on the realization of synergies, thereby neglecting a mechanism that may have an important bearing on the performance effects of diversification.

Article
Publication date: 20 February 2017

Pouya Seifzadeh

Drawing on the literature on corporate diversification, the purpose of this paper is to shed light onto the influence of geographic dispersion on the effectiveness of control…

1307

Abstract

Purpose

Drawing on the literature on corporate diversification, the purpose of this paper is to shed light onto the influence of geographic dispersion on the effectiveness of control mechanisms in related diversified corporations. This research contends that control mechanisms implemented by corporations and the extent of geographic diversification play a role in the synergies expected from related diversification being realized.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses OLS regression to analyze data collected through surveys from managers of 193 Iranian corporations and their 2,704 subsidiaries to examine the relationship between relatedness, corporate performance, geographic dispersion, and emphasis of strategic controls.

Findings

The author finds that a triple interaction effect between corporate strategy (diversification approach), controls mechanisms, and the extent of geographic diversification influences the overall performance of corporations. Findings of this research suggest that the positive effects of strategic controls in related diversified corporations are most when there is less geographic dispersion and will attenuate as corporations become more geographically disperse.

Research limitations/implications

The findings of this research, have contributed to the extant literature in several ways. First, the findings further establish the superiority of related diversification to unrelated diversification in achieving economic performance in corporations. The findings reveal that, ceteris paribus, the more relatedness between activities of subsidiaries in corporations exists, higher performance can be expected at the corporate level. Second, the findings show once more that to achieve the higher performance that results from synergies in related diversified corporations, emphasis of strategic controls play a crucial and important role. Third, the author find that although the emphasis of strategic controls in essential to realizing the potentials in related diversified corporations, greater geographic dispersion attenuates the positive effects expected from stricter enforcement of strategic control mechanisms.

Practical implications

An important consequence of findings of this research is that managers should be more aware of the implications of selecting the geographic location of the subsidiaries that they either acquire or establish. While the literature focusing on corporate diversification has mainly focused on the differences between related and unrelated diversification, this paper brings a new factor into light. Therefore, the findings of this research provide the author with a better understanding of the factors that define success or failure in achieving financial objectives of corporations.

Originality/value

There has been very little done to investigate the factors that influence effectiveness of strategic controls in related diversified corporation. Much of this shortcoming has resulted due to difficulties in measurement of strategic controls their operationalization in empirical studies. This study has taken a step to that direction and therefore, provides a more coherent and clear picture of the factors that influence the overall performance in corporations.

Details

Journal of Strategy and Management, vol. 10 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1755-425X

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 18 December 2007

Ping Zhang

Due to the strategic, economic, and social significance of information and communication technology development and use, a better understanding of factors that contribute to…

Abstract

Due to the strategic, economic, and social significance of information and communication technology development and use, a better understanding of factors that contribute to technology acceptance and use decisions can be extremely important. In this chapter, we posit that one of the fundamental reasons that people utilize technology is to support their well-being by fulfiling their various needs. Taking this motivational perspective, we suggest that the purposes and utilities of information and communication technology should support various human needs. Using a motivational approach to study technology design is intended to be positive. We revisit some fundamentals that may have been forgotten and we unearth the intrinsic drive of technology development and use. As a first step toward a design theory, we propose ten design principles to achieve high motivating information and communication technology.

Details

Designing Information and Organizations with a Positive Lens
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-398-3

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 27 April 2022

Caroline Fischer

This paper aims to develop and validate a scale to measure knowledge-sharing motives at work. It is aimed to construct a scale which is explicitly different from knowledge-sharing…

1440

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to develop and validate a scale to measure knowledge-sharing motives at work. It is aimed to construct a scale which is explicitly different from knowledge-sharing behavior and to develop a comprehensive and domain-specific scale for this special kind of work motivation.

Design/methodology/approach

The constructed scale was tested in two studies. Survey data (n = 355) were used to perform an exploratory factor analysis. Results were further tested on survey data from the core public sector (n = 314) and the health sector (n = 315). A confirmatory factor analysis confirms the results in both samples. The developed scale was further validated internally and externally.

Findings

The analysis underlines that knowledge-sharing motivation and knowledge-sharing behavior are different constructs. The data suggest three dimensions of knowledge-sharing motives: appreciation, growth and altruism and tangible rewards. While it is suggested that the developed scale works in the public as well as the private sector context, it is found that knowledge sharing of public employees is merely driven by “growth and altruism” and “appreciation of coworkers.”

Originality/value

No comprehensive and reproducible scale to measure knowledge-sharing motives, which is different from behavior and domain-specific as well, was available in the literature. Therefore, such a scale has been constructed in this study. Furthermore, this study uses samples from different organizational sectors to deepen the understanding of knowledge sharing in context.

Details

VINE Journal of Information and Knowledge Management Systems, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2059-5891

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 22 June 2021

Ivo De Loo and Pieter Kamminga

During choir rehearsals, a conductor continuously holds choir members accountable for what they do and how they sing. Hence, members are held accountable through action. This…

Abstract

Purpose

During choir rehearsals, a conductor continuously holds choir members accountable for what they do and how they sing. Hence, members are held accountable through action. This allows a conductor to emphasize his/her expertise and underline his/her authority. Choir members typically respond in certain ways when this is done, for instance by commenting on the feedback they receive or by trying to improve their singing. The interplay between these accounts, how they develop over time, and what they (do not) accomplish in terms of human relatedness are the focus of this study. We use Bauman's (1993) conceptualization of social space to investigate these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

By providing reasons for their conduct and behaving in a certain way, a conductor and choir members, but also a choir's management, can alter their position in social space. Thereby, they solidify or change how they relate to other individuals in the choir. Bauman assumes that processes of social spacing require so-called “misunderstandings”. We examine seven misunderstandings that occurred in a particular rehearsal of a top-level amateur choir, analyzing their impact on human relatedness. Video analysis methods, interviews and photo-elicitation are the main research methods used.

Findings

We find both short-term and long-term effects of misunderstandings on human relatedness, and offer two extensions of Bauman's (1993) conception of social space. Firstly, we assert that there is a reflective side to processes of social spacing that needs to be taken into account when changes in human relatedness are discussed. Secondly, we find that the emotional impact of accountability on how individuals behave ought not to be underestimated, as this can have lasting effects on how people relate to one another.

Originality/value

This research makes two contributions to the extant literature. It is shown how accountability through action unfolds when people engage in leisurely activity, and how this affects the way they relate to one another – in sometimes unintentional and unpredictable ways. It also extends a well-known theoretical framework on social space that has seen little application in the accounting literature. This framework is adapted so that it may be used more fruitfully in future accounting studies.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 35 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 April 2011

Masahiro Ito, Kotaro Nakayama, Takahiro Hara and Shojiro Nishio

Recently, the importance and effectiveness of Wikipedia Mining has been shown in several researches. One popular research area on Wikipedia Mining focuses on semantic relatedness

Abstract

Purpose

Recently, the importance and effectiveness of Wikipedia Mining has been shown in several researches. One popular research area on Wikipedia Mining focuses on semantic relatedness measurement, and research in this area has shown that Wikipedia can be used for semantic relatedness measurement. However, previous methods are facing two problems; accuracy and scalability. To solve these problems, the purpose of this paper is to propose an efficient semantic relatedness measurement method that leverages global statistical information of Wikipedia. Furthermore, a new test collection is constructed based on Wikipedia concepts for evaluating semantic relatedness measurement methods.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors' approach leverages global statistical information of the whole Wikipedia to compute semantic relatedness among concepts (disambiguated terms) by analyzing co‐occurrences of link pairs in all Wikipedia articles. In Wikipedia, an article represents a concept and a link to another article represents a semantic relation between these two concepts. Thus, the co‐occurrence of a link pair indicates the relatedness of a concept pair. Furthermore, the authors propose an integration method with tfidf as an improved method to additionally leverage local information in an article. Besides, for constructing a new test collection, the authors select a large number of concepts from Wikipedia. The relatedness of these concepts is judged by human test subjects.

Findings

An experiment was conducted for evaluating calculation cost and accuracy of each method. The experimental results show that the calculation cost of this approach is very low compared to one of the previous methods and more accurate than all previous methods for computing semantic relatedness.

Originality/value

This is the first proposal of co‐occurrence analysis of Wikipedia links for semantic relatedness measurement. The authors show that this approach is effective to measure semantic relatedness among concepts regarding calculation cost and accuracy. The findings may be useful to researchers who are interested in knowledge extraction, as well as ontology researches.

Details

International Journal of Web Information Systems, vol. 7 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1744-0084

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 April 2017

Neerpal Rathi and Kidong Lee

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the association of the satisfaction of the basic psychological needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness with affective…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the association of the satisfaction of the basic psychological needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness with affective commitment and turnover intentions among retail employees in India while also examining the mediating role of job satisfaction in these associations.

Design/methodology/approach

Research hypotheses were tested using a cross-organizational sample of 244 employees. Existing, established scales were used to measure the research constructs.

Findings

The results of this study show that the satisfaction of the needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness was positively related to affective commitment and negatively related to turnover intentions. Moreover, the results indicate that job satisfaction mediated the association of basic psychological need satisfaction with affective commitment and turnover intentions.

Practical implications

This study highlights the significant role of basic psychological need satisfaction in retaining employees in a rapidly growing economy that is experiencing very high employee turnover. The findings of this study may be helpful for organizational leaders in taking appropriate actions to create working conditions that facilitate the satisfaction of employees’ basic psychological needs. Satisfaction of employees’ basic psychological needs at work may help in retaining them in the current economic scenario, which is witnessing very high employee turnover.

Originality/value

This research tested the applicability of basic psychological need satisfaction to Eastern collectivistic cultures, particularly to India. Recent socio-economic changes, unique workforce demographics and a predominantly collectivistic culture make India distinct from western and European countries, where most of the earlier research on understanding the nature, antecedents, and consequences of basic psychological need satisfaction has been conducted. This research provides an important contribution not only to basic psychological need satisfaction theory, but also to international business literature.

Details

Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Administration, vol. 9 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-4323

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 April 2023

Faheem Gul Gilal, Naeem Gul Gilal, Rukhsana Gul Gilal and Zhiyong Yang

The goal of this paper is twofold: (1) to investigate how relatedness-supportive corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives influence brand happiness among retail bank…

Abstract

Purpose

The goal of this paper is twofold: (1) to investigate how relatedness-supportive corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives influence brand happiness among retail bank customers through a mediating mechanism of customer participation in brand CSR movements; and (2) to analyze how relatedness-supportive CSR initiatives’ effect may be moderated by cause choice and customer-brand goal congruence.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from 379 retail bank customers via a paper-and-pencil survey. The hypothesized moderated-mediation effects were tested using Hayes’ (2013) PROCESS (Model 3, Model 4 and Model 7).

Findings

Results show that relatedness-supportive CSR initiatives increase brand happiness among retail bank customers through increasing their participation in brand CSR movements. Furthermore, the use of customer determination in the choice of cause enhances the positive effect of relatedness-supportive CSR initiatives on customer participation in brand CSR movements. Similarly, when customers choose the cause and the customer-brand goal is congruent, the effect of relatedness-supportive CSR initiatives on brand happiness is stronger than when the customer-brand goal is incongruent and cause choice is not aligned.

Originality/value

This research is grounded on the relationship motivation theory (RMT), basic psychological needs theory and self-congruity theory to unpack the relationship between relatedness-supportive CSR programs on brand happiness. Integrating three research streams (i.e. CSR, brand management and retail banking), this study proposes customer participation in brand CSR movements as a novel mechanism and sheds light on how relatedness-supportive CSR interplays with cause choice/customer-brand goal congruence to affect brand happiness among retail bank customers in emerging markets.

Details

International Journal of Bank Marketing, vol. 42 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-2323

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 September 2018

Linjuan Rita Men and Katy L. Robinson

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of emotional culture on the quality of employee–organization relationships (EORs). To understand the nuances of the influence of…

2914

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of emotional culture on the quality of employee–organization relationships (EORs). To understand the nuances of the influence of positive and negative emotional cultures on employee relational outcomes, this study specifically examined four fundamental emotional cultures, namely, joy, love, fear and sadness, in the cultivation of EORs. Further, as more recent emotional connotations of culture delve into the connections between employees’ fundamental need for psychological satisfaction and business success, likewise, this study proposes employees’ psychological need satisfaction as a potential mediator that explains how emotional culture influences employee–organization relational outcomes.

Design/methodology/approach

To test the hypothesized model, the authors conducted an online survey on a random sample of 509 employees working in 19 diverse industry sectors in a one-week period in February 2017, with the assistance of a premier global provider of survey services, Survey Sampling International. To test the hypothesized model, structural equation modeling analysis was employed using AMOS 24.0 software.

Findings

Results indicated that joy, happiness, excitement, companionate love, affection and warmth could meet employees’ psychological need for mutual respect, care, connection and interdependence within the organization. Such culture contributed to employees’ feelings of trust, satisfaction, mutual control and commitment toward the organization. By contrast, employees in organizations with a dispirited, downcast and sad emotional culture were less inclined to develop quality relationships with the organization. Employees in organizations where the emotional culture was fearful, anxious, tense or scared were less likely to satisfy their psychological need for relatedness.

Originality/value

This study is among one of the earliest attempts to theorize and operationalize organizational emotional culture, which fills the research gap in decades of organizational culture research that focused predominantly on the cognitive aspect. Also, this study expands the thriving relationship management literature, in particular, employee relationship management research by showing the positive impact of emotional culture of joy and love and negative impact of emotional culture of sadness on employee relational outcomes.

Details

Corporate Communications: An International Journal, vol. 23 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1356-3289

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 23 June 2023

Laura E. Hurtienne and Matthew Hurtienne

As human resource development (HRD) seeks to develop organizations and unleash human expertise (Swanson and Holton, 2009), leaders should be encouraged to consider every employee…

Abstract

Purpose

As human resource development (HRD) seeks to develop organizations and unleash human expertise (Swanson and Holton, 2009), leaders should be encouraged to consider every employee as a complex individual with unique needs and aspirations. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of equity leadership (EL), which identifies individual employees’ personal and professional resource, relationship and opportunity needs in an effort to support employees in reaching their fullest potential in the workforce, therefore increasing positive organizational outcomes.

Design/methodology/approach

The theoretical foundations of EL are social exchange theory (SET; Saks and Rotman, 2006) and the ERG theory of motivation (Alderfer, 1969). SET recognizes the give-and-take relationship between leaders and employees, while ERG theory of motivation considers an individual’s personal and professional existence, relatedness and growth needs. The theories provide a foundation for EL’s definition.

Findings

EL posits that leaders’ attention to employees’ resource, relationship and opportunity needs in the workplace could result in a positive effect on the social exchange between leaders and employees. EL provides a framework for these exchanges to occur and for employee needs to be considered, thus resulting in increased employee engagement, productivity and retention.

Research limitations/implications

EL can take a significant amount of time, especially when starting with new employees; however, the relationships and positive organizational outcomes provide justification for engaging in the leadership style.

Practical implications

This paper seeks to advance the field of HRD by defining EL, exploring the theoretical underpinnings of EL and providing actionable steps for leaders to put EL into action.

Social implications

The nuanced theory of EL encourages organizations to evolve from the factory model of expectations to a model that considers the unique needs of individuals in organizations. Grounded partly in SET, EL promotes positive relationships between leaders and employees.

Originality/value

There are many leadership theories; however, EL, unlike any other leadership theory, uniquely considers the individual needs of each employee through consistent one-on-one conversations between the leader and individual employees to discover employee needs and also strives for positive organizational outcomes as a result of the social exchanges.

Details

European Journal of Training and Development, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2046-9012

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 5000