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High-tech enterprises, as the national innovation powerhouses, have garnered considerable interest, particularly regarding their technological innovation capabilities. Nevertheless, prevalent research tends to spotlight the impact of individual factors on innovative behavior, with only a fraction adopting a comprehensive viewpoint, scrutinizing the causal amalgamations of precursor conditions influencing the overall innovation proficiency of high-tech enterprises.

This paper employs a hybrid approach integrating necessary condition analysis (NCA) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to examine the combinatorial effects of antecedent factors on high-tech enterprises' innovation output. Our analysis draws upon data from 46 listed Chinese high-tech enterprises. To promote technological innovation within high-tech enterprises, we introduce a novel perspective that emphasizes technological innovation networks, grounded in a network agents-structure-environment framework. These antecedents are government subsidy, tax benefits, customer concentration, purchase concentration rate, market-oriented index and innovation environment.

The findings delineate four configurational pathways leading to high innovative output and three pathways resulting in low production.

This study thereby enriches the body of knowledge around technological innovation and provides actionable policy recommendations.

Due to the rapid growth of digital economy, improving employees’ creativity is becoming essential to optimizing the development of organizations. This study investigates how enterprise social media can enhance employee creativity and develops an integrated model based on communication visibility and social capital theories.

A two-stage questionnaire was conducted on full-time employees with enterprise social media experience. The first round of this study distributed 1,048 questionnaires and collected 639 valid sample data. A month later, the second survey was sent to the first valid respondents, with 421 valid sample data collected within a week.

Results show that visibility has a positive influence on employee creativity, in which expertise recognition and network recognition play a mediating role. The findings also indicate that bridging social capital positively moderates the effect of visibility on expertise recognition, and bonding social capital positively moderates the effect of visibility on network recognition.

This study contributes to a better understanding of the benefits of enterprise social media by uncovering the mechanism and theoretical boundary of the effect of visibility on employee creativity.

This paper introduces a new approach to theorising and learning from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) women’s experiences of inequality in academia. It offers a versatile model with which the structure of a particular racist-sexist inequality regime can be theorised from empirical evidence.

The paper presents composite, fictionalised accounts of intersectional discrimination which are then analysed through critical realist frameworks, employing critical race feminist theory insights. This novel “whisper network” method centres the knowledge of BAME women in academia, and is translatable to other marginalised actors, offering a more protective means by which to access their knowledge as a foundation for organisational change.

Through theorising the ontological arrangement of key causal mechanisms responsible for the reproduction of inequality regimes, the paper illuminates links between micro-level intersectional discrimination and meso-level institutional inequality.

In order to preserve anonymity and reduce potential backlash, the vignettes in this paper are not intended to precisely capture specific empirical realities, but instead reflect wider patterns from the author's own whisper network knowledge. Nonetheless, the analytical method developed here could be applied to rigorously collected empirical data, with clear implications for improving organisational practice.

The paper offers a structured and systematic process by which qualitative data on institutional inequality can be analysed and stakeholders engaged to develop and propose solutions, even by individuals new to the field.

A methodical basis for strategic action addressing the issues revealed through such an analysis can be developed in order to galvanise and steer organisational change.

The novelty of the paper is twofold: in its original synthesis of critical realist depth ontology and ontological insights from critical race feminist theory about social structures of oppression, and in the development of the innovative “whisper network” method based upon a critical race theory counter-storytelling epistemology, in conversation with the emergent stream of literature within feminist organisation studies regarding the importance of “writing differently”.

Enterprise social networks (ESN) that enable faster communications and knowledge sharing at work are an integral part of many workplaces. Although the affordances potency and actualization constructs identify work context as important, few studies to date have teased out how the interactions between ESN’s affordances, users’ goals and the work context drive affordances actualization.

This research is a case study of a technology multinational that made the ESN Chatter mandatory for all internal communications. We conducted a thematic analysis of 40 h of non-participatory observation, 15 in-depth interviews and eight informal conversations with employees.

There was considerable variation in how employees across different functional roles perceived affordances’ potencies, leading to differences in the nature and intensity of actualization: while sales and project managers embraced Chatter, technical support participants mostly resisted it; visibility was the central affordance for sales and human resources, but persistence was more important for project managers and association for technical support and billing. An organizational culture of accountability, urgency and efficiency interacted with Chatter’s affordances in a mutually reinforcing way, strengthening accountability and accelerating processes. Collaboration was enhanced but in a mostly coercive way. While sales participants' motivation was boosted, the mandated use of Chatter rendered tasks not inputted in Chatter invisible and created antagonism between departments.

Practitioners should not underestimate the influence of different work contexts and employees' goals when implementing an ESN. Since employees are concerned with managing their workload and how others perceive them, they may resist ESNs that they perceive as creating additional work and they may attempt to manage impressions at the expense of the work climate. Organizations looking to implement an ESN as their main communication tool would greatly benefit from establishing training programs and clear guidelines on positive communication practices across functional roles such as sales and technical support, and between peers.

Our study is one of the first to shed light on the role of the work context, i.e. functional role and organizational culture, in explaining the intensity and specificity of affordance actualization across an organization.

This study utilizes Bourdieu’s concepts of field, capital and habitus to investigate the networking strategies of Asian and Black knowledge workers in the London Insurance Market. It also examines the factors contributing to the success or failure of these strategies. The trading activities of the London Insurance Market are underpinned by interdependent relations among its participants. It provides an appropriate context for examining the networking strategies adopted by Asian and Black workers to accelerate their careers.

This research employed a qualitative methodology, gathering data from 24 participants through semi-structured interviews. Participants were selected using purposive, convenience, and snowball sampling methods. Thematic analysis was used to analyze data and develop aggregated concepts from the identified themes and subthemes.

The London Insurance Market accords great importance to networking. Interpersonal connections significantly influenced career progression, often overshadowing educational attainments. Asian and Black workers faced systemic nepotism and limited access to influential networks in this field. Participants strategically used their interactions to overcome these challenges and advance their careers. Many believed that their careers had a better chance of progressing through informal networks than through formal channels such as Human Resources. Some participants declined to engage in the commonly accepted networking practices, choosing alternative ways to further their careers.

Findings underscore the need for implementing specific organizational policies to address systemic biases and nepotism, particularly in front-office recruitment. Such policies could include prioritizing merit-based hiring practices and developing targeted initiatives to reduce the underrepresentation of minority ethnic workers in front-office positions. By adopting these measures, organizations can create more equitable career advancement opportunities and leverage the full potential of their diverse workforce.

This study contributes to the existing literature on minority ethnic workers' careers, networking theory and workplace diversity. It provides insights into the networking strategies of Asian and Black workers within the London Insurance Market, revealing that these strategies are dependent on contextual factors. The study also highlights the pervasive practice of nepotism deeply ingrained in the habitus of the London Insurance Market and which acts as a barrier for gaining access to influential networks.

Based on the social interaction theory and trust theory, this study investigates the switching of users on social question and answer (Q&A) platforms from knowledge seekers to knowledge contributors.

We used Python to gather data from Zhihu, performed hypothesis testing on the models using Poisson regression and finally conducted a mediation effect analysis.

The findings reveal that knowledge seeking impacts users' motivation for information interaction, emotional interaction and trust. Notably, information interaction and trust exhibit a chained mediation effect that subsequently influences knowledge contribution.

Current studies on user knowledge behavior typically examine individual actions, rarely connecting knowledge seeking and knowledge contribution. However, the balance of knowledge inflow and outflow is crucial for social Q&A platforms. To cover this gap, this paper empirically investigates the switching between knowledge seeking and knowledge contribution based on the social interaction theory and trust theory.

This study aims to provide an explorative perspective on how workarounds – defined as practices that deviate from an official pathway to a target – delineate a decisive element for users with visual impairment to enable assistive technologies in the context of office work.

An ethnographic study with in situ observation at participants’ work locations together with interviews was conducted to cater for the explorative nature of this study.

The study outlines three types of workarounds that can be distinguished into: (1) own investment into invisible work, (2) engaging support from colleagues and (3) the complete circumvention of technology use. It is furthermore discussed that workarounds remain largely unnoticed but yield the potential as an enabling factor for insights into the use of assistive technology (AT).

The layered model of workarounds that locates them at the individual, social and organisational level can guide the design and analysis of enabling technologies in complex office work contexts. Technology designers can incorporate enquiries on workarounds into participatory or co-creative design processes. Information technology (IT) professionals and leaders of IT support teams can use this model to gain insights from workarounds into improvement opportunities for the effective integration of assistive technologies.

This study connects the concept of workarounds, which is deeply rooted in the tradition of workplace studies and computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW), with the practices of handling technology employed by knowledge workers with visual impairments to retain workability. This approach offers a novel perspective on the embeddedness of enabling technologies in the context of knowledge work. It highlights the intricate ways in which technology is integrated into daily work practices, thereby providing valuable insights into the intersection of AT and knowledge work.

This paper aims to investigate the following issues: the mechanisms through which different types of top management team’s social capital influence the innovation quality of high-tech firms, and the moderating effect of organizational knowledge utilization on the relationship between top management team’s social capital and innovation quality in high-tech firms.

This study categorizes top management team’s social capital into political, business and academic dimensions, investigating their impact on innovation quality in high-tech firms. Furthermore, a research model is developed with organizational knowledge utilization as the moderating variable. Data from Chinese high-tech firms between 2010 and 2019 are collected as samples for analysis.

The innovation quality of high-tech firms shows an inverted U-shaped trend as the top management team’s political capital and business capital increase. The top management team’s academic capital has a significantly positive correlation with the innovation quality of high-tech firms. Moreover, organizational knowledge utilization plays a significant moderating role in the relationship between the top management team’s social capital and innovation quality in high-tech firms.

This study explores the relationship among different dimensions of top management team’s social capital, innovation quality and organizational knowledge utilization. It holds significant theoretical value in enriching and refining the interactions between top management team’s social capital, knowledge management theory and innovation management theory. In addition, it offers important practical implications for firms to rationally approach top management team’s social capital, emphasize top management team configuration management and establish a comprehensive and efficient organizational knowledge utilization mechanism.

Effectuation, which articulates the process of entrepreneurial action based on nonpredictive control logic, is receiving extensive scholarly attention. What drives the effectual entrepreneurship is featured with high complexity. However, existing studies ignored the complex driving forces underlying entrepreneurial decision-making. Building on a configurational perspective, the purpose of this study was to examine the combinative effects of environmental uncertainty and entrepreneurs’ means on effectual entrepreneurship.

Drawing on 54 entrepreneurs who are launching new ventures in China, this study adopts a fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to investigate two sets of antecedent conditions and how they form different combinations for a highly effectual entrepreneurship.

Our findings disclose four highly effectual entrepreneurship paths involving novice–specialist effectual entrepreneurship in a highly uncertain environment, socialite–specialist effectual entrepreneurship in a highly uncertain environment, pure-specialist effectual entrepreneurship and resourceful effectual entrepreneurship, and one path of barefoot noneffectual entrepreneurship in a highly uncertain environment, which reveals the complex nature of environmental uncertainty and entrepreneurs’ means in driving entrepreneurs to adopt effectuation.

Our study makes the following contributions. First, by taking a configurational perspective, we are able to obtain an elaborate view of the combined effects of environmental uncertainty and entrepreneurs’ means on effectual entrepreneurship. Second, we expand prior thinking on the relationship between environmental uncertainty and effectuation. Third, our study offers a more delicate understanding of entrepreneurs’ means in driving effectuation by splitting means into three separate factors.

The Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science (CSMLS) Peer Support Project was a formal and virtual peer support group pilot for medical laboratory professionals in Canada to determine its application for CSMLS members and obtain information regarding the current state of medical laboratory professionals’ mental health, well-being and burnout. CSMLS learned what is contributing to stress at work, coping strategies and barriers to accessing support or help for their mental health among medical laboratory professionals.

The qualitative and exploratory pilot study examined medical laboratory professionals from Canada. Two peer support groups were facilitated in April and May 2022 by a trained mental health clinician. Peer support delivery was virtual and delivered via Zoom. The purposive sample featured medical laboratory technologists, Educators and Supervisors/Directors who were CSMLS members. The qualitative analysis was conducted via analytical memos and incorporated both manual and NVivo software analysis.

Overall themes were identified within the data analysis and included barriers to mental health care; increased stigma for mental health; mixed messaging regarding mental health; feeling invisible; medical laboratory professionals would like to manage stress better but their increasing workload demands and challenges with scheduling and staffing add to their stress. Participants also highlighted their role and its context using metaphors such as “the silent firefighters”, and “the Bass Guitar of the Hospital”. Based on the evaluations, the peer support sessions encouraged participants to address their own mental health, validate their experiences and increase their comfort level in discussing mental health.

It identified a potential resource for medical laboratory professionals and determined that further mental health resources would be beneficial for their field. It also identified their strong commitment to patient care and their role as a medical laboratory professional.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to examine peer support as a mental health resource for medical laboratory professionals. Additionally, its focus was on a Canadian population with virtual delivery.