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The purpose of this paper is to investigate how management attention and supply chain complexity affect the decision-making process and cost estimation accuracy of supply chain design (SCD) decisions.

The research follows an embedded case study design. Through the lens of the behavioural theory of the firm, the SCD decision process and realised outcomes are investigated through longitudinal data collection across ten embedded cases with varying degrees of supply chain decision-making complexity and management attention.

The findings suggest that as supply chain decision-making complexity increases, cost estimation accuracy decreases. The extent to which supply chain decision-making complexity is readily recognised influences the selection of strategies for information search and analysis and, thus, impacts resulting cost estimation errors. The paper further shows the importance of management attention for cost estimation accuracy, especially management attention based on conflicting goals induce behaviours that improve estimation ability.

A framework proposing a balance between supply chain decision-making complexity and management attention in SCD decisions is proposed. However, as an embedded case study the research would benefit from replication to externally validate results.

The method used in this study can identify how supply chain complexity is related to cost estimation errors and how management attention is associated with behaviours that improve cost estimation accuracy, indicating the importance of management attention in complex supply chain decision-making.

This paper aims to discuss whether the attention of investors to abnormalities can serve as a mechanism for the influence of online media coverage on earnings management.

Based on Baidu index data of China’s A-share listed companies between 2014 and 2018, this paper studies influencing mechanism of online media reports on earnings management from the perspective on abnormal investor attention.

The results show that internet media reports can impose pressure on managers of companies by inducing abnormal focus of the public on listed companies and further force the latter to generate more actions on the management of earnings. It is the abnormal rather than normal investor attention that mediates network media reports and earnings management.

This research enriches and refines the theory on influencing mechanism of media effects on earnings management and provides significant empirical evidence for future researches. Meanwhile, the conclusion of the research is of great practical importance for instructing listed firms dealing with media reports, guiding rational investment of investors and intensifying precision regulation of regulators.

By categorizing abnormal investor attention into active spontaneous abnormal attention which is not guided by media report and passive guided abnormal attention which is guided by media reports, the authors clarify the difference between the two categories. The result indicates that it is only the latter that is the influential mechanism of media report on earnings management.

This paper aims to explore how changes in the coercive and enabling orientations of the organizational rule system influence the attention managers pay to rules.

The findings of a case study covering a multinational energy company, which are interpreted based on insights from the coercive/enabling bureaucracy literature and the evolution of rules literature, help explain how rules can direct attention.

The findings suggest that the tensions between corporate management’s intentions for an organization’s rule system and the attention middle (country) managers pay to those rules were the main driver of dialectic changes in the rule system. The more coercive the rule system became, the more middle managers diverted their attention away from rule compliance. The paper shows how the dialect change process constituted a dynamic interaction between mindful “rule setters” and mindful “rule followers.” The alignment between intentions and attention was reestablished by better balancing the coercive and enabling orientations of the rule system: enabling better flexibility, enhancing internal transparency based on local business logic and improving global transparency through closer alignment of local and global growth and efficiency goals. Surprisingly, the repair characteristic was not as important.

The findings contribute to the literature by showing how the enabling and coercive characteristics of an organizational rule system constitute managerial attention artifacts. The paper demonstrates how tensions between corporate intentions and local contingencies in the context of global organizations can lead to constrictive change and create a win-win situation for both central and local actors by better balancing the coercive and enabling orientations of the rule system. It also offers new insights into the dialectic change process in an organization’s rule system based on attention view toward organizational rules.

The aim of this study is to explore the drivers of supply and demand for attention in the managerial context, and develop a framework of managerial tools for allocating attention to various competing demands.

Deliberative attention refers to the application of attention to prolonged reflection and consideration of problems where routine approaches are insufficient. Drawing on theories of cognitive and structural constraints to the allocation of attention among competing stimuli, the paper investigates how managers match the strategic demands for deliberative attention and the supply available to individuals in their firms. This is used to develop a model of factors influencing the matching of supply and demand.

The paper uses this model to recommend specific strategies for explicitly managing deliberative attention and to categorize the appropriate application of a range of existing strategic management tools based on the nature and inherent uncertainty of the organizational problem being faced.

The model suggests that a primary strategic task of top managers is the appropriate management of attention within the firm. Understanding attention as a firm resource to be appropriately and deliberately managed helps to advance theoretical understanding of the human side of valuable resources in the firm. Such knowledge may also help practitioners to be more cognizant of their investments of valuable attention resources.

This is one of the first studies to treat attention as a scarce and valuable firm resource to be managed, and to use this as the foundation for more appropriate application of a wide range of current management techniques.

Based on the attention-based view (ABV), this study examines the mechanism of external pressure and internal managerial interpretation affecting the promotion of green entrepreneurial orientation (GEO) of agricultural enterprises.

Based on data collected from 208 agricultural enterprises in China, the conceptual model was tested by using hierarchical regression.

The results show that managerial interpretation can affect the promotion of GEO. Command and control regulation, market-based regulation and green market pressure are important external pressures that affect the promotion of GEO. In addition, managerial interpretation mediates the relationship between command and control regulation and GEO, market-based regulation and GEO, as well as green market pressure and GEO.

This study proposes a key path for promoting the adoption and implementation of GEO by agricultural enterprises. The research results provide experience for emerging and developing countries to promote the GEO of agricultural enterprises, which is helpful to alleviate the environmental problems caused by the development of agricultural enterprises.

For the first time, this study introduced the ABV into the research of GEO. The research results enrich the theoretical perspective of GEO and expand the research field of the ABV. In addition, this study fills the research gap that existing research has not paid enough attention to the internal driving factors of GEO and opens the black box between the external pressure and GEO.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the role of computer‐aided facilities management (CAFM) in the delivery of knowledge management solutions. It aims to highlight the increasing problem of “attention” as a limited resource amongst facilities stakeholders. The paper attempts to describe the findings of a study to establish the types of CAFM functionality sought by facilities management practitioners.

The study involved a structured questionnaire study of 110 respondents in Scotland (from 395 administered questionnaires) using a stratified sample. The objective was to obtain a profile of early‐adopters and to identify barriers to further adoption.

The findings indicate that the use of information technology in the form of CAFM is more likely amongst dedicated FM service providers than organisations with in‐house FM delivery and that medium‐sized enterprises (between 51 and 250 employees) are least likely to be using CAFM. A limiting factor in continued adoption appears to be the diminishing returns resulting from information overload. “Attention” appears to be the limiting resource in an increasingly complex and information hungry environment.

The findings are based on a national survey in Scotland and may have limited reproducibility outside of the UK. Nevertheless the general findings are relevant to the international context.

This paper provides an indicative analysis of current trends in the computer‐aided facilities management (CAFM) arena. It identifies an increasing need to capture “tacit” as well as “explicit” knowledge in such systems.

This work develops the idea of the “attention economy” in the context of facilities management, highlighting the current impasse for information systems aspiring to become knowledge management systems.

This paper aims to provide a new perspective in investigating how internal research and development (R&D) and external knowledge acquisition interact regarding their influence on innovation performance in an emerging market context. Building on an attention-based view (ABV), it argues that internal R&D and external knowledge acquisition can be substitutes for each other in emerging markets. Its contingency factors are also discussed according to the principles of the ABV.

The proposed hypotheses were empirically tested using a Tobit model approach. The data used was from the enterprise survey and the follow-up innovation survey conducted by the World Bank in 10 emerging market countries.

The results indicate that internal R&D and external knowledge acquisition entails a substitute effect among emerging market firms (EMFs). A higher level of manager’s open-mindedness to external knowledge and firm performance and a lower level of firm administrative control help mitigate the substitute effect of internal R&D and external knowledge acquisition. While adequate financial resources may not necessarily mitigate the substitute effect, it is an essential condition for the external knowledge acquisition to play a role in enhancing innovation performance.

The research uses a set of cross-sectional data. A dynamic study will provide a deeper understanding of the long-term effects of innovation investments.

To better use innovation investments, EMFs need to assess their specific conditions and the possible substitute effect of internal R&D and external knowledge acquisition activities.

Previous research discussing the interactive effect of internal R&D and external knowledge acquisition has mostly focused on an absorptive capacity perspective, which represents a firm’s technical ability. This study argues that these investments not only involve in absorbing knowledge technically but also form a challenge for the limited firm resources and can cause cognitive problems in management, especially for EMFs.

This study examines the association between the use of strategic management accounting (SMA) practices and competitive advantage and the moderating role of four aspects of organisational culture – teamwork orientation, outcome orientation, innovation orientation and attention to detail orientation – on this association. Online survey data were collected from 408 accountants in Australian business organisations, and structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to analyse the data. The results indicate a positive association between the use of SMA practices and competitive advantage with such an association positively moderated by one cultural dimension, teamwork orientation. Specifically, the findings indicate that the positive effect of SMA practices on competitive advantage is dependent upon the fit between the use of SMA practices and teamwork orientation with more (less) teamwork-oriented organisations exhibiting a stronger (weaker) association between the use of SMA practices and competitive advantage.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of exploratory innovation on the quality of new product development (NPD), and how do polychronicity of the top management team (TMT) and interfunctional coordination (IFC) moderate the above relationship.

The hypotheses were tested by the survey data of 210 Chinese enterprises. Hierarchical regression analyzes were used to test the hypotheses in this research.

The results indicate that exploratory innovation facilitates NPD quality. TMT polychronicity weakens the effect of exploratory innovation on NPD quality. IFC strengthens the effect of exploratory innovation on NPD quality.

This study provides managers with insight on the relationship between exploratory innovation and NPD quality. To improve NPD quality, managers should be paying more attention to exploratory innovation. Furthermore, this study helps managers to understand how the relationship changes with the increases of TMT polychronicity and IFC.

This study highlights the value of exploratory innovation in increasing NPD quality based on the knowledge-based view. By incorporating TMT polychronicity and IFC based on the attention-based view, it offers much richer understandings of how exploratory innovation affects NPD quality.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how in a situation of a crisis can Management Accounting Systems (MAS) create tensions in attention to information between top and line managers.

The study is based on a field study.

The findings based on an attention-based view on organizations demonstrate how change to an MAS introduced to handle the crisis failed to integrate top and line managers’ attention toward the common issues. Tightening of budget control was an expected response in such a situation. However, this change produced rather the opposite result – attention to information articulated by the top and line managers became even more disintegrated. This was visible in terms of different interpretations of both the reasons and the strategy of how to get out of the crisis – this is what we call a tension in attention.

The study is subject to the usual limitations of case-based research.

Implications from the study is that there is a need for caution about how managers move in the beginning of the crisis because the initial response sets a tone and trajectory of the crisis. In practice, this means that sense making processes are important in an early stage of a crisis to avoid tensions in attention between different groups in the organization.

The authors argued that little research has been conducted so far regarding what information managers focus their attention on in organizations under financial distress conditions. The originality is the use of an attention-based view together with organizational psychology to understand this area.