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1 – 10 of 506John F. Hulpke and Michael P. Fronmueller
A topic currently receiving significant academic and practitioner attention is called evidence-based management. The purpose of this paper is to suggest that this approach is…
Abstract
Purpose
A topic currently receiving significant academic and practitioner attention is called evidence-based management. The purpose of this paper is to suggest that this approach is sometimes over-sold and may be a fad. Additionally, evidence-based management fails to fully recognize the importance of tacit knowledge, what Kahneman calls system 1. Evidence-based management does provide tools to better use what Kahneman calls system 2, rationality. Decision-makers need to take advantage of both rational and beyond rational processes.
Design/methodology/approach
This is an essay, it is not a report of a study. At this point in time, this paper needs thinking, reflection, pondering, more than a data-based study.
Findings
Advocates promote evidence-based management in part to help avoid fads, yet evidence-based management itself has many of the characteristics of a fad. Evidence-based management is based on an objective rational view of the world and suggests highly rational methods of decision-making. However, a rational fact-based might not give sufficient credit to instinct and feelings. Decision-makers should take into account facts, evidence, when making decisions, but not ignore intuition, hunches and feelings. This study is learning that decisions use a galaxy of approaches, with both cognitive and affective flexibility.
Research limitations/implications
As with any opinion-based paper, this lacks empirical support. Proponents ask us to believe in evidence-based management. Neither we, the authors of this paper, nor the proponents of evidence-based management can empirically support the ideas offered. An additional limitation is that the paper is written in one language, English. Translation into another language might yield different meanings.
Practical implications
There are advantages for scholars and practitioners to look at the best available evidence. There can be disadvantages in overlooking non-quantifiable factors.
Social implications
Those who use evidence-based management should also take into account feelings, ethics, aesthetics, creativity, for the betterment of society. To solve wicked problems one needs more than facts and rational analysis.
Originality/value
The overwhelming majority of those writing about evidence-based management are supporters. This study offers a different view. This paper brings new ideas and new thinking to both the extensive fad literature and the huge evidence-based management literature. Evidence-based management is discussed widely. Google Scholar lists more than two million papers in 2019, 2020 and 2021 on evidence-based management. Readers of this journal should critically evaluate this popular set of ideas.
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Lamberto Zollo, Riccardo Rialti, Alberto Tron and Cristiano Ciappei
The purpose of this paper is to unpack the underlying mechanisms of entrepreneurs' passion, orientation and behavior by investigating the role of rational and nonrational…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to unpack the underlying mechanisms of entrepreneurs' passion, orientation and behavior by investigating the role of rational and nonrational cognitive elements. Building on dual process theory and sociointuitionism, a conceptual model is proposed in order to explore the relationship between entrepreneurial passion, entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and strategic entrepreneurship behavior (SEB). Specifically, entrepreneurs' linear thinking styles (System 2) and nonlinear thinking styles (System 1) are hypothesized as being significant moderators of such a relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
Covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) is used to empirically validate the proposed conceptual model and test the moderating hypotheses on a sample of 300 entrepreneurs actively involved in European small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Findings
Entrepreneurial passion is shown to be a significant antecedent of EO, which, in turn, strongly influences SEB. Moreover, entrepreneurs' linear thinking style positively moderates the EO-SEB relationship, but not the link between passion and EO. Instead, a nonlinear thinking style positively moderates the relationship between passion and EO, but not the links between EO and SEB.
Practical implications
Entrepreneurs should trust their nonlinear thinking style – related to affective/emotive and intuitive information processing systems – to foster the effect of their entrepreneurial passion on EO. Furthermore, entrepreneurs should rely on a linear thinking style, namely the rational and deliberative cognitive processes, to enhance the impact of their EO on SEB.
Originality/value
Dual process theory and sociointuitionism are integrated to simultaneously investigate the effect of nonrational and rational cognitive mechanisms on entrepreneurs' orientation and behavior. Moreover, the proposed model is empirically tested on a sample of entrepreneurs working in SMEs located in Europe, which have received little attention from entrepreneurship scholars in comparison to their US counterparts. The authors’ findings suggest important implications for entrepreneurs, policymakers and entrepreneurial universities educators.
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This study aims to understand and compare how the mechanism of innovative processes in the information technology (IT) industry – the most innovative industry worldwide – is…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to understand and compare how the mechanism of innovative processes in the information technology (IT) industry – the most innovative industry worldwide – is shaped in Poland and the USA in terms of tacit knowledge awareness and sharing driven by a culture of knowledge and learning, composed of a learning climate and mistake acceptance.
Design/methodology/approach
Study samples were drawn from the IT industry in Poland (n = 350) and the USA (n = 370) and analyzed using the structural equation modeling method.
Findings
True learning derives from mistake acceptance. As a result of a risk-taking attitude and critical thinking, the IT industry in the USA is consistently innovation-oriented. Specifically, external innovations are highly correlated with internal innovations. Moreover, a knowledge culture supports a learning culture via a learning climate. A learning climate is an important facilitator for learning from mistakes.
Originality/value
This study revealed that a high level of mistake acceptance stimulates a risk-taking attitude that offers a high level of tacit knowledge awareness as a result of critical thinking, but critical thinking without readiness to take a risk is useless for tacit knowledge capturing.
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Othmar Manfred Lehner, Kim Ittonen, Hanna Silvola, Eva Ström and Alena Wührleitner
This paper aims to identify ethical challenges of using artificial intelligence (AI)-based accounting systems for decision-making and discusses its findings based on Rest's…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to identify ethical challenges of using artificial intelligence (AI)-based accounting systems for decision-making and discusses its findings based on Rest's four-component model of antecedents for ethical decision-making. This study derives implications for accounting and auditing scholars and practitioners.
Design/methodology/approach
This research is rooted in the hermeneutics tradition of interpretative accounting research, in which the reader and the texts engage in a form of dialogue. To substantiate this dialogue, the authors conduct a theoretically informed, narrative (semi-systematic) literature review spanning the years 2015–2020. This review's narrative is driven by the depicted contexts and the accounting/auditing practices found in selected articles are used as sample instead of the research or methods.
Findings
In the thematic coding of the selected papers the authors identify five major ethical challenges of AI-based decision-making in accounting: objectivity, privacy, transparency, accountability and trustworthiness. Using Rest's component model of antecedents for ethical decision-making as a stable framework for our structure, the authors critically discuss the challenges and their relevance for a future human–machine collaboration within varying agency between humans and AI.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the literature on accounting as a subjectivising as well as mediating practice in a socio-material context. It does so by providing a solid base of arguments that AI alone, despite its enabling and mediating role in accounting, cannot make ethical accounting decisions because it lacks the necessary preconditions in terms of Rest's model of antecedents. What is more, as AI is bound to pre-set goals and subjected to human made conditions despite its autonomous learning and adaptive practices, it lacks true agency. As a consequence, accountability needs to be shared between humans and AI. The authors suggest that related governance as well as internal and external auditing processes need to be adapted in terms of skills and awareness to ensure an ethical AI-based decision-making.
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Allam Abu Farha and Said Elbanna
The role of managerial assumptions in the formulation of organizational strategies has been well recognized by previous studies, yet in marketing literature, the effect of such…
Abstract
Purpose
The role of managerial assumptions in the formulation of organizational strategies has been well recognized by previous studies, yet in marketing literature, the effect of such imperative on marketing practice choice tends to be ignored. Therefore, this paper aims to empirically investigate how management assumptions fit with the choice of marketing practices, and how such fit affects performance.
Design/methodology/approach
A model is developed and tested using survey methodology, and the data are analyzed using the partial least square (PLS) approach.
Findings
The results show that different marketing practices were coupled with different frames of reference, resulting in viable matching profiles.
Research limitations/implications
Given the novelty of the approach adopted in this study, conclusions about association and not causation are drawn. In addition, the study is restricted to Qatar which may reduce the generalizability of its findings and conclusions.
Practical implications
The findings will help managers to examine carefully the internal logic of their marketing-related profiling, where coherent variables will enhance performance.
Originality/value
To one’s knowledge, this paper reports a work in an area not previously researched. In addition, this study is one of the rare papers that examines unobserved heterogeneity using the PLS-structural equation modeling (SEM) in the field of marketing.
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Stephen Kehinde Medase and Ivan Savin
Although employees' creativity is vital for firm innovation and overall performance, little is done to examine the potential association between creativity and employment. This…
Abstract
Purpose
Although employees' creativity is vital for firm innovation and overall performance, little is done to examine the potential association between creativity and employment. This paper investigates the contribution of employees' creativity, process and product innovations to firm-level employment growth.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use data from World Bank Enterprise Survey and Innovation Follow-up Survey on 9503 firms covering the period 2012–2015 in 11 countries from sub-Saharan Africa and Heckman's two-stage estimation model.
Findings
This study's results indicate a positive role of creativity on firm-level employment growth. In addition, the authors find evidence for a complementary effect arising from the combination of creativity with managerial experience, staff level of education and their associated skills, in contrast, combining creativity with internal or external R&D results in a substitution effect. Interestingly, these synergy effects are pronounced for SMEs but absent for large firms.
Practical implications
Policy makers in developing economies of sub-Saharan Africa should stimulate company management to use free time offered to employees to be creative in the workplace as one of their key strategies to stimulate employment growth. This strategy is expected to be particularly fruitful among SMEs having some managerial experience and skilled stuff.
Originality/value
In contribution to innovative work practices and workforce creativity, the authors demonstrate that providing employees with free time could be an alternative way to enhance the focal firms' performance.
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Muhammad Imran Malik and Rizwan Ahsan
Co-creation fosters customer’s involvement for innovation in products/services and is used as a tool to develop competitive edge for better entrepreneurship. Based on limited…
Abstract
Purpose
Co-creation fosters customer’s involvement for innovation in products/services and is used as a tool to develop competitive edge for better entrepreneurship. Based on limited evidence, the study aims to examine the factors contributing to the co-creation and the relationship of co-creation with customer satisfaction.
Design/methodology/approach
A sample of 384 customers from selected banks in Pakistan was selected. The study adopted quantitative, explanatory and cross-sectional research design. Structural equation modeling is used for analysis.
Findings
The results revealed a positive and significant relationship between co-creation with customer satisfaction. Further results revealed that access to information, risk assessment and transparency have a positive relationship with co-creation for innovation. The study is significant for customers and management of banks to understand the implications of co-creation to increase customer satisfaction.
Research limitations/implications
Few banks with a small number of customers were selected for the study.
Practical implications
Managers must consider customer’s access to information, risk assessment and transparency of information as necessary factors for co-creation that foster innovation and entrepreneurial opportunities because co-creation strengthens customer satisfaction.
Social implications
Adopting the co-creation process brings long-lasting harmony between customers and banks, and customers may consider the banks as being socially responsible by inviting the opinions of their customers.
Originality/value
Model is re-tested in the context of Pakistani banks with selected variables affecting co-creation for innovation. Moreover, the relationship of co-creation with customer satisfaction is examined.
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Costanza Nosi, Lamberto Zollo, Riccardo Rialti and Cristiano Ciappei
Using an enhanced version of the theory of reasoned action (TRA), this study investigates the antecedents of organic quinoa-based food buying intention. In addition to attitude…
Abstract
Purpose
Using an enhanced version of the theory of reasoned action (TRA), this study investigates the antecedents of organic quinoa-based food buying intention. In addition to attitude toward this behavioral intention, the proposed model examines the influence that ecological welfare, political values, and consumer-perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) of the point of sale exert on consumer willingness to purchase organic quinoa-based food.
Design/methodology/approach
Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the data collected through an intercept survey conducted at specialized organic stores on a convenience sample of 158 individuals in Italy.
Findings
Although ecological welfare and a retailer's CSR image positively influence consumer attitude toward buying organic quinoa-based food, political values negatively affect this attitude. Furthermore, consumer attitude is found to be a crucial predictor of behavioral intention.
Research implications
At the theoretical level, the results are useful for demonstrating that other variables, in addition to those used in the traditional TRA, can further explain consumers' organic food buying intention. Additionally, the findings might be useful for both quinoa producers and retailers in creating and executing their marketing and communication strategies.
Originality/value
In addition to contributing to the stream of literature that investigates possible variables that might increase the predictive power of the TRA, this study sheds some light on organic food purchasing consumer behavior.
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Riccardo Rialti, Alessandro Caliandro, Lamberto Zollo and Cristiano Ciappei
This paper presents an in-depth investigation on how brands may concur to the co-creation of consumers’ experiences. In particular, the purpose of this paper is to clarify the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper presents an in-depth investigation on how brands may concur to the co-creation of consumers’ experiences. In particular, the purpose of this paper is to clarify the main types of co-created experiences that consumers may encounter as a result of social media brand communities.
Design/methodology/approach
To identify the main types of co-created experiences, a digital investigation has been used as the main method of analysis. The authors draw their digital investigation on the digital methods paradigm.
Findings
Four principal types of co-created experiences have been identified and conceptualized, namely, brand’s products’ individual usage experiences, auto-celebrative experiences, brand’s products’ communal usage experiences and collective celebration experiences.
Originality/value
Results stress the importance for brand strategists to involve members of social media brand communities to stimulate co-creation experiences. Specifically, it emerges that the simultaneous interaction among members of the community and the brand may directly affect co-creation experiences.
Propósito
La presente investigación se propone analizar en profundidad cómo las marcas pueden estar de acuerdo con la co-creación de las experiencias de los consumidores. En particular, el objetivo de la investigación es aclarar cuáles son los principales tipos de experiencias co-creadas que los consumidores pueden experimentar debido a su participación en las comunidades de marcas de redes sociales.
Diseño/metodología/enfoque
Para hacerlo, en primer lugar, se han identificado los factores que influyen en la co-creación de las experiencias de los miembros de las comunidades de marcas. En particular, el punto de partida de esta investigación está representado por el papel de otros consumidores y de la marca en la co-creación de experiencias. Con el fin de identificar los principales tipos de experiencias co-creadas, se ha utilizado una investigación digital como el principal método de análisis. Dibujamos nuestra investigación digital en el paradigma de Métodos Digitales.
Hallazgos
Se identificaron y conceptualizaron cuatro tipos principales de experiencias co-creadas.
Originalidad/valor
Los resultados enfatizan la importancia de que los estrategas de marca involucren a los miembros de las comunidades de marcas de medios sociales para estimular la co-creación de experiencias. Específicamente, surgió cómo la interacción simultánea de otros miembros de la comunidad y la marca puede afectar la co-creación.
Palabras clave:
Co-creación de valor, Comunidades de marca, Experiencias de los consumidores, Experiencias co-creadas, Investigación digital, Marketing experiencial
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Ilaria Galavotti, Andrea Lippi and Daniele Cerrato
This paper aims to develop a conceptual framework on how the representativeness heuristic operates in the decision-making process. Specifically, the authors unbundle…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to develop a conceptual framework on how the representativeness heuristic operates in the decision-making process. Specifically, the authors unbundle representativeness into its building blocks: search rule, stopping rule and decision rule. Furthermore, the focus is placed on how individual-level cognitive and behavioral factors, namely experience, intuition and overconfidence, affect the functioning of this heuristic.
Design/methodology/approach
From a theoretical standpoint, the authors build on dual-process theories and on the adaptive toolbox view from the “fast and frugal heuristics” perspective to develop an integrative conceptual framework that uncovers the mechanisms underlying the representativeness heuristic.
Findings
The authors’ conceptualization suggests that the search rule used in representativeness is based on analogical mapping from previous experience, the stopping rule is the representational stability of the analogs and the decision rule is the choice of the alternative upon which there is a convergence of representations and that exceeds the decision maker's aspiration level. In this framework, intuition may help the decision maker to cross-map potentially competing analogies, while overconfidence affects the search time and costs and alters both the stopping and the decision rule.
Originality/value
The authors develop a conceptual framework on representativeness, as one of the most common, though still poorly investigated, heuristics. The model offers a nuanced perspective that explores the cognitive and behavioral mechanisms that shape the use of representativeness in decision-making. The authors also discuss the theoretical implications of their model and outline future research avenues that may further contribute to enriching their understanding of decision-making processes.
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