Search results

Management scholars investigated the motivational aspects of volunteers, mainly focusing on their positive reciprocity – individuals feel obligated to reciprocate whenever they receive benefits from others – but neglected the possible role of negative reciprocity, the tendency to retaliate in case of mistreatments. Based on motivational functions theory and the norm of reciprocity, this paper proposes a framework assessing other-oriented and self-oriented motives as the main antecedents of volunteers’ intention to stay in non-profit organizations (NPOs).

Covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) and the PROCESS macro were used to empirically validate and test the hypothesized conceptual model on a sample of 379 volunteers actively involved in Italian NPOs.

Positive reciprocity partially mediated the relationships between volunteers’ other-oriented motives and self-oriented motives and their intention to stay. Instead, negative reciprocity fully mediated the relationship between self-oriented motives and intention to stay but not the relationship between other-oriented motives and intention to stay.

Managers and marketers of NPOs should pay more attention to volunteers’ attitudinal and behavioral signals to encourage within-organization positive reciprocal attitudes and discourage negative reciprocal attitudes. This represents a strategic lever to prevent volunteers from quitting the organization – which is one of the most critical challenges for NPOs’ management – and improve their intention to stay.

This is one of the first studies that simultaneously investigate the mediating role of both positive and negative reciprocity of volunteers actively involved in NPOs. Moreover, the constructs of other-oriented and self-oriented motivations are statistically validated as two separate psychological dimensions impacting on volunteers’ turnover. Finally, the study has been conducted in the Region of Tuscany (Italy) which, despite its centuries-old tradition of volunteerism, has received scant attention by non-profit scholars.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the underdeveloped conceptualization of a particular type network rents, defined as knowledge recombination rents, related to the possibility for a firm to transfer and recombine knowledge within and across its portfolio of inter-organizational relationships.

Adopting a contingency approach, the authors develop a comprehensive model with propositions drawn from an original synthesis of the extant literature on the management of inter-organizational relationships.

The authors summarize the most important internal and external variables that explain how knowledge recombination rents arise within a firm’s portfolio of inter-organizational relationships. The authors create a seven-proposition model that considers: an “internal fit,” related to internal contingencies of the firm, specifically life stage and its strategy; an “external fit,” related to external contingencies of the network of the firm, specifically past experience and current portfolio structure.

The model is theory driven. Future research should validate empirically the relations proposed, especially in different industries and contexts.

The model, beyond the fact of being theoretically sounded, is also completely practical oriented. Indeed, the authors developed a comprehensive model articulated in seven propositions which relationship managers can easily use to analyze and manage their portfolios of inter-organizational relationships.

The model allows us to assert that the value of an inter-organizational relationship is neither fixed nor just related to the single dyadic interaction; rather before engaging with a relationship is crucial to ponder possible benefits and harms. This is the central element in the contribution that develops an easy-to-use and comprehensive model based on best practices.

Strategic change is integral to the survival and development of firms. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of environmental uncertainty on a firm’s strategic change and further demonstrates the moderating role of political connection and family ownership on the relationship between environmental uncertainty and a firm’s strategic change.

This paper uses the population sample of Chinese firms listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and the Shanghai Stock Exchange from 2008 to 2014 and quantitatively tests hypotheses through correlation analysis, regression analysis and other methods.

Environmental uncertainty has a positive effect on the degree of strategic changes made. Political connection and family ownership negatively moderate the impact of the two dimensions of environmental uncertainty (environmental dynamism and environmental munificence) on strategic changes.

Conclusions enrich the research of other studies on firms’ strategic changes. From an open systems perspective, this paper reveals the influences of external environmental factors on firms’ strategic changes. In addition to this, in analyzing the ways in which environmental uncertainty affects a firm’s strategic change, the research expands the application scope of information processing theory and resource-based view. This paper also provides significant practical observations on firms’ strategic decision making in this area.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate, through the lens of the gift-giving theory, volunteers’ motivations for intending to stay with organizations.

Data were collected from 379 volunteers from 30 charitable organizations operating in Italy’s socio-healthcare service sector. Bootstrapped mediation analysis was used to test the hypothesized relationships.

Volunteers’ reciprocal attitudes and gift-giving intentions partially mediated the relationship between motives and intentions to stay.

Policy makers of charitable organizations are advised to be more responsive to behavioral signals revealing volunteers’ motivations, attitudes, and intentions. Managers should appropriately align organizational responsiveness with volunteers’ commitment through gift-giving exchange systems.

The findings reveal that reciprocity and gift giving are significant organizational variables greatly influencing volunteers’ intentions to stay with organizations. Signaling theory is used to explain how volunteers’ attitudes are linked with organizational responsiveness. Furthermore, this study is the first to use an Italian setting to consider motives, reciprocity, and gift giving as they relate to intentions to stay.

The Journal of Family Business Management was established in 2011 as the premier source of research related to family business from a management perspective. The journal has progressed to become one of the most important sources for emerging and novel information related to family business so it is important to analyse its history in order to make progress with future research. The goal of this article is to statistically analyse through bibliometric techniques the changes occurring in the journal.

This article presents a bibliometric analysis of the journal that can help analyse past performance but also predict future trends. The analysis presents information on the most cited authors, institutions and journals, which indicates the international diversity of the journal. In addition, the most used keywords and article topics are presented that help to understand the main themes discussed in the journal.

The statistical analysis suggests that whilst there is a tendency to publish more European and North American research on family business, this is changing with countries from South America, Oceania and Asia increasing their representation in the journal. In addition, the topics covered in the journal have stayed the same in terms of focussing on family and family business practices but also expanded to include more research on entrepreneurship and innovation.

A bibliometric analysis technique was used thus there are some limitations in terms of the type of methodology and focus only on published articles in the journal. As articles in press were not included this is an area that could be addressed in future research.

As evident in the most published institutions in this journal, family business institutes can gain from research conducted on family business management. This means that family business managers should try to collaborate with research institutions on emerging new areas that require solutions.

This article presents some suggestions for future research that will help guide more research into areas that are currently under-represented in the journal and emerging topics that are likely to garner interest.

This study addresses current research gaps by integrating resilience literature with crisis management theories, focussing on SMEs. Specifically, the authors examine how the entrepreneurial decision-making process, via the interplay of causation and effectuation logic, impacts a firm's ability to respond to unpredictable events. This paper aims to present an investigation that seeks to unearth the potentially complex interplay between causation and effectuation logic in fostering organisational resilience, particularly in the face of unprecedented disruptions such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study includes the responses of 80 Italian entrepreneurs operating in the hospitality sector. The paper deployed a joint analysis through a partial least squares structural equation modelling technique (PLS-SEM) and a necessary condition analysis (NCA) to assess how the decision-making logics impact the entrepreneurs' decision when reacting to the pandemic.

The findings show that how entrepreneurs make decisions influence how they react to the crisis. Causation was found as a direct cause of resilience and preparedness, and effectuation was a direct cause of resilience and agility. Moreover, causation indirectly caused resilience through preparedness, and effectuation indirectly caused resilience through agility. Finally, both preparedness and agility are direct causes of resilience.

This research generated insights into why and how some SMEs respond more effectively to uncertainty than others. It provides actionable strategies that business owners and managers can employ to enhance their ability to withstand and recover from crises.

This study's originality and novelty lie in its empirical investigation of the roles of causation and effectuation logic in entrepreneurial decision-making and, consequently, their influence on SME resilience. Focused on the Italian hospitality sector, it provides unique insights into resilience strategies under severe, real-world conditions, contributing to theoretical development and practical applications in crisis management.

Scholarly literature on entrepreneurial activities in the agri-food sector has flourished over the years in several different ways. This study uses the metaphor of an orchard to describe how this stream of literature has evolved from its initial “seeds” to the rich and diversified “fruits” of current debate. It is now time to harvest and catalogue these “fruits”. This study aims to map out and systematise the current stock of knowledge on agri-food entrepreneurship, so as to identify gaps and thus “plant” new seeds for the future of the “orchard”.

To identify thematic clusters, this study used a bibliometric analysis coupled with a systematic literature review performed over a dataset of 108 peer-reviewed articles.

The results revealed six thematic clusters related to agri-food entrepreneurship: ecosystems, formal and informal institutions; contextual entrepreneurial practices; community and stakeholders’ engagement; barriers and opportunities; entrepreneurial orientation; and sustainable entrepreneurship. After investigating each of them, this study created a framework to highlight future avenues through which the topic could be further developed.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first of its kind to systematise, analyse and critically interpret the literature concerned with agri-food entrepreneurship.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic review of the literature addressing internationalisation of firms from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).

This paper presents an inter-disciplinary systematic review of literature about the internationalisation of firms from CEE.

Three different clusters of research were identified. In the “Internationalisation Processes” cluster, containing many comparative studies, the focus is on specific approaches adopted by local firms in the process of internationalisation. One of the leitmotivs is the dichotomy between hostile home-country factors that create the need for internationalisation and market-seeking motives that guide the search for international expansion. The “Internationalisation Variables” cluster aims to explain the reasons of success or failure of internationalisation processes and strategies; this cluster focuses on possible facilitating or hindering aspects experienced by CEE firms and one often-cited element is the firm’s network. Finally, the “Internationalisation Outcomes” cluster assumes a reverse approach when compared to the other two clusters. Indeed, the internationalisation phenomenon can also be studied in terms of its effect on the firm; the elements sought in these types of studies are both potential benefits and risks associated with internationalisation in CEE countries. The latter category in particular gives rise to interesting questions for future research.

Given that large, developed economies tend to receive much academic interest and that smaller transitional economies are not always adequately represented in the scientific discussion, this paper contributes to the literature on internationalisation.

The study aims to deepen existing knowledge on the specific role of soft total quality management (TQM) practices in the ferry sector. Over the last decade, TQM practices have been thoroughly restructured, allowing us to develop an appropriate framework through which the relevance of each practice to this particular sector can be explained.

A narrative case study has been conducted to enhance the quality orientation and soft TQM practices adopted by a medium-sized company in the ferry sector.

The study identifies five soft TQM practices that offer valuable contributions in terms of quality orientation. These are organised into a configurational and systemic approach according to a three-level framework. At the macro level, a customer-orientated approach is paramount, as this orientation clearly points out the fundamental values of TQM. Coherently, at the micro-level, employees should be trained, involved, and empowered to truly internalise and behave according to a quality orientation. At the meso-level, dedicated leadership should support these practices and foster their effectiveness across the organisational structure.

The main limitation of this study is related to its narrative analysis. More empirically-grounded research should be used in the future to test the validity of the model.

TQM practices can leverage soft aspects, finding mutual integrations and offering reciprocal support if a bundle of practices is enforced and co-present across several layers of an organisational structure.

The model offers a configurational approach to help the ferry sector in leveraging soft TQM practices to implement TQM initiatives successfully. This is subject to external contingencies and thus requires adaptability and flexibility.

This study aims to shed light on the ambiguous effects of smart working (SW) on work meaningfulness. On the one hand, SW enables people to benefit from greater work flexibility, advancing individual control over organizational activities. On the other hand, it may impair interpersonal exchanges at work, disrupting job meaningfulness. Hence, the implications of SW on work meaningfulness are investigated through the mediating role of interpersonal exchanges at work.

The authors investigate both the direct and indirect effects of SW on employees’ perceived meaningfulness at work. Secondary data come from the sixth European Working Conditions Survey. The study encompasses a sample of 30,932 employees. A mediation model based on ordinary least square regressions and bootstrap sampling is designed to obtain evidence of SW’s implications on meaningfulness at work through the mediating role of interpersonal relationships (IR).

The research findings suggest that SW triggers a positive sense of the significance of work. However, it negatively affects IR with peers and supervisors, entailing professional and spatial isolation. Impaired IR twists the positive implications of SW on organizational meaningfulness (OM), curtailing the employees’ sense of significance at work.

SW is a double-edged sword. It contributes to the enrichment of OM, enhancing the individual self-determination to shape the spatial context of work. However, its side effects on interpersonal exchanges generate a drift toward organizational meaninglessness. Tailored management interventions intended to sustain IR at work are needed to fit the design of SW arrangements to the employees’ evolving social needs.

The paper pushes forward what is currently known about the implications of SW on OM, examining them through the mediating role of IR at work.