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This paper attempts to propose a conceptual model to explain the micro-level antecedents of absorptive capacity (ACAP) and social context of joint engineering project teams. It delineates ACAP into four dimensions and suggests specific level for each dimension. Revisiting the micro-foundational origin of ACAP, acquisition of partner's embedded knowledge through joint project teams requires complex interaction among individuals, thus the effect of individual differences and perception in the team's context is proposed.

Cohen and Levinthal's assertion on the conceptual affinity that ACAP shares with creative capacity and organizational learning was revisited. Upon synthesizing pertinent literature, individual antecedents were conceptualized, while strategic alliance literature was examined to theorize on the social context.

Propositions relating individual antecedents and social context to associated dimension of ACAP are postulated. Furthermore, the paper suggests a need for further inquest on the implication of cultural differences.

The hypothesized relationships among the constructs are subject to empirical investigation in order to deepen our understanding on individual differences and social contextual effects.

Based on the conceptualized relationships among micro-level antecedents, multidimensional ACAP, and social context, this manuscript recommends some practical guidelines in the context of joint engineering project teams.

This study explicates the micro-level antecedents of ACAP within a joint engineering project team. By integrating individual and social context, it advances multilevel conceptualization of ACAP.

This paper aims to investigate the micro-level antecedents of absorptive capacity (ACAP) based on the multilevel perspective of learning capabilities in asymmetric joint project engineering teams constituted by local employees and expatriates.

The authors integrated the micro-foundational and multilevel learning theories to delineate the individual and team dimensions of ACAP. Using structural equation modelling, the authors tested the hypothesized relationships among the underlying individual determinants and multilevel dimensions of ACAP. The data were collected from a sample of 248 local employees from 76 joint project engineering teams in the Nigerian upstream oil industry.

ACAP entails individual and team capabilities, which depend on prior experience and need for cognition. The creation of shared understanding is essential for the transition of an individual’s knowledge assimilation capability into team’s knowledge utilization capability.

This study contributes to extant understanding of the multilevel perspective of learning capabilities, i.e. ACAP in a knowledge intensive team like joint project engineering.

To extend the understanding of country image to the country whose image is less distinctive, the purpose of this paper is to examine two salient factors: one country’s prototypical brand and its cultural influence (i.e. Korean Wave) on shaping the country’s image in the context of Korea and its subsequent impact on product evaluation and purchase intention. Built on the prototype and schema theories, a research framework is proposed and empirically tested on two product categories (cosmetics and tires).

Data were collected from US consumers ages 20 and older and analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The findings largely supported the proposed framework with two additional paths (Korean Wave to product quality and Korean Wave to purchase intention). In both product categories, the findings confirmed that the image transfers from the prototypical brands (e.g. Samsung) to the country image (i.e., Korea), from Korean Wave to country image, and from the macro country image to the micro country image. The influence of the prototypical brand image was greater than that of the Korean Wave. However, some differences were found across product categories; the positive impact of the macro image on product quality evaluation was supported only for tires, not in the case of the cosmetics. The path from the Korean Wave to product quality evaluation was significant only for the cosmetics, and not for the tires.

These findings provided new theoretical perspectives for country image studies, and practical insights for companies, especially in countries whose image is less distinctive, to help develop effective marketing strategies in different product categories.

The dynamic employee engagement framework visually delineates employee engagement from its antecedents and responds to the debates regarding how employee engagement is positioned within the academic literature.

A narrative literature review was conducted.

The new framework visually demonstrates the impact of contextual changes on employee engagement. Additionally, it positions employee engagement as a psychological state (psychological presence) and as a behaviour.

The new framework promotes the study of behavioural engagement when the incorporation of context and/or multiple voices is required. Accordingly, studying behavioural engagement may help scholars understand more about the dynamics of employee engagement within and across different settings, reduce the reliance on self-reported studies and help bridge the employee engagement academic and practitioner discourses.

Human resource management/development practitioners and line managers may use the new structured framework in several ways to help them foster employee engagement.

The new framework extends five integrated employee engagement models by incorporating the macro and micro external context, and repositioning trust and feedback. In doing so, it more accurately conveys diagrammatically the dynamic nature of employee engagement following significant contextual changes. It also visually separates out the antecedents to employee engagement thus respecting construct boundaries and positions employee engagement as a multi-dimensional construct comprised of psychological state (psychological presence) and behavioural engagement. Building on this, we also argue that double-loop learning is an example of behavioural engagement.

This study aims to investigate the micro-antecedents of the multidimensional construct of absorptive capacity (ACAP) from the perspective of the individual characteristics underlying learning capability in joint project information and communications technology (ICT) teams. Specifically, the model proposes prior experience and learning goal orientations as the micro-antecedents and delineates ACAP into four dimensions.

The context of study was the joint project teams, set up to facilitate the transfer of knowledge from expatriate to local employees in Malaysian ICT sector. Data collected through the cross-sectional survey of 205 local team members of joint ICT projects in Malaysia were analyzed using structural equation modelling.

Individual’s prior experience and learning orientation were associated with the ability to assimilate and recognize the value of partner’s knowledge, respectively. Furthermore, the hypothesized relationships among the ACAP dimensions were supported, and the mediating effect of shared cognition was confirmed.

The use of cross-sectional and self-reported survey is a major limitation of this study.

Managerial implications are offered on the selection of team members and designing the joint project team.

This study demonstrates prior experience and learning orientation as antecedents of individuals’ learning capability, thereby extending extant conceptualization on the multifaceted nature of ACAP.

Drawing upon the conservation of resources theory, the authors expected that daily micro-events, daily hassles and uplifts at work influenced well-being via work engagement at the daily level.

The authors conducted two diary studies. In study 1, 181 workers answered a daily questionnaire for four working days (N = 181 × 4 = 724). In study 2, 51 workers filled in a questionnaire for ten consecutive working days (N = 51 × 10 = 510).

In study 1, the results demonstrated that work engagement fully mediated the effects of daily uplifts on well-being and partially mediated the effects of daily hassles on well-being. The results of study 2 revealed a full mediation for both kinds of daily micro-events. Hence, daily uplifts stimulated work engagement, which, in turn, enhanced well-being, and daily hassles minimized work engagement and, consequently, well-being.

The relationships explored provide new theoretical elements for models that explain well-being.

Microfoundations have become an effective approach for capability scholars to explore the heterogeneity of organizational results. Since the early pioneering work of scholars such as Felin and Foss, the microfoundations of strategic organization had not been extensively studied until 2010. The theoretical and empirical literature associated with the microfoundations of dynamic capabilities has developed rapidly. However, the diversity and fragmentation of micro-elements lead to a lack of a relatively consistent understanding of microfoundations, the study purpose is to aggregate the associated scattered terminology into a cohesive discussion.

A systematic literature review was conducted on research papers published between 2000 and 2022 using a hybrid methodology that included bibliometric and content analysis.

The authors suggest that this line of research can be divided into three stages. The study further develop a framework delineating the main components and mechanism involved in the microfoundations of dynamic capabilities, which in turn help us distill research gaps and opportunities for future work.

The authors construct a framework that can serve as a coherent research platform for further knowledge development. In the framework, the authors highlight that the research of group constructs, culture and leadership, data-driven topics are valuable for our understanding of the microfoundations of dynamics capabilities.

Recently, researchers have highlighted the limited attention that has been devoted to managerial capabilities as micro-foundational elements of absorptive capacity. Strategic thinking is one such managerial capability that guides managers during the development of organizational capabilities. The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the influence of managerial strategic thinking on the development of absorptive capacity.

Data were collected using a sample of 324 senior-level and mid-level managers from the software industry. PLS-SEM was used to test the hypothesized relationships.

Study results indicate that managerial strategic thinking is positively related to absorptive capacity, as well as to each of its four components – acquisition, assimilation, transformation and exploitation.

The current study adopts a micro-foundations perspective and delves into the development and orchestration of organizational capabilities. This study is the first to empirically investigate the relationship between managerial strategic thinking and absorptive capacity. Prior literature on absorptive capacity has focused on its influence on phenomena that are downstream to absorptive capacity, e.g. innovation, new product development and firm performance. The research offers new insights into the relationship between absorptive capacity and managerial strategic thinking, a hitherto unexplored upstream phenomenon. Scholars have theorized that managerial strategic thinking plays a pivotal role in managerial decisions, making it a critical factor in developing the absorptive capacity of an organization. The authors believe that the empirical evidence of the theorized relationship offers valuable insights that will aid scholarly research on organizational capabilities.

This study aims to provide a contemporary, holistic and systematic review regarding the impact of country-of-origin on industrial purchase decision-making by ascertaining, synthesizing and evaluating theoretical, methodological and empirical dimensions of studies on the subject.

After the collection and refinement of 43 studies that appeared in marketing, business and management literatures during 1970-2017, systematic review was applied to discover the current situation and future research directions on the subject.

The vast majority of the existing studies obtained data from a single source even though industrial purchase decisions are mainly made by a large group of decision-makers. Moreover, the existing literature contains few over-studied theoretical perspectives while lacking integration of the subject with the more contemporary ones. Additionally, in the literature, combination of developing countries as source countries, and developed ones as target countries, is under-examined, and the differentiation between country-of-design and country-of-assembly is mainly avoided during operationalization. Finally, majority of the studies lack investigation of antecedents and mainly investigated few over-examined constructs as outcomes.

This study provides a conceptual synthesis of existing studies. A meta-analysis may be applied to empirical studies for providing a further detailed framework.

This study contributes to industrial marketing literature by providing a compiled and synthesized inventory of knowledge for scholars; deriving a comprehensive analysis of research designs, methodologies and findings addressed by researchers in the field; noticing various theoretical, methodological and other gaps to be examined; and providing future research directions.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the beliefs and attitudinal factors that affect the private sphere pro-environmental behavior of information technology (IT) professionals in using personal computers.

A research framework that draws from the belief-action-outcome (BAO) framework and that consisted of 11 hypotheses was developed. Data were collected from a sample of 322 IT professionals and analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The results identify the pro-environmental personal computing actions that IT professionals are taking and how their Green IT beliefs, attitudes, information acquisition capability, and organizational fields influence their behavior.

The sample was limited to Australian respondents. The measurement of IT-specific environmental practices was not exhaustive nor were the measures of macro- and micro-antecedents of Green IT belief and attitude.

National, regional, and international professional associations such as the Association of Information Systems can influence pro-environmental behavior among IT professionals through the creation and dissemination of information that shape both general and IT-specific environmental beliefs.

The novelty of this work lies in: first, proposing and testing a research framework that can be leveraged in future studies; second, establishing how organizational fields and availability of information contribute to the formation of IT professionals’ environmental beliefs and attitudes; third, applying and suggesting potential extension to the BAO framework to evaluate the association between IT practices and environmental sustainability among IT professionals.