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The chapter reconstructs the methodological trajectory of Polly Hill. Crossing the boundaries between economics and anthropology, Hill’s work was simultaneously an epistemic challenge to development economics, and a testimony to the complexity and richness of economic life in what she called the “rural tropical world.” Drawing inspiration from the process that Mary Morgan referred to as “seeking parts, looking for wholes,” the chapter explores the evolving relationship between observational practice and conceptual categories in Hill’s work on West Africa and India. It is argued that fieldwork, the central element in Hill’s methodological reflection, served two main functions. Firstly, it acted as the cornerstone of her views on observation and induction, framing her understanding of the relationship between “parts” and “wholes.” Secondly, Hill used fieldwork as a narrative trope to articulate her hopeful vision for an integration of economics and anthropology, and later express her feelings of distance and alienation from the ways in which these disciplines were actually practiced.

Introduced into the literature a decade ago, grit originally defined as perseverance and passion for long-term goals has stimulated considerable research on positive effects primarily in the academic and military contexts, as well as attracted widespread media attention. Despite recent criticism regarding grit’s construct and criterion-related validity, research on grit has begun to spill over into the work context as well. In this chapter, the authors provide an overview of the initial theoretical foundations of grit as a motivational driver, and present newer conceptualizations on the mechanisms of grit’s positive effects rooted in goal-setting theory. Furthermore, the authors also draw attention to existing shortcomings of the current definition and measurement of grit, and their implications for its scientific and practical application. After establishing a theoretical understanding, the authors discuss the potential utility of grit for human resource management, related to staffing and recruitment, development and training, and performance management systems as well as performance evaluations. The authors conclude this chapter with a discussion of necessary and potential future research, and consider the practical implications of grit in its current state.

In this chapter, we update stakeholder salience research using the new lens of stakeholder work: the purposive processes of organization aimed at being aware of, identifying, understanding, prioritizing, and engaging stakeholders. Specifically, we focus on stakeholder prioritization work — primarily as represented by the stakeholder salience model — and discuss contributions, shortcomings, and possibilities for this literature. We suggest that future research focus on stakeholder inclusivity, the complexity of prioritization work within intra-corporate markets, the integration of stakeholder prioritization with other forms of stakeholder work, and the development of managerial tools for multiobjective decision making within the strategic management context.

This study, based on our analysis of survey data from 1,242 partners and employees of a U.S. national public accounting firm, examines the impact on psychological well-being from the moderating effects of flexibility and role clarity on work-home conflict experienced by public accountants. Most prior research in public accounting deals with the antecedents and consequences of role stress and primarily focuses on job outcomes of turnover intentions and job satisfaction as dependent variables. Public accounting firms have responded to stressors with worker-friendly policies, largely by introducing flexibility and clarity in their organizational culture. Using a multi-disciplinary research model, we analyze the causal relationships of flexibility and clarity as moderators of the bi-directional nature of work-home conflict (work interference with home and home interference with work) on psychological well-being. Our study finds that perceptions of flexibility and role clarity drawn from a career position in public accounting can mitigate role conflict between work and home environments and contribute to enhanced psychological well-being. We also find that certain relationships described in the model are moderated by family status and age, but not by gender. Results of our study have implications to both individual public accountants and to their firms.

This paper considers the relevance which networks have for research at the Marketing/Entrepreneurship Interface. The paper argues that while there is some evidence to suggest that networks are an important tool for entrepreneurial firms, there is a need to more clearly explain what is meant by the terms “network” and “networking”. It is proposed that by using a definition of networks borrowed from the field of social anthropology, current understanding of the marketing benefits that can accrue to firms which make entrepreneurial use of networks can be advanced. Drawing upon the findings of research which employed such a definition, the paper concludes that networks and the activity of networking are indeed important entrepreneurial marketing tools and that further research attention to these is required to acquire a comprehensive understanding of these.

This chapter aims to delineate the indigenous pattern of parental involvement in Taiwan by investigating the effects of specific practices in schools and in the family, such as school selection, school involvement, preparing a study place at home, and providing nutritious food.

We use two waves of data from the Taiwan Youth Project (2000, 2003) to examine how parental involvement varies between dual- and single-earner families, and we further demonstrate how sons and daughters have different access in terms of recognizing their parents’ effort, and how children’s subjective appraisals promote their academic performance with respect to test scores.

We find that dual-earner families have higher incomes, higher educational levels, and have fewer children than single-earner ones. Our multivariate analyses show that parental involvement does increase youngsters’ Basic Competence Test (BCT) score. However, we are unable to find any direct or indirect effects from parental employment status on BCT scores. Further analysis indicates that the relationship between parental school involvement and BCT score is only significant among dual-earner families, but not for the single-earner ones. In addition, our multiple group analysis reveals that sons’ BCT scores are affected more by parents’ school involvement, whereas daughters’ are affected more by special home provision. Our findings from adolescents’ subjective responses imply that sons may be more responsive to a non-familial context in contrast with daughters, who react more positively to familial provision.

In recent years the use of networks and, in particular, personal contact networks (PCNs) has emerged as a focus for research in the area of small firm entrepreneurship. A tacit theme emerging from this area has been the need for entrepreneurs to develop a competency in using their PCNs as a means of resolving marketing problems faced in developing their enterprises. The competency literature itself focuses primarily on the subject of management development, with scant attention given to the identification of specific competences for small firm entrepreneurs and, in particular, the challenges they face in marketing decision‐making. Previous research by the authors addressed this shortcoming and pointed to the value of using PCNs for resolving marketing problems in the entrepreneurial small firm. A spectrum of entrepreneurial competences critical for marketing‐led enterprise development was developed. A conceptual model is proposed of how small firm entrepreneurs might use their existing competency strengths to develop a further competency in the proactive use of PCNs, a strength which is critical for the planned success of the entrepreneurial enterprise.

Public-interest entities – among which are listed companies – are obliged to publish nonfinancial disclosure in some countries and regions. The European Commission established mandatory nonfinancial disclosure by Directive 2014/95/EU. While a large body of literature was developed on sustainability reporting quality (SRQ) in voluntary context, evidence about the effect of mandatory nonfinancial disclosure on SRQ is controversial and previous experiences worldwide did not make clear if obligatoriness improves SRQ. This chapter aims to bridge the gap of empirical evidence about this phenomenon in European countries, focusing on first implementation of new legislation by Italian and German companies. The research has an explorative character and it adopts content analysis methods performed on sustainability reporting practices of companies listed in FTSE-MIB and DAX 30. The analysis aims to understand if obligatoriness affects SRQ, causes some changes in reporting practices such as harmonizing Italian and German ones by performing a cross-country comparison. The findings suggest that obligatoriness improves reporting quality and, above all, it fills the gap between different countries by fostering the adoption of international guidelines and the consequent introduction of some content, such as materiality analysis and quantitative measures of social and environmental performance.