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The authors develop a theoretical framework of how foreign competition in a firm's home country jointly interacts with other environmental factors to influence the internationalization pace. This study moves beyond the debate on whether foreign competition promotes or inhibits the internationalization pace by unpacking the nature of pace across strategic and operational dimensions. By differentiating the internationalization paces of market scope and international commitment, the study results show that foreign competition has a positive effect on the former and a negative effect on the latter. This indicates that the determinants of different paces are conditional upon the different knowledge types among foreign competitors.

Using a panel data set of Chinese construction corporations over the period from 2009 to 2015, the authors extend previous research on the effect of home country environment on internationalization behavior in an emerging economy by examining the effects of the interplay between foreign competition in home country and industrial contexts. The authors also explore the moderating effect of subnational institutions on the relationship between foreign competition and internationalization pace. They use a Poisson model and a GEE model to examine the main effects and moderating effects involved.

The results indicate that industry dynamism strengthens the positive effect of foreign competition and the pace of market scope, while industry munificence weakens the negative effect of foreign competition and the pace of international commitment. The authors’ findings support the coexistence of “pushing” and “pulling” effects of environmental factors from a firm's home country. The authors extend the argument of “institutional escapism” by focusing on subnational institutions. They show that firms located in a region with a low level of marketization are more likely to respond by accelerating the pace of their international expansion to escape from their home country.

The authors’ findings have implications for practitioners and policymakers working with emerging market firms (EMFs). The authors suggest that local governments should consider building high-quality institutions that can reduce the possibility of investment opportunities escaping EMFs. The authors’ findings indicate that international knowledge from foreign competitors may also assist EMFs in understanding more about the cultural environment before entering host countries, although it cannot help them to resolve cultural uncertainty when operating in host countries. Hence, managers should carefully evaluate their competitiveness before they decide to engage in global competition at an accelerated rate.

The current study aims to investigate the temporal mechanisms in HRM systems by focusing on how HRM systems evolve over time and how such changes affect organizational innovation.

This paper draws on organizational entrainment theory to examine how pace of change in employee involvement programs (EIPs) influences innovation via data from an eight-year longitudinal survey collected by Statistics Canada. The final sample includes 15,679 workplace–year observations.

This research shows that the effects of HRM programs on performance are more than just the mean effect – the pace of change by which changes are implemented in HRM programs matters in the long run. The optimal level of change pace occurs when the EIPs are changing at a pace that entrains (or synchronizes) with organizational rhythm of strategic changes. Results suggest that change pace in EIPs has an inverted-U-shaped relationship with both pace and quality of innovation. The curvilinear effect is more pronounced for organizations with relatively lower mean level of EIPs.

First, this study captures only key measures of the EIPs and may not be generalizable to other dimensions of the HR systems. Second, the results of this paper should be interpreted at the HR program level or bundles of HR practices – the findings may not be generalizable to lower levels of analysis. Third, as a result of annual measurement, this study cannot capture short-lived minor dynamic HR misfits where workplaces quickly adjust to regain alignment. Fourth, to attain meaningful and consistent measures of strategic HR change, this study only includes surviving workplaces with at least five years of observations.

This paper provides insights to managers and business leaders on how to implement strategic changes in HRM systems effectively to attain sustained innovation outcomes in the long run. To achieve an optimal level of innovation, organizations need to consider not only what and how many EIPs should be used but also how to strategically change EIPs to meet dynamic internal and external changes.

The current research introduces organizational entrainment theory to explain and empirically test the conflicting predictions of the universalist and contingency perspectives on the effects of strategic changes in HRM.

The purpose of this study is to determine how sonic logo’s acoustic features (intensity, pitch and pace) based on melodic tunes with no voice orient the response of consumers, attract attention, elicit levels of pleasantness and calmness and transmit brand personality traits.

A within-subject experimental factorial design is applied to measure emotional arousal (indexed as electrodermal activity) and enhancement on perceptual processing (indexed as heart rate), as well as self-reported factors, namely, calmness/excitement, pleasantness and brand personality scales.

Results show a significant increase on electrodermal activity associated with fast-paced sonic logos and a decrease in heart rate in slow-paced long sonic logos. Also, fade-up, pitch-ascending fast sonic logos are defined as more exciting and descending-pitch sonic logos as more pleasant.

The use of sonic logos with no voice does limit its implications. Besides, the use of three variables simultaneously with 18 versions of sonic logos in a laboratory setting may have driven participants to fatigue; hence, findings should be cautiously applied.

First, sonic logos are best processed in a fade-up form. Second, fast pace is recommended to orient response, whereas slow pace is recommended to transmit calmness. Practitioners may opt for fast-paced sonic logos if the design is new or played in a noisy environment and opt for slow-paced sonic logos in already highly recognized sound designs.

To the best of authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to combine psychophysiological measures and self-reported scales in a laboratory experiment on how sonic logo’s acoustic features orient response, transmit emotions and personality traits.

Little is known about temporal trends in the intensification of work in America, or its determinants. This study analyzed two representative samples of the American labor force, and found that the pace of work increased significantly between 1977 and 1997. In a decomposition analysis, two-thirds of the increase in work intensification was attributable to objective economic changes, in particular job complexity and the length of work schedules. Future research should further explore the role of technology in quickening the pace of work, but not ignore the possibility that the demands of family life also affect perceptions of work intensification.

In recent years, the phenomena of “accelerating” and “jumping” during the international expansion of Chinese enterprises have attracted a lot of attention from scholars. However, while a CEO’s career horizon can significantly affect his or her enterprise’s strategic decision-making, few studies have explored the role of CEO career horizon in terms of “accelerating” and “jumping” internationalization.

Based on a sample of China’s A-share listed manufacturing companies from 2008 to 2017, this study explores the impact of CEO career horizon on the internationalization pace and international rhythm of enterprises.

First, the shorter the CEO’s career horizon, the more likely the CEO can avoid risky strategic decisions, which ultimately causes a negative relationship between CEO career horizon and the internationalization pace and rhythm of the enterprise. Second, for larger and older boards of directors, there is a more negative impact of the CEO’s short-term career horizon on the internationalization pace and internationalization rhythm of the company. However, given a larger proportion of female directors and non-executive directors, the CEO’s short-term career horizon has a weaker negative impact on international pace and the rhythm of internationalization.

First, based on upper echelon theory, this study interprets the influence of CEO career horizon on the time dimension of corporate internationalization (including internationalization pace and international rhythm), deepening the theory’s explanatory power. Second, by clarifying the important predictive effect of CEO career horizon on internationalization pace and international rhythm, this research enriches extant research on both variables’ antecedents, as well as that on the influence of CEO career horizon. Finally, by introducing the regulatory role of the board’s supervisory ability, this study clarifies the boundary conditions for the influence of the CEO’s career horizon on international pace and rhythm, and it expands the literature on how CEOs and boards of directors can influence corporate strategic decisions during the internationalization process.

Throughout years of corporate social responsibility (CSR) debates, most studies have focused on whether or not a firm should engage in CSR activities, while giving little attention to the firm’s engagement strategy. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the optimal way of engaging in CSR activities to maximize firm value while acting in a socially responsible manner.

The sample includes US-listed firms and was initially split into three categories (slow-paced, steady-paced and fast-paced firms) based on how fast the firm increased/decreased the pace of its CSR involvement. The sample was later split into firms that have interlocked directors and those that do not, to highlight the important role played by interlocked directors in moderating the relationship between CSR pace and firm performance.

Results suggest that firms engaging in CSR activities at a slow or steady pace experience superior financial returns than firms engaging in CSR activities at a fast pace. Further analysis indicates that rapid CSR involvement is counterproductive for firms with no interlocked directors. On the other hand, firms with interlocked directors benefit from their directors’ social network, and experience positive returns when engaging in CSR activities at a fast pace.

This study is of particular importance for firms establishing their CSR engagement strategies. The results highlight the optimal way a firm can engage in CSR activities while still maximizing shareholder wealth.

This paper is the first to study the pace determinants of a firm’s CSR engagement strategy. The absence/presence of interlocked directors is identified as a key moderating variable for the CSR–firm performance relationship. The study pinpoints the absence of interlocked directors as a constraint for firms that rapidly engage in CSR activities.

For machine‐paced operations a two‐factor monetary incentive plan is developed by employing production quantity output and production waste as criteria for incentive earnings. The plan takes into account machine time allowance and increased operator work pace for manual work for establishing standards in a machine‐paced operation. The two incentive earning factors are given proper weights in terms of their relative economic importance. The weights are determined by comparing possible labour and material costs savings when the operators perform at incentive pace level. To demonstrate the working of the proposed monetary incentive plan an illustrative example is presented.

This study looked at seven attitudinal and three personality variable correlates of three measures of pace of life. Pace of life was operationalised as three distinct measures; walking pace, postal service speed, and clock accuracy. Correlational and multiple regression analyses revealed that achievement motivation and competitiveness were highly predictive of general pace of life which is consistent with previous work. Moreover, linear discriminant analysis showed distinct differences in work attitude profiles between low, medium, and fast‐paced nations, the difference being significant for competitiveness, achievement motivation and attitudes towards savings. These nations also differed with respect to GDP, cost of living, energy (consumption of kg coal equivalent per head), and family size though nations did not differ in terms of economic growth and inflation rates. Overall, pace of life represents a simple, unobtrusive measure which is useful, subtle and a cheap indicator of national culture and economic progress.

The current research contributes to the marketing literature by examining, and more importantly, better understanding a presentation format (i.e. PACE) in which caloric information is complemented with physical activity time required to offset consumption. The purpose of this paper is to systematically evaluate the impact of this approach in both actual and simulated consumption settings while providing evidence of its contribution to healthier decision-making. This research uncovered several important insights into how consumers are influenced by, and respond to, the presence of physical activity time.

The paper used experiential designs in five studies to examine how the presence of physical activity calorie equivalent (PACE) information affects consumption. The studies measured both intended and actual consumption behavior. The data were analyzed using analysis of variance as well as bootstrapping methods.

The paper establishes that PACE information reduces consumption compared to NLEA-mandated information. We show that the effectiveness of PACE information differs based on consumers’ level of health consciousness as well as food type. Our research also uncovers a moderating effect based on perceived difficulty of the featured activity. Finally, we show the psychological process underlying the effectiveness of PACE information.

Future research can address the generalizability of current findings across different consumption domains and contexts. Our work focuses on the efficacy of information delivery at the point of consumption. The results of the current study may differ when the decision is being made at the point of purchase for future consumption.

The paper’s findings represent a win-win scenario for consumers and manufacturers alike. Manufactures stand to benefit from PACE information as many consumers are seeking healthier food options and are willing to pay a premium for items that help them make more healthful choices. Consumers will benefit as well, given the struggle with obesity and other diet-related ills, by being provided with a more effective means of making healthier choices.

Obesity and diet-related chronic diseases are global pandemics affecting consumers throughout the world. This paper contributes to this issue by presenting manufacturers and researchers with a better understanding of how consumers can be encouraged to make healthier choices and overcome the barriers to healthier lifestyles.

This paper addresses a gap in the literature as well as an important social concern by better understanding how healthier nutrition choices can be encouraged.

This paper aims to provide new evidence regarding the firm performance implications of using temporal orientation (time pacing) and information technology (IT) to align an organization with its task environment.

Using questionnaire data provided by top management team members, the results indicate that time‐based strategies (i.e. time pacing) and IT mediate the effects of environmental disruptions on performance. To validate the scales and to test the hypothesized model of relationships, the study employs structural equation modeling through LISREL 8.52, as it is able to examine both the measurement and structural model simultaneously while including individual errors for the respective parameters.

The results suggest that time pacing should be used in association with IT, as time pacing had a much stronger relationship to environmental disruptions than did IT. This finding supports that a time pacing orientation is effective at helping managers react to disruptions in their task environment. In relation to firm performance, IT was directly linked to firm performance; whereas time pacing was only indirectly associated with firm performance.

The findings suggest that the application of time pacing strategies enables managers to increase firm performance via IT. The results therefore suggest that managers should not assess their use of temporally‐based mechanisms (e.g. time pacing, IT temporality) and IT in isolation, but rather consider them in conjunction. This recommendation is consistent with findings elsewhere that components of strategy may need to be cohesive and integrative and require a supportive firm structure if they are to have their greatest effects on firm performance.

The study extends the research on temporal strategies and IT as mechanisms for offsetting environmental pressures and improving firm performance. It alerts managers to the notion that time pacing will enable them to generate improved firm performance and competitive advantage, through the synchronistic use of IT.