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This paper aims to analyze so‐called sustainability, corporate social responsibility or citizenship reports, as artefacts of a compromise between an institutional entrepreneur (IE), the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), and companies. Some companies take on this invitation but to which extent the information they produce as a result corresponds to the ideal promoted by the IE?

A sample of ten reports from Canadian companies were analyzed using a combination of deductive and inductive coding techniques. The discourse and pictures were analyzed to identify whether they represent path creation (adherence to the sustainability ideal) or path dependence (the expression of traditional business interests and practices).

The study findings show that companies adopt the sustainability reporting guideline and ideal promoted by IE, but only partially. Path dependence and path creation are in tension, a condition typical of innovative processes according to the actor network theory (ANT) framework. It suggests that the market for sustainability information is under construction.

The value of the paper is that it examines voluntary disclosure of social and environmental performance by companies, using the notion of IE from the neo‐institutionalist theory, as well as the innovation model from the ANT. The originality of the paper also lies in its methodology – particularly the use of a mixed method—including the composition of “poems” with “verses” extracted from the corporate reports.

The purpose of this paper is to examine spatiality of transitions by combining aspects of urban form to policy analysis. It aims to increase understanding of how urban form relates to potential effects of transport policies on urban mobility transitions.

Novel analytical framework combines concepts of path dependence, path creation and path destabilisation to three urban fabrics (walking, transit and car cities), to study the transition potential of recent transport policy measures influencing the Helsinki region in Finland.

Analysis showed that the potential effects of single policy measures often reach over all three urban fabrics. A policy measure may simultaneously contain elements of both path dependence, i.e. support for fossil-fuel based private motoring in the car city and path creation, i.e. stimulation of innovations in transit or walking cities. Policy outcomes are often conditional on implementation of other policy measures. For transition governance, this indicates that policy mixes should both destabilise car cities and enforce path creation in walking and transit cities.

Findings are based on potential rather than evaluated impacts and a limited sample of policies.

Findings support previous research on the importance of policy coherence: multiple policies and coherence across domains are important. They demonstrate the usefulness of analysing recent or planned policies from the transition perspective.

The paper provides novel insights by combining policy analysis to the spatial model of overlapping urban fabrics. In addition, it applies the concepts of path dependence, path creation and path destabilisation in a new way.

Prior research does not provide a clear picture of how managers can effectively manage customer in-role and extra-role behaviours in a retail setting. This study aims to test the differential impact of the two main customer relationship predictor paths – identity-based and satisfaction-based paths – on customer in-role and extra-role behaviours.

A random sample of 500 customers from the flagship store of an up-market, international department store chain participated in a written survey. Purchase spending data for each customer was obtained from the retailer’s loyalty card database.

The two studied predictor paths possess a differential impact on customer extra-role behaviours. Civic virtue and co-creation behaviours are exclusively driven by the identity-based path, whereas sportsmanship is driven solely by the satisfaction-based path. Moreover, the identity-based path impacts purchase behaviour only when symbolic purchase motivation is high. Overall satisfaction has no impact on purchase behaviour.

In some retailing contexts, extra-role behaviours such as co-creation or civic virtue might simply be irrelevant (e.g. discount chains).

Managers, who have the intention to stimulate customers to give constructive feedback on products or services, or to involve them in co-creation activities, are well advised to also invest in identity-based path activities.

This study is the first to empirically test the effects of customer identification and overall customer satisfaction on the various dimensions of customer in-role and extra-role behaviours. Customer extra-role behaviours should not be conceptualised as one global construct but should comprise distinct dimensions of discretionary behaviours that have different antecedents.

This paper, applies the concept of path creation to a historical case. Path creation arose in part as a response to perceived weaknesses regarding the limited role of firm agency in the path dependency literature.

This essay uses the path creation methodology to explain why and how specific features of the American brewing industry's regulatory framework were devised during prohibition (1920‐1933) and implemented upon the repeal of prohibition in 1933. The study draws upon a series of primary sources, including firm publications and government reports.

It shows that path creation is a useful way to examine the design and implementation of industry‐level regulatory systems. It argues that rather than passively waiting and hoping for a beneficial set of rules, the largest national breweries in America actively set about to shape the regulatory environment in which they and their competitors operated.

The study is valuable on two levels. First, it helps explicate how and why the brewing industry's current regulatory system emerged. Second, and more broadly, it shows how the path creation thesis can be usefully adopted to interpret firm and managerial actions across time periods and industries.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the generation of innovations by employees and the creation of initiative paths, and to discover which factors contribute to the implementation of an initiative.

Based on longitudinal qualitative research, the study explores the profiles of initiative paths and the types of innovations and relationships among the generated innovations.

It was found that, to become an innovation, an initiative followed different paths along which the processing and outcomes varied, as did the time needed for experimentation. The creation of initiative paths required the transformative agency of the actors involved. Power relations had an impact on the generation of initiatives and implementation of innovations.

Innovations research has concentrated on the generation of ideas and the implementation of innovations. This study focuses on the process path along which ideas become innovations and on the role of power relations in the innovations process.

This paper aims to propose a new knowledge creation model called Grey SECI (G-SECI), study the knowledge creation mechanism and the relationship between knowledge creation models and innovation performance during complex product systems (CoPSs) development. Research and development of CoPSs relies heavily on knowledge creation. However, most scholars have studied CoPS innovation stages from the view of design process of system products, focussing on functional management and project management during the R&D process for CoPS. Attention is lacking with regards to the key and essence of creating a complex technology: the creation of knowledge.

Modified from the classic SECI model’s spiral process of knowledge creation, a grey-SECI (G-SECI) knowledge creation model is here proposed vis-à-vis three knowledge categories: explicit knowledge, grey knowledge and tacit knowledge. Then, this paper further analyzes the effects of knowledge creation from the perspective of individual and the view of organization. Besides, an empirical study is conducted.

Statistical analysis indicates that there are three main paths of knowledge creation: individual experience knowledge acquisition, individual communication and reflection and organizational knowledge learning. Results further suggest that knowledge internalization by practice (KIP) is the key mode of knowledge creation, as well as the most important step for high-quality CoPS performance. Moreover, individual innovation performance is influenced by knowledge internalization by reflection and KIP; and organization innovation performance is influenced by knowledge combination and knowledge systematization.

The coverage of geographical distribution is limited. Therefore, there are no data from foreign enterprises. The impact of different geographical cultures on CoPS knowledge creation model could be further investigated; in addition, the statistical analysis results of this study need to be further verified in other industries.

This paper provides a series of insights for CoPS project leaders. The results may also provide practical guidance for the related management personnel in the fields of human resource training, project planning, project quality and technology R&D in CoPS R&D management.

The paper’s main contribution is to modify classic SECI knowledge conversion model by introducing grey knowledge and build a new G-SECI knowledge creation model. Besides, the paper adds empirical evidence on the knowledge creation paths in CoPS and reveals that internalization by practice is the key mode of knowledge creation.

Acting entrepreneurially in nascent industries is a complex endeavor characterized by uncertainty and ambiguity. Nevertheless, entirely new industries do emerge, often as a direct result of entrepreneurial behavior. We extend and apply discovery and creation approaches to study entrepreneurial behavior during industry emergence by means of qualitative analysis of a film about the personal computer (PC) industry℉s formative years. We find that discovery and creation behavior are fundamentally interrelated and share a common element: bricolage. Moreover, ideological activism is a major component of entrepreneurial behavior in a new industry℉s formative years during both creation and discovery processes. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

This paper aims to identify the paths of digital transformation followed by companies facing disruption and offer recommendations for executives for choosing the appropriate path.

This is a conceptual paper.

This paper identifies two paths of digital transformation. The offensive path is aggressive and involves the rapid acquisition of digital resources through portfolio investment and merger and acquisition tactics. The defensive path is relatively slow and relies on the organic growth of the digital capabilities of the incumbent companies over time.

This paper identifies a number of potential factors affecting the choice of the transformation path taken by companies. Further studies can be conducted to investigate these contingent factors.

This study describes the strategic paths available in a digital transformation and identifies the conditions that might justify a particular approach.

This paper identifies two types of paths that are generally followed by companies aiming digital transformation – offensive and defensive. This aspect has not been studied in any other research work.

The paper seeks to addresses the ethically and strategically important question: “How can managers sustain the equality of employee voice in a dynamic environment?”.

To address the above question, this paper conceptually integrates two theoretical streams that are prominent in their respective traditions: Amartya Sen's capabilities approach (SCA) in the economics and ethics literature and the dynamic capabilities approach (DCA) in strategic management.

Adapting SCA, this paper conceptualizes “voice” as employees' “capability” or “freedom” to achieve what they morally “value” in an organization, and “justice” as the equality of employee voice. Following DCA, it outlines a framework for “dynamic capability” (“voice management capability”) building by managers. It describes the processes by which executives leverage their knowledge to find new ways of creating equality in employee voice and continually remedy inequities in a changing environment. The creation of paths during the discovery of such processes and the subsequent path dependence can influence the persistence of employee voice equality.

The paper is unique in that it extends Sen's notion of “equality of individual capabilities” to employee voice. Although SCA overcomes several flaws in the competing ethics theories, it remains seriously underexplored in organizational analysis. DCA is valuable in explaining how the equality in employee voice can be sustained over time. The equality of employee voice is important not only because of its moral implications but also because of its potential desirable consequences (e.g. employee trust, commitment, and loyalty).

Studies of strategic change are mainly characterized by a linear time view, treating time as a variable, a package of narrative events or as a path that the organization “travels” over time. The purpose of this paper is to move beyond this view providing an alternative, nonlinear conception of time.

Framed by the logics of consequence and appropriateness an empirical example of strategic change within the Scandinavian consumer co‐operation is given, illustrating the exploration of business opportunities and the exploitation of socially and historically rooted values and principles. Drawing on philosophical hermeneutics a qualitative method is chosen, the basis on which the empirical material through interviews and documents is generated.

The empirical study illustrates that the logic of consequence communicates with the logic of appropriateness in a nonlinear manner while interrelating the future and the past. The exploration of business opportunities shapes the past, which is brought to light when opportunities are expressed through the present, continuously forming and reforming the present and in turn shedding new light on the past.

Although various forms of intellectual bridging and transfer are encouraged within the field of strategic management, notably lacking are studies that focus on time. This paper brings to the fore an alternative conception of time. It acknowledges the past in its hermeneutical significance when ascribing the past a dynamic repetitive role.