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This paper contributes to the theory of the relationship between human resource management (HRM) and innovation at small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by conducting a conceptual analysis of the question why Germany boasts by far the highest number of “Hidden Champion” SMEs. This is done by case studies from the army and public financial management of aid disbursal in developing countries. Implications for HRM at SMEs are discussed.

Conceptual analysis using case studies.

Contributing towards filling the gap concerning theoretical underpinnings of the link between HRM and innovation, we suggest that interdisciplinary work from relevant organisational case studies indicates that the concept of institutional design to provide motivational incentives may be relevant, especially concerning high performance systems with bundles of HRM practices. Specifically, the fundamental principle of subsidiarity is found to be important.

The research is broadly applicable to organisations of all kinds, as the diverse case studies indicate. We point towards tentative implications for the firms that account for the majority of the work force, namely SMEs, and among them the most successful ones, the so-called “Hidden Champions”.

HR managers can improve motivation, performance and innovation by decentralising decision-making as far as possible, while ensuring the overall organisational goals are well understood and shared, and resources are dedicated to train and educate staff. Additionally, the conception of rank-order competitions complements the institutional design.

Greater productivity and material performance as well as greater job satisfaction via larger autonomy and decision-making power on the local level can be achieved by the application of subsidiarity as key HRM configuration. This can be employed at SMEs, as discussed, but also other organisations. Further, the principle of subsidiarity and the greater emphasis on staff training and education may help reduce inequality.

Our paper contributes towards filling the gap in the literature on the link between HRM and innovation, by identifying the role of subsidiarity. We introduce an interdisciplinary perspective, with contributions from economics and psychology, among others. We also contribute to the history of HRM.

This study investigated the effects of reward system (RS) and job conditions (JC) on employee retention (ER). In particular, this study addressed the mediating effect of employee engagement (EE) on the relationship between RS, JC and ER.

This paper employed descriptive survey approach and the unit of analysis consisted of public hospital nursing staff. Data were collected using questionnaires with a sample of 370 nurse respondents. Structural equation modelling with Smart-Partial Least Squares (PLS) 3.3.8 was used in a statistical analysis.

The results revealed that RS and JC significantly related to ER. The study also showed the direct effect of RS and JC on EE. These findings indicate that (EE) has a partial mediating role in the relationship between RS, JC and ER.

The study offers important policy insights for public nursing stakeholders who seek to increase retention of skills among their nursing staff. The findings are also crucial because they may help the health sector improve their ER strategies, especially in dynamic and competitive business situations where organisations are challenged to retain personnel from a limited skilled workforce.

The findings of this study contribute to the literature on retention of nursing employees by enhancing the understanding of the influences of EE, RS and JC on ER among public hospitals.

Interruptions are prevalent in knowledge work, and their negative consequences have driven research to find ways for interruption management. However, these means almost always leave the responsibility and burden of interruptions with individual knowledge workers. System-level approaches for interruption management, on the other hand, have the potential to reduce the burden on employees. This paper’s objective is to pave way for system-level interruption management by showing that data about factual characteristics of work can be used to identify interrupting situations.

The authors provide a demonstration of using trace data from information and communications technology (ICT)-systems and machine learning to identify interrupting situations. They conduct a “simulation” of automated data collection by asking employees of two companies to provide information concerning situations and interruptions through weekly reports. They obtain information regarding four organizational elements: task, people, technology and structure, and employ classification trees to show that this data can be used to identify situations across which the level of interruptions differs.

The authors show that it is possible to identifying interrupting situations from trace data. During the eight-week observation period in Company A they identified seven and in Company B four different situations each having a different probability of occurrence of interruptions.

The authors extend employee-level interruption management to the system-level by using “task” as a bridging concept. Task is a core concept in both traditional interruption research and Leavitt's 1965 socio-technical model which allows us to connect other organizational elements (people, structure and technology) to interruptions.

The purpose of the study was to specify the perceived outdated nature and lack of definitional clarity associated with the concept of work and further to outline that the nature of work has dramatically changed in the 21st century, while definitions of work referenced in research remain those that were dominant in the previous century. Lastly, the study aimed to propose an updated conceptualisation and definition of work to aid future research.

A scoping literature review was adopted as the methodology guiding the study. A scoping review is particularly suited to identifying the conceptual boundaries on a given multi-disciplinary topic and is used to map the key concepts underpinning a research area as well as to clarify working definitions.

Nine main themes underpinning the concept of work were extracted from the extant literature. These were assimilated with contemporary literature across multiple disciplines. Contexts of work as they relate to dimensions of work and workspace are developed and visualised. A proposed contemporary definition of work is presented.

The aim of the study was to address the problem with current and future research continuing to refer to traditional conceptualisations of work, while the nature of work has dramatically changed. The findings are preliminary and intended to stimulate further discourse towards a greater consensus of a definition. The implications of proposing an updated definition of work is that it is intended to better inform future research reflective of its multi-disciplinary and significantly changed nature.

The implications to practice are the main impetus of this study. The authors found that research associated with work was being confounded by traditional and outdated interpretations, excluding alternative forms of work or not recognising its multi-dimensionality. It is proposed by the paper that an updated conceptualisation of the nature of work in this era, as it is reflected across disciplines and practice, would positively contribute to the understanding, management and conceptualisation of work in practice.

A systematic literature review across disciplines of the definition of work will reveal the outdated nature and disparate interpretation of the concept of work. An inclusive, multi-disciplinary and contemporary definition of work has not been suggested. This scoping review was conducted to address this problem and gap in the literature. Further, this paper presents a multi-dimensional and spatial conceptualisation of work that is proposed to better inform future research and practice associated with work.

The purpose of this paper is to provide insights for flower retailers, horticultural practitioners and marketing managers into the prioritisation of cut flower attributes by German residents.

Applying a best–worst scaling approach, this analysis identified the relative ranking of importance amongst product attributes relevant to German consumers when buying fresh cut flowers. A latent class analysis determined four flower consumer segments for further study. The study builds on a sample of 978 consumers and is consistent with the most recent German census in terms of age, gender, income and federal state.

The best-worst analysis showed that intrinsic flower attributes, in particular appearance, freshness and scent were found to be more important to German consumers than the extrinsic attributes studied, namely, price, country of origin and a certification indicating fair trade. The latent class analysis determined four consumer segments that desire either budget, luxury or ethical flowers or more information about flowers. For all identified consumer segments, appearance was the attribute of greatest importance. The segments that desired luxury or ethical flowers, as well as the segment that desires more information were interested in appearance, but also had relatively large shares of preferences dedicated to flower freshness guarantees. The preference for freshness guarantees in addition to appearance may be interpreted jointly as a desire for not only beautiful and aesthetically pleasing flowers, but for sustained beauty.

Internationally, the study fills a research gap by exploring consumer’s relative preference for cut flower attributes. In contrast to existing studies on consumer preferences for flowers in Germany, the present study builds on a sample that was targeted in terms of age, gender, net household income and federal state to the most recent German census.

This study aims to elucidate the quantitative and qualitative differences in employment development between German districts. Building on ideas from competitive development and resource-based theory, the paper particularly seeks to explain enduring East-West differences between rural regions by two different forms of competitive advantage: cost leadership and quality differentiation.

This study follows a two-step empirical approach: First, an extended shift-share regression is conducted to analyze employment development in Western and Eastern German districts between 2007 and 2016. Second, the competitive share effect and other individual terms of the shift-share model are further examined in additional regressions using regional economic characteristics as exogenous variables.

The findings suggest that the above-average employment growth of the rural districts in the West is owed to the successful exploitation of experience in manufacturing that has been gathered by firms in the past 100 years or so. While their strategy is largely based on advanced and specialized resources and an innovation-driven differentiation strategy, the relatively weak employment development of Eastern rural districts might be explained by a lack of comparable long-term experiences and the related need to focus on the exploitation of basic and general resources and, accordingly, on the efficiency-based strategy of cost leadership.

This study offers an in-depth empirical analysis of how the competitive share effect, i.e. region-specific resources beyond industry structure, contributes to regional employment development. The analysis reveals that quantitative differences in rural employment development are closely related to qualitatively different levels of input factors and different regimes of competitiveness.

This paper reviews the literature on disability inclusion (DI) in supply and demand chains of hospitality and tourism (H&T) organisations. The purpose of this study is to assess disability support and interventions within H&T organisations. Through the assessment, we identified gaps to recommend H&T scholars’ and practitioners’ knowledge of DI from new perspectives.

An integrative review was conducted to examine the published evidence on DI in H&T organisations. This study used high-ranking H&T journals from the Scopus and Web of Science databases between 2001 and 2023. In total, 101 empirical papers met the criteria for the review analysis.

DI focuses heavily on customer disabilities, with scant research on DI in H&T employment. The review emphasises the critical need for empirical research into the varied disability employment ecosystem within H&T organisations, focusing on social integration for inclusive workplaces.

This study contributes to the H&T literature, which previously overlooked the disability context in diversity. The research offers strategies for creating inclusive environments in the H&T industry for disabled consumers and producers.