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Organizational researchers have long recognized the important role that top managers play within entrepreneurial firms (Ireland, Hitt and Sirmon 2003). Utilizing Covin and Slevin’s (1989) conceptual framework, the current study explores three key entrepreneurial characteristics of top managers and the impact these characteristics have on firm performance. Specifically, we argue that top managers with a high tolerance of risk, those who favor innovative activities and those who display a high degree of proactiveness will positively impact firm performance. In addition, this study examines the influence of top managers’ prestige, structural and expert power on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance. We conclude the study with a discussion of theoretical and practical implications of our findings and suggestions for future research in this area of study.

To date there is little understanding of the factors that impact the survival of foreign IPOs after they list on US stock exchanges. In this study, we examine how foreign IPO survival is contingent on institutional factors associated with the firm’s home country. We also explore how corporate governance and organizational identity influence the survival of foreign IPOs in the United States. Results suggest that the US institutional environment supports foreign firms with more independent and professional leadership, and that knowledge-intense organizations have higher chances of long-term success after listing on US exchanges.

Understanding the factors that impact the audit quality of work performed by affiliated offshore entities has become imperative for US accounting firms. The purpose of this paper is to gain a better understanding of the role that cultural differences have on the trait professional skepticism mindset of future auditors in the USA and India.

The authors use the Hurtt (2010) Professional Skepticism Scale (HPSS) to evaluate the role that culture has on the trait professional skepticism mindset of a sample of future auditors in the USA and India.

The authors identify three distinct dimensions of trait professional skepticism embedded in the HPSS. The research finds no significant differences between USA and Indian auditing students on the evidential “trust but verify” dimension of trait professional skepticism; however, US students score higher on the behavioral “presumptive doubt” and self-reliance dimensions.

Given culture significantly influences trait professional skepticism, firms and regulators should be highly cognizant of the type of work that is being sent offshore. Firms using affiliated offshore entities should also ensure that robust integration practices are used to facilitate the level of professional skepticism necessary to perform a quality audit.

By identifying three separate dimensions in the HPSS, the research takes an important step in understanding the factors that impact the quality of audit procedures performed in a critical affiliated offshore entity for US-based accounting firms.

Contemporary literature reveals that, to date, the poultry livestock sector has not received sufficient research attention. This particular industry suffers from unstructured supply chain practices, lack of awareness of the implications of the sustainability concept and failure to recycle poultry wastes. The current research thus attempts to develop an integrated supply chain model in the context of poultry industry in Bangladesh. The study considers both sustainability and supply chain issues in order to incorporate them in the poultry supply chain. By placing the forward and reverse supply chains in a single framework, existing problems can be resolved to gain economic, social and environmental benefits, which will be more sustainable than the present practices.

The theoretical underpinning of this research is ‘sustainability’ and the ‘supply chain processes’ in order to examine possible improvements in the poultry production process along with waste management. The research adopts the positivist paradigm and ‘design science’ methods with the support of system dynamics (SD) and the case study methods. Initially, a mental model is developed followed by the causal loop diagram based on in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and observation techniques. The causal model helps to understand the linkages between the associated variables for each issue. Finally, the causal loop diagram is transformed into a stock and flow (quantitative) model, which is a prerequisite for SD-based simulation modelling. A decision support system (DSS) is then developed to analyse the complex decision-making process along the supply chains.

The findings reveal that integration of the supply chain can bring economic, social and environmental sustainability along with a structured production process. It is also observed that the poultry industry can apply the model outcomes in the real-life practices with minor adjustments. This present research has both theoretical and practical implications. The proposed model’s unique characteristics in mitigating the existing problems are supported by the sustainability and supply chain theories. As for practical implications, the poultry industry in Bangladesh can follow the proposed supply chain structure (as par the research model) and test various policies via simulation prior to its application. Positive outcomes of the simulation study may provide enough confidence to implement the desired changes within the industry and their supply chain networks.

Corporate governance research based on agency theory has been criticized for being “under-contextualized,” and for evaluating various governance practices independently. To address both criticisms, we take a configurational approach and show how firm-level governance practices interact with informational asymmetries associated with a firm’s industry. By examining foreign Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) that have chosen to list on London stock exchanges, we demonstrate that an assessment of the firm-level corporate governance configurations is incomplete without taking into account the firm’s industry affiliation. Our use of fs/QCA underscores the possibilities configurational approaches have in advancing theories of corporate governance.

Liability of foreignness (LOF) has been one of the central constructs in the field of international business and management. Over the past two decades, a significant body of theoretical and empirical research has accumulated, theorizing on the sources of these LOFs, investigating their magnitude, and prescribing approaches to mitigate these disadvantages. However, much of this research is almost exclusively related to firms expanding their products, services, and operations to other countries as part of their global expansion. The difficulties firms face in foreign product markets is just one dimension of the costs they can face in their attempts to secure resources abroad.

We expand the domain of the LOF construct to include liabilities faced by firms accessing foreign capital markets in light of the increasing integration of capital markets. We identify four sources of LOF in capital markets: regulatory costs, information costs, unfamiliarity costs, and costs arising out of cultural differences. Based on an extensive review of “home bias” in equity markets, we propose four strategies to erase the legitimacy deficits that firms encounter in foreign capital markets: bonding, signaling, adoption of business practices isomorphic with the host country, and certifications and endorsements by third parties. We also offer suggestions for operationalizing and measuring LOF in capital markets as well as several directions for advancing further research on LOF in the context of capital markets.

Transformational leadership has been found to positively influence employee attitudes and behaviors. However, research also has shown that a variety of task and motivational factors lead to similar outcomes. Yet, little research has explored the potential interaction of transformational leadership with these other factors. We utilize fuzzy-set/qualitative comparative analysis to explore the ways these factors may interact to produce positive employee outcomes. Specifically, we found that high levels of employee commitment and performance can be achieved in the absence of a transformational leader through various “bundles” of enriched jobs, challenging goals, and high quality leader–follower relationships.

The objective of the study is to understand the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO), employers' organizational commitment to their employees (OCE), employees' perception of the adequacy of budgetary resources (BRs), and firm performance in Malaysian and Chilean firms. A survey of 165 managers finds that EO has a significant positive relationship with performance. Additionally, the perceptions about the adequacy of the BR have a significant positive effect on performance. And in the Chilean subsample, the OCE interacts positively with perceptions of budget resource adequacy to affect the firm performance. The total effect of EO on performance is similar across both countries despite the EO being higher in Malaysia and perceptions of budget resource adequacy being higher in Chile. The study highlights the contribution to the literature on the EO – performance relationship – and emphasizes the importance of providing adequate resources to enhance the psychological safety of employees working in less developed countries.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the relevant literature to gain deeper insights into understanding what directions of research are needed with reference to entrepreneurial orientation and competitive aggressiveness in the oil and gas sector of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region.

This paper is a conceptual evaluation of literature.

The extant body of research on both entrepreneurial orientation and competitive aggressiveness is based on quantitative studies without previous systematic, exhaustive and comprehensive grounded theory-based theorizing processes rooted in qualitative approaches. This accounts for inconsistencies and controversies of findings reported in the field.

The grounded theory-based approach advocated by this paper is likely to generate a more precise estimation of the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation, competitive aggressiveness and firm performance. Consequently, an accurate understanding of the interplay between these factors can empower managers to make finely-tuned strategic decisions, achieve sustainable competitive advantage and optimally adapt to dynamic and unforeseen environments.

The paper reports on important limitations of the existing literature indicating that current findings may be an artifact of studying a small number of industries.