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Open Access
Article
Publication date: 24 May 2024

María A. Agustí, Rocio Aguilar-Caro, José Luis Galán and Francisco J. Acedo

Organisational slack has been widely considered in strategic management, but there is a gap in understanding the process of accumulation and application of slack resources. From a…

Abstract

Purpose

Organisational slack has been widely considered in strategic management, but there is a gap in understanding the process of accumulation and application of slack resources. From a dynamic perspective and over an extended period of time, this paper analyses the management of slack resources and evaluates whether the different behaviours, in relation to the accumulation and consumption of slack resources, have any effect on performance.

Design/methodology/approach

The resource-based view and the dynamic extension of this theory, i.e. resource management and resource orchestration, were analysed in order to evaluate how slack resources can be managed and generate value. Assuming a configurational approach, the analysis was structured into two stages to answer the proposed hypothesis. The first stage studied whether there were different patterns of management of slack resources over time using the DistatisR package. The second stage evaluated which behaviours had the greatest impact in terms of profitability by using a dynamic panel data regression.

Findings

Three different types of slack resource management were found in companies: efficient, effective and erratic. Different types do not have the same impact on performance.

Originality/value

The dynamic management of slack resources has scarcely been considered, even during periods of crisis and economic expansion. This research advances the understanding of how firms transform slack resources into performance from a dynamic perspective.

Details

Management Decision, vol. 62 no. 13
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 15 January 2022

Brendon Fox and Jeff Bourgeois

The internationalization of United States higher education has been described as a “two-way street” where students arrive at knowledge transfer. That transfer occurs through a…

Abstract

The internationalization of United States higher education has been described as a “two-way street” where students arrive at knowledge transfer. That transfer occurs through a curriculum deemed “unidirectional” with no relevance to local issues or needs and results in limited application and educational colonialism perceptions. Specific to leadership education, the extant literature presents implications of neglect to cultural contexts traditionally reflected in the curriculum within a host nation. We used an explanatory mixed methods design for this study to investigate the degree to which undergraduate Western-based leadership studies courses taught in China reflect the notion of “neocolonialism” by prioritizing Western interests and values.

While the study’s quantitative results reveal cultural differences in leadership education concepts, the qualitative follow-up phase finds students’ appreciation in the utility of leadership concepts and knowledge gained from the leadership curriculum. Students could cite specific situations in which they employed leadership concepts acquired from their respective leadership courses.

Details

Journal of Leadership Education, vol. 21 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1552-9045

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 8 May 2019

Linn Marie Kolbe, Bart Bossink and Ard-Pieter de Man

The purpose of this paper is to gain insight into the contingent use of rational, intuitive and political decision-making in R&D.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to gain insight into the contingent use of rational, intuitive and political decision-making in R&D.

Design/methodology/approach

This research is based on a study in an R&D department of a multinational high-tech firm in the Netherlands. The study consists of a case study design, focusing on four embedded cases, longitudinally studying each case.

Findings

The literature distinguishes three dimensions of innovation decision-making processes: rational, intuitive and political. By studying these interwoven dimensions over time, this study finds that the dominant use of each of these dimensions differs across the innovation process. There is an emphasis on intuitive decision-making in an early phase, followed by more emphasis on political decision-making, and moving to more emphasis on rational decision-making in a later phase of the R&D process. Furthermore, the predominant choice in a specific innovation phase for one of the three decision-making dimensions is influenced by the decision-making dimension that is dominantly employed in the preceding phase.

Research limitations/implications

This study contributes to the innovation decision-making literature by developing and applying a model that distinguishes rational, intuitive and political decision-making dimensions, the interactions among these dimensions in innovation decision-making in R&D, and the contingency of these dimensions upon the innovation phase. It calls for further research into the contingent nature of innovation decision-making processes.

Practical implications

For practitioners this study has two relevant insights. First it highlights the importance and usefulness of intuitive and political decision-making in addition to the prevailing emphasis on rational decision-making. Second, practitioners may be more alert to consciously changing their dominant decision-making approach across the phases of the innovation process. Third, companies may adjust their human resource policies to this study’s findings.

Originality/value

The literature on rational, intuitive and political decision-making is quite extensive. However, research has hardly studied how these decision-making dimensions develop in conjunction, and over time. This paper reports on a first study to do so and finds that the dominant use of these dimensions is contingent upon the phase of the R&D process and on the decision-making dimensions used in earlier phases. The study suggests that using a contingency approach can help to further integrate the debate in research and practice.

Details

Management Decision, vol. 58 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 11 April 2023

Vahid Mohamad Taghvaee, Abbas Assari Arani, Mehrab Nodehi, Jalil Khodaparast Shirazi, Lotfali Agheli, Haji Mohammad Neshat Ghojogh, Nafiseh Salehnia, Amir Mirzaee, Saeed Taheri, Raziyeh Mohammadi Saber, Hady Faramarzi, Reza Alvandi and Hosein Ahmadi Rahbarian

This study aims to assess and decompose the sustainable development using the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) in Iran in 2018, for proposing agenda-setting of public…

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Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to assess and decompose the sustainable development using the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) in Iran in 2018, for proposing agenda-setting of public policy.

Design/methodology/approach

It ranks the SDGs not only in Iran but also in the region and the world to reveal the synergetic effects.

Findings

Based on the results, subaltern-populace generally suffers from the hegemonic domination of ruling elite-bourgeois, lack of strong institutions, heterogeneous policy networks and lack of advocacy role of non-governmental organizations, due to no transparency, issues in law or no rule of law, no stringent regulation, rent, suppression and Mafia, all leading to corruption and injustice.

Practical implications

To stop the loop of corruption-injustice, Iran should homogenize the structure of the policy network. Furthermore, the failed SDGs of the three-geographic analysis are the same in a character; all of them propose SDG 3, good health and well-being as a serious failed goal.

Social implications

In this regard, strong evidence is the pandemic Coronavirus, COVID 19 since 2019, due to its highly-disastrous consequences in early 2020 where the public policymakers could not adopt policies promptly in the glob, particularly in Iran.

Originality/value

In Iran, in addition to this, the malfunction of health is rooted in “subjective well-being” and “traffic deaths,” respectively. Concerning the transportations system in Iran, it is underscored that it is damaging the sustainable development from all the three pillars of sustainable development including, economic, social and environmental.

Details

Review of Economics and Political Science, vol. 8 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2356-9980

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 5 November 2018

Tom Overmans

The purpose of this paper is to uncover the right type of organizational slack for innovation. It examines how city managers conceive slack, and how they create slack to…

2603

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to uncover the right type of organizational slack for innovation. It examines how city managers conceive slack, and how they create slack to facilitate innovation while dealing with fiscal stress.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is built around a comparative case study approach to uncover contrasts, similarities and patterns of slack-building for innovation in austere times. It relies on the experiences of 12 experienced city managers. Data are sought from elite interviews and one focus group.

Findings

The main finding is that innovation in the public sector does not benefit from slack in general, but from a specific type of slack. The evidence shows that useful slack for innovation is not so much about financial slack or HR slack, but about psychological slack.

Research limitations/implications

This study adds to the literature that the key questions of slack research should not only focus on identifying the “right amount” of slack but also on identifying of the “right type” of slack.

Practical implications

Public managers who want to deal with (fiscal) crises more innovatively might reconsider their perceptions of slack and its value. Rather than operating on a pure cost effectiveness paradigm, they should balance the costs of slack and its innovative abilities.

Originality/value

This paper highlights the social/psychological side of austerity management. It concludes that increasing the ability of public organizations to innovatively cope with fiscal stress is not so much about increasing predictive capacity or financial buffers, but about increasing the mental leeway of coworkers.

Details

Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management, vol. 30 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1096-3367

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 8 April 2020

Maria Agusti-Perez, Jose Luis Galan and Francisco J. Acedo

Although slack resources and their relationship to performance have been widely studied in the literature, the temporal symmetry of this relationship, and the duration of its…

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Abstract

Purpose

Although slack resources and their relationship to performance have been widely studied in the literature, the temporal symmetry of this relationship, and the duration of its effects, are still unknown aspects and are the objective of this paper.

Design/methodology/approach

To evaluate this effect, an exploratory study has been designed on a sample of 449 Spanish industrial companies over a period of 12 years, assessing the impact of idle resources on economic and financial profitability. By means of hierarchical regressions, the short- term, medium- term and long-term effects of slack resources have been evaluated.

Findings

The results show that the impact on performance depends on the type of resource considered. Available slack has a consistent and positive effect on economic profitability in the short term. Other types of slack show persistent effects on performance, but, in the case of the recoverable slack, with a negative sign that contradicts the benefits provided by these resources. Finally, potential slack only has a permanent effect on financial profitability, but the sign changes depending on the economic context under consideration. There are also differences in the duration of the effects according to the type of resources.

Originality/value

This paper advances the knowledge about the slack-performance relationship over time that has been scarcely studied.

目的

閒置資源與表現的關係從文獻中可見得到廣泛的研究。唯這關係的時間對稱性及其影響的持續期則是未知之數,這正是本研究的目的。

研究設計/方法/理念

此為一探索性研究,以評估這影響。研究樣本為449 間西班牙工業公司,研究為期12年,目的為評估閒置資源對經濟和財務盈利能力的影響。研究使用層次回歸,評估了閒置資源的短期、中期及長期的影響。

研究結果

研究結果顯示、閒置資源對表現的影響是視乎被考慮之資源所屬種類的。可用冗餘就短期而言,對經濟盈利能力產生一貫積極的影響。其它種類的閒置資源對表現有持續的影響。但可恢復的冗餘,則與這些資源會帶來好處的現象相矛盾,帶來負面跡象。最後、潛在的冗餘對財務盈利能力只產生持久的影響,唯有關的跡象則會視乎被考慮的經濟環境而改變。致於影響的持續期則會根據資源的種類而有所不同。

研究的原創性/價值

本研究使我們更了解冗餘與表現在時間推移上的關係,而探討這關係的研究是罕見的。﹞

Details

European Journal of Management and Business Economics, vol. 29 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2444-8451

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 21 June 2022

Sebastiano Cupertino, Gianluca Vitale and Paolo Taticchi

This paper aims to investigate possible interdependencies affecting short-term profitability between internal and process business aspects which can play a critical role in…

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate possible interdependencies affecting short-term profitability between internal and process business aspects which can play a critical role in sustainability operationalisation.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors adopted the panel data approach to perform a partial least square structural modelling equation analysis on a sample of 391 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) non-financial-listed companies, considering a timeframe of five years.

Findings

Corporate sustainability is a result of interplays between managerial commitment, strategy, slack resources’ exploitation, innovation, the sustainable management of internal production and procurement processes that managers can catalyse to foster short-term firms’ profitability.

Research limitations/implications

The study is focused on internal process business determinants of sustainability, and the analysis is limited to a short-term timeframe and on non-financial OECD-listed companies.

Practical implications

Managers searching for trade-offs between financial and non-financial performances should enhance their commitment towards sustainability by defining appropriate strategies suitable to employ mainly slack resources derived from core business activities enabling innovation processes, which, in turn, are able to foster sustainability of internal production and procurement processes.

Originality/value

The execution of sustainability is a complex process that needs to be investigated using a holistic approach net of endogeneity biases to better appreciate those interrelationships within multiple drivers determining the firm sustainable growth.

Details

International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, vol. 72 no. 10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1741-0401

Keywords

Open Access
Book part
Publication date: 23 September 2024

Grégoire Croidieu and Walter W. Powell

This paper seeks to understand how a new elite, known as the cork aristocracy, emerged in the Bordeaux wine field, France, between 1850 and 1929 as wine merchants replaced…

Abstract

This paper seeks to understand how a new elite, known as the cork aristocracy, emerged in the Bordeaux wine field, France, between 1850 and 1929 as wine merchants replaced aristocrats. Classic class and status perspectives, and their distinctive social closure dynamics, are mobilized to illuminate the individual and organizational transformations that affected elite wineries grouped in an emerging classification of the Bordeaux best wines. We build on a wealth of archives and historical ethnography techniques to surface complex status and organizational dynamics that reveal how financiers and industrialists intermediated this transition and how organizations are deeply interwoven into social change.

Details

Sociological Thinking in Contemporary Organizational Scholarship
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83549-588-9

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 15 July 2019

Jeff Bourgeois and Cris Bravo

Leadership education seeks to develop leadership knowledge and skills for a universal student body. Challenges arise in English-speaking classes when student populations are…

Abstract

Leadership education seeks to develop leadership knowledge and skills for a universal student body. Challenges arise in English-speaking classes when student populations are comprised entirely of nonnative speakers. Activities accommodating multimodal concepts of learning may better facilitate knowledge acquisition and provide context in light of a significant lack of English proficiency. This mixed methods study examines the value of non-traditional leadership classroom activities engaging nonnative English students. Participants who completed undergraduate-level leadership studies courses with an English language curriculum reported preferences and retention resulting from the use of experiential learning, including art in the classroom, simulations, and low ropes activities.

Details

Journal of Leadership Education, vol. 18 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1552-9045

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 7 December 2023

Haiping Qiu

In the new development stage of comprehensively building a socialist modern state, it is imperative to adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese…

Abstract

Purpose

In the new development stage of comprehensively building a socialist modern state, it is imperative to adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, comprehensively summarize China's practical experiences in economic development, strengthen research on capital issues, construct theories of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics regarding capital and provide scientific theoretical guidance for further promoting the positive role of various types of capital while preventing and overcoming their negative effects, which is a major theoretical issue and a glorious task for the theoretical and economic circles in China.

Design/methodology/approach

From the perspective of Marx's theory on capital and historical development, modern capital represents the organizational mode of socialized mass production and market economy. It serves as both the economic foundation of bourgeois society and a tool for socialist economic development.

Findings

The market economy represents an inevitable historical stage and form of socialist economic development, necessitating the adoption of capital as an organizational form within socialist economies.

Originality/value

The utilization of capital to advance a socialist economy is a remarkable achievement by the CPC and Chinese people, representing a significant innovation in both theory and practice. The role of capital is inherently dual under any social condition. In the context of a socialist system, capital can play a positive role effectively, and its behavior can be guided and regulated correctly to curb its negative or even destructive impact.

Details

China Political Economy, vol. 6 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2516-1652

Keywords

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