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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship of leadership styles (paternalistic, authentic and democratic) with relationship-based employee governance and open service innovation.

Data were collected using a structured questionnaire from 422 medical professionals working in the Malaysian healthcare sector.

Results of several statistical analyses showed that the three leadership styles positively influence relationship-based employee governance and open service innovation. Results also confirmed the mediating role of relationship-based employee governance in the relationships between the three leadership styles and open service innovation.

This research used a cross-sectional study design; use of a longitudinal research design in future research can provide a better interpretation of the underlying causality. A policy insight can be drawn from this research to generate awareness about effective leadership styles and the role of relationship-based employee governance in the successful implementation of open service innovation in the Malaysian healthcare sector.

This paper contributes to leadership, open innovation, and organizational governance literature by highlighting how leadership styles affect relationship-based employee governance and open innovation. It also offers policy insights to practitioners in the Malaysian healthcare sector on how to enhance open service innovation outcomes.

The purpose of this study is to highlight the role of individual and training design factors on training transfer.

A review of the literature is conducted, and this review highlights a dual role of perceived content validity in the form of increasing self‐efficacy and the role of trainees' reaction. The study suggests that transfer design factors improve performance self‐efficacy and reaction measures work as a bridge between content validity and transfer motivation. In addition, the role of transfer design in training transfer theory is explained.

A combination of variables is proposed, suggesting further investigation to build a strong training transfer theory. The study highlights the dual role of perceived content validity as a factor to develop positive trainee reaction and increase trainee performance self‐efficacy. Furthermore, the study proposes that transfer design and perceived content validity increase trainee performance self‐efficacy, which leads to maximizing training transfer through transfer motivation. The study also explains that perceived content validity influences transfer motivation through trainee reaction, and proposes a framework coupled with future research directions.

The suggested framework provides a theoretical basis for researchers to build a strong training transfer theory. This conceptual paper elaborates the role of perceived content validity, transfer design, reaction, performance self‐efficacy and transfer motivation to substantiate training transfer theory. Future researchers should test the proposed framework empirically and highlight other factors that could increase the efficacy and motivation levels of trainees in order to maximize training transfer.

Transfer design factors in this paper provide practical implications for training transfer in general and training professionals in particular. Thus, training transfer is maximized through positive trainee reaction, which is an important facet of training. Another factor, i.e. perceived content validity, not only develops positive reaction but also increases the efficacy level of trainees. Therefore, in order to increase the performance self‐efficacy and motivation level of trainees, training professionals should focus on the content and transfer design factors to maximize training transfer.

This conceptual paper contributes to the existing training transfer literature by suggesting a combination of variables that provides a theoretical basis for building a strong training transfer theory.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the effectiveness of innovation protection mechanisms in four high-tech industries in Malaysia.

A questionnaire survey is administered to 339 managers working in four Malaysian high-tech industries.

The authors find that in most industries, patents are considered as the most effective innovation protection mechanism, while lead time is considered as least effective. In firms with private and foreign ownerships, patents and in firms categorized as “others” “moving quickly down the learning curve” are considered as the most effective protection mechanisms. It also emerges that “being first to market (lead time)” is considered as the least effective protection mechanism under all ownership structures. Further, young and middle-aged firms report patents, while old firms report secrecy as the most effective innovation protection mechanisms.

This paper restricted analysis to the high-tech sector in Malaysia, and thus, the findings are not generalizable to other industries. Second, this paper took into consideration only four innovation protection mechanisms. The authors suggest that future research should investigate the issue at hand in other industries and consider other innovation protection mechanisms to have a holistic view of how Malaysian firms view different innovation protection mechanisms.

In addition to providing inputs for policy-making, the results of this paper are expected to help practitioners in deciding on the right kind of innovation protection mechanisms for their innovations based on their industry, ownership structure and firm age.

This paper is the first of its kind conducted in the Malaysian high-tech sector and as such is expected to help policy-makers to design and implement effectively innovation protection policies.

Researchers have been focusing on the predictors of expatriates' adjustment and job performance at different levels (individual level, organizational level and societal level), but still some of the predictors have been ignored or unclear in the expatriate literature. The purpose of this paper is to develop a comprehensive framework in order to better understand the role of individual factors in expatriate adjustment and job performance.

The review of past research is used to develop a conceptual framework.

This conceptual paper provides theoretical ground for individual factors which include Big Five, self‐efficacy, previous international experience, cultural sensitivity and social network and proposes that expatriate adjustment (work, general and interaction adjustment) mediates the relationship between individual factors (personality traits (Big Five), self‐efficacy, previous international experience, cultural sensitivity and social network) and expatriate job performance (rated by peer and supervisor).

This paper also provides practical implications for the managers and professionals involved in expatriates' selection, training and performance management. This paper suggests that managers involved in selection of candidates for international assignment should consider personality traits, level of self‐efficacy, previous international experience, social network and cultural sensitivity at the time of selection of candidates for international assignment. Furthermore, managers should design pre‐departure training programs in a way that enhances candidates' self‐efficacy level, overcomes cultural sensitivity, and motivates them to expand social network. Finally, managers should explain to the candidates how they can use their personal skills and knowledge to gain work, general and interactions adjustment in order to achieve job tasks.

The proposed framework is developed based on the past theoretical review in order to cover the gap and contribute to the body of knowledge in expatriate literature. Based on the proposed framework, this paper invites researchers to empirically test the suggested propositions in order to further strengthen and develop understanding about individual factors including Big Five and other expatriates' adjustment and job performance predictors.

Research investigating the role of factors affecting open innovation remains scarce. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of managerial ties in facilitating the two types of open innovation – in-bound and out-bound.

Data are collected using the questionnaire survey method from 339 middle and top managers working in four high-tech industries in Malaysia.

Results show that in most high-tech industries in Malaysia, managerial ties with universities and with government officials facilitate in-bound open innovation, while ties with managers at other firms do not significantly relate to it in any high-tech industry. Further, managerial ties are not found to relate significantly to out-bound open innovation in any high-tech industry except in the aerospace and electronics industries wherein ties with government officials relate negatively and positively to out-bound innovation, respectively.

This study provides empirical evidence about the managerial ties practitioners should and should not forge to succeed in the open innovation paradigm.

This study is probably the only study so far that gauges the impact of managerial ties on open innovation. The results of this study fill a major gap in the current open innovation theory besides providing insights for practitioners.

The role of organizational culture in determining success or failure of firms stands proven beyond doubt in numerous studies. The purpose of this paper is to examine organizational culture of the Malaysian high-tech sector and highlights the organizational culture dimensions most and least dominant in this sector. The study also examines differences with respect to organizational culture across the high-tech industries and different ownership types.

Questionnaire survey method is used to collect the data from middle and top managers working in Malaysian high-tech industries.

Five dimensions of organizational culture emerge in this study. Results indicate that harmony and social responsibility are the most and least dominant dimensions of organizational culture respectively. Significant differences are found in organizational culture across industries and ownership types.

While organizational culture seems to be a fairly well-researched topic in Malaysia, there seems to be a dearth of studies investigating the issue of culture prevalent in the high-tech industries in Malaysia; this despite the paramount contribution of the high-tech industries to the Malaysian economy. This study identifies the culture of Malaysian high-tech industries, examines what cultural dimensions they focus on and do not, and compares organizational culture differences across industries and ownership structures.

This study aims to examine factors that may influence affective organizational commitment among knowledge workers. The five final factors considered in this study include knowledge-sharing culture, autonomy, workplace value identity, promotion practices and, finally, management support. Gender was included as the moderator for the aforementioned relationships.

A sample of 522 knowledge workers from manufacturing, retail and service sector anonymously completed a structured questionnaire that included measures of the variables of this study. Hierarchical regression was used to test the hypotheses.

The findings provide evidence on the possible factors that organizations need to focus on and improvise to ensure the “want to remain in the organization” sentiment is enhanced among knowledge workers. Workplace value identity and knowledge-sharing culture were identified as the pertinent factors in influencing affective commitment. Gender was found to moderate the relationship between unfair promotion practice, knowledge-sharing culture and affective commitment.

One obvious limitation is that the sample of this study is sourced from a pool of knowledge workers. This limits our ability to conduct a comparative analysis with non-knowledge workers. Hence, future research could expand the model of this study to compare these relationships among knowledge and non-knowledge worker.

Understanding the impact of these factors in a knowledge-based context helps firms prioritize and focus on important factors that can improve the level of affective commitment among knowledge workers. Doing so facilitates knowledge retention and prevents loss of knowledge.

From a knowledge-based view, this paper identified factors that play an important role in retaining knowledge workers through enhanced affective commitment. With the changing workforce, the findings of this study show how knowledge-sharing culture and achievement orientation dominate affective commitment in a knowledge-based context.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the performance of firms in Peru in relation to open innovation.

Data were acquired through a survey of Peruvian middle and senior managers.

Peruvian firms engaged in open innovation did report higher sales growth. The study indicated that involvement in open innovation included activities to reduce operating costs and improve internal processes, as well as exploiting the process to assist the development of new or improved products.

The practical implications of this paper, although restricted to Peruvian organizations, suggest that firms operating in an emerging economy may find involvement in open innovation which is an effective strategy for enhancing organizational performance.

The originality of the paper is the focus on open innovation in an emerging economy.

The contributions of this chapter are to establish (a) simultaneous dependence between female labor force participation rate (FLFPR) and their health status measured by the life expectancy; (b) the roles of (i) air pollutants in explaining female life expectancy (FLE); and (ii) joint interactions of different explanatory variables in determining both FLFPR and FLE, by estimating a simultaneous panel model comprising equations of FLFPR and FLE, using Baltagi’s Instrumental-Variable EC2SLS method and 13 major Indian state-level data for urban sector, over 2004–2005 to 2011–2012. The air pollutants (measured by prevalence of SO₂ and NO₂) have significant negative impacts on FLE. The interaction effect of air pollutants with economic growth on FLE is negative implying that the partial effect of a change in growth depends on air pollution level. FLFPR can be improved by reducing air pollution through health, as FLE significantly affects FLFPR positively. The roles of other socioeconomic variables affecting FLFPR and FLE are also evident.