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This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/09590559110136240. When citing the article, please cite: Steven Burt, (1991), “THE BIGGER THEY ARE, THE HARDER THEY FALL...”, International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 19 Iss: 2.

The pursuit of market share and corporate growth in a competitive retail environment is expensive. The pressures of maintaining growth may place a considerable strain upon both human and financial resources, and former stars may fall from grace almost overnight. The rise and fall of Coop AG, Germany′s largest consumer co‐operative, are examined. In January 1988 Coop AG was the fourth largest retailer in Germany, with group annual sales of around £4 billion. In January 1991 the Coop AG no longer exists – following a financial scandal which culminated in the break‐up and takeover of the group by various competitors.

Discusses the unequal allocation of social capital in society and makes the point that network membership is not at once available to all. Sees social capital as springing from small groups that work together, perhaps competing with others, to achieve common rewards, thereby pursuing locally shared benefits. Concludes that specific definitions of social capital are superior to others especially in examining the full array of social ties which migrants use in creating ethnic economies and communities.

This paper aims to explore how gay men and lesbians draw upon workplace friendship for developing and sustaining managerial careers and identities.

The study adopts a qualitative design, using data collected from semi‐structured interviews with four lesbians and eight gay men, all employed in managerial roles in the UK.

Data reveal the importance of workplace friendship as a resource for mentoring, climbing managerial career ladders, fitting into existing work cultures and developing gay and lesbian managerial identities. A significant finding is that participants preferred to befriend heterosexual colleagues, to that end complicating previous research that suggests gay and lesbian friendship preferences tend to be marked by similarity in regard to sexual identity. Work friends enable and constrain the development and visibility of gay and lesbian managerial identities and careers.

Although the data are not generalisable, it is of concern that gay men and lesbians continue to be disadvantaged by heteronormative constructions of gender and sexuality. While gender and sexual norms can limit the visibility and embodiment of gay and lesbian managers in the workplace, the study reveals also how gay sexualities can be utilised as a resource for developing influential friendships.

This article provides insights into issues not previously covered or understudied in the organisation studies literature such as the agency of gay men and lesbians in constructing different types of workplace friendships as a resource for developing managerial identities and careers.

Although significant research has examined the concept of transformational leadership, few studies have explored the indirect impact of transformational leadership on individual and organizational outcomes within the context of crisis. Accordingly, this study aims to advance our understanding of the indirect impact of transformational leadership on school performance and principals' work alienation within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. In doing so, this study contributes to this developing stream of literature by hypothesizing the indirect effect of two relational resources, namely employee trust and relational coordination, which mediate the relationship between transformational leadership, school performance and principals' work alienation.

This study draws on a unique sample of 634 principals from Irish primary schools navigating the COVID-19 crisis. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed using Mplus 8.3 to test the hypothesized model.

Mixed findings emerged concerning the mediating process of relational resources and their impact on transformational leadership, school performance and principals' work-alienation. In particular, support is found for the critical role of principals whose transformational leadership style can help increase school performance. However, evidence suggests that employee trust does not mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and principals' work alienation.

This study provides several practical insights for education professionals, policymakers and HRM practitioners across each phase of the crisis management cycle. Firstly, regarding the pre-crisis stage, educational institutions should invest in targeted leadership development programs that prioritize relationship-building and effective communication among stakeholders. Second, during crises, the study emphasizes the role of relational resources in mediating the impact of leadership on school performance. Moreover, the study illustrates the importance of proactively cultivating strong connections with stakeholders, fostering timely, problem-solving-based communication. Finally, in the post-crisis phase, collaboration with government stakeholders is recommended to inform recovery policies.

This study makes several contributions to the literature on leadership and crisis management. First, this study adds new insights suggesting how principals as leaders influence school performance during crisis. Second, by adopting a relational perspective, this study suggests two types of relational resources (i.e. employee trust and relational coordination), as the mediators between transformational leadership, school performance and principals' work alienation. Third, this study moves the existing research on leadership during crisis forward by focusing on the functional effectiveness of leadership while focusing on the principals' work alienation during the pandemic.

The study aims to determine the resource access mechanism in inter-firm networks that aids SME survival in Ghana.

The authors collect census data on a poultry cluster in Ghana and construct a directed network. The network is used to extract direct and indirect ties both incoming and outgoing, as well as estimate the structural holes of the actors. These variables are used to estimate for survival of SMEs after a one-year period using a binary logit model.

The study finds that out-indirect ties and structural hole have a significant influence on SME survival. This works through the global influence and the vision advantage that these positions and ties offer the SMEs.

The study offers SMEs a choice of whom to collaborate with for information (resources) in the form of outgoing and incoming ties at both the global and local level.

This paper aims to contribute toward the extension and further development of the social exchange theory. It provides conceptual insights on social networks in geographically dispersed organizations, and how intra-organizational social interactions influence organizational behavior, employees relationship exchange inclination and innovation drive.

A thematic literature review method was used to conduct an extensive review of relevant literature.

Guided by the tenets of the social exchange theory, the authors’ analysis and discussions elucidate how intra-organizational social network architecture can be developed, supported and utilized to drive innovations in geographically dispersed organizations.

A general limitation and perhaps also a strength of this type of conceptual paper is that it is a synthesis (thematic discursive analysis) of existing theory and published research. Thus, there are no primary empirical content. However, the issue of empirical evidence is nevertheless mediated by the fact that the discussions and argumentation process generate key propositions which could be validated in subsequent research endeavors. Also, the selection of relevant literature is restricted specifically to the topic of the study. The authors strived to ensure rigor through a robust and comprehensive literature review which was organized thematically according to all the key words in the main and sub-topics covered in Section 2.

The insights presented suggest that management should pay serious attention to organizational design – that is, not only from the conventional contractual obligations point of view, but rather, the increasing importance of social capital should also be given some priority when thinking of resilient ways to encourage collaborations and efficient knowledge management. In other words, intra-organizational social network architecture should be considered as organizational capability and utilized as a toolset for the SIHRM to harness knowledge flow and unleash innovation.

As both bonding and bridging ties are not only critical for success of project teams but also intensify knowledge symmetry across different units of the organization, they are a major conduit for sustainable open innovation culture within organization. To develop competitive capabilities throughout the organization, it is important for the SIHRM to be involved in global networking, and as a network leader, the human resource management function must have an awareness of leading trends and developments in social networking. The ability to mobilize the appropriate resources and a sense of timing and context in implementing such architecture within the geographically spread organization is crucial.

The novel contribution of this paper is twofold. First, the study provides an implementable framework which scholars and practitioners could use to develop and test the actualization of an intra-organizational social network architecture in a geographically dispersed organization. Second, the study has provided some key propositions and a well-grounded direction for further research to inspire further development/extension of the social exchange theory.

New technology‐based ventures (NTBVs) gain access to beneficial social capital through their affiliation with technology incubators, organizations created to facilitate learning leading to the successful development of nascent firms. Scillitoe and Chakrabarti (2005, 2) identified three sources of beneficial social capital within human networks, “historical ties, organizational facilitation, and trustbased shared pursuit of common goals”, with organizational facilitation identified as the primary source of beneficial social capital for ventures within technology incubators. The current study extends this prior research investigating the development of social capital of NTBVs through incubator facilitation, focusing on the influence of female founders. Results are based on surveys collected from fifty‐four technology‐based firms affiliated with technology incubators in the United States and Finland. The results from this exploratory study show that the speed of technological learning is negatively affected by the interpersonal network access in firms with female founding management team members. Technological learning includes acquiring knowledge of legal protection of intellectual property, complex technological and scientific knowledge, and design and production skills that enable the development and commercialization of NTBV products and services (Deeds, DeCarolis, and Coombs, 1999). This finding contradicts prior research that suggests technological development of ventures is positively influenced by interpersonal network access through incubators (Hansen, Chesbrough, Nohria, and Sull 2000; Scillitoe and Chakrabarti 2005). Implications for technology incubator managers, NTBV founders, and economic development agencies that support technology incubators are discussed.