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The objective of this study is to explore the structural attributes of the pharmaceutical industry before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic by examining the relationship between inventory and firm performance and developing a taxonomy of pharmaceutical firms based on the earns-turns matrix.

This study examines the inventory–firm performance linkage, considering both total inventory and its discrete inventory components in pharmaceutical firms. In addition, this research develops a new taxonomy of pharmaceutical firms based on the earns-turns matrix. A large panel dataset of firms in the US pharmaceutical industry was collected for the period 2000–2019.

The results reveal that strategic groups identified based on this taxonomy show different levels of profitability and inventory turns in the earns-turns matrix. Most pharmaceutical firms moved from the low-right to the top-left section in the earns-turns matrix, indicating that these firms have generally pursued profitability rather than effective inventory management.

This study explores the structural attributes of the pharmaceutical industry using the earns-turns matrix. This two-dimensional analysis may not, however, capture the full complexity of inventory–firm performance dynamics.

The mapping of strategic groups on the earns-turns matrix provides a useful tool for visual representations of the dynamics of strategic groups in terms of financial performance and inventory management performance. Practitioners can use the earns-turns matrix to benchmark their firm's position against their competitors.

This study broadens the scope of operations management research by introducing the earns-turns matrix as an empirical validation tool for operational and strategic management theories. This study emphasizes the effectiveness of the earns-turns matrix in analyzing strategic groups of pharmaceutical firms.

Managers must make numerous strategic decisions in order to initiate and implement a business model innovation (BMI). This paper examines how managers perceive the management team interacts when making BMI decisions. The paper also investigates how group biases and board members’ risk willingness affect this process.

Empirical data were collected through 26 in-depth interviews with German managing directors from 13 companies in four industries (mobility, manufacturing, healthcare and energy) to explore three research questions: (1) What group effects are prevalent in BMI group decision-making? (2) What are the key characteristics of BMI group decisions? And (3) what are the potential relationships between BMI group decision-making and managers' risk willingness? A thematic analysis based on Gioia's guidelines was conducted to identify themes in the comprehensive dataset.

First, the results show four typical group biases in BMI group decisions: Groupthink, social influence, hidden profile and group polarization. Findings show that the hidden profile paradigm and groupthink theory are essential in the context of BMI decisions. Second, we developed a BMI decision matrix, including the following key characteristics of BMI group decision-making managerial cohesion, conflict readiness and information- and emotion-based decision behavior. Third, in contrast to previous literature, we found that individual risk aversion can improve the quality of BMI decisions.

This paper provides managers with an opportunity to become aware of group biases that may impede their strategic BMI decisions. Specifically, it points out that managers should consider the key cognitive constraints due to their interactions when making BMI decisions. This work also highlights the importance of risk-averse decision-makers on boards.

This qualitative study contributes to the literature on decision-making by revealing key cognitive group biases in strategic decision-making. This study also enriches the behavioral science research stream of the BMI literature by attributing a critical influence on the quality of BMI decisions to managers' group interactions. In addition, this article provides new perspectives on managers' risk aversion in strategic decision-making.

Motivated to know more about the internal means through which accountability for sustainability takes shape within organisations (in what ways and by whom), this paper aims to explore how accountability for sustainability is constructed within an organisation during a process of establishing a control system for sustainability.

This paper adopts a qualitative case study approach of a decentralised industrial group, operating mainly in Scandinavia, between 2017 and 2020. Both primary and secondary data are used (e.g. document analyses, semi-structured interviews, informal conversations and site visits) to inform the findings and analysis.

The findings reveal a multi-faceted path towards accountability for sustainability that involves several concerns and priorities at organisational and individual levels, resulting in a separate sustainability control systems within each subsidiary company. Although hierarchical structures for accountability exist, socialising accountability activities are needed to (further) mobilise sustainable accounts.

Successful sustainable control systems require employees making sense of formalised accountability instruments (e.g. policies and procedures) to establish their roles and responsibilities in organisations.

This paper proposes socialisation processes as important for driving forward sustainability solutions.

This study elaborates on the internal accountability dynamic for the construction of sustainable accounts. Its novelty is built upon the interaction of hierarchical and socialising accountability forms as necessary for establishing a control system for sustainability. It furthermore illustrates the relationship between the external and internal pathways of accountability.

Today the role of industry 4.0 plays a very important role in enhancing any supply chain network, as the industry 4.0 supply chain uses Big Data and advanced analytics to inform the complete visibility. Latest data are available to bring clarity and support real-time decision-making in the entire supply chain that’s why adopting optimization techniques such as lean manufacturing and lean supply chain concept for enhancing the supply chain network of the organizations is a good idea and would benefit them in increasing their cost efficiency and productivity. The purpose of this work is to develop a technique, which may be useful for future researchers and managers to identify and classification of the significant lean supply chain enablers.

In this paper, the authors considered hybrid analytical hierarchy process to find the ranking of the identified lean supply chain enablers by calculating their weightage. Interpretive structural modeling (ISM) is applied to develop the structural interrelationship among various lean supply chain management enablers. Considering the results obtained from ISM the Matrices d'Impacts Croises Multiplication Appliqué a un Classement (MICMAC) analysis is done to identify the driving and dependence power of Lean Supply Chain Management Enablers (LSCMEs).

Further, the best results applying these methodologies could be used to analyze their inter-relationships for successful Lean supply chain management implementation in an organization. The authors developed an integrated model after the identification of 20 key LSCMEs, which is very helpful to identify and classify the important enablers by ISM methodology and explore the direct and indirect effects of each enabler by MICMAC analysis on the LSCM implementation. This will help organizations optimize their supply chain by selective control of lean enablers.

For lean manufacturing practitioners, the result of the study can be beneficial where the manufacturer is required to increase efficiency and reduce cost and wastage of resources in the lean manufacturing process, as well as in enhancing the supply chain.

This paper is the first research paper that considered firstly deep literature review of identified lean supply chain enablers and second developed structured modeling of various lean enablers of supply chain with the help of various methodologies.

This study aims to explore the determinants of engagement with and of stakeholders in corporate social responsibility (CSR) decision-making.

Using stakeholder theory, this study is mainly based on business ethics and CSR literature to develop a model depicting social and organizational contextual factors for engagement in the context of CSR decision-making.

This study identifies nine antecedents for engagement with and of stakeholders in CSR decision-making. Based on stakeholder perspective, the author explores how engagement constructs are influenced at both social and organizational levels by the determinants stakeholder pressure, stakeholder roles, stakeholder resources, stakeholder relationships, stakeholder management, two-way communication, procedural justice, interactional justice and stakeholder proactive strategy.

This study provides insights for companies regarding the determinants underlying engagement to reflect its importance in the context of CSR decision-making.

A better understanding of the determinants of engagement is critical because engagement contributes to achieving “win-win” solutions that ensure increased stakeholder satisfaction.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper is one of the first to explore the determinants of engagement with and of stakeholders in CSR decision-making at both social and organizational levels by referring to stakeholder theory.

By integrating perspectives from the resource-based view, attention-based view, upper echelon theory and competitive dynamics (CD), the authors seek to understand how chief executive officer (CEO) vigilance influences the way resources are utilized in relation to competitive behavior.

This study's empirical analysis is conducted using a longitudinal design in the US software and IT services industry with a final sample consisting of 44 publicly traded firms and 471 firm-year observations from 1995 to 2009. The authors respectively use the fixed-effects negative binomial model and generalized estimating equation (GEE) model to test the effects of technology resource breadth on competitive intensity and competitive deviance and the interacting effects with CEO attention broadness and uniqueness.

This study's results show that CEO vigilance (attention broadness and uniqueness) interacts with technology resource breadth to jointly influence competitive intensity and deviance. Firms with vigilant CEOs utilize firm resources to compete less intensively but in an unconventional way.

This study reveals that when CEOs have a broader focus and attend to a wide range of information, their ability to quickly utilize firm resources for formulating competitive actions decreases. Consequently, it is crucial for CEOs to acknowledge the limitations of their attentional capacity. They need to understand that the allocation of their attention and information processing capacity has significant implications for the speed and quality of their decision-making processes.

The authors conceptualize and operationalize CEO vigilance, which is a novel construct that has not been studied. The authors show that CEO vigilance plays critical roles in utilizing resources to compete. This study offers significant research implications for attention-based view, upper-echelons theory, CD perspective and resource-based view.

This study examines the dynamic relationship between UK entrepreneurs' engagement with society and the economic climate surrounding the 2008 financial crisis – before, during and after it. We investigate whether such crises strengthen or weaken the connections between entrepreneurship and society, considering gender differences.

We employ individual-level data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and the UK Longitudinal Study (UKLS) to assess changes in entrepreneurs' social engagement during crises. We use panel logit and Poisson regressions to estimate trends in social engagement over time and in response to economic turmoil.

We discover that entrepreneurs are more likely to join social organisations during economic turmoil. This engagement varies by gender, with female entrepreneurs more inclined to engage with social organisations than males. This suggests that female entrepreneurs perceive crisis risks differently, seeking support to navigate uncertainty. Additionally, we find evidence supporting the idea that female entrepreneurs take longer to recover from major economic shocks than their male counterparts.

Entrepreneur behaviour during crises remains understudied. The role of social ties and networks in aiding entrepreneurs during systemic crises is particularly unexplored. This study addresses this gap, highlighting gender-based behavioural differences during crises and paving the way for further research. It represents a crucial step in integrating crisis literature into entrepreneurship studies.

This paper aims to discuss the complexities and foresight of Mars colonization. There are many pioneers competing in a space race to Mars, for example, Elon Musk – SpaceX, Jeff Bezos – Blue Origin and Richard Branson – Virgin Orbit. The analyses are focused on the aerospace industry – the process of space adventures to Mars.

This study offers new methodological approaches – the development of a complexity metric and system innovation mode – to analyze how the complexities relate to the systemic nature of innovation. The complexity metric and system innovation model can be applied in various industries. These analysis tools can help gain insights into the strategies for achieving the diffusion of commercial space.

The analyses of findings have shown that, despite various attempts among the pioneers in a space race to colonize Mars (Elon Musk – SpaceX, Jeff Bezos – Blue Origin and Richard Branson – Virgin Orbit, among others), the aerospace industry has not yet reached a stage of commercialization. The commercial space to Mars is of low systemic nature at present. Many companies compete in a space race to develop technologies on a proprietary basis. However, the highest complexity level suggests a multinational and intergovernmental collaboration to achieve economies of scale and economies of scope as well as accelerate the process of technology diffusion – successful commercial space for the interplanetary settlement.

The main contribution that shows originality and value of this paper is the development of a complexity metric and system innovation model which can be used to explore how the complexities relate to the systemic nature of innovation and how they relate to the strategies in managing technological innovations. The new methodological approaches can be used and applied to various industries.

This study aims to examine how the knowledge breadth and depth of a patent affect its likelihood of being pledged. It also seeks to explore whether these relationships change diversely in different technological environments.

A complementary log-log model with random effects was conducted to test the hypotheses using a unique data set consisting of 348,927 invention patents granted by the China National Intellectual Property Administration from 1985 to 2015 belonging to 74,996 firms.

The findings reveal that both knowledge breadth and depth of a patent positively affect its likelihood of being pledged. Furthermore, the knowledge breadth and depth entail different degrees of superiority in different technological environments.

This study focuses on the effect of an individual patent’s knowledge base on its likelihood of being selected as collateral. It does not consider the influence of the overall knowledge characteristics of the selected patent portfolio.

Managers need to pay attention to patents’ knowledge characteristics and the changes in technological environments to select the most suitable patents as collateral and thus improve the success rate of pledge financing.

This study explores the impact of multidimensional characteristics of knowledge base on patent pledge financing within a systematic theoretical framework and incorporates technological environments into this framework.

This study aims to demonstrate the importance of organizational networks in organizational performance is relatively rich; less understood are processes in organizational networking that entrepreneurs and organizations use in making sense of rapidly changing contexts for organizational performance.

This study conducts an exploratory organizational-level narrative analysis into firms’ experiences in two major emerging markets (EMs), namely, Russia and India – to identify organizational networking processes in the midst of institutional upheavals. The study is based on in-depth case studies of firms in EMs sourced from interview data from senior management and consolidated with secondary data.

The authors find that initially firms rely on informal networks (including blat/svyazi and jaan-pehchaan/jan-pehchan) and later formal (in the form of bureaucratic followed by proprietary) networks to make sense of the changes and uncertainties in turbulent environments. The authors also demonstrate the cyclical nature of strategic sensemaking in the process of developing organizational networks for performance.

The study has a number of theoretical and practical contributions. First, it extends the well-established business networking construct to a more inclusive organizational networking construct. Second, it demonstrates that sensemaking is dependent on interorganizational networking from the outset and throughout the growth of an organization in turbulent markets – from informal to formal bureaucratic and proprietary networks. Finally, this study is unique in documenting the entire process of sensemaking from scanning to performance as well as successfully demonstrating the cyclical nature of sensemaking.