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The purpose of this paper is to investigate how fairness evaluations are constructed in a B2B context.

This paper conducts a field study of Air Greenland and its internal and external customers based on strong structuration theory (Stones, 2005). The authors employ context and conduct analysis to analyze how fairness evaluations emerge across four levels of structuration.

The paper finds that fairness evaluations emerge as a result of the interaction between external institutional pressures, agents' internal structures, and situated reflection and outcomes. The construction of fairness evaluations was embedded in contradictory institutional structures, where groups of actors constructed different evaluations of fair profits, procedures and prices. Actors furthermore worked on changing position-practice relations which shifted relations, external structures and affected outcomes and fairness evaluations.

This paper offers a conceptualization of embedded agency as emerging across the four levels of structuration. This contributes to debates in strong structuration theory through conceptualizing and analyzing how actors may be both be constrained and oriented by structures while reflexively adapting structures across the four levels of structuration. The paper extends extant pricing fairness research by illustrating how actors' construction of fairness flexibly develop fairness evaluations while responding to legitimacy and societal demands, including the needs of particular customer groups.

The purpose of this study is to explore the development and implementation of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices in hospitality and tourism organizations through the lens of structuration theory.

This study deployed a three-stage Delphi technique involving DEI experts in hospitality and tourism organizations to build a consensus. Specifically, individual agency, development and implementation of DEI practices and best DEI practices were explored through the Delphi technique.

The findings of this study feature a framework for DEI practices and the intersection between individual agency and organizational structure. The results of this study further showcase the theoretical importance of structuration theory in understanding how organizations develop and implement DEI practices.

This study reveals unique perspectives on DEI within hospitality and tourism organizations, pointing to the imperative need for leadership in initiating, developing and implementing change. This study also extends previous research by highlighting how DEI practices are initiated, developed and implemented through individual agency and organizational structure.

This study aims to explore how managers exercise agency in strategic investment decisions (SIDs) by drawing on their knowledgeability of the strategic context. Specifically, the authors address the role of position–practice relations and irresistible causal forces in this conduct.

The authors examine SID-making (SIDM) practices in four case organisations operating in highly competitive markets, conducting interviews with managers at various levels and analysing company documents. Drawing on strong structuration theory, the authors show how managerial decision makers draw upon their knowledge of organisational context when exercising agency in SIDs.

The authors provide insights into how SIDM behaviour, specifically agents’ conduct, is shaped by a combination of position–practice relations and the agents’ comprehension of their organisation’s context.

The authors extend the SIDM literature by surfacing the issue of how actors’ conjuncturally-specific knowledge of external structures shapes the general dispositions they draw on in exercising agency in practice.

The authors extend the SIDM literature by surfacing the issue of how actors’ conjuncturally-specific knowledge of external structures shapes the general dispositions they draw on in exercising agency in practice. Particularly, the authors contribute to this literature by identifying irresistible causal forces and illuminating why actors might not resist in SIDM processes, despite having the potential to do so.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically analyze the impact of chief executive officer (CEO) turnover on strategic change and explore the mediating role of organizational slack between them, as well as the moderating role and joint moderating role of top management team (TMT) external social network, ownership nature and industry type.

Based on the upper echelons theory, resource allocation theory and structuration theory, this paper takes the unbalanced panel data of A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges of China from 2001 to 2018 as the research sample, uses ordinary least squares (OLS) regression method and fixed effect model to study the relationship between CEO turnover and strategic change, and focuses on the mediating mechanism and moderating mechanism between them.

The authors find that CEO turnover is positively related to strategic change. When a CEO turns over, a new CEO will initiate strategic change. Precipitation organizational slack plays a mediating role between CEO turnover and strategic change. Non-precipitation organizational slack has no mediating effect between CEO turnover and strategic change, which is embodied as “suppressing effects.” When the non-precipitation organizational slack variable is controlled, the impact of CEO turnover on strategic change will be enhanced. TMT external social network, ownership nature and industry type all negatively moderate the relationship between CEO turnover and strategic change. TMT external social network and ownership nature have a joint moderating effect between CEO turnover and strategic change. When TMT external social network is small, CEO turnover has a positive effect on strategic change in both state-owned enterprises and non-state-owned enterprises, but the promotion effect is stronger in non-state-owned enterprises. When TMT external social network is large, the positive effect of CEO turnover on strategic change in state-owned enterprises is from strong to weak, but in the non-state-owned enterprises is from weak to strong. TMT external social network and industry type have a joint moderating effect between CEO turnover and strategic change. When TMT external social network is small, CEO turnover has a positive impact on strategic change in high-tech enterprises and non-high-tech enterprises, but the promotion effect is stronger in non-high-tech enterprises. When TMT external social network is large, the positive impact of CEO turnover on strategic change in high-tech enterprises is from strong to weak, but in the non-high-tech enterprises is from weak to strong.

On the basis of previous studies, this paper further expands the research scope of the mechanism of CEO turnover on strategic change, echoing the research arguments of relevant scholars. At the same time, the research results reveal the mechanism of organizational slack, TMT external social network, ownership nature and industry type in the relationship between CEO turnover and strategic change, and further deepen the application of upper echelons theory, resources allocation theory and structuration theory in China. In addition, the research conclusions of this paper also provide reference value for Chinese enterprises in carrying out strategic change, promoting enterprise transformation and improving the level of corporate governance, and help to enhance the understanding and attention of Chinese enterprises to CEO turnover, organizational slack, TMT external social network, strategic change and corporate governance under the background of high-quality economic development.

The philosophical foundations determine how an academic discipline identifies, understands and analyzes phenomena. The choice of philosophical perspective is vital for both marketing and service research. This paper aims to propose a social and systemic perspective that addresses current challenges in service and marketing research by revisiting the philosophy of science debate.

The paper revisits the philosophy of science debate to address the implications of an emergent, complex and adaptive view of marketing and service research. It draws on critical realism by combining structuration and systemic perspectives.

A recursive perspective, drawing on structures and action, is suggested as it includes multiple actors’ intentions and captures underlying drivers of market exchange as a basis for developing marketing and service strategies in practice. This is aligned with other scholars arguing for a more systemic, adaptive and complex view of markets in light of emerging streams in academic marketing and service research, ranging from value cocreation, effectuation, emergence and open source to empirical phenomena such as digitalization, robotization and the growth of international networks.

The reciprocal dynamic between individuals and the overarching system provides a reflexivity approach intrinsic to the service ecosystem. This creates new avenues for research on marketing and service phenomena.

This paper discusses critics, conflicts and conceptualization in service research. It suggests a possible approach for service research and marketing scholars capable of responding to current complexities and turbulence in economic and societal contexts.

This article aims to explore whether and how rural entrepreneurs (REs) navigate the challenges they face to support rural development, with a particular focus on sustainable entrepreneurial development in Jordan.

Drawing on structuration theory (Giddens, 1984), the article is underpinned by the position-practice perspective and its four interrelated elements: praxis, positioning, capabilities and trust. A qualitative methodology is applied to explore the case study of Deserttulip in Jordan and its utilisation of the innovative agricultural Groasis Waterboxx-Technology (GroasisWBT).

Findings indicate that the position-practice of rural entrepreneurs becomes contextualised between enablers and constraints that shape entrepreneurs' praxis, positioning, capabilities and trust. Pervasive constraints are evidenced by limiting external structures and resources. Yet, these are challenged by enablers observed through the agentic roles of REs and the utilisation of innovative tools in ways that minimise the limitations of constrained contexts.

The article has practical implications within countries with extreme constraints – including environmental (drought), financial and institutional constraints – where collective sustainable initiatives, alongside the utilisation of innovative tools, are called for in order to minimise the impact of limited resources and institutional support whilst promoting empowerment, cohesion and sustainable entrepreneurial development.

The article highlights the specificity of constrained entrepreneurship in ways that allow re-interpreting position-practice of rural entrepreneurs around collective social systems rather than individual entrepreneurs. A sustainable ripple is conceptualised, whereby expanding sustainable entrepreneurial development initiatives are observed around collective acts that stress the accountability and mutual dispositions of rural entrepreneurs towards developing and sustaining their contexts.

This study, a theoretical article, aims to introduce new institutionalism as a framework through which business and management researchers can explore the significance of artificial intelligence (AI) in organizations. Although the new institutional theory is a fully established research program, the neo-institutional literature on AI is almost non-existent. There is, therefore, a need to develop a deeper understanding of AI as both the product of institutional forces and as an institutional force in its own right.

The authors follow the top-down approach. Accordingly, the authors first briefly describe the new institutionalism, trace its historical development and introduce its fundamental concepts: institutional legitimacy, environment and isomorphism. Then, the authors use those as the basis for the queries to perform a scoping review on the institutional role of AI in organizations.

The findings reveal that a comprehensive theory on AI is largely absent from business and management literature. The new institutionalism is only one of many possible theoretical perspectives (both contextually novel and insightful) from which researchers can study AI in organizational settings.

The authors use the insights from new institutionalism to illustrate how a particular social theory can fit into the larger theoretical framework for AI in organizations. The authors also formulate four broad research questions to guide researchers interested in studying the institutional significance of AI. Finally, the authors include a section providing concrete examples of how to study AI-related institutional dynamics in business and management.

Sales organizations embrace technological innovation. However, salespeople’s willingness to use new technology influences a firm’s return on investment, representing a significant concern for the organization. These concerns highlight tensions regarding the tradeoffs associated with technology implementations. The purpose of this study is to offer insights that help reduce the complexities of sales technology (ST) by exploring the changing dynamics of contemporary business relationships.

This paper synthesizes the ST literature using the service ecosystem perspective to propose the sales techno-ecosystem (STE) framework, providing new insights into organizational decision-making related to the ongoing digital transformation of sales tasks.

This synthesis of the ST literature with the service ecosystem seeks to clarify the impact of technology within the evolving nature of buyer–seller relationships by providing four unique perspectives.

Perspective 1 reviews the sales-service ecosystem framework and develops the theoretical underpinnings and relevant terminologies. Perspective 2 summarizes critical aspects of the ST literature and provides foundations for future research in the STE. Perspective 3 offers a more granular view, explicating roles and contexts prevalent in buyer–seller–technology interactions. Perspective 4 provides a set of tenets and advances research questions related to each tenet.

The culmination of these four perspectives is the introduction of five key tenants designed to help guide strategy and research.

The paper advances Hartmann et al. (2018) service ecosystem paradigm by explicating critical aspects of its ST domain to generate insights for theory and practice.

Designing and developing safe systems has been a persistent challenge in health care, and in surgical settings in particular. In efforts to promote safety, safety culture, i.e., shared values regarding safety management, is considered a key driver of high-quality, safe healthcare delivery. However, changing organizational culture so that it emphasizes and promotes safety is often an elusive goal. The Safe Surgery Checklist is an innovative tool for improving safety culture and surgical care safety, but evidence about Safe Surgery Checklist effectiveness is mixed. We examined the relationship between changes in management practices and changes in perceived safety culture during implementation of safe surgery checklists. Using a pre-posttest design and survey methods, we evaluated Safe Surgery Checklist implementation in a national sample of 42 general acute care hospitals in a leading hospital network. We measured perceived management practices among managers (n = 99) using the World Management Survey. We measured perceived preoperative safety and safety culture among clinical operating room personnel (N = 2,380 (2016); N = 1,433 (2017)) using the Safe Surgical Practice Survey. We collected data in two consecutive years. Multivariable linear regression analysis demonstrated a significant relationship between changes in management practices and overall safety culture and perceived teamwork following Safe Surgery Checklist implementation.