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This paper analyzes the ways in which accounting enables operations managers to enter and perform multiple roles in their interplay with organizational groups on the shop floor and in management, and the associated negotiations that operations managers have with “the self.”

Using field-based studies in a mining organization, the study draws on Goffman’s backstage–frontstage metaphor to analyze how operations managers enter and perform several roles with the aid of accounting.

The findings show that accounting legitimizes operations managers when they cross organizational boundaries, as accounting gives them an “entry ticket” that legitimizes their presence with the group. Accounting further allows operations managers to embrace more than one role by “putting on a mask” to become an outsider or insider in relation to a group. In performing their roles, operations managers exhibit varying attributes and knowledge. Accounting can thereby be withheld from, or shared with, organizational groups. The illusion of accounting as deterministic presented frontstage is not necessarily negotiated that way backstage. Rather, alternatives discussed backstage often become silenced in the frontstage performance. The study concludes that operations managers cross boundaries, embrace roles and exert agency as they navigate with accounting, enrolling it into their performance simultaneously as they backstage reflect upon accounting and its role for their everyday work.

This study relies on the frontstage/backstage metaphor to visualize the discrepancies in how accounting is enrolled into role performances and how seemingly categorical fronts do not necessarily share that dominant position backstage.

The purpose of this study is to identify important strategies and practices supporting inter-organizational learning (IOL) in integrated care. The two research questions ask how organizational network architectures can help involved organizations overcome the barriers of IOL in integrated care (RQ1) and what design recommendations can strengthen the processes of IOL in integrated care (RQ2).

This study applies a qualitative design to analyze an improvement initiative in a regional, integrated care service for elderly patients with multiple illnesses in Norway. An inductive thematic analysis for the triangulating of qualitative data from different sources was applied. Patterns within the data were organized into themes, categories and subcategories. No software was applied.

The identified characteristics of the organizational network architectures supporting IOL in integrated care in the case under study were: equality of the involved parties, shared goals, recognition of expertise and the abilities to coordinate, design IOL processes and make joint decisions (RQ1). The categories of practices supporting the process of IOL were: insight into complex realities, contradictions, iteration, motivation and prototypes (RQ2).

This study offers much-needed insight into a successful approach for IOL in integrated care. The results offer strategies to be considered when building organizational networks for the improvement of integrated care and relevant practices useful when designing IOL processes in such care services. We believe such knowledge has important implications for policymakers, frontline personnel, education, research and leaders.

This paper analyses the role of intellectual capital (IC) as a factor of the financial performance of entrepreneurial firms, which are recognized as the main drivers of economic growth and employment.

The sample consists of 188 business owners from Serbia. The primary data are collected using the questionnaire, while the secondary data come from the annual financial statements of their companies. The elements of IC as independent variables are grouped into three components: human, structural and relational capital; sales revenue and operating profit CAGR (5y) are used as dependent variables, while company size and industry type are used as control variables. Statistical analysis involves factor and regression analyses.

The results reveal that IC components contribute to the long-term financial performance of entrepreneurial firms. Specifically, the following elements have positive effects on financial performance: knowledge of the entrepreneur, process improvement and organisational culture. On the other hand, entrepreneurs’ social skills and tenacity were found to have a negative impact on revenue and operating profit growth, while support from informal networks had a negative effect on the growth of sales revenue.

This study aims to fill a gap in the literature on the impact of IC on the financial performance of entrepreneurial firms.

This study aims to examine how star–nonstar exchange (SNE) influences nonstars’ performance using social information processing theory.

A time-lagged survey approach is utilized to collect data from 531 nonstars in China. Structural equation modeling and process macro models are applied to test the moderated mediation model of this study.

Results reveal that SNE has a positive effect on nonstars’ performance through their psychological empowerment, with task complexity moderating the relationship between psychological empowerment and innovative performance. However, no moderating effect was found for routine performance.

Although previous research has delved into how leader–member exchange and team–member exchange influence employee performance. This study uniquely concentrates on how the exchange relationship between star performers and nonstars influences nonstars’ performance – a dimension that has generally been overlooked in existing literature. Findings are important for understanding SNE influence on nonstars’ performance while managing task complexity.

This study aims to investigate why and how shared service centres (SSCs) are implemented as well as how they affect audit firm practice and audit quality.

In this qualitative study guided by the theoretical framework of institutional theory, the authors conducted 25 semi-structured interviews in seven European countries, including 16 interviews with audit partners from Big 4 firms, 6 with audit team members, 2 with interviewees from second-tier audit firms and 1 with a member of an oversight body.

The authors show that the central rationale for audit firms to implement SSCs is economic rather than external legitimacy. The authors find that SSC implementation has substantial effects on audit practices, particularly those related to standardisation, coordination and monitoring activities. The authors also highlight the potential impacts on audit quality.

By exploring the motivation for and effects of SSC implementation amongst audit firms, the authors offer insights into the best practices related to subsequent change processes and audit quality.

Managing megaprojects is challenging due to their inherent complexity and uncertainty. Collaborative project delivery models have been introduced as an alternative to traditional project management in public infrastructure megaprojects and are often realized through collaborative contracts. These project organizations act as institutional arenas for logic interaction as actors with differing institutional backgrounds interact within the project. This paper aims to study the delivery phase of three megaprojects through an institutional lens, investigating the institutional interaction and alignment of logics therein.

A multiple case study was employed to reach deep insight into the phenomenon. Sixty-one interviews were conducted over 3 cases with representatives from all levels of the project hierarchy. Respondents were selected through snowball sampling. In two cases, observations of the shared project office were conducted. Data analysis built on first-order codes and second-order themes, collected into a theoretical framework.

The empirical evidence demonstrates the dynamics shaping institutional logics and gives evidence for changing logics in projects with a well-applied collaborative contract. However, there is a risk of resistance and a return to traditional logics since institutional change is slow and an unsuitably applied collaborative contract can lead to adherence to the conventional way of work.

Current research has focused on the regulatory framework and procurement phase of such models, but little attention has been given to the delivery phase and the interaction of conflicting logics. This paper can serve as an exemplar of the different logics found within public infrastructure projects and their interaction and alignment. Contributions include a heightened emphasis on the start of the project as a meeting point for differing institutional logics and the role change necessary when using a collaborative contract.

Action research by three teaching teams to build the capacity of teachers, in preparation for the transition from a traditional heritage building to a new innovative learning facility, forms the basis of this chapter. The new building consisting of four storeys with seven innovative learning environments that support a wide range of teaching and learning opportunities challenged the teams to rethink their pedagogy and embark on a new and exciting journey. The story notes the challenges faced and the successes achieved as well as further action research once established within the new learning environments.

The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) requires districts to deliver “evidence-based interventions” to students impacted by the pandemic. The policy has created a unique opportunity for researchers and practitioners to engage with evidence to learn how recovery interventions work and under what conditions.

This study is part of a research-practice partnership (RPP) between Guilford County Schools, AIR-CALDER, Harvard University and NWEA to understand the impacts and implementation of ESSER-funded recovery programs. We use a case analysis approach and frameworks of evidence-use and RPPs to explain how researchers and Guilford leaders engage with evidence to improve and evaluate programs.

The RPP used evidence to inform Guilford leaders’ recovery approaches and strengthened researchers’ evaluations of programs. Conditions that enabled evidence engagement included the RPP’s goals, research activities and collaborative conditions such as boundary spanning activities, team meetings, relationships and trust. We also observed factors that hindered evidence engagement, including the RPP’s nascent stage, structure and breadth of goals, rapid policy timelines and other organizational conditions in Guilford.

Given the complexities of pandemic recovery, RPPs can help researchers evaluate programs in their local context, and present evidence in ways that are actionable to guide decision-making. District leaders can play a valuable role in co-designing research studies attuned to local priorities and context and facilitating research participation among internal stakeholders. However, newly formed RPPs with broad goals for impact will need more time and resources to build an improvement infrastructure for sustaining pandemic recovery.

Although the literature on the effectiveness of team interventions is constantly expanding, there has been a strong focus on the process mechanisms that could explain their success, often overlooking the contextual aspects in which these interventions are carried out. Based on the Context-Mechanism-Outcome framework, this study aims to investigate the influence of contextual factors on the effectiveness of digital team coaching interventions that use social network visualisation to enhance team coordination and reduce interpersonal conflicts.

Using a multi-wave, longitudinal design, this research analysed 38 work teams from three organisations over three-time points. Data collection focused on manager and peer support, the mechanisms of training transfer and action plan implementation and the outcomes of these interventions. Surveys were administered in three organisations, involving 317 respondents across different phases. The intervention spanned six to eight months, incorporating three to four structured online group sessions. Each session involved a multi-stage process, concluding with a result-oriented action plan about work-related goals. The intervention included social network visualisation, discussions, coaching and continuous refinement of action plans.

The analysis highlights how manager support significantly correlates with team coordination and performance, mainly when teams are less engaged in implementing action plans. Peer support did not show a mediating effect on training transfer or outcomes but had direct positive impacts on team coordination and performance.

Teams actively implementing action plans may require less immediate managerial support for effective coordination and high performance. The manager’s role becomes crucial, particularly in the early stages of the intervention or in those teams where online coordination alone may not be adequate for action plan implementation. Peer support for training transfer could enhance the effectiveness of the intervention in achieving desired team outcomes; therefore, cultivating a supportive peer environment is crucial for the success of such interventions. Monitoring and assessing team dynamics are vital to maximise the benefits of digital team coaching interventions.

This study stands out for its innovative exploration of the interplay between managerial and peer support in the context of digital team coaching, using social network visualisation as a novel approach to enhancing team dynamics.

Improvement science (IS) has become a popular approach to organizing school–university partnerships because of IS’s potential to increase schools' capacity for sustainable improvement. However, little research has directly examined whether and how specific elements of IS support school improvement, particularly during and post-COVID-19 when improvement was particularly challenging.

We draw on a longitudinal case study of a school-university partnership supporting a group of schools using IS to guide school improvement with data collected in Fall 2019–Spring 2022 including interviews and meeting observations. We compare how educators engaged with three IS elements: plan-do-study-act (PDSA) continuous improvement (CI) cycles, networked learning and driver diagrams. We qualitatively examine participants' perspectives of these elements through the lens of contingency theory, analyzing which elements were more or less successful at empowering schools to continue their improvement efforts throughout the pandemic.

IS processes are varied in their resilience to complexity. Schools mostly abandoned some elements during tumultuous periods (PDSA cycles) while others were successfully adapted to sustain improvement work (driver diagrams). Findings also discuss the perceived impact of university partners in school improvement work, primarily as coaches.

These findings are uniquely positioned to examine whether and how IS elements enabled sustained school improvement amidst the complexities generated by COVID-19. By focusing on strengths and limitations of three common elements, we offer valuable guidance to school–university partnerships about the conditions under which these elements might support sustained school improvement and how these elements might need to be adapted.