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Marketing and corporate risk‐taking are always included as elements of industrial competitiveness and yet discussions of industrial policy are strangely silent on these important determinants of firm performance. The inability of Japanese industrial policy to develop these skills has been an important factor in determining the competitive position of the Japanese commercial airplane manufacturing industry. In this industry where domestic demand was not guaranteed, and where the Japanese competitors were not prepared to assume the risk‐taking position common to successful foreign competitors, Japanese industrial policy was unable to match its earlier success in basic industries.

The purpose of this paper is to use a risk management perspective to identify the risks of employment discrimination law liability for multinational employers.

Data from 101 US Federal Court cases that involved multinational employers operating both inside and outside of the USA were content coded and then used to identify factors that predict the frequency that foreign employers operating inside the USA – and US employers operating outside the USA – were subject to lawsuits under US employment discrimination laws.

This study found that employment lawsuits based on sex discrimination against females was the most significant risk exposure. Employers whose home country was from a Western culture were at comparatively greater risk for charges of both age and religious discrimination. Employers whose home country was from an Asian culture were at comparatively greater risk for charges of both race and national origin discrimination.

This study demonstrates the viability and usefulness of a risk management framework for examination of issues related to law and management.

This study enables the identification of risk factors that multinational employers can use to strategically target their loss prevention efforts in order to more effectively and efficiently avoid or reduce potential liability for employment discrimination.

The risk factors identified in this study can help employers to take efforts to reduce employment discrimination in their multinational operations, thereby reducing the frequency and likelihood that such discrimination may occur.

This is the first study to use a risk management framework to empirically identify employment law risk exposures for multinational employers.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze how path dependence in the evolution of major theories of foreign direct investment (FDI) locked in a theoretical perspective of the multinational enterprise that focused on asset-exploitation. This perspective is challenged by recent contradicting observations of multinationals from China and other emerging economies. A decisive re-orientation of FDI theory is proposed as a way forward to resolve this tension.

Placing FDI theories into the context of FDI patterns prevailing at the time they were developed, Thomas Kuhn’s framework on the evolution of scientific knowledge is employed to track how the mainstream FDI theory emerged, went through a period of normal science and then approached a crisis of science in this field.

The evolution of FDI theory is strongly path-dependent, which made it difficult for theory to effectively incorporate new conceptual discoveries and empirical findings about the nature of FDI activity.

FDI theory would benefit from a full re-orientation to a demand-oriented perspective which places the pursuit of advantages, assets, resources, etc., at the core of the theory. Such a change is implicit in many recent theoretical advances and would assure theory is generalizable to all types of FDI.

Density optimization is the first critical step in building additively manufactured parts with high-quality and good mechanical properties. The authors developed an approach that combines simulations and experiments to identify processing parameters for high-density Ti-6Al-4V using the laser powder-bed-fusion technique. A processing diagram based on the normalized energy density concept is constructed, illustrating an optimized processing window for high- or low-density samples. Excellent mechanical properties are obtained for Ti-6Al-4V samples built from the optimized window.

The authors use simple, but approximate, simulations and selective experiments to design parameters for a limited set of single track experiments. The resulting melt-pool characteristics are then used to identify processing parameters for high-density pillars. A processing diagram is built and excellent mechanical properties are achieved in samples built from this window.

The authors find that the laser linear input energy has a much stronger effect on the melt-pool depth than the melt-pool width. A processing diagram based on normalized energy density and normalized hatch spacing was constructed, qualitatively indicating that high-density samples are produced in a region when 1 < E* < 2. The onset of void formation and low-density samples occur as E* moves beyond a value of 2. The as-built SLM Ti-6Al-4V shows excellent mechanical performance.

A combined approach of computer simulations and selected experiments is applied to optimize the density of Ti-6Al-4V, via laser powder-bed-fusion (L-PBF) technique. A series of high-density samples are achieved. Some special issues are identified for L-PBF processes of Ti-6Al-4V, including the powder particle sticking and part swelling issues. A processing diagram is constructed for Ti-6Al-4V, based on the normalized energy density and normalized hatch spacing concept. The diagram illustrates windows with high- and low-density samples. Good mechanical properties are achieved during tensile tests of near fully dense Ti-6Al-4V samples. These good properties are attributed to the success of density optimization processes.

It has been argued that the social and informational cues within the work environment need to be investigated to better understand and identify a nomological network underlying the psychological contract construct. This study is one of the first to investigate how employees may use social and informational messages and cues in the work environment to formulate and place meaning behind their employee employer exchange relationship. We present a model that examines specific dimensions of employees’ psychological climates that may serve as a basis for understanding their contract with their organization. Three hundred and seventy employees from a variety of organizational settings completed measures of their climate (role characteristics, job characteristics, workgroup and social environment, leader behaviors, and organizational and subsystem attributes) as well as their perceptions of their psychological contract. The model and proposed relationships were tested through a series of hierarchical regression analyses. Results revealed that role characteristics were associated with the workload and clarity components of the contract while job characteristics were related to the work variety, work importance, and autonomy contract factors. Workgroup and social environment dimensions were related to the contract components of social interaction and work conditions and leader behaviors were associated with the feedback contract factor. Finally, organizational and subsystem attributes were linked to the compensation, benefits, security, advancement, development opportunities, fairness, and interpersonal factors of an employee’s psychological contract. Study contributions and limitations as well as directions for future research are discussed.

The aim of this article is to test the assumption that both management and co‐workers constitute multiple contract constituencies, as advocated for in recent research on psychological contracts. It also aims to test the theory of cognitive schemas as predictors of psychological contract development. Finally, it aims to examine the validity of the relational subscale of psychological contracts.

Data were collected through three survey studies in different workplaces, areas and settings and were analyzed through Fisher's exact test, principal component analysis and hierarchical regression analysis.

The results supported the notion of multiple contract constituencies. Partial support was found for the theory of cognitive schemas and their influence on psychological contract development. The study also revealed new sub‐dimensions of the psychological contract, here called “Fellowship” and “Challenge/Development”. These new sub‐dimensions respond differently to predictors that, according to psychological contract theory, are supposed to generate similar effects.

Since the findings of this study call into question some of the earlier research: it would be desirable to study psychological contracts, using a multiple foci approach, with a greater, random, sample.

The results indicate a need to draw further attention to the role of the co‐workers in the integration of agency staff in client companies.

Since no previous study has tested the notion of co‐workers as constituencies of the psychological contract, these empirical results will challenge much previous research on the concept of psychological contracts.

It has been a tremendous challenge for organisations to navigate and survive the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper proposes a novel multi-level conceptual model, based on the resource-based view (RBV), to address the pandemic crisis and highlight the importance of strategic human resource management (SHRM) in promoting employee motivation and organisational resilience. The paper aims to provide insights and practical guidance for organisations to leverage their internal resources and capabilities to thrive in the post-pandemic landscape.

This paper conducted a comprehensive literature review of the existing research on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, SHRM, RBV, job satisfaction, turnover intentions and organisational resilience, covering the main contributors to this research stream and their findings.

The conceptual model presented in this paper offers five testable propositions to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on employee motivation and organisational resilience and how organisations can navigate challenging times through SHRM, which enables RBV. It highlights the foundational role of RBV and identifies the resources employed by SHRM as intervening constructs that significantly enhance employee outcomes, including motivation, job satisfaction, turnover intention and organisational resilience.

The proposed model counsels that organisations need to look beyond the straightforward application of SHRM and should enable the RBV climate to protect and uphold employee motivation and organisational resilience. Finally, measurement and analysis implications are presented for future research opportunities and managerial interventions to mitigate the impact of difficult times such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Currently, there is a lack of research regarding the conceptualisation of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on employee and organisational resilience. Therefore, the proposed model discusses the significance of the alignment of SHRM and RBV as a moderator of the relationships between the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, employee motivation and organisational resilience.

This study aims to explore the objectivity in third-party ratings. Third-party ratings are often based on some form of aggregation of various experts' opinions with the assumption that the potential judgment biases of the experts cancel each other out. While psychology research has suggested that experts can be unintentionally biased, management literature has not considered the effect of expert bias on the objectivity of third-party ratings. Thus, this study seeks to address this issue.

Ranking data from the US News and World Report between 1993 and 2008, institution-related variables and, to represent sports prominence, NCAA football and basketball performance variables are leveraged in testing our hypotheses. A mediating-model is tested using regression with panel-corrected standard errors.

This study finds that the judgments of academicians and recruiters, concerning the quality of universities, have been biased by the prominence of a university's sports teams and that the bias introduced to these experts mediates the aggregated bias in the resultant rankings of MBA programs. Moreover, it finds that experts may inflate rankings by up to two positions.

This study is particularly relevant for university officials as it uncovers how universities can tangibly manipulate the relative perception of quality through sports team prominence. For third-party rating systems, the reliability of ratings based on aggregated expert judgments is called into question.

This study addresses a significant gap in the literature by examining how a rating system may be unintentionally biased through the aggregation of experts' judgments. Given the heavy reliance on third-party rating systems by both academics and the general population, addressing the objectivity of such ratings is crucial.