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Introduced into the literature a decade ago, grit originally defined as perseverance and passion for long-term goals has stimulated considerable research on positive effects primarily in the academic and military contexts, as well as attracted widespread media attention. Despite recent criticism regarding grit’s construct and criterion-related validity, research on grit has begun to spill over into the work context as well. In this chapter, the authors provide an overview of the initial theoretical foundations of grit as a motivational driver, and present newer conceptualizations on the mechanisms of grit’s positive effects rooted in goal-setting theory. Furthermore, the authors also draw attention to existing shortcomings of the current definition and measurement of grit, and their implications for its scientific and practical application. After establishing a theoretical understanding, the authors discuss the potential utility of grit for human resource management, related to staffing and recruitment, development and training, and performance management systems as well as performance evaluations. The authors conclude this chapter with a discussion of necessary and potential future research, and consider the practical implications of grit in its current state.

The purpose of this paper is to identify stimuli for climate adaptation in cities and more specifically to explore whether different stimuli inspire different governance approaches to climate adaptation – e.g. dedicated (adaptation as a new policy field) or mainstreaming (integrating in existing policy fields).

For this explorative case study research, an early adapter was selected: Philadelphia (USA). By reconstructing the organization of two climate adaptation programs, the authors have identified stimuli and whether these influence the city’s governance approach. The reconstruction is based on data triangulation that consists of semi-structured interviews with actors involved in these programs, policy documents and newspaper articles.

The research illustrates the importance of stimuli such as strategically framing climate adaptation within wider urban agendas, political leadership and institutional entrepreneurs. Moreover, the research reveals that it is often a combination of stimuli that triggers a governance approach and that there is a possible link between specific stimuli and governance approaches, proposing that some stimuli will trigger a dedicated approach to climate adaptation, while others initiate a mainstreaming approach.

An in-depth understanding of stimuli of climate adaptation is currently lacking in literature, as most of the studies have focused on barriers to climate adaptation. Moreover, still little is known about what explains why certain governance approaches to climate adaptation emerge.

This study examines the motivational processes of charged behavior and collective efficacy driving interdependence and agency in new product development (NPD) teams and the moderating impact of team risk-taking propensity as affective, cognitive and behavioral social processes support team innovation.

Data were collected from 92 NPD teams engaged in B2C and B2B product and service development. Mediating and moderating effects are examined using partial least squares structural equation modeling, referencing social cognitive and collective agency theories as the research framework.

The analysis validates collective self-efficacy and charged behavior as interdependent motivational–affective processes that align cognitive resources and govern team effort toward innovativeness. Teams' risk-taking propensity regulates behavior, and collective efficacy facilitates self-regulated motivational engagement. Charged behavior cultivates the emotional contagion, team identification, cohesion and adaptation required for team functioning. Team potency fosters cohesiveness, while team learning improves adaptability along the innovation journey. The resulting theory asserts that motivational drivers enhance the interplay between cognitive and behavioral processes.

Managers should consider NPD teams as social systems with a capacity for collective agency nurtured through interdependence, which requires collective efficacy and shared competencies to generate motivational purpose and innovativeness. Managers must remain mindful of teams' risk tolerance as regulating the impact of motivational factors on innovativeness.

This study contributes to research on the motivational–affective drivers of NPD charged behavior and collective efficacy as complementary to cognitive and behavioral processes sustaining team innovativeness.

This study provides a comprehensive framework of adaptation in triadic business relationship settings in the service sector. The framework is based on the industrial network approach (see, e.g., Axelsson & Easton, 1992; Håkansson & Snehota, 1995a). The study describes how adaptations initiate, how they progress, and what the outcomes of these adaptations are. Furthermore, the framework takes into account how adaptations spread in triadic relationship settings. The empirical context is corporate travel management, which is a chain of activities where an industrial enterprise, and its preferred travel agency and service supplier partners combine their resources. The scientific philosophy, on which the knowledge creation is based, is realist ontology. Epistemologically, the study relies on constructionist processes and interpretation. Case studies with in-depth interviews are the main source of data.

We develop an integrative conceptualization of how firms set and alter strategic goals, incorporating insights from goal-setting literatures across the disciplines of marketing, management, and psychology. Our framework accounts for the internal and external forces that impact the content of a firm's goals as well as the dynamic processes by which these goals are formed and changed over time. By proposing this framework, we strive to offer insights into the “black box” of organizational goals that connect firm resources and environmental context to firm strategies. Illustrative data to support our framework are provided from a case study of a Fortune 100 communication firm's entry into an emerging, high-technology, new product marketplace.

In order for a software system to better serve the user, it should be able to adjust its behavior according to the changing needs in the environment. Oftentimes, selecting a particular action may depend upon various non‐functional requirements (NFRs) such as safety, cost, and so on. In the past, the many possible alternatives for an adaptation action by and large have not been considered systematically and rationally, keeping various NFRs in mind, hence, resulting in low‐level of confidence that such an action is indeed a best possible one that is really desirable. The purpose of this paper is to present a goal‐oriented approach to select alternative(s) based on a particular contextual event, while considering important NFRs.

The paper proposes a goal‐oriented approach in which various NFRs are treated as softgoals to be satisficed and used in exploring, analyzing and selecting among possible adaptation alternatives, in consideration of the particular contextual event.

Without the goal‐oriented methodology, which offers an ontology enriched with the notion of goals for contextual information and also integrates rules for triggering adaptation, the authors feel, through their scenario study applied to their smart‐phone application, that some critical issues might not have been considered in building a usable, useful system.

The concepts introduced in this paper provide a systematic and rational approach to select adaptation alternative(s), considering NFRs along with detecting a contextual event.

Based on a conceptual framework of the linkages between strategic manufacturing goals and complexity, the purpose of this paper is to investigate adaptation processes in manufacturing firms to increasing external complexity.

Hypotheses are tested with statistical analyses (group comparisons and structural equation models) that are conducted with data from the third round of the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey.

The study shows that manufacturing firms face different degrees of complexity. Firms in a more complex environment tend to possess a more complex internal structure, as indicated by process configuration, than firms in a less complex environment. Also depending on the degree of complexity, different processes of adaptation to increases in external complexity are initiated by organisations.

Research studies taking into account the dynamics of adaptation processes would be helpful in order to draw further conclusions, for instance, based on longitudinal analyses or simulation studies.

Depending on the level of complexity a firm has been confronted with in the past, different adaptation processes to further growing complexity can be initiated. Firms in high complexity environments have to re‐configure their strategic goals; firms in low complexity environments have to build‐up internal complexity to cope with demands from the outside.

The paper distinguishes between adaptation processes in low and high complexity environments and provides explanations for the differences.