Search results

This study aims to investigate the influence of resource slack on the decline of Brazilian companies, with a particular focus on the moderating role of environmental dynamism. The authors specifically examine three types of resource slack: available, potential and recoverable. These represent surplus resources that exceed what is necessary for the organization’s basic operations. The role of environmental dynamism, characterized by rapid changes in customer preferences, technologies and competitive dynamics, is considered as a moderating factor in this relationship.

The authors used data from Brazilian companies spanning from 1997 to 2008. The research sample was composed using the matching-pairs method, which included a group of publicly traded companies that experienced decline (43 companies) and a group that did not (40 companies) within the specified timeframe.

Findings of this study indicate that the presence of available slack, being more liquid resources, decreases the likelihood of organizational decline. Furthermore, the moderation effect of potential resource slack can mitigate decline in companies operating in dynamic industries.

This research provides valuable insights into the impact of slack resources on potential organizational turnarounds. Given the relative scarcity of resources in these companies compared to those in developed countries, whether they be financial, human or technological, the study highlights the unique influence of slack in a less explored institutional environment. This research underscores the importance of examining the decline of Brazilian companies from a broader perspective, emphasizing that decisions regarding resource use can have significant implications on a company’s trajectory, either amplifying or mitigating its decline.

¿Cuál es el impacto del slack de recursos en el declive de grandes empresas brasileñas? Para responder a esta pregunta, hemos probado hipótesis por separado para tres tipos de salck de recursos: disponible, potencial y recuperable. Estos excedentes consisten en recursos en exceso más allá de lo necesario para mantener la organización funcionando.

Desarrollamos un estudio empírico cuantitativo y longitudinal con datos de empresas brasileñas de 1997 a 2008. Adoptamos el método de pares emparejados, componiendo la muestra de investigación con un grupo de empresas cotizadas en bolsa que declinaron (43 empresas) y otro que no declinó (40 empresas) en el período de tiempo.

Encontramos que la disponibilidad de recursos más líquidos reduce la posibilidad de declive. El efecto de moderación en el slack de recursos potenciales para empresas en industrias dinámicas puede mitigar el declive.

Esta investigación contribuye a una mejor comprensión del efecto del excedente en posibles recuperaciones. Extender los estudios de recursos excedentes al contexto de empresas brasileñas mostró la influencia que el excedente ejerce en un ambiente institucional relativamente menos explorado. Ya sea financiero, humano o tecnológico, la escasez de recursos es más pronunciada que en empresas de países desarrollados. Esta investigación llama la atención sobre el hecho de que la declinación de empresas brasileñas se analiza desde una perspectiva más amplia. Las decisiones sobre cómo la empresa usa sus recursos pueden afectar positiva o negativamente la declinación de las empresas, reforzando la importancia de discutir esta relación.

A Qual é o impacto da folga de recursos no declínio de grandes empresas brasileiras? Para responder a essa pergunta, testamos hipóteses separadamente para três tipos de folga de recursos: disponível, potencial e recuperável. Essas folgas consistem em recursos além do necessário para manter a organização funcionando.

Desenvolvemos um estudo empírico quantitativo e longitudinal com dados de empresas brasileiras de 1997 a 2008. Adotamos o método de pares combinados, compondo a amostra de pesquisa com um grupo de empresas de capital aberto que declinaram (43 empresas) e outro que não declinou (40 empresas) no período.

Descobrimos que a disponibilidade de recursos mais líquidos reduz a possibilidade de declínio. O efeito moderador na folga de recursos potenciais para empresas em indústrias dinâmicas pode mitigar o declínio.

Esta pesquisa contribui para uma melhor compreensão do efeito da folga sobre possíveis recuperações. A extensão dos estudos de folgas de recursos para o contexto de empresas brasileiras mostrou a influência que a folga exerce em um ambiente institucional relativamente menos explorado. Seja financeiro, humano ou tecnológico, a escassez de recursos é mais pronunciada do que em empresas de países desenvolvidos. Esta pesquisa chama a atenção para o fato de que o declínio de empresas brasileiras é analisado sob uma perspectiva mais ampla. Decisões sobre como a empresa usa seus recursos podem afetar positiva ou negativamente o declínio das empresas, reforçando a importância de discutir essa relação.

Exploration and exploitation have long been documented as prominent approaches to business management and organizational adaptation to external environment. Maintaining balance between these activities is a key to survival and prosperity. However, there is little direct evidence of the effect of such combined usage of both approaches on firm performance in times of crisis, especially within small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The purpose of this paper is to reveal the role of balanced ambidexterity in shaping firm performance during COVID-19 recession.

Based on a survey of 333 Russian SMEs, the authors test the proposed theoretical framework linking innovative ambidexterity to firm performance level and variability taking into account technological uncertainty.

The results show that innovative ambidexterity tends to increase level and decrease variability of performance outcomes, whereas technological uncertainty acts as a positive contingency for this impact.

The results provide an improved understanding of ambidexterity and organizational literatures by clarifying the contingent nature of the ambidexterity–firm performance relationship during COVID-19 recession.

This article explains the causal mechanism supporting sustainable longevity by analysing the last three generations of one of the oldest family firms in Latin America.

An explanatory single-case qualitative research based on critical realism explores why and how this family firm has been able to maintain its multigenerational longevity.

Los Lingues's evolutionary strategy, driven by transgenerational entrepreneurship under effectuation, has supported this family firm's sustainable longevity. Its effectual logic emerged mainly from the richness of the firm's historical resources embedded in its identity, knowledge and social capital and priority to preserve socioemotional wealth.

This study integrates socioemotional wealth and effectuation theory to explain a family firm's ability to survive through generations and sustain longevity. The study demonstrates the relevance of effectual logic in the entrepreneurial dynamics of a multigenerational family firm. Effectual logic drives the firm evolution and adaptation for sustainable longevity.

Corona Virus Disease (Covid-19) is a global pandemic that emerged at the end of 2019 and caused disruptions in global supply chains, particularly in the food supply chains that exposed the vulnerability of today’s food supply chain in a major disruption which provided a unique research opportunity. This review explores the current research direction for food supply chain resilience and identifies gaps for future research in preparing for future major global pandemics.

This article presents a review of food supply chain resilience followed a systematic literature review of the business and management-based studies related to the food supply chain in Covid-19 published between December 2019 and December 2021 to identify the immediate issues and responses that need to be addressed in the event of future disruptions in food supply chains due to new global health threats.

The study revealed the need for more literature on food supply chain resilience, particularly resilience to a major global pandemic. The study also uncovered the sequence of events in a major pandemic and identified some strategies for building resilience to potential future risks of such an event.

The limitations of this study are apparent. Firstly, the selection of databases is not comprehensive. Due to time limitations, authoritative publishers such as Springer, Emerald, Wiley and Taylor & Francis were not selected. Secondly, a single author completed the literature quality testing and text analysis, possibly reducing the credibility of the results due to subjective bias. Thirdly, the selected literature are the studies published during the immediate event of Covid-19, and before January 2022, other research studies may have been completed but were still in the state of auditing at this time.

This paper is the first study that provides a detailed classification of the immediate challenges to the food supply chain faced in both upstream and downstream nodes during a major global disruption. For researchers, this clearly shows the immediate difficulties faced at each node of the food supply chain, which provides research topics for future studies.

The study aims to determine the outcomes of mentorship in an online game system, as well as the characteristics of good mentors.

A combination of anonymized survey measures and in-game behavioral measures were used to power longitudinal analysis over an 11-month period in which protégés and non-mentored new players could be compared for their performance, social connections and retention.

Successful people were more likely to mentor others, and mentors increased protégés' skill. Protégés had significantly better retention, were more active and much more successful as players than non-protégés. Contrary to expectations, younger, less wealthy and educated people were more likely to be mentors and mentors did not transfer their longevity. Many of the qualities of the mentor remain largely irrelevant—what mattered most was the time spent together.

This is a study of an online game, which has unknown generalizability to other games and to offline settings.

The results show that getting mentors to spend dedicated time with protégés matters more than their characteristics.

Good mentorship does not require age or resources to provide real benefits.

This is the first study of mentorship to use survey and objective outcome measures together, over time, online.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the role of quality management on the development of organisational exploration.

Partial Least Square was used on a sample of 350 companies within the Spanish organic agro-food industry.

The study results provide empirical evidence of the positive and significant impact that quality management has on the development of organisational exploration.

Causal relationships cannot be applied to this study due to cross-sectional data being used rather than longitudinal data.

Quality management must be considered by managers an essential tool to the development of organisational exploration. As a systematic approach, that moves towards to the development of policies, attitudes and behaviours which foster and boots the development of organisational exploration.

Quality management is a widely used management approach, which organisations use to improve the quality of their products, services and their overall performance. Organisational exploration is seen as a fundamental tool to ensure sustainability, profitability and the future survival of organisations; however, there is disagreement throughout previous research. Some authors point out the importance of quality management in developing activities that promote organisational exploration, whereas other authors see quality management as an inhibitor. Given the great controversy in previous research, our study clarifies the role of quality management in the development of organisational exploration.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how users on social media view brands with a heritage. Consumers commonly post opinions and accounts of their experiences with brands on social media. Such consumer-generated content may or may not overlap with content desired by brand managers. Drawing from “The medium is the message” paradigm, this study text-mines user narratives on Twitter1 to shed light on the role of social media in shaping public images of brands with heritage through the lens of the stereotype content model.

The study uses a data set of almost 80,000 unique tweets on 12 brands across six categories, compares brands high versus low in heritage and combines dictionary-based content analysis with sentiment analysis.

The results indicate that both user-generated content and sentiment are significantly more positive for brands low rather than high in heritage. Regarding warmth, consumers use significantly more positive words on sociability and fewer negative words on morality for brands low rather than high in heritage. Regarding competence, tweets include more positive words on assertiveness and ability for low-heritage brands. Finally, overall sentiment is more positive for brands low rather than high in heritage.

Important from co-creation and integrated marketing communication perspectives, the findings provide brand managers with actionable insights on how to more effectively use social media.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is among the first to examine user-generated content in a brand heritage context. It demonstrates that heritage brands, with their longevity and strong links to the past, need to be aware of how contemporary social media can detract from their image.

Cooperative agreements between universities and firms (U–F) have gained prominence. However, the literature on organisational culture and the formation of cooperation agreements is scarce. This study aims to analyse, from the perspective of the managers of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and those in charge in universities, the perceptions of the influence of organisational culture on this type of U–F cooperation.

To this end, multiple case studies were adopted, involving cooperation agreements between a Portuguese and eight SMEs incubated in UBImedical. Semi-structured interviews were used to gather information, aiming to understand the meaning, importance and possible obstacles caused by organisational culture in this U–F cooperation agreement.

Content analysis of the results obtained leads to the conclusion that cultural compatibility is a crucial factor for successful U–F cooperation. The exchange of knowledge, mutual trust and flexibility between those involved are identified as key determinants to build shared norms that allow a more productive, assertive union.

The study represents an important tool to support SME managers and those in charge of universities, as the evidence obtained can help them to define policies and actions with regard to the U–F cooperation process. More precisely, these SME and university managers could give more attention to culture in future cooperation agreements.

This study advances understanding of the role of organisational culture in a cooperation agreement since this was a gap identified in the literature on the topic. It also contributes to the existing body of work on U–F cooperation, demonstrating that organisational culture is considered important by partners in these agreements and should be adjusted towards compatible alignment of each party’s expectations.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the differences between Hungarian family-owned businesses (FOBs) and non-family-owned businesses (NFOBs) concerning the elements of SME competitiveness and financial performance.

The research covers the Hungarian data set of the Global Competitiveness Project (GCP, www.sme-gcp.org) of 738 (data collection between 2018 and 2020) non-listed SMEs, of which 328 were FOBs. The study uses the comprehensive, multidimensional competitiveness measurement of the GCP built on the resource-based view (RBV) and the configuration theory. Financial performance was captured with two composite indicators: short-term and long-term financial performance (LTFP). The comparative analysis between FOBs and NFOBs was conducted using binary logistic regression.

The results show that FOBs are more prone to focusing on local niche markets with higher longevity and LTFP than NFOBs. However, FOBs have lower innovation intensity and less organised administrative procedures. The most contradicting finding is that the FOBs’ higher LTFP is accompanied by significantly lower competitiveness than in the case of NFOBs.

This study goes beyond other GCP studies by including composite financial performance measures among the variables examined. The combination of performance-causing (resources and capabilities) and performance-representing (financial performance) variables provides a better understanding of the non-listed SMEs in terms of family ownership. The results help academia to enrich the RBV-competitiveness, the non-listed SME management and finance literature, and policymakers to design business development and support schemes. They also show future entrepreneurs the impact of family ownership on entrepreneurial success.

This paper aims to systematically review and synthesize existing research on learning-driven strategic renewal and examines the findings to elucidate the dimensions, antecedents, mechanisms and consequences associated with learning-driven strategic renewal, thereby addressing gaps in the existing literature.

This research covers learning-driven strategic renewal from 1992 to 2022, using hybrid snowball sampling techniques and Boolean searches on the Scopus and Web of Science databases to extract 49 papers.

This review proposes an organizing framework for learning-driven strategic renewal, building upon existing literature. The framework identifies various dimensions of the process, including antecedents, mechanisms and consequences. The antecedents are categorized into individual, organizational and external factors. The mechanisms for learning-driven strategic renewal were explored within the context of Crossan’s established 4I framework, which serves as a lens for emphasizing the balance between exploratory and exploitative learning. Within this framework, intuiting, interpreting, integrating and institutionalizing are the four “Is” that guide the renewal process. These mechanisms require a robust system to enforce the prescribed processes effectively, thereby contributing to long-term firm performance and sustainability.

Despite using search terms similar to those in existing literature on strategic renewal, the scope and depth of this study may be limited. Further research may benefit from bibliometric screening or more refined inclusion criteria.

While there has been extensive research into both organizational learning and strategic renewal, no coherent framework links them. This study fills this gap by building a framework that identifies connections between these two concepts, providing valuable insights that may be used to foster successful strategic renewal efforts. The review offers valuable knowledge and understanding of the subject matter, serving as useful guidance for effectively driving renewal initiatives within organizations.