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We argue that the stakeholder and CSR literature can benefit from more systematic thinking about ownership. We discuss general notions of ownership in the economics and legal literature and the entrepreneurial notion of ownership we have developed in prior work. On this basis, we argue that stakeholder theory needs to deal more systematically with ownership as an economic function that can be exercised with greater or lesser ability, may be complementary to other economic functions, and works better when assigned to homogeneous groups. Some stakeholder groups are likely to lack what we call “ownership competence,” even if they have made relationship-specific investments, in part because of a diversity of interests. We also discuss CSR from the perspective of ownership and support Friedman’s original position, but with a twist. The point of Friedman’s paper is not that firms “should” maximize profits, but that managerial pursuit of “socially responsible” activities in a discretionary way imposes costs on owners. We suggest this problem is exacerbated with entrepreneurial managers who can devise new ways to prop up their self-interested actions with new creative CSR initiatives.

This paper aims to examine how organisational values affect diversity in terms of different competencies in rural family Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). Recruiting a diverse workforce in rural family SMEs can be particularly difficult due to the prevalence of internal family values and the lack of available local specialised competencies. A deficiency of diversity in employment and competence acquisition and development can create problems, as it often prevents rural family SMEs from recruiting employees with a wide variety of qualifications and skills.

The study takes on a multi-case method of Swedish rural family SMEs, applying a qualitative content analysis approach. In total, 20 in-depth structured interviews are conducted with rural family SME owners and 2 industries were investigated and compared – the tourism and the manufacturing industries.

Rural family SMEs lack long-term employment strategies, and competence diversity does not appear to be a priority for rural family SMEs, as they often have prematurely decided who they will hire rather than what competencies are needed for their long-term business development. It is more important to keep the team of employees tight and the family spirit present than to include competence diversity and mixed qualifications in the employment acquisition and development.

Contrary to prior research, our findings indicate that rural family SMEs apply short-term competence diversity strategies rather than long-term prospects regarding competence acquisition and management, due to their family values and rural setting, which strictly narrows the selection of employees and competencies. Also, a general reluctance towards competence diversity is identified, which originates from the very same family values and rural context.

In both Britain and the USA, the majority of the shares in quoted companies are owned by institutional shareholders such as pension funds and insurance companies. But, in most cases these major shareholders are “passive”, that is they prefer not to become involved in the management of the companies in which they invest – unless there is a crisis. By this time unfortunately it is often too late to prevent their shareholders or pensioners from losing money. In this article Rolf Carlsson describes how the Wallenberg family through their holding company Investor AB have helped a number of Swedish companies to become world leaders by working with their managers as active investors. He tells the story of ABB and L.M. Ericsson but the Wallenberg sphere of influence has also included Atlas Copco, SAAB Scania, SKF, Swedish Match, Alfa Laval, Stora and Electrolux. Also he explains how the Wallenberg family evolved the competencies and structures which they needed to fulfil their role as an active investor. These competencies included: choosing the right businesses in which to invest; “meta‐management” – recruiting and appointing the right chief executives; “legitimization” – building the Wallenberg reputation and good name in Swedish society and internationally by pursuing socially responsible and ethical policies; and nurturing corporations so they can become global leaders. The family works through two key structures: Investor AB – an investment company which has a board of non‐executive directors and two executive vice chairmen most of whom are experienced CEO’s from industry and commerce; and independent company boards, with strong CEO’s – which they change as necessary to ensure that they have the competencies required to deliver the agreed strategies. The Wallenberg’s approach to active ownership is entrepreneurial: “the need for incessant renewal”.

Users' knowledge sharing provides valuable resources for brand community participants and is, therefore, critical for the viability of virtual brand communities. Drawing from both self-determination theory (SDT) and psychological ownership theory, the paper aims to investigate the impact of fulfillment of three basic psychological needs on brand users' knowledge-sharing behavior and examines psychological ownership as a mediator.

Survey data consisting of 316 valid responses were collected from users of Huawei Pollen Club Community. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) confirmed the reliability and validity of measures, and hierarchical linear regression and bootstrapping were used to test all hypotheses.

Fulfillment of the need for autonomy, relatedness and competence in a virtual brand community boosts users' psychological ownership and has a positive influence on their knowledge-sharing behavior. Furthermore, psychological ownership partially mediates the relationships between the fulfillment of psychological needs and knowledge-sharing behavior. In addition, the authors found that when users participate in more offline brand activities, the positive impact of the fulfillment of the need for relatedness on psychological ownership is strengthened, while the positive impact of the fulfillment of the need for autonomy on psychological ownership is weakened.

The paper contributes to the existing literature by exploring the relationships between fulfilling users' three basic psychological needs and their knowledge-sharing behavior through the mediating role of psychological ownership. The authors also provide insight into how offline brand activities interact with the fulfillment of psychological needs in virtual brand communities.

The purpose of this paper is to advance the understanding of the relationship between firm-level governance mechanisms and firm performance using a contingency framework. The contingency framework is based on an integration of agency theory, stewardship theory, resource dependence theory and stakeholder theory of firm governance.

The authors test the arguments on a sample of all the listed firms on the New Zealand Stock Exchange between 2004 and 2007. Given the longitudinal nature of the data, the authors employ random effects, generalized least square estimation to run the regression models.

The authors find that the presence of internal directors, CEO duality, board size and presence of professional directors leads to superior firm performance. A lack of ownership concentration leads to agency problems resulting in inferior performance. However, the positive effect of board independence on firm performance reduces in firms that have a high-ownership concentration. Additionally, a high-ownership concentration attenuates the positive effects of board size and board competence.

This study helps reconcile some of the conflicting findings on firm governance-performance relationship. As the findings suggest, the effectiveness of a particular governance mechanism (such as board members) may depend on the presence or absence of another governance mechanism (such as ownership concentration). The integrative, multi-theoretic model that the authors propose in this paper is a unique contribution to the governance literature.

The advent of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) communities and review sites has strongly affected the tourism industry, changing the way hotels and accommodations build credibility and a good image. Few studies have tested, among eWOM communities, the predictors and factors that directly affect positive eWOM reviews. Using a directory of Spanish hotels in TripAdvisor, the purpose of this paper is to critically discuss and examine the predictors of positive eWOM, from the hoteliers’ perspective.

After the literature review on eWOM, hypotheses regarding predictors of positive eWOM were developed. Correlation and regression analyses were conducted to empirically validate the relation between hotel and personal characteristics and positive eWOM among a population of 335 hotels.

Results suggest that commitment and competence are factors affecting positive eWOM. The study found that hoteliers do not perceive hotel characteristics (category, size, and type of ownership) or the use of the review site as predictors of positive valence. Instead, they perceive commitment and competence as the main predictors.

The identification of the predictors of positive valence is important to get better eWOM valence. It would allow hotels to improve some factors that affect positive eWOM. In this way, the hotel resources and efforts would be better targeted.

The identification of the predictors of positive valence is important to get better eWOM valence. It would enable hotels to improve some factors and characteristics that affect positive eWOM. In this way, the hotel resources and efforts would be better targeted.

This paper investigates the factors affecting positive reviews on hotels, from the hoteliers’ perception. The study will help researchers to understand positive eWOM formation. Moreover, this study will provide marketers with information on how to improve efforts to obtain positive reviews.

The purpose of this paper is to explore drivers of alliance formation in a specialized supply chain from a manager’s perspective, focussing on firm-specific resources, resources embedded in inter-firm relationships and capabilities under the control of the focal firm.

This paper focusses on the resource-based view to obtain insights from the analysis of a manager survey conducted in Canada’s beef sector, applying a logistic regression approach to study alliance formation.

In identifying significant roles for resource richness and diversification of resource usage, the analysis highlights the importance of resource characteristics underlying factor market imperfections as drivers of alliance formation in a single primary input supply chain. The results suggest that resource heterogeneity is important for alliance formation and organizational success in specialized supply chains.

If previous alliance-related experience of managers, controlled for in the underlying cross-sectional survey, serves as an approximation for persistent unobservables impacting the alliance formation decision, we may face spurious state-dependence.

Managers interested in building compatible alliances in specialized single primary input supply chains may benefit from an improved understanding of the differential role of resource characteristics and resource heterogeneity for alliance formation, as these can function as a source of competitive advantage.

The analysis provides new insights from an individual manager’s perspective on alliance formation drivers in a specialized agri-food supply chain, thereby solidifying extant findings on alliance formation obtained in other sectors. The study contributes to the understanding of the role of resources in alliance formation with regard to prior relationship experience, resource heterogeneity and thus causal ambiguity, thereby also contributing to the debate of the role of relational capabilities vs firm-internal resources for sustained competitive advantage.

Ashworth Hospital has undertaken a management development program for 80 first‐line and middle managers, at the centre of which is the concept of empowerment. To avoid the pitfall, which many other such programs have fallen into, of paying lip‐service to the notion of empowerment, a “Project” has been established entitled “MORALE”. The project begins and ends with an evaluation emphasis on “M” for mentorship and “E” for empowerment. Sandwiched between these interdependent focuses are, “O” for ownership, “R” for responsibility, “A” for accountability, and “L” for learning, these being the accepted prerequisites for the success of empowered managers. Focusses on the delivery team′s belief that the effective development of managers, and their associated organizational benefits, can best be achieved through implementing strategies specifically designed to help empower them. Empowering managers is about helping them to take ownership of their jobs so that they can take personal and collaborative interest in improving the performance of the hospital.

The proliferation of non-fungible token (NFT)-based crypto-art platforms has transformed how creators manage, own and earn money through the creation, assets and identity of their digital works. Despite this, no studies have examined the drivers of continuous content contribution behavior (CCCB) toward NFTs. Hence, this study draws on the theory of relational bonds to examine how various relational bonds affect feelings of psychological ownership, which, in turn, affects CCCB on metaverse platforms.

Using structural equation modeling and importance-performance matrix analysis, an online survey of 434 content creators from prominent NFT platforms empirically validated the research hypotheses.

Financial, structural, and social bonds positively affect psychological ownership, which in turn encourages CCCBs. The results of the importance-performance matrix analysis reveal that male content creators prioritized virtual reputation and social enhancement, whereas female content creators prioritized personalization and monetary gains.

We examine Web 3.0 and the NFT creators’ network that characterizes the governance practices of the metaverse. Consequently, the findings facilitate a better understanding of creator economy and meta-verse commerce.