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Firms aiming to enhance firm performance require specific investment and qualification of capability. However, the relationship between these factors and firm performance is influenced by boundary conditions. This study focuses on the role of shared values as a governance mechanism in moderating the relationship between specific investment, qualification of capability, and firm performance.

Drawing on transaction cost analysis, the authors develop a theoretical model to explore how shared values moderate the relationship between specific investment, qualification of capability, and firm performance. The authors collected data from 156 firms in Cote d’Ivoire, resulting in a sample of 216 observations. The authors employed hierarchical regression analysis and the “pick-a-point approach” to examine how specific investment and qualification of capability impact firm performance at different levels of shared values.

The results indicate that specific investment and qualification of capability have a partially positive impact on firm performance. Interestingly, shared values are an important moderating variable, acting as a boundary condition that affects the relationship between specific investment, qualification of capability, and firm performance. Specifically, specific investment leads to excellent firm performance only when shared values are not sufficiently high, whereas qualification of capability leads to superior firm performance only when shared values are sufficiently high.

This study has three research implications. First, this study enriches TCA literature by identifying shared values as a boundary condition and examining the moderating role of shared values. Second, the study findings discover new insights into how specific investment and qualification of capability enhance or inhabit organizational performance at different levels of shared values. Third, this study extends the existing research and reveals the specific conditions for positive or negative relationships between specific investment and organizational performance and qualification of capability and organizational performance.

First, compared to specific investment, qualification of capability has greater effect on organizational performance. Second, when considering whether to increase specific investment or/and improve qualification of capability, executives are encouraged to first evaluate their firm's level of shared values and then make appropriate strategic decision accordingly. Third, six tactics are recommended for enhancing shared values.

This study enriches the literature on transaction cost analysis and contributes to understanding the moderating role of shared values. The findings shed light on the specific investment, qualification of capability, and firm performance relationships. Additionally, this research highlights the importance of considering shared values as a boundary condition in examining these relationships.

Prior research has drawn from entrepreneurial practice to conceptualize a variety of discreet narrative types. Research has also demonstrated that narratives are a practical and useful tool for entrepreneurs in many stages of the entrepreneurial process. This paper proposes a new narrative, shared narrative, and a conceptual model for how entrepreneurs might build such a narrative that is strategic in nature.

First, the authors review the types of narrative and introduce shared narrative as an account that narrativizes both the entrepreneur and relevant stakeholders. Then, integrating theoretical concepts from constitutive rhetoric and value co-creation, the authors introduce a conceptual framework as a three-stage process guide for entrepreneurs to build shared narratives for strategic stakeholder engagement. Leveraging the power of shared roles and salient values as the key to pre-story building process, the intended audience of the story (i.e. consumer, investor) is present from the inception of the story and integral to its success.

The authors assert that entrepreneurs need to adopt a shared narrative approach for strategic purposes. Further, the development of a shared narrative begins at the pre-story process of co-creation, focused on identifying the roles and values entrepreneurs share with their various stakeholders. Incorporating these shared roles and salient values into the entrepreneurial narrative will result in a narrative that is compelling, authentic and adaptable to different stages of the entrepreneurial process and for multiple stakeholder audiences. Post-story, this authentic narrative will result in higher levels of engagement from both the audience and the entrepreneur in the form of reciprocal action.

This paper proposes a new narrative and provides a structured process to support entrepreneurs in building shared narratives for strategic engagement with a wide range of stakeholders.

Innovation ecosystems (IEs) have attracted the attention of policymakers and researchers because of their potential to positively affect territories, creating shared value. However, due to the fragmentation of IEs, how this happens in different IEs has been explored only partially. This research aims to bridge this gap, aiming to support policymakers in understanding how to foster shared value in diverse IEs.

The paper identifies, based on the literature, two “drivers of aggregation” of IE's actors as key dimensions characterizing shared value in IEs, namely physical proximity and dominant issue. If these are combined, three archetypes emerge: Hub- and Chain-Driven, Place-Driven, Competence- and Issue-Driven IEs.Then, elements useful for understanding shared value creation in these archetypes are framed and studied in real cases.

Results reveal that aggregation drivers affect shared value creation, which differ among archetypes: in Competence- and Issue-Driven IEs alignment is challenged by the low physical proximity, which in Place-Driven IEs is high, but not enough to grant shared value; in Hub- and Chain-Driven IEs, the hub is the orchestrator, representing both a driver and a risk.

Differences in shared value creation processes relate to the set-up of the IE, which has relevant implications for policy definition. In Competence- and Issue-Driven IEs, policies at diverse levels align in funding and promoting the IE; in Place-Driven IEs, policies support anchors' development on-site; in Hub- and Chain-Driven IEs, policies, sometimes absent, should foster partnerships for projects for the territory, IE's enlargement and resilience.

This study aims to investigate the role of green strategic alliances (GSAs) in fostering a green shared vision (GSVis) and green shared value (GSV) and their impact on green organizational identity (GOI) and sustainability.

The authors employed structural equation modeling to analyze data collected through a 60-item questionnaire administered in Portugal and China, allowing the authors to test their theoretical model.

The findings of the authors' study indicate that green strategic alliances have a positive influence on the development of a GSVis and GSV in both countries. This, in turn, contributes to improved sustainability and the establishment of a GOI. Furthermore, the authors' results demonstrate that these alliances enhance GSV, resulting in enhanced sustainability performance and a stronger green identity, with a notable increase in awareness of environmental and social practices.

This article is innovative as it applies organizational learning and value creation theories to gain a deeper understanding of how alliances can shape the green identity of companies and contribute to their overall sustainability.

The learning outcomes of this study are to assess the shared value model and elaborate on new multi-stakeholder approaches to business, where the stakeholders include the founders, investors, partners, employees, clients and the surrounding community; to consider the synergies between community development, environmental stewardship, sustainable business practices and the long-term health of organisations and communities, considering these as the new fundamentals of business; to examine the interconnectedness of vision, strategy, purpose and leadership in creating and evolving the shared value model; to explore the relationship between shared value practices and collective well-being, and a specific reference to nurturing transformative experiences through nature, personal development and community upliftment is made; and to assess Grootbos’ ability to translate their purpose and value proposition into a strategy and sustainable vision with a possibility of Grootbos achieving global impact through its evolving model, beyond the founder.

This case study explores the evolution of Grootbos Private Nature Reserve and Foundation, a luxury hospitality lodge and award-winning ecotourism destination, from humble beginnings in the Western Cape of South Africa to a global example of conservation, community, commerce sustainability and transformative experiences. The establishing of Grootbos and its growth and widespread recognition can be attributed to the vision and inspirational leadership of its founder, Michael Lutzeyer. Although much success has been achieved in conservation, community upliftment and individual development of community members within their region, Lutzeyer’s and ultimately, Grootbos’ vision extended well beyond South Africa and aspired to elevate their floral kingdom and model of development and conservation to a global platform of awareness. Although a shared value vision and strategy had transformed the business, placing Grootbos as a leader in transforming their industry and sparking an evolution in the shared value model itself through the interjection of transformative experiences, the larger question remained: How can Grootbos extend the impact, towards people and planetary well-being, beyond the scope of their individual place-based business and their industry? And in terms of the dilemma Lutzeyer and the management team at Grootbos faced: How will this vision and global ambition continue through succession, beyond Luzeyer’s personal drive at the helm?

Experienced leaders within a graduate degree program, executive Master of Business Administration (MBA) or executive education in the areas of leadership development, strategy, shared value and international business.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS4: Environmental management.

This study aims to investigate the predictive role of team personality composition in facilitating shared leadership through team member exchange (TMX), while also to examine the moderating effect of organizational culture.

The authors conducted a two-stage online survey and selected the customer service teams, claims teams and financial teams of 26 Chinese insurance companies as the research samples. The authors finally obtained validated questionnaires from 107 teams with 457 members. The hypothesized relationships were tested using SPSS 25.0 and Mplus.

The results indicate that both team relationship-oriented and task-oriented personality composition have significant positive effects on shared leadership with team-member exchange serving as a full mediator for both paths. As a boundary condition, organizational culture (i.e. including internal integration values and external adaptation values) has a moderating effect on the influence of TMX on shared leadership.

The study investigates the predictive role of team personality composition on shared leadership, which complements the empirical studies of shared leadership antecedents in the literature. Drawing on social exchange perspective, the authors find out that TMX serves as a mediator between team personality composition and shared leadership. The authors also identify the moderating effect of organizational culture on the emergence of shared leadership. The research emphasizes the contextual boundary condition in this process.

This research serves to determine causal configurations of corporate social responsibility (CSR) conditions that best influences grassroots football club stakeholders to meet a sponsor's goals through promotional activity.

The research uses a case study of the Essex Alliance League, a local amateur football league in England. Firstly, semi-structured interviews were held with multiple stakeholders to understand the ecosystem of grassroots football. From here, further semi-structured interviews were held with club sponsors to identify the conditions of CSR. This allowed the research to then issue a survey from which results were analysed and discussed using fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA).

The ecosystem of grassroots football is formed by a myriad of stakeholders operating at a national level, all the way to more local governance structures within which the business-club relationship exists. Sponsors identified three main conditions of CSR: shared values, self-congruity, and happiness. However, following fsQCA, two pathways were found: (1) presence of shared values, and (2) presence of happiness with the absence of self-congruity.

For practitioners, adaptations can be made for clubs to attract and maintain sponsorship as businesses seek to use grassroots sport as a channel for their own CSR objectives. To attract long term sponsorship, club managers are recommended to maintain long-term relationships with business owners especially in relation to personal values, fit, and happiness. As such, the responsibility of the club to ensure its stakeholders engage in promotional activity on behalf of their sponsor will help in maximising the financial value over multiple seasons.

Where fertile ground for academic analysis in grassroots football is present, this research investigates CSR activity at this level of football, where most research is more concerned with professional levels of the game. Furthermore, this research reaches into the sport ecosystem through an understanding of co-created values between organisations in this exchange of shared values to meet common objectives.

Research on the “black box” of cognitive capital remains limited in supply chain resilience (SCRES) literature. Drawing from an in-depth single case study of a major consumer electronics multinational facing the COVID-19 disruption, this paper aims to develop a clearer picture of cognitive capital’s elements while contextualizing how they interact with SCRES temporal capabilities to prepare, respond, recover and learn.

Consisting of 40 in-depth interviews collected during a four-month period, this single case revolves around the buyer’s view across 36 multiregional buyer–supplier dyads, spanning 17 product and service categories. Data were processed during the pandemic, while findings discuss pre- and intra-crisis events based on two scenarios: the impact of disruption on category demand, comparing sudden pandemic-driven product and service demand fluctuations (i.e. increase, decrease); and the geographical proximity of the supplier relative to the buying firm.

The case unveils different elements of cognitive capital (e.g. shared goals, assumptions, values, kinesics language, multilingualism, virtual negotiation, prior disruption experience, shared process capabilities) during a major global disruption, suggesting that different cognitive capital elements influence positively and differently SCRES’ temporal capabilities. Overall, buying firms are urged to build on cognitive capital to improve SCRES preparation, response, recovery and learning.

This paper extends the understanding of cognitive capital in buyer–supplier relationships by identifying its elements and offering a theoretical articulation of how they enable episodically the four SCRES temporal capabilities under contingencies of increased and decreased demands, and suppliers’ geographical proximity.

The aim of this paper is to explore the stakeholder exclusion practices of responsible leaders.

An interpretive multiple case analyses of seven responsibly led organisations was employed. Twenty-two qualitative interviews were undertaken to investigate and understand perceptions and practice of responsible leaders and their approach to stakeholder inclusion and exclusion.

The findings revealed new and surprising insights where responsible leaders compromised their espoused values of inclusivity through the application of a personal bias, resulting in the exclusion of certain stakeholders. This exclusivity practice focused on the informal evaluation of potential stakeholders’ values, and where they did not align with those of the responsible leader, these stakeholders were excluded from participation with the organisation. This resulted in the creation and continuity of a culture of shared moral purpose across the organisation.

This study focussed on responsible leader-led organisations, so the next stage of the research will include mainstream organisations (i.e. without explicit responsible leadership) to examine how personal values bias affects stakeholder selection in a wider setting.

The findings suggest that reflexive practice and critically appraising management methods in normative leadership approaches may lead to improvements in diversity management.

This paper presents original empirical data challenging current perceptions of responsible leader inclusivity practices and indicates areas of leadership development that may need to be addressed.