Search results

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the possible curvilinear relationship between empowering leadership and individual in-role and extra-role work performance and the potential moderating role of individual goal orientations.

Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted based on data from 655 certified accountants. Leaders' empowering behavior was measured using Ahearne et al.'s scale. Mastery and performance goal orientations were measured using items from VandeWalle. In-role work performance was measured via a ten-item scale developed and used by Kuvaas and Dysvik. Organizational citizenship behavior was measured using items validated by Van Dyne and LePine.

Too little empowerment might have a negative or limited impact – or none at all – on individual in-role and extra-role work performance. In addition, individual mastery orientation positively moderates these curvilinear relationships.

Empowering leadership-employee performance relationships are not necessarily linear. The present study provides an alternative explanation to the somewhat inconsistent findings in the current literature.

Due to the curvilinear nature of empowering leadership, leaders should not just casually adopt this leadership style but ensure that they implement it at high levels with clear clarification of the goals and work roles.

Even though empowering leadership is important to individual performance, scant research has explored whether and when empowering leadership could be detrimental. This study provides an additional view to empowerment research by examining the potential curvilinear influence of empowering leadership.

Drawing on the challenge–hindrance stressor framework and the “too-much-of-a-good-thing” principle, this study examined the curvilinear effects of two emic social challenge stressors (guanxi beliefs and participative decision-making (PDM)) and the moderating effect of an etic social hindrance stressor (perceived organizational politics) on Hong Kong and United States nurses’ job satisfaction.

A quantitative survey method was implemented, with the data provided by 355 Hong Kong nurses and 116 United States nurses. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the degree of measurement equivalence across Hong Kong and US nurses. The proposed model and the research questions were tested using nonlinear structural equation modeling analyses.

The results show that while guanxi beliefs only showed an inverted U-shaped relation on Hong Kong nurses’ job satisfaction, PDM had an inverted U-shaped relation with both Hong Kong and United States nurses’ job satisfaction. The authors also found that Hong Kong nurses experienced the highest job satisfaction when their guanxi beliefs and perceived organization politics were both high.

The results add to the comprehension of the nuances of the often-held assumption of linearity in organizational sciences and support the speculation of social stressors-outcomes linkages.

Managers need to recognize that while the nurturing and development of effective relationships with employees via social interaction are important, managers also need to be aware that too much guanxi and PDM may lead employees to feel overwhelmed with expectations of reciprocity and reconciliation to such an extent that they suffer adverse outcomes and become dissatisfied with their jobs.

First, the authors found that influences of guanxi beliefs and PDM are not purely linear and that previous research may have neglected the curvilinear nature of their influences on job satisfaction. Second, the authors echo researchers’ call to consider an organization’s political context to fully understand employees’ attitudes and reactions toward social interactions at work. Third, the authors examine boundary conditions of curvilinear relationships to understand the delicate dynamics.

This study focuses on service quality and satisfaction judgments of customers in banking institutions throughout Malaysia. The study attempts to determine the relationship between service quality and satisfaction, where service quality is the independent variable and satisfaction is the dependent variable. On top of this, the inclusion of ownership as a moderator has also been studied. Findings show that service quality is the antecedent of satisfaction. The findings also support a curvilinear relationship for the variables under study. The results also show that bank‐ownership moderates the relationship between service quality and satisfaction. Hierarchical moderator regression is used to test the moderating effect. Implications and future research are also discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to posit and empirically demonstrate that positive and negative leader behaviors have a linear relationship with subordinate outcomes. The authors challenge this notion, and test a model where leader positive and negative behaviors have a curvilinear relationship (inverse-U shaped) with subordinate job satisfaction.

Cross-sectional design, based on a sample of 131 employees working across organizations and industries in the USA. Subordinates provided information on all study measures.

The authors show that higher levels of positive and negative behaviors from the leader will not generate a corresponding linear increase in employees’ satisfaction. Instead, the relationship is non-linear, with diminishing returns in subordinate job satisfaction for positive leader behaviors and higher ones for negative leader behaviors. In addition, subordinates with high levels of hardiness are more satisfied with positive leader behaviors, and report less dissatisfaction with negative leader behaviors.

Limitations are cross-sectional design, self-reported data, measurement of a limited number of leader behaviors as representative of leader positive and negative behaviors, and focus on only one dependent construct (subordinate job satisfaction).

Above a certain point, leaders’ positive behaviors have limited effect on increasing subordinates’ job satisfaction. Likewise, leaders’ negative behaviors decrease subordinates’ job satisfaction only above specific levels of leader behaviors.

The authors challenge this notion of linearity by theorizing and demonstrating that subordinates’ job satisfaction is influenced by leader positive and negative behaviors in non-linear relationship characterized by an inverse-U-shaped and a specific increase and decrease pattern.

This research proposes and examines a theoretical model grounded in anthropomorphism theory considering the curvilinear and linear relationships between service robot anthropomorphism and consumer usage intention and explores the mediating effect of perceived risk.

To examine the developed model, two complementary studies are designed. In Study 1, multi-time data of 511 participants show that service robot anthropomorphism inverts U-shaped (curvilinear) relationship on consumer usage intention and perceived risk mediates this curvilinear relationship. In Study 2, multi-source data of 460 volunteers are used to confirm the findings of Study 1 and examine that consumer empathy moderates the complex nonlinear effect of service robot anthropomorphism on perceived risk, and the indirect curvilinear effect of service robot anthropomorphism on consumer usage intention through perceived risk.

This research provides preliminary and yet important findings on how service robot anthropomorphism most likely is positively associated with consumer usage intention, i.e. the positively influence mechanism of service robot anthropomorphism on consumer usage intention.

This research provides preliminary and yet important findings on how service robot anthropomorphism most likely is positively associated with consumer usage intention, i.e. the positively influence mechanism of service robot anthropomorphism on consumer usage intention.

Intensified job demands (IJDs; work intensification, intensified job- and career-related planning and decision-making demands, and intensified learning demands) illustrate the intensification of working life. This study examined relationships between IJDs and work engagement.

Nine diverse samples (n = 7,786) were analyzed separately via regression analysis by estimating linear and curvilinear relationships between IJDs and engagement.

The results showed that certain subdimensions of IJDs, i.e. intensified learning demands, related positively to engagement across several subsamples. Moreover, learning demands showed a curvilinear relationship with engagement in several subsamples; engagement was highest in a moderate level of learning demands whereas low and high levels of learning demands were associated with lower engagement. We also found that other subdimensions of IJDs did not show consistent positive relationships with engagement, and some of them were negatively associated with engagement.

Cross-sectional design.

Organizations should consider what would be the optimal level of learning demands as excessive learning demands can be detrimental to employees’ engagement.

This is a first study focusing on different manifestations of the intensification of working life, operationalized via IJDs, and their curvilinear relationships with engagement by applying a multi-sample design.

The relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and financial performance (FP) has bourgeoned widespread debate among researchers. In recent years, the debate has explored more dynamic links, one of which is the curvilinear relationship, between CSR and FP. This paper aims to empirically test the curvilinear relationship between CSR and FP in the context of Indian companies.

This paper empirically tests the curvilinear relationship between CSR and FP in the context of Indian companies. The study used a panel data of 43 listed companies over a period of ten years from 2008 to 2017. A correlation and panel regression were carried out to examine the possible link.

The findings demonstrate that a curvilinear relationship exists between CSR and FP, suggesting that two long competing viewpoints may be complementary.

The study mainly focuses on top companies, so the generalizations of results to other small companies are unwanted.

An immediate managerial implication of the findings suggests that to serve the interests of the shareholders, a long-run planning and considerable resources should be dedicated at this direction, given that CSR expenditure does not pay off immediately.

In the Indian context, very few studies have analyzed the linkages between CSR and FP. Using an improved and distinctive approach, the study empirically tests the relationship between CSR and FP from non-linear perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the performance implications of two major mechanisms for organizational learning (i.e. exploration and exploitation). Exploration refers to firm activities that explore new and novel knowledge, whereas exploitation reflects the extent to which a firm reuses its existing knowledge. The authors predict curvilinear (i.e. an inverted U-shape) relationships between exploration/exploitation and firm performance, respectively. That is, firm performance first increases with exploration/exploitation at a decreasing rate; then, firm performance decreases at an increasing rate after firm performance reaches a maximum point. Furthermore, the authors examine whether the curvilinear relationships are moderated by two types of firm–stakeholder relationships (i.e. firm–employee and firm–customer relationships).

Using the data from National Bureau of Economic Research, US Patent Citations Data File, KLD Research and Analytics Inc. and Compustat series, the authors construct an unbalanced panel data set of 3,070 observations in 554 firms from 1991 to 2006. To test the hypotheses, feasible generalized least squares regression is used.

In consistent with the prediction, the authors find inverted U-shape relationships between exploration/exploitation and firm performance. The authors also find that the curvilinear relationships are moderated by firm–employee relationships. The relationships between exploration/exploitation and firm performance become stronger when firms have better relationships with employees.

The study provides empirical evidence that better firm–employee relationships can strengthen the curvilinear relationships between exploration/exploitation and firm performance. The authors argue that future studies should extend to other stakeholder relationships, using more refined measures, and incorporating the concept of ambidexterity.

The findings suggest that managers should design innovation strategy based on performance implications of exploration/exploitation and that managers should also realize that stakeholder relationships can influence the relationships between exploration/exploitation and firm performance. First, the study shows that although exploration and exploitation can improve firm performance, too much exploration or exploitation is not good for firm performance. Therefore, managers should consider seriously the maximum point of performance that exploration and exploitation can reach and avoid too much exploration or exploitation. Second, firms can invest in firm–employee relationships to gain better performance implications from exploration/exploitation. The study shows that, as firms develop better firm–employee relationship, the relationships between exploration/exploitation and firm performance are stronger and firm performance is likely to reach a higher apex.

The authors find the inverted U-shape relationships between exploration/exploitation and firm performance, moreover, the authors add two contingent factors associated with stakeholders that can help exploration and exploitation contribute more to firm performance.

This paper aims to identify the relationship pattern between intra-team trust and team innovation and the influence of moderating variable task complexity on the relationship. It also describes why and how intra-team trust is a unique antecedent for team innovation, as too much or too less influence of the variable can have detrimental effects on team innovation.

The paper uses survey research. The data were collected by distributing questionnaires to work teams. After the individual-level data were aggregated into team-level data, hierarchical linier regression was conducted to test the hypotheses.

The paper provides empirical findings that (1) intra-team trust and team innovation have a curvilinear relationship pattern, (2) task complexity does not influence curvilinear relationship (3) and the increase in task complexity improves the possibility of team innovation to occur.

The paper has two limitations. First, as intra-team trust was also represented by aggregated perception of team members’ trust for outside parties (not only members’ perception for their teams), the future research is expected to include the representation in the instrument. Second, recent research studies have shown that contextual factor of task interdependence, instead of task complexity, also had an effect on the relationship pattern between intra-team trust and team performance (i.e. team innovation). Therefore, for future researchers, it is suggested that the use of task interdependence would be an alternative moderating variable on the relationship between intra-team trust and team innovation.

The paper discusses the strategy to enhance team innovation by revealing strategies to manage interplay among intra-team trust, team complexity and the desired team innovation.

The paper identifies the need to conduct empirical research on how an interplay among intra-team trust, task complexity and team innovation could be enabled.

This paper aims to investigate the underlying mechanisms that come into play in the relationship between technology orientation (TO) and performance in technology firms. In doing so, this paper explores how different levels of TO affect firm innovativeness, how different levels of firm innovativeness affect performance and the moderating role of risk-taking propensity in the relationship between innovativeness and performance.

Data were collected from 112 information technology firms. Control variables include firm size and age and industry effects. The model was tested using PLS-based SEM.

Results show that in technology firms, innovativeness plays a mediating role in the relationship between TO and firm performance, the relationship between TO and firm innovativeness is curvilinear, the relationship between innovativeness and performance is curvilinear and risk-taking propensity moderates the curvilinear relationship between innovativeness and performance.

The shape of the relationships in the mediating paths between TO, innovativeness and performance, is curvilinear (inverted U-shaped). Managers in technology firms focused on bolstering the TO and/or innovativeness should be cognizant of the fact that beyond a certain level, they might actually be doing more harm than good. Additionally, managers seeking to reinforce the relationship between innovativeness and performance need to be sensitive to the role that risk-taking propensity plays in this relationship.