The adoption of technological innovations in a B2B context and its impact on firm performance: An ethical leadership perspective

The introduction of the digital economy has opened much discussion on the various business models that challenge traditional thinking in B2B marketing. This includes technological innovation in the digital space which has brought about theoretical changes in the way marketing is applied, more so in the B2B environment where communication is essential in the alignment with various stakeholders. Several discussions on ethical leadership in the digital economy have provided some insights into addressing increased complexity in a society where markets are connected (physically) yet disconnected (proximity) and this has led marketing practices going astray. Our paper proposes the relevance of ethical leadership and its role in the application of technological innovation by arguing that technological innovation has a positive impact on firm performance and that ethical leadership plays a critical role in moderating this effect. We use a dynamic panel data system Generalized Method of Moment (GMM) approach to examine secondary data from 465 IT service companies and demonstrate that ethical leadership plays a critical role as it enables innovation through technology, and this has an impact on the firm's performance.     

Family ownership and firm performance: Influence of family management,family control,and firm size

This study examines the relationship between family ownership and firm performance by considering the influence of family management, family control, and firm size. Using proxy data of 786 public family firms in Taiwan during 2002–2007, this study found that family ownership is positively associated with firm performance. The positive association is strong particularly when family members serve as CEOs, top managers, chairpersons, or directors of the firms; however, the association becomes weak when family members are not involved in firm management or control. The findings suggest that the potential family-ownership effects are more likely to be realized when family ownership is combined with active family management and control. In addition, the association between family ownership and firm performance is stronger in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) than in large companies.     

Modularity,strategic flexibility,and firm performance: a study of the home appliance industry

Recent theorizing has proposed that modular product and process architectures are key enablers of strategic flexibility. We formulated an integrative conceptual model encompassing antecedents, contributing factors, and outcomes of modularity. We then tested this model on data from managers in U.S. and U.K. home appliance companies using structural equations modeling. The results indicate a positive relationship between modular product architectures and performance, with product model variety as a mediating variable. The results also highlight linkages between perceptions of market context and the use of modular products architectures, and between complementary organizational capabilities and firm performance. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The impact of norm‐conforming behaviors on firm reputation

Deviance from social norms has been extensively examined in recent strategy research, leaving the strategic implications of conformity largely unexplored. In this article, we argue that firms can elect to conform to a norm along two dimensions: compliance with the goal and level of commitment to the procedures. We then produce a typology of four norm‐conforming behaviors, which allows us to isolate differentiated effects of conformity on firm reputation. We examine the corporate environmental disclosures of 90 U.S. firms and find that firms derive different reputational rewards depending on whether they conform to the goal or procedure dimension of the environmental transparency norm. In addition, the relationship between conformity and reputation is moderated by the firm's prior reputation and the stringency of the normative environment. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

CEO transformational leadership and firm performance: A moderated mediation model of TMT trust climate and environmental dynamism

This study examines the role of top management team (TMT) trust climate in the relationship between CEO transformational leadership (TFL) and firm performance under dynamic environments. The research results based on a sample collected from firms in Vietnam show that TMT trust climate is a key mediator which can convert CEO TFL into better performance outcomes. Moderated-mediation analyses further reveal that the mediating effect of TMT trust climate is more significant in less dynamic environments. Our study contributes to the TFL theory by identifying a critical mechanism that intervenes in the relationship between CEO-level TFL and firm performance. We reveal how CEOs exert leadership influence on subsequent TMT dynamics and performance outcomes by navigating external environments. Moreover, our study offers insights with regard to the trust theory by uncovering TMT-level intragroup trust as a mediator, and thus complements most of prior examinations that focus on the moderating role of trust in workplace team contexts.     

Complex adaptive system mechanisms,adaptive management practices,and firm product innovativeness

As a fascinating concept, the mechanisms of complex adaptive system (CAS) attracted many researchers from a variety of disciplines. Nevertheless, how the mechanism‐related variables, such as strategic resonance, accreting nodes, pattern forming, and catalytic behavior of organization, impact the firm product innovativeness is rarely addressed empirically in the new product development (NPD) literature. Also, there exist limited studies on the antecedents of the mechanisms of CAS in the NPD literature. In this respect, we identified and operationalized the adaptive management practices, which involve bonding, nonlinear, and attractor behaviors of management, as antecedents of mechanisms and firm product innovativeness. By studying 235 firms, we found that (1) strategic resonance and accreting nodes are positively related to firm product innovativeness, (2) bonding, nonlinear, and attractor behaviors of management positively influence the mechanism variables, and (3) market and technology turbulence impact the adaptive management practices. We also found that mechanisms of CAS partially mediate the relationship between adaptive management practices and firm product innovativeness.     

Managing corporate-government relationships in a multi-cultural setting: How political corporate social responsibility (PCSR) as a response to legitimacy pressures affects firm reputation

As many multinationals set up subsidiaries in emerging markets, they face legitimacy pressures from the host countries. This pressure leads firms to engage in political corporate social responsibility (PCSR) activities. We distinguish two types of attributions of PCSR activities – public-serving and self-serving – and study how these two types of PCSR attributions affect firm reputation. Analyzing 463 PCSR activities by 104 firms in China between 2015 and 2017, we find that public-serving PCSR enhances firm reputation, while self-serving PCSR diminishes it. In addition, we document a negative interaction effect between the two attributions of PCSR. We also find that CEO participation attenuates the negative effect of self-serving PCSR whereas administrative distance accentuates the positive effect of public-serving PCSR. Our research contributes to the nascent literature on government relation networks and sheds light on how firms should manage their relationships with the host countries in a multi-cultural setting.     

How CEO hubris affects corporate social (ir)responsibility

Grounded in the upper echelons perspective and stakeholder theory, this study establishes a link between CEO hubris and corporate social responsibility (CSR). We first develop the theoretical argument that CEO hubris is negatively related to a firm's socially responsible activities but positively related to its socially irresponsible activities. We then explore the boundary conditions of hubris effects and how these relationships are moderated by resource dependence mechanisms. With a longitudinal dataset of S&P 1500 index firms for the period 2001–2010, we find that the relationship between CEO hubris and CSR is weakened when the firm depends more on stakeholders for resources, such as when its internal resource endowments are diminished as indicated by firm size and slack, and when the external market becomes more uncertain and competitive. The implications of our findings for upper echelons theory and the CSR research are discussed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Looking good by doing good: The antecedents and consequences of stakeholder attention to corporate disaster relief

Stakeholder theory suggests a relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate financial performance (CFP) because certain stakeholders reward certain types of CSR. This argument assumes that stakeholders attend to firms' CSR activities—an assumption that has yet to be examined. We fill this gap by extending stakeholder theory to the context of stakeholder attention to firm CSR and exploring the antecedents and consequences of stakeholder attention to corporate disaster relief CSR. We test the resulting hypotheses on a sample of public companies that engaged in natural disaster relief efforts, finding that stakeholder attention partially mediated the relationship between disaster relief and CFP and that stakeholder attention to corporate disaster relief was driven by the legitimacy, urgency, and enactment of disaster relief CSR initiatives. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Nonfinancial Considerations in Eco-Innovation Decisions: The Role of Family Ownership and Reputation Concerns

Societal pressures for greater sustainability can encourage firms to target part of their innovation activities at ecological initiatives (i.e., eco-innovation). Yet, depending on their value function, firms can respond differently to such pressures and exhibit variance in their eco-innovation activities. In this paper, we investigate the idea that a firm’s ownership structure may play a significant role in determining its engagement in eco-innovation. Specifically, we propose that ownership by family blockholders increases the value attached to the company’s reputation and that this, in turn, stimulates higher levels of eco-innovation. In other words, we model the company reputation motive as a key mediator in the relationship between family ownership and firm-level eco-innovation. To account for family firm heterogeneity, we also model the moderating role of owners’ intention to pass the business on to the next family generation (transgenerational intentions) and of the extent to which these owners reside in the firm’s local community (local embeddedness). As theoretical backdrop, our study builds on institutional theory and the mixed gamble logic. To test our hypotheses, we use a large sample of German firms and nonlinear moderated mediation regression analysis. Results reveal that family ownership is positively related to the introduction of eco-innovations by firms, in part because of the stronger emphasis being placed on the company’s reputation. We find that this effect is strongest when the owning-family has transgenerational intentions. As such, this study advances our understanding of firm-level drivers of eco-innovation. In view of the prevalence of family-owned firms and the mounting importance of ecological sustainability, it is valuable to extend knowledge on the contingent and indirect effect of family ownership on eco-innovation.     

Entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance: The role of knowledge creation process

This study examines the relationships among entrepreneurial orientation, knowledge creation process, and firm performance using survey data from 165 entrepreneurs. We use LISREL analysis to test the direct and indirect effects of the entrepreneurial orientation on firm performance. Knowledge creation process - operationalized to reflect the dimensions of socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization - is used as the mediating variable for explaining the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance. The results indicate that the significance of the direct effect of entrepreneurial orientation on firm performance is reduced when the indirect effect of entrepreneurial orientation through knowledge creation process is included in a total effect model. Consequently, entrepreneurial orientation is positively related to firm performance, and knowledge creation process plays a mediating role in this relationship.     

企业社会责任表现、报告质量与企业声誉——基于中国上市公司的实证研究

近年来,越来越多的企业通过发布企业社会责任（CSR）报告与利益相关者沟通CSR表现的情况。在CSR与企业声誉之间的关系备受关注的背景下,CSR报告质量在其中发挥着什么样的作用呢？梳理现有文献,将CSR表现划分成责任管理、市场责任、社会责任以及环境责任,通过实证检验,分别探讨各自与企业声誉之间的作用机理,并研究CSR报告质量在二者之间关系中的调节效应。研究结果显示CSR表现正向作用于企业声誉,相较于责任管理,责任实践的正向作用更强。同时CSR报告质量在二者之间的关系中具有调节效应,能够进一步提升企业声誉,并且对环境责任的调节效应最为明显。     

Strategic orientations,marketing proactivity and firm market performance

Guided by strategic orientations, firms must continuously deliver superior value in order to maintain a strong position in the market over the long-term. This study explores how two prominent strategic orientations (i.e., market and technological orientations) influence a firm's marketing proactivity and performance, with marketing proactivity being the key to delivering continuously superior value. Specifically, we examine how the cultural (i.e., a proactive market orientation) and the behavioral (i.e., market pioneering) dimensions of marketing proactivity, and the interaction between them, affects a firm's market performance. A structural equation modeling analysis of survey data from 109 firms shows that a proactive market orientation and market pioneering have a significant positive impact on the sales per employee and the growth rate of a firm. Our findings suggest that market pioneering strengthens the positive relationship between proactive market orientation and sales per employee and growth rate. A firm's technological orientation is positively related to both its proactive market orientation and market pioneering. However, the responsive market orientation of a firm only has a significant positive effect on proactive market orientation, and not on market pioneering. We discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of these findings.     

企业社会责任、社会资本与组织竞争优势:一个战略互动视角——基于中国转型期经验的实证研究

本文融合社会资本理论,构建了转型经济中企业社会责任影响组织竞争优势的理论框架,并运用151家中国企业的调查数据进行了实证检验。结果发现:企业社会责任与经济绩效之间不存在相关性,但与组织声誉正向相关,社会资本会明显强化企业社会责任的声誉效应。具体而言,等级制社会资本会显著促进企业社会责任与组织声誉的相关关系,而市场社会资本则限制了企业社会责任对组织声誉的贡献。本文从研究方法的跨层次风险、资源依赖的动态性和整合能力等方面进行了应用性的讨论,建议中国企业用基于社会资本的战略性社会责任超越慈善导向的社会责任,通过这种战略转型积聚组织竞争优势。     

The differential effects of CEO narcissism and hubris on corporate social responsibility

Research Summary: While prior studies have predominantly shown that CEO narcissism and hubris exhibit similar effects on various strategic decisions and outcomes, this study aims to explore the mechanisms underlying how narcissistic versus hubristic CEOs affect their firms differently. Specifically, we investigate how peer influence moderates the CEO narcissism/hubris—corporate social responsibility (CSR). With a sample of S&P 1500 firms for 2003–2010, we find that the positive relationship between CEO narcissism and CSR is strengthened (weakened) when board‐interlocked peer firms invest less (more) intensively in CSR than a CEO's own firm; the negative relationship between CEO hubris and CSR is strengthened when peer firms are engaged in less CSR than a CEO's own firm. Managerial Summary: Some CEOs are more narcissistic while others may be more hubristic, but these two groups of CEOs hold different attitudes toward the extent to which their firms should engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR). Our findings with a large sample of U.S. publically listed firms suggest that narcissistic CEOs care more about CSR, but hubristic CEOs care less. Interestingly, when narcissistic CEOs observe their peer firms engaging in more or less CSR than their own firms, they tend to respond in an opposite manner; in contrast, hubristic CEOs will only engage in even less CSR when their peers also do not emphasize CSR. Our findings point to a fundamental difference between CEO narcissism and hubris in terms of how they affect firms' CSR decisions based on their social comparison with peer firms.     

Managers' compassionate goals,innovation, and firm performance: an examination of mediating processes,and boundary conditions in small- and medium-sized enterprises

This study aims to examine the relationships of managers' compassionate goals with innovation and performance in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). By integrating social exchange theory with social information processing theory, we hypothesize a serial mediation model in which organizational cooperation and firm innovation sequentially mediate a positive relationship between managers' compassionate goals and firm performance. However, we predict that this positive indirect effect would occur only when managers have low self-image goals and there is a high innovation-supportive work environment. Based on survey data from a sample of 116 SMEs in France, our results provide support for our predictions. This study contributes to the literature by disclosing the mechanisms and boundary conditions of the relationship of managers' compassionate goals with SMEs' innovation and performance. Theoretical and managerial implications of this study are discussed.     

Teamwork and delegation of decisions within the firm

Teamwork effort is related to a number of firm and workers’ outcomes such as firm productivity, innovation or job satisfaction. Thus, it becomes important to understand the factors conducive to teamwork. In this paper, we analyze the relationship between teamwork and the firm organizational design, with a particular emphasis on the decentralization of decision rights. We develop a simple model allowing for different organizational structures, according to whether or not production and firm strategic decisions are delegated. We find that overall delegation of decision making is positively associated with teamwork. However, when we distinguish between delegation of firm strategic decisions and delegation of production decisions, we obtain that it is just the delegation of firm strategic decisions that induces teamwork. We test the model predictions on a unique dataset of Spanish small and medium size firms that contains information on worker self-reported importance of teamwork. The empirical analysis also corroborates previous findings in the literature regarding the positive relation between cooperation and pay incentives.     

The effect of CEO pay deviations on CEO withdrawal,firm size,and firm profits

We build upon previous work on the effects of deviations in CEO pay from labor markets to assess how overcompensation or undercompensation affects subsequent voluntary CEO withdrawal, firm size, and firm profitability, taking into account the moderating effect of firm ownership structure. We find that CEO underpayment is related to changes in firm size and CEO withdrawal, and that the relationship between CEO underpayment and CEO withdrawal is stronger in owner‐controlled firms. We also show that when CEOs are overpaid, there is higher firm profitability; a relationship that is weaker among manager‐controlled firms. We then discuss the implications that these findings have for future research. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Increase in takeover protection and firm knowledge accumulation strategy

Research summary : We argue that the extent to which a firm faces takeover threats affects its knowledge structure. In particular, takeover threats may lead to managers' reluctance to adopt a strategy toward firm‐specific knowledge accumulation because implementing this strategy requires them to acquire specialized skills, which are at risk under takeover threats. Conversely, takeover protection leads to an increase in firm‐specific knowledge. Further, the relationship between takeover protection and firm‐specific knowledge is positively moderated by managerial ownership, which helps align managerial interests with those of shareholders. But the relationship is negatively moderated by managerial tenure, as long‐tenured managers have already committed to their firms. Using a differences‐in‐differences method with Delaware antitakeover rulings in the mid‐1990s as an exogenous shock, we found results supporting these arguments. Managerial summary : We examined how changes in the Delaware antitakeover rulings in mid‐1990s affected the knowledge structure of firms incorporated in Delaware. We reasoned that with a greater level of takeover protection, top managers of those firms incorporated in Delaware felt higher job security, thus providing them stronger incentives to make strategic decisions toward the development of firm‐specific knowledge and to make corresponding human capital investments in specialized skills. Empirically, firms incorporated in Delaware were found to have an increase in the level of firm‐specific knowledge in their knowledge structure after the mid‐1990s. Furthermore, our analysis suggests that the role of takeover protection on top manager incentives is particularly salient when the managers are awarded with more company shares and when the managers have shorter organizational tenure. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Staff localization and environmental uncertainty on firm performance in China

This paper examined the form of the localization–performance relationship as moderated by environmental uncertainty. We postulated that the positive impact of staff localization on firm performance only continues to a certain point. Beyond this point, the costs of a high degree of staff localization outweigh the benefits. The negative effect of an increase in localization beyond an optimal point is expected to be stronger under the condition of high environmental uncertainty. Both the curvilinear relationship and the moderating effect of environmental uncertainty are confirmed through the survey results of 111 MNC subsidiaries operating in China. The result suggests that MNCs should pay particular attention to balance their deployment of local staff and expatriates in their international expansion.