Socio-emotional wealth and corporate responses to environmental hostility: Are family firms more stakeholder oriented?

Do family firms care more for different stakeholders than nonfamily firms when operating in a hostile business environment? This study addresses this question and fills the existing void in family business research. It shows that family-controlled firms adopt corporate social responsibility strategies and balance the demands of internal and external interest groups to preserve their socio-emotional wealth while facing fierce competition, resource scarcity, and penurious economic conditions. More specifically, our analysis of an international sample of 956 listed firms from 2006 to 2014 reveals that family firms show a higher level of corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance and better stakeholder orientation than nonfamily firms. Our findings are useful for managers, policymakers, and responsible investors.     

Human Capital Factors Affecting Human Resource (HR) Managers' Commitment to HR and the Mediating Role of Perceived Organizational Value on HR

Human resource (HR) managers’ commitment to their occupation (HR) leads to the proper delivery and implementation of HR practices and, therefore, is deemed as a critical factor for the success of HR practices. Based on sociocognitive, human capital, and signaling theories, this study examines: (a) HR managers’ own and their chief HR officer's (CHRO) HR‐specific human capital as antecedents of their commitment to HR, and (b) the mediating mechanism through which the CHRO’s HR‐specific human capital positively influences HR managers’ commitment to HR. Based on 146 HR managers from 146 organizations in South Korea, the findings of the current study suggest that HR managers with higher levels of HR‐specific human capital and those working with CHROs with higher levels of HR‐specific human capital tend to have higher levels of commitment to HR. In addition, CHROs with higher levels of HR‐specific human capital positively influence HR managers’ commitment to HR by signaling to them that HR and its function are valued and cared about by their organizations. Theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed along with study limitations and further research directions. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Uniting partners to cope with environmental uncertainty: Disentangling the role of social capital in developing supply chain agility

Based on social capital theory, in this study, we investigate how a firm utilized social capital to coordinate partners in the achievement of supply chain agility under different levels of environmental uncertainty. We test the proposed hypotheses via a hierarchical regression analysis using questionnaire survey data collected from 190 firms in China. The empirical results show that cognitive, relational, and structural capital positively influence supply chain agility. Furthermore, environmental uncertainty positively moderates the positive relationship between relational capital and supply chain agility, whereas environmental uncertainty negatively moderates the positive roles of cognitive and structural capital. The findings suggest managers should adopt different strategies when leveraging social capital according to the business environment. In unpredictable and volatile business environments, managers should motivate their firms to embrace relational capital to obtain sufficient resources for achieving supply chain agility.     

浅谈家族企业共同治理机制的构建

家族企业共同治理结构是处理家族企业利益相关者之间契约关系的制度安排,其目标是规避经营风险和提高资本运营效率。但是,目前家族企业的治理结构存在着投资主体过于单一、族亲模式无法实现知识共享、个人权威背离科学决策等诸多问题,而实施共同治理面临市场环境压力不够、资本市场发育不良、职业经理阶层没有形成、职业经理人的败德行为和业主权威不容挑战等瓶颈制约,所以构建家族企业共同治理机制迫在眉睫。     

Chinese professional immigrants in Australia: a gendered pattern in (re)building their careers

Few studies have investigated contemporary professional migrant women from mainland China to developed economies like Australia to understand their motives of migration and the strategy they may adopt to advance their careers. This paper fills part of this important research gap by investigating the career rebuilding experience of Chinese professional immigrants in Australia. It examines the motives of their migration, their career aspirations, the strategies they adopt to rebuild their career and the types of career they are rebuilding. It explores how the compounded effect of gender, race, immigration and family commitment may be articulated in the family and social relations, and how these factors affect women's career aspirations and outcomes. This paper concludes that whilst social capital is important for Chinese migrant women professionals who already possess a high level of human capital, to restart their post-migration career, cultural capital is crucial for their managerial career advancement.     

Institutional Constraints,Stakeholder Pressure and Corporate Environmental Reporting Policies

Within the theoretical framework of socio‐political economics, and more specifically of stakeholder theory, this work examines whether companies operating under different institutional constraints and stakeholder pressure tend to emphasize different models of corporate environmental reporting. Furthermore, the paper tests whether different corporate environmental reporting policies are driven by the countries' corporate governance systems. A sample of 3931 international companies was examined through a logistic biplot and conditional mean linear regression models. The main results reveal that companies follow two distinct environmental reporting approaches, which depend on specific stakeholders and institutional requirements. The first model, which is followed by firms within codified law countries, mostly focuses on water and emissions. The second approach, mainly followed by companies operating in common law countries, emphasizes materials and energy issues. This finding reveals that companies gradually modify their environmental strategies to make themselves more compatible with the characteristics of the social and institutional environment, which will result in several corporate benefits. The paper provides several outstanding implications for companies' strategic managers, national institutions and firms' stakeholders, especially for investors and customers. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Global careers: a social capital paradox

Global careers, typically defined as involving multiple international relocations including various positions and assignments in several countries, have recently received increasing research attention. This interest is driven by a growing corporate need for managers who are able to deal with global integration and co-ordination in large multinational corporations. An important aspect of the competency of a global manager is his or her social capital, i.e. the network relationships he or she possesses. However, while the concept of social capital has been widely used in a number of research fields recently, it has received relatively little attention thus far in the IHRM context. This paper contributes to this research gap, and seeks to answer the empirical research question of how multiple international relocations affect the social capital of a manager. Our qualitative interviews of 20 Finnish MNC managers with global careers identified that such careers represent a ‘social capital paradox’. Global careers are characterized by a broad and diverse network of both internal and external ties. This breadth and diversity relate to (1) the managers' internal contact networks of weak ties (2) their internal support networks of strong ties and (3) their external networks of both strong and weak ties. These typical characteristics represent three major social capital paradoxes in the sense that they carry both significant social–capital-related benefits as well as potential risks.     

经济社会学视野下家族企业的成长

本文从经济社会学的社会资本视角研究家族制企业，发现企业制度不仅代表了内部利益相关者之间的博弈均衡，而且还是外部制度环境尤其是信用环境选择的结果。因此，一方面，应当肯定家族制企业的成长与社会资本息息相关，其存在也有其客观的依据和积极的意义；另一方面，还需要不断优化外部的信用环境，逐步提升家族制企业的发展境界。     

International work in domestic jobs: an individual explanation

Australian firms are attempting to internationalize and to become global companies. One way of staffing the forays into international business is by incorporating international work into domestic jobs. This study sought to understand the factors related to the amount of international work Australians perform in their domestic jobs. Alumni from an Australian university were surveyed, providing 1,046 full-time domestic employees working in a range of industries. Regression analysis showed that, beyond individual and organizational controls, employees performed more international work in domestic jobs when they worked in organizations at higher than at lower international levels with human resource support, worked in jobs at higher rather than at lower managerial levels and had international skills. However, there was no or little link with employees' international attitudes or family situation. As predicted, the managerial level of the job made a difference to the effects of the work environment. Working in MNCs and domestic organizations with operations abroad was related to the amount of international work in domestic jobs performed by senior managers and executives more than by lower and middle managers or subordinates and supervisors. Analysis of open-ended responses shows the major reasons Australians take up domestic international work are money, professional development and challenging content. The major reasons they would not are family commitments and disruption, in contrast to the quantitative results in which family factors are unimportant. The difference between the quantitative and qualitative results and the importance of family factors, international skills versus attitudes and human resource support are discussed.     

The effects of interactive leadership on human resource management in Singapore's banking industry

Reviewing the literature about interactive leadership and its effects on human resource management in business organizations, this paper proposes that interactive leadership has two major components: interaction skills and team building. Both components have positive effects on employees' trust in their leaders, on employees' motivation and employees' commitment to their companies. Based on these hypotheses, the paper develops an empirical test of the effectiveness of interactive leadership in Singapore's banking industry. Seventy-seven middle-level managers participated in this study by responding to a questionnaire about their leaders, their motivation, their commitment and their trust in these leaders. The results support the hypotheses and suggest some important implications for human resource management in business organizations, especially for human resource management in Oriental societies.     

Career commitment in collectivist and individualist cultures: a comparative study

A comparative study of Malaysian and Australian managers used the Carson and Bedeian multidimensional career commitment measure and the individualism-collectivism scale developed by Singelis et al . (1995) in a survey to test the hypothesis that career commitment is likely to be higher in individualistic than in collectivistic cultures. Malaysian managers were more collectivistic but also more vertically individualistic than Australian managers, and the two groups differed only in their levels of career resilience commitment and were not significantly different in career identity and career planning commitment. These results may reflect a shift from collectivism towards individualism with Malaysia's economic development, but collectivism may also be adapting to economic development and social change and the findings add weight to recent criticism of accepted conceptualizations of cultures.     

An empirical study on the nexus between the emotional intelligence of top managers and their assessment of intellectual capital

This study considers intellectual capital based on the assumption that this capital, which possesses social aspects, is related to the emotional capacities (i.e., emotional intelligence) of an organization’s members. A literature review indicates that this relationship has been previously noted and studied, and researchers agree that the emotional intelligence of the members of an organization affects the organization’s intellectual capital. Based on this analysis, this relationship is examined in the Turkish business context. Data are collected from top managers, who can affect the intellectual capital oftheir businesses and who, as human beings, are emotional. Thus, in this study, the emotional intelligence of top managers and their opinions regarding the intellectual capital of their businesses are considered to be related, with interesting results. When all of the factors of emotional intelligence that are likely to affect opinions regarding intellectual capital are examined using a multivariate model, the effect of emotional intelligence is revealed. Primarily, three factors of the emotional intelligence—empathy and communication skill, self-awareness and sociability—affect the participants’ opinions regarding the intellectual capital of their businesses. Univariate models are used to evaluate the effect of each emotional intelligence factor on the participants’ opinions regarding the intellectual capitalof their businesses. Empathy and communication skills affect opinions about the quality of human capital. Self-awareness affects opinions about the organizational commitment of workers. Sociability can affect opinions about information technology and information sharing. In summary, emotional intelligence affects opinions about human capital quality, information technology and information sharing.     

高管社会资本:高管团队人口特征绩效研究新进展

长期以来,高管人员作为企业最重要的人力资源备受研究人员的关注,早期的研究认为,高管团队人口特征与企业绩效存在直接的相关性,而近年的研究则发现高管团队人口特征对企业绩效的影响可能并非是简单的直接相关,更有可能受到一些中间变量的调节与影响。高管社会资本通过组织内外的关系网络,建立起以社会资本为中间变量的高管团队人口特征绩效影响的新机制。高管社会资本概念及研究内容的提出,为我们最终解决高管人口特征绩效影响的"黑箱"问题提供了新的研究思路与分析框架。     

Evaluating international managers' performance: parent company standards as control mechanism

The study argues that performance appraisal systems are a way to control international managers' behaviour and international operations in general. It examined the influence of three types of antecedents on the use of par-ent company standards as evaluation criteria, i.e. the power of international managers, international managers' commitment to the parent company and the company culture. The study used a sample of 162 internationals from four Belgian and one British parent company. The results indicated that international managers in high power positions were evaluated according to parent company standards. These managers were completing their foreign assignment in South America and Asia (uncertainty absorption), they had managerial jobs (centrality) and each was only one of a few other international managers in the host company (substitutabil-ity). Contrary to expectations,. they also showed a high degree of intercul-tural interaction.     

The role of human sustainability in professional service firms. Evidence from Italy

Sustainability is a central topic for an increasing number of companies, as a part of their business strategies. Human sustainability, that is, preserving and improving the quality of human life, in other words, maintaining and advancing human capital, appears as one relevant issue in that context. Humans and human capital are the foremost resources for professional service firms. Their role in the international economic scenario will most likely depend on how they deal with human sustainability and the wellbeing of their people. In this perspective, the paper investigates the antecedents, and organisational implications, of human sustainability in such firms using a structural equation model (SEM) developed on 4,301 questionnaires filled by Italian Chartered Accountants. Findings shed new lights on some implications of human sustainability. Results show that human sustainability has a direct and significative impact on a firm's ability to innovate, fostering creativity and intellectual capital, thus being significant for corporate performance. As a practical implication, firms should accordingly shape their business strategies towards accounting for human sustainability aspects.     

Independent venture capital, corporate venture capital, and the internationalisation intensity of technology-based portfolio firms

Firms that internationalise early in their lives share characteristics with those that receive venture capital. The relationship between receipt of venture capital and the international intensity of 1348 young technology firms is examined, including whether the source of capital, from independent venture capital firms, corporations or private sources, has an impact. The absence of venture capital is shown to be positively associated with increased internationalisation. While previous literature suggests differences in the value added of different sources of venture capital, the results indicate no such differences in their impact on international intensity.     

Family and Lone Founder Ownership and Strategic Behaviour: Social Context,Identity, and Institutional Logics

There is controversy in the literature about the effects of ownership on strategy and performance. Some scholars have taken agency explanations as definitive, arguing that closely held firms outperform. Empirical studies, however, show conflicting findings for firms with concentrated ownership: lone founder firms outperform, family firms do not. Such conflicts may be due to the failure of agency theory to distinguish between the social contexts of these different types of owners. We argue that explanations of performance must take into account not simply ownership, but who are the owners or executives and how their social contexts may influence their strategic priorities. Family owners and CEOs, influenced by family stakeholders in the business, are argued to assume the role identities and logics of family nurturers and thus strategies of conservation. By contrast, lone founders, influenced by a wider set of market‐oriented stakeholders, are argued to embrace the identities and logics of entrepreneurs and strategies of growth. Family founders and founder‐executives are held to blend both orientations. These notions are supported in a study of Fortune 1000 companies.     

Factors affecting corporate environmental strategy in Spanish industrial firms

During the last 30 years, environmental issues have become very important for governments, consumers and companies. Firms, aware of their environmental responsibilities, have started to show an important commitment to society and the natural environment, developing environmentally friendly strategies. However, the factors that determine the choice of environmental strategies are still unclear. They range from ethical motivations to social, legislative and competitive factors. This study analyses the main antecedents that influence firms' ecological behaviour, distinguishing between environmental orientation and environmental strategies. The hypotheses proposed in this study are analysed by means of a structural equation model on a sample of 235 industrial firms. The results reveal that competitive motivations and management commitment are the most important factors explaining why firms incorporate environmental issues into their strategic planning process. Moreover, management commitment is a critical factor for firms because managers' perception about customers' ecological concern directly influences firms' environmental behaviour. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

社会责任信息披露框架研究——基于利益相关者理论的探讨

企业在实现自身价值最大化的同时,还应承担对投资者、债权人、员工、政府相关部门等的社会责任。企业利益相关者,如投资者、债权人、员工、政府相关部门等,都呼吁作为社会经济实体的企业能够披露更加有用的社会责任信息,以实现对企业社会责任履行情况的合理监督与评价。本文从利益相关者理论为出发点,根据具体利益相关者的不同需求,提出企业社会责任信息披露的内容框架。     

Stakeholders' Engagement in Promoting Sustainable Development: Businesses and Urban Forest Carbon

To better understand how businesses' motivation and support for green projects varies by their organizational objectives and characteristics, this study investigates a case of urban forestry carbon credits in a broader context of climate change mitigation efforts. Companies and organizations currently participating in the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) were surveyed regarding their perception of consumers' concerns with climate change, attitudes toward government regulations, factors important to their emission management decisions, and their interest in buying and paying premiums for carbon credits sourced from urban forestry. Statistical analysis of the responses reveals noticeable differences among various types of business organizations. The findings are useful for understanding how businesses respond to different kinds of green products and will help in the development of green product markets. Finally, the results will help in developing effective environmental policies that respond well to businesses' objectives and preferences. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.