An intra-organizational perspective on supply management involvement in contracting services

The relationship between an agent (supply management) and a principal (client functional user) can be studied by using agency theory as a theoretical background. In this study, perceptions of conflict, information asymmetry and risk were examined in relation to perceptions of internal outcomes of supply management’s involvement in services contracting in an intra-organizational dyadic context. Structural equation modeling and regression analysis were used to analyze the nature of the relationships. The contribution is integrating a structured view of internal outcomes with three concepts from agency theory to help build a more comprehensive theory of intra-organizational relationships in the context of services contracting.     

The Dark Side of Deeply Meaningful Work: Work‐Relationship Turmoil and the Moderating Role of Occupational Value Homophily

How are close personal relationships experienced by people in deeply meaningful work? Drawing upon in‐depth interview data with 82 international aid workers, I offer three distinct contributions. First, I find that people who experience their work as deeply meaningful have high work devotion. I identify boundary inhibition as a mechanism to explain why they participate more willingly in overwork and erratic work, despite giving rise to time‐ and trust‐based conflict in their relationships. Second, I find that people with high work devotion often also experience emotional distance in their personal relationships when their close others don’t value their work – a context I call occupational value heterophily. This disconnection‐based conflict compounds the time‐ and trust‐based conflict and engenders an emotionally agonizing situation, which I call work‐relationship turmoil. Third, when close others do value their partner’s work – a context I call occupational value homophily – it fosters an emotional connection and offers an avenue for work‐relationship enrichment. These findings draw upon deeply meaningful work to detail the multi‐faceted work‐relationship experience among those with high work devotion.     

A social procedurial approach to the Pareto optimization problematique

This article applies a variant of game theory to the Pareto multi-value problematique, that is situations where members of a group, community or society are faced with alternative allocations, institutional arrangements, or states of the world and may collectively choose an allocation, institutional arrangement or state of the world if they can agree on it. This type of multiple value decision situation is increasingly prevalent not only on the level of societal and political issues but on the level of many enterprises, particularly those advocating corporate social responsibility. Because actors hold and apply values from different perspectives, there are potential contradictory value judgments and incompatible equilibria. In a world of contradiction, incommensurability, and disequilibrium, to what extent can conflicts be resolved and social equilibrium accomplished? Force works but it is inherently unstable. Drawing on an extension of classical game theory, generalized game theory (GGT), this article addresses the multi-value problematique in terms of collective “resolution procedures.” These regulative procedures—or social algorithms—are applied to problems of conflict and suboptimality in a multiple value world such as Pareto envisioned. This paper (the first of two) outlines key elements of GGT, defines the Pareto multi-value problematique, pointing out several of the critical weaknesses, theoretical as well as empirical, of the Pareto approach. GGT is then applied in defining and analyzing several major procedures to realize improvements in a multi-value world characterized by conflict and sub-optimality. A second article conceptualizes a complex of societal games making up a social system with 2-phase multi-level game processes; it applies the conceptualization to the different societal procedures for multi-value choice under conditions of conflict. Procedures such as democratic voting, adjudication and administrative decision-making, and multi-lateral negotiation are capable of producing outcomes that in many cases are widely accepted as legitimate and become social equilibria (at least within some range of conditions). These procedures and the conditions for their activation and implementation are modelled and explicated through a generalized game approach.     

Acculturation and Individualism as Predictors of Work‐Family Conflict in a Diverse Workforce

Ethnic and cultural diversity is an increasing reality in the US workplace. The current study highlights the importance of acknowledging the culturally heterogeneous nature of ethnic groups, and the need to focus on social identity characteristics such as cultural values when assessing group differences. We demonstrate that cultural values (i.e., individualism) contribute to employees' experiences of work‐family conflict beyond the effects of ethnicity. Specifically, we introduce a model informed by social identity theory that explains why acculturation is related to work‐family conflict. The model was tested with a sample of 309 employed Caucasian and Hispanic Americans. An empirical test of our model provides evidence that individualism mediates the relationship between language‐ and social‐based acculturation and work‐family conflict, even when controlling for ethnicity. Additionally, alternative models further reveal that the effects of acculturation and individualism contribute to work interfering with family. As an implication of the current study, we suggest that researchers and organizational managers should consider the cultural values of their diverse workforce when implementing policies that affect conflict between work and family. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Ethnicity and homophily effects in US M&As

We show that ethnic diversity of CEOs of merging firms has been increasing and report evidence of ethnic homophily effect in M&As transactions. Specifically, M&As perform better when the CEOs of the merging firms share a common ethnic background. In a sample of 444 US mergers completed between 2000 and 2018, we find that ethnic homophily improves the probability of deal completion. Furthermore, we report mild variation of performance across ethnic groups. White CEOs exhibit better postmerger performance while Asian CEOs instigate a better market reaction (announcement return). Subsequent analyses show that White CEOs tend to have longer tenure and longer experience while Asian CEOs tend to be more transparent. We discuss our findings in light of a few extant theories and show that our findings are robust to several additional tests including instrumental variables, Heckman's selection bias correction, and several variations in the model specifications and definitions of key variables.     

Societal institutions and HRM practices: an analysis of four European multinational subsidiaries in Bangladesh

Using the ‘societal-effect’ approach, a variant of the institutional theory developed and tested in Europe, this study investigates the impact of societal institutions on human resource management (HRM) practices of European multinational subsidiaries in Bangladesh, which is now on the list of the Next-11 economies of the world. In-depth case studies of four European multinational subsidiaries revealed the presence of different degrees of influence – partly attributable to societal effect – on the human resource practices of these subsidiaries. Our study added a new dimension to the interface between the strong and weak institutions and how such interfacing accords both legitimacy and reverse legitimacy to MNC subsidiaries and their societal institutions respectively. Another interesting finding of the study is the emergence of political system as a societal institution and, hence, a determinant of HRM practices in these subsidiaries. The study's implications are given.     

Employee participation and the influence on job satisfaction of the ‘new generation’ of Chinese employees

The participation of ‘new generation’ employees in management and their satisfaction in the workplace, respectively, remain more than ever important issues in the Chinese societal context in particular, as well as having wider implications for human resource management in general. This study accordingly explores the influence of employee participation mechanisms on the satisfaction of this new generation of employees – by carrying out empirical research in the manufacturing industry in China. The main theoretical contribution aims to show that the participation of such new generation employees in management, supervision and decision-making has a significantly positive impact on their work satisfaction. Furthermore, the employees' willingness to participate (participation intention) appears to play a moderating role between actual participation on the one hand, and satisfaction on the other. Such findings, we argue, potentially apply not only in the societal context of China but might also resonate more widely across other countries in the global economy.     

Historicizing the ‘ethnic’ in ethnic entrepreneurship: The case of the ethnic Chinese in Bangkok

This paper aims to come to a better understanding of the meaning of ‘ethnic’ in ethnic entrepreneurship for second- and third-generation ethnic Chinese entrepreneurs in Bangkok, Thailand. Research on ethnic Chinese entrepreneurship in Southeast Asia typically investigates the dominance, attributed to specific ‘Chinese’ cultural values and strong intra-ethnic networks, of the ethnic Chinese in business and entrepreneurship. Our research among second- and third-generations shows an inclination of the interviewees to emphasize the irrelevance of their ‘ethnic’ Chinese background in entrepreneurship. To understand the meanings of the expressed irrelevance, we argue that it is constructive to incorporate a historical/generational approach of the ethnic group (migration history, nationalism) and of the business (social organization) into the study of ethnic entrepreneurship. The contribution to ethnic entrepreneurship research is threefold. Firstly, we show how a generational lens provides a more nuanced understanding of the ‘ethnic’ in ethnic entrepreneurship. Secondly, we show how incorporating the historical context helps to position business conduct in the social/societal experiences of entrepreneurs. Finally, our case study of ethnic Chinese entrepreneurs in Thailand brings an Asian perspective to ethnic entrepreneurship debates that generally concern European and North American research studies and thus hopes to inspire future comparative research.     

Caught in organized ambivalence: institutional complexity and its implications in the German hospital sector

Worldwide, public service-providing organizations confront regulatory hybridization. While their societal mission persists, they are expected to become more business-like. Drawing on theory concerned with institutional complexity and ambivalence in organizations, this article illuminates the case of German acute care hospitals. We depict the emergence of market orientation in this industry, its structural impact and major sensemaking patterns at the site level. In our multiple case study, we find ‘organized ambivalence’ shaping the institutional context and affecting the undertakings’ internal life. Thus, regulatory hybridization tends to create certain traps – which challenges ideas according to which it helps improve public management.     

Logics,Leaders, Lab Coats: A Multi‐Level Study on How Institutional Logics are Linked to Entrepreneurial Intentions in Academia

Situated in the context of academia, this study integrates ideas from institutional theory, person‐environment fit theory and leadership research to conceptualize and examine the cross‐level link between the organizational‐level institutional logic of research commercialization and the entrepreneurial intentions of researchers. Multi‐level analyses based on a sample of 254 researchers working for 85 research group leaders in 49 German research institutes reveal that two distinct attributes of research group leaders – that is, their track records of entrepreneurial behaviour and their entrepreneurial intentions – play a significant role in transmitting the organizational‐level logic to the individual level. We also observe a complementary interaction between organizational‐level commercialization logic and the entrepreneurial track records of leaders. We discuss how these findings advance our understanding of science commercialization through academic entrepreneurship and how they inform institutional theory and theory development in other domains of entrepreneurship research.     

Temporal Orientation and Corporate Social Responsibility: Global Evidence

There has been a growing emphasis on the importance of a long-term perspective in academia and practice. Yet understanding of the interdependency of those factors – the temporal preferences embedded in organizations and in societal values as well as the influence of temporal orientation of investors – remains limited. We theorize whether and how a firm's corporate social responsibility (CSR) is affected by the societal temporal orientation, its time horizon, and its investors' time horizon. Using a global sample, we confirm that CSR activity is higher when a country has a long-term orientation culture, when the firm has a long-time horizon, and when the controlling institutional investor has a long-term investment horizon. We also find that the national culture's long-term orientation heightens the effect of a firm's long-time horizon on its CSR. Further, our results show that the effects of temporal orientation are more pronounced in environmental than in social CSR.     

The culturally contingent meaning of entrepreneurship: mixed embeddedness and co-ethnic ties

This study employs phenomenography to investigate the role of embeddedness in business venturing of migrant and ethnic entrepreneurs. By focusing on two culturally distinct groups, operating in the same micro-economic context, we show the ways in which embeddedness impacts the perceptions and subsequent enactment of business venturing. Our findings demonstrate that, despite physical proximity and similar socio-economic context, the investigated communities predominantly employ their co-ethnic norms, assumptions and frames of reference to makes sense of and act upon entrepreneurial opportunities. These findings expand the mixed embeddedness literature by exploring how co-ethnic sensemaking frames persist within culturally distinct communities, despite years of co-existence within the same socio-economic context. Moreover, our study reveals how co-ethnic structures can successfully substitute institutional arrangements traditionally provided by the host-country environment. By reflecting upon the practice of entrepreneuring and entrepreneurial sensemaking, our findings point towards the importance of language and interpretative methods for theory development.     

Subordinate perceptions of family‐supportive supervision: the role of similar family‐related demographics and its effect on affective commitment

Using survey data from 227 employees, we draw from shared reality theory to study subordinate perceptions of family‐supportive supervision, its antecedents and outcomes. We focus on similarity in salient subordinate and supervisor family‐related demographics as an antecedent to perceived family‐supportive supervision. As expected, female subordinates perceived more family‐supportive supervision from female supervisors than from male supervisors. Likewise, parent subordinates perceived parent supervisors, compared with nonparent supervisors, to be more family supportive. Subordinate perception of family‐supportive supervision also positively related to affective commitment – mediating the indirect positive relationship between similarity in family‐related demographics and affective commitment.     

A game theoretic approach to optimize multi-stakeholder utilities for land acquisition negotiations with informality

To combat the critical stresses of rising urbanization, the government acquires land from private owners using the power of eminent domain. This land assembly causes negative externalities such as increasing social tension and injustice that may impose a long-term threat to stability and sustainable development. Therefore, there is a need to make the land acquisition process more transparent and just. Considering the unique Indian context where informality has a strong presence, we propose an approach based on game theory that models the bargain through a three-stage Nash equilibrium game. Four agents – the government, the private developer, the landowner, and the free rider – are considered. We provide conditional solutions for the generalizable Case and proceed to model different stakeholder behavior patterns through two utility functional forms – linear and exponential. In the linear case, we find that the free rider obtains half of the revenue of the project, whereas the landowner gains between one-fourth and one-half of the revenue. Thus, we highlight the undeniably crucial role free riders play in land acquisition negotiations. However, closed form solutions cannot be obtained for the exponential form, due to which we use simulations to demonstrate a solution procedure. We conclude by stating that the proposed model can be useful in formulating future land policies in a sustainable and inclusive manner, with optimal utility derivations for all concerned stakeholders. Our model can also be extended to other spatial contexts where informality features heavily in the land market, especially in the Global South.     

How does cultural intelligence affect organisational culture: the mediating role of cross-cultural role conflict,ambiguity, and overload

Drawing on the tenets of role stress theory for insight into the cross-cultural and relational effects of role stressors, adaptability and organisation, we explain the mediating effect of these stressors to identify the extent of relationships across a broad scope of cultural settings. The current study examines cross-cultural role conflict, ambiguity and overload – the three role stressors – as mediators of the relationship between cultural intelligence and organisational culture. Survey data were collected from 299 employees across high-risk industries in four countries: Australia, the United Kingdom, United States of America and Singapore. Results demonstrated that cultural intelligence is positively related to organisational culture, while cross-cultural role conflict, ambiguity and overload are negatively associated with organisational culture. Moreover, results from mediation analysis highlighted that cross-cultural role conflict, ambiguity and overload partially mediate the relationship between cultural intelligence and organisational culture, providing a broader understanding of its connective influence both locally and in a cross-border setting. Implications for theory and managerial practice, along with avenues for future research, are discussed.     

HRM and knowledge-transfer: a micro analysis in a Middle Eastern emerging market

This is a study surrounding the interplay between Human Resource Management (HRM) and knowledge transfer within an emerging institutional petro-state. It seeks to link HRM and knowledge transfer through individual-level mechanisms in response to the recent calls for more research on micro-foundations. Our findings provide empirical evidence for HRM-related factors influencing knowledge exchange in a sample of 815 employees in the national context of the UAE. We found that individual-level perceptions and extrinsic motivation have a positive impact on knowledge exchange; however, we found evidence to suggest only an indirect effect of individual perceptions of organisational commitment to knowledge exchange, via individual intrinsic motivation and social interaction. Unlike some existing accounts from the Western world, individual perceptions of organisational commitment to knowledge sharing had no direct positive impact on knowledge exchange – an issue that may be ascribed to the distinct institutional setting of the UAE. This paper adds to the existing literature on HRM and knowledge exchange by bringing to bear new evidence from a Middle Eastern emerging market setting – an area thus far relatively neglected in the literature.     

Owners’ rule-based decision-making in family firm strategic renewal

We explore the process and consequences of family firm owners applying informal rules to decision-making in the context of later-generation family firms attempting strategic renewal. Based on the case studies of two firms in a Nordic country where the owners serve as non-executive board members, and following institutional action theory, we propose that informal rules – based on historical precedents and cumulative experience – applied to a family firm’s decision-making play many roles. They sustain family traditions over time, transfer experience over generations and depersonalise family members’ use of power. In addition, the rules on governance structure, governance processes and the content of the strategies form a hierarchy and can both facilitate and hinder the renewal.     

Do quality perceptions of health and social services vary for different ethnic groups? An empirical investigation

The United States is now more ethnically diverse than any other time in its history. In 2000, minority ethnic groups comprised 26% of the US population; by 2010, they comprise 35%, and in 2080 they will form the majority of American citizens. And among these ethnic groups, African Americans (12.4%), Hispanics (15.4%) and Asians (4.4%) were the most predominant in 2000. The growth of this segment of the population is not only in terms of numbers but also in terms of economic development. Minority groups are showing marked improvement in income and education levels leading to greater purchasing power. As a result, for‐profit companies are increasingly targeting minority populations with products and promotions specifically designed for specific minority groups. Even non profit organizations such as educational programs, social service and healthcare agencies are striving to design specific services and culturally competent outreach models in order to serve this increasingly diverse marketplace. But despite the strides made by non profit agencies, several studies note the tremendous disparities between the ethnic and racial groups in the seeking and the receipt of health‐care and social services. Additionally, there is limited empirical information about the perceptions of minority consumers. In order to effectively serve minority groups, it is essential to understand their experiences with the non profit service industry and to assess their ongoing concerns. In this study, we focus on two critical components of the non profit world – healthcare and social services. We conducted a survey to compare and contrast the social service and health‐care quality perceptions of three ethnic groups: Caucasians, African‐Americans and Hispanics. Our study, undertaken in collaboration with community health centers, reveals distinct differences in perceptions between the three ethnic groups. Based on our findings, we outline a set of implementable strategies for social service and community health organizations. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Founder nativity,founding team formation,and firm performance in the U.S. high-tech sector

This paper is motivated by the movement of foreign-born entrepreneurs out of ethnic enclaves and into the mainstream, globally-connected economies of the countries of immigration, and from necessity to opportunity entrepreneurship. The theoretical contribution of the paper is to integrate the emerging literature on foreign-born entrepreneurship with work on the composition and impact of founding teams. Empirically, we draw on original quantitative and qualitative data on the U.S. high-tech sector. We find that homophily drives team formation and that nationality diversity in founding teams has a modest impact on firm performance.     

Greenwashing and environmental communication: Effects on stakeholders' perceptions

Since the first Earth Day in the 1970s, corporate environmental performance has increased dramatically, and cases of greenwashing have increased sharply. The term greenwash refers to a variety of different misleading communications that aim to form overly positive beliefs among stakeholders about a company's environmental practices. The growing number of corporate social responsibility claims, whether founded or not, creates difficulties for stakeholders in distinguishing between truly positive business performance and companies that only appear to embrace a model of sustainable development. In this context, through the lens of legitimacy and signalling theory, we intend to understand and assess the different influences that various types of misleading communications about environmental issues have on stakeholders' perceptions of corporate environmental responsibility and greenwashing. Stakeholder responses to an environmental scandal will also be assessed. The hypotheses tested through a four‐for‐two design experiment reveal that different levels of greenwashing have a significantly different influence on stakeholders' perceptions of corporate environmental responsibility and stakeholders' reactions to environmental scandals.