Time and space in managerial work

Is top management work a stable or a changing phenomenon? Compared to a classic study about managerial work (Executive Behaviour, Strömbergs, Stockholm, 1951), this article examines evolving management practices in the internationalised economy. The results show that the participants in the new study exercised control in a more general and financially oriented way. At the same time, the important stakeholder relations have shifted from national actors such as government and trade associations towards financial and commercial actors in an international arena. But the perhaps most interesting development is the transforming nature of fragmentation in managerial work. In contrast to Carlson, who related fragmentation to time, this article highlights the emergence and consequences of fragmented space.     

Who Gets on the News? The relation between media biases and different actors in news reporting on complex policy processes

Abstract

Having a voice in media is important to gain power and legitimacy in policy processes. However, media are biased in transmitting information. Using a quantitative content analysis of ten years’ news reporting around water management policies in the Netherlands, we study how much media attention different groups of actors receive and how media biases relate to this attention. Executive politicians get on the news because of their authoritative position; less authoritative actors getting on the news is more related to information biases. Information biases can thus function as a form of checks and balances in news reporting on policy processes.     

Organisational Supplying Behaviour: Understanding supplier needs,wants and preferences

The purpose of this article is to enhance understanding in the P&SM field of supplier behaviour by exploring their needs, wants and preferences. The characteristics of customers that suppliers need, want and prefer have been conceptualised as ‘Sources of Supplier Value’ (SOSV) and the article seeks to establish a vocabulary for describing supplier needs, wants and preferences and their impact on buyer attractiveness. To achieve this a pilot study was conducted using face-to-face interviews with key account managers and Managing Directors in 14 SMEs supplying UK supermarket buyers. The research identifies 49 elements in buyers’ purchase offerings, behaviours and characteristics that suppliers regard as important. The practical implication of this research is to improve the P&SM field's understanding of the behaviour of suppliers with a longer term view to improving the ability of all buyers to influence the behaviour of suppliers in ways that match the buyers’ requirements and preferences. Furthermore, in view of the current paucity of research and understanding in this subject area, the article presents a coherent theoretical framework, terminology and rationale for investigations into the phenomenon of Organisational Supplying Behaviour.     

Renaissance of case research as a scientific method

Since the seminal article by Eisenhardt (1989), scholarly interest in case research has mushroomed in operations management and organization sciences. Volumes of methodological texts are matched with a massive amount of empirical research that seeks to apply and further develop case research as a scientific method. What is missing from this literature is a treatment of the methodological diversity of case research. In this paper, we seek to unveil this heterogeneity by describing three distinct methodological accounts of case study: theory generation, theory testing, and theory elaboration. Each approach has its own idiosyncrasies, in particular when it comes to the interplay between theory and empirics. A typical case research incorporates both existing theories and empirical data to varying degrees. In light of this heterogeneity, we re-interpret key aspects of extant contributions and discuss guidelines for future case research. We propose that ultimately, case research rigor is determined by attention to idiosyncrasy and transparency of reasoning. We conclude by arguing that we have witnessed in the past 25 years in organization research what amounts to the Renaissance of case research.     

Equilibrium analysis and envelope theory

Qualitative comparative statics amounts to a study of the qualitative properties of the Debreu mapping, i.e., the restriction of the projection (p,ω)?ω to the equilibrium manifold. We show that a natural framework for such a study is Thom's envelope theory which generalizes the theory of planar curve envelopes.     

CEO Retirement,Corporate Governance and Conditional Accounting Conservatism

Based on 16,604 observations between 1994 and 2006, this study revisits the ‘horizon problem’ by examining how CEO retirement affects conditional accounting conservatism. We hypothesize and find that firms become less conservative in their financial reporting before the retirement of their CEOs, and that strong corporate governance mitigates the effect of CEO retirement. The literature concerning the horizon problem has suggested that CEOs manipulate earnings to boost short-term performance before they leave their companies (Dechow, P. M., & Sloan, R. G. (1991). Executive incentives and the horizon problem: An empirical investigation. Journal of Accounting and Economics, 14(1), 51–89; Smith, C. W., & Watts, R. L. (1982). Incentive and tax effects of executive compensation plans. Australian Journal of Management, 7(2), 139–157), but the evidence is mixed. By examining conditional conservatism, we avoid some of the methodological difficulties that confront researchers when examining either real or accrual earnings management. Ours is the first study to provide evidence on how the horizon problem shapes conditional accounting conservatism.     

Risk-taking behavior of technology firms: The role of performance feedback in the video game industry

This study focuses on what drives technology-driven companies to engage in risk-taking behavior by serving new markets. Building on the behavioral theory of the firm and prospect theory, this study suggests that technology-driven organizations tend to respond to past performance rather than future possibilities. Using a sample of 5312 video games from 362 game developers, the results reveal that market performance trend and market performance variability have opposing effects on risk-taking behavior: while a positive market performance trend negatively influences a company's tendency to venture into new markets, a high-degree of market performance variability tends to positively influence new market entry. The study also finds opposite results for expert performance trend and expert performance variability: companies with consistently positive expert evaluations are more likely to enter into new markets, while variability in expert evaluations has a negative effect on new market entry. Furthermore, the effects of expert performance trend and variability are conditional on market performance trends. Finally, the results suggest that companies that venture into new markets tend to choose relatively similar markets if these companies are suffering from a negative market performance trend or a negative expert review trend.     

Anglo-American forms of management education: A practice-theoretical perspective

This article is based on a review of three Anglo-American journals of management education research, namely The Academy of Management Learning & Education, The Journal of Management Education, and Management Learning. In order to identify different forms of management education, articles in the journals were read from a practice-theoretical perspective. The main finding is that researchers have described or suggested five different conceptions of management education, which either revise the business-school tradition or provide alternatives to it. One implication of the finding is that it is not reasonable to speak for or against the US model of management education, since there are several. Management education research could thus aim at a more nuanced appreciation of what business-school teachers regard as good education.     

Markteintritts- und Marktbearbeitungsstrategien kleiner und mittlerer Personalberatungen im Ausland

This article presents the results of an empirical research concerning the strategies of foreign market entry of small- and medium-sized Executive Search Firms from a resource-based perspective. The results show that they tend to mainly use cooperative forms of market entry, although not exclusively. In addition to this, they also opt for export strategies or the establishment of wholly-owned offices. The choice of a specific strategy is highly dependent on the social and human capital of an Executive Search Firm as well as on the experiences and attitudes of the management. The study is embedded in and broadens the existing knowledge of the internationalization of Professional Business Services as well as the internationalization of both small and medium-sized enterprises.     

An empirical examination of strategic sourcing dominant logic: Strategic sourcing centricity

Recently, much of the thought in strategic sourcing, i.e., dominant logic, has shifted away from the exchange of tangible goods and toward the exchange of intangibles, specialized skills and knowledge, and processes. This study refers to strategic sourcing dominant logic as strategic sourcing centricity (SSC) and describes it as a sourcing management′s mindset based on learning, performance, planning, and relational orientations and manifests itself in the implementation of SS to meet supply management objectives and satisfy stakeholder requirements. Building on insights on intangibility derived from resource-based theory (RBV), the study proposes and empirically tests strategic sourcing centricity (SSC). The authors test the operational measures of SSC dimensions and its impact on performance on a sample of 174 supply management executives. The results indicate strong support for the theorized framework. Managerial implications and future research agenda are provided.     

Which executive human resource management practices for the top management team are associated with higher firm performance?

There is growing awareness of the importance and role of the top management team (TMT). Little is known about how this group of executives should be treated from a human resource management (HRM) perspective since most research and writing on human resource management practices have focused on lower level personnel. A unique study of top management teams in specific firms affiliated with Fortune 500 companies is described which examined the relationship of 18 Executive Human Resource Management (EHRM) practices to a measure of organizational performance. A number of those were found to be associated with higher firm performance. © 1995 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Organizational career management practices and objective career success: A systematic review and framework

The theorization of the relationship between organizational investments in career development and individual success remains underdeveloped, and empirical tests of this relationship, which have been dispersed among several disciplinary areas, have produced inconsistent results. Addressing these issues, the purpose of this article is to propose a theoretical framework that illustrates why and how organizational career management practices translate into career success and under what circumstances the relationship is effective. Using a systematic review of empirical studies on career management practices and objective success, we identify three theoretical mechanisms - developmental, informational, and relational - and two groups of contingency factors that explain this relationship. Our framework advances the extant literature on organizational career management and provides suggestions to companies for designing effective career management systems.     

Co-alignment of supplier quality management practices and cognitive maps – A neo-configurational perspective

Much of the previous research on the ‘purchasing practice–performance link’ rests on the notion of “net effects,” which assumes that specific practices independently of each other impact outcomes. This study challenges this core tenet by adopting a neo-configurational perspective, exploring how different combinations of factors (called “configurations”) affect outcomes. Another limitation of extant studies on the ‘purchasing practice–performance link’ is the narrow focus on practices; more recent behavioral supply management research finds the behavior of managers to be critically influenced by cognitive maps—the lenses through which managers perceive, simplify, and interpret the world. Focusing on supplier quality as a core aspect of the broader ‘purchasing practice–performance link’, this study explores how configurations of different supplier quality management (SQM) practices and SQM-related cognitive maps help firms to manage supplier quality. It uses fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to identify SQM configurations and a cognitive-linguistic approach for the computerized text analysis of purchasing managers’ cognitive maps in the context of Western companies sourcing from Chinese suppliers. The configurational fsQCA analysis identifies four different configurations associated with overcoming barriers to SQM in emerging markets. SQM-related cognitive maps prove to be a critical component in these four configurations.     

Local indirect least squares and average marginal effects in nonseparable structural systems

We study the scope of local indirect least squares (LILS) methods for nonparametrically estimating average marginal effects of an endogenous cause X on a response Y in triangular structural systems that need not exhibit linearity, separability, or monotonicity in scalar unobservables. One main finding is negative: in the fully nonseparable case, LILS methods cannot recover the average marginal effect. LILS methods can nevertheless test the hypothesis of no effect in the general nonseparable case. We provide new nonparametric asymptotic theory, treating both the traditional case of observed exogenous instruments Z and the case where one observes only error-laden proxies for Z.     

Causality in social theory via linguistic fuzzy logic

I present a new approach to the study of causality in social theory using linguistic fuzzy logic as a framework. This approach differs from conventional analysis of causality on two fronts. First, all variables are considered to possess two degrees of freedom (or variation): a linguistic nuance value, which corresponds to what we conventionally refer to as interval or categorical value, and a linguistic truth value, which measures our confidence level in this nuance value. Second, combining this double fuzzification of variables with linguistic fuzzy logic I propose new tools for studying fuzzy causality. The linguistic fuzzy logic approach is illustrated through a re-examination of Skocpol’s (1979, States and social revolutions: a comparative analysis of France, Russia, and China. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge) theory of social revolution.     

The impact of service design and process management on clinical quality: An exploration of synergetic effects

While service design and process management have received research attention in the past, there is limited empirical work examining both factors in the hospital setting. Through operationalizing focus as a service design approach and quality improvement (QI) initiatives as process management efforts, we hypothesize that focus and QI initiatives affect clinical quality both individually and collectively. Utilizing heart attack procedures as the study context, we examine a set of hypotheses based on a panel dataset consisted of 201 hospitals from 2005 to 2011 in the state of Florida. After accounting for potential lag effects and endogeneity biases, we find empirical support to the proposed hypotheses.     

The joint influence of technology uncertainty and interorganizational interaction on external technology integration success

This paper empirically examines the acquisition of a technology from a source outside the firm and its incorporation into a new or existing operational process. We refer to this key activity in process innovation as external technology integration. This paper develops a conceptual framework of external technology integration based on organizational information processing theory and technology management literature. The primary hypothesis underlying the conceptual framework is that external technology integration will be most successful when the level of interaction between the source of the technology and recipient of the technology is appropriately matched, or fit, to the characteristics of the technology to be integrated. The conceptual framework also develops other hypotheses relating to contextual factors that may also influence the success of external technology integration. A cross-sectional survey methodology is employed to test the four hypotheses of the conceptual framework, with the results indicating strong support for the fit hypothesis and general support for the contextual hypotheses. The paper closes with a discussion of the implications of this study for both theory and practice.     

When employee performance management affects individual innovation in public organizations: the role of consistency and LMX

Abstract

Public sector challenges translate in more complex job demands that require individual innovation. In order to deal with these demands, many public organizations have implemented employee performance management. In a multilevel study, we examine when employee performance management affects individual innovation. We contribute by focusing on consistent employee performance management and Leader–Member Exchange (LMX). Based on goal-setting theory, we first argue that employee performance management fosters individual innovation when it entails consistent subpractices. Subsequently, LMX is theorized to function as a moderator in this linkage. We use multilevel data from 68 elderly homes and 1095 caregivers in Flanders to test our hypotheses. The study reveals that individual innovation is related to consistent employee performance management, and that LMX functions as a moderator in this relationship. Our findings contribute to scholars’ understanding of effects from employee performance management in public organizations.     

Knowledge management technology as a stage for strategic self-presentation: Implications for knowledge sharing in organizations

This article explores why it is often difficult for organizations to capture, store, and share employees' individually held expertise. Drawing on studies of the social construction of expertise and theories of transactive memory systems and self-presentation in computer-mediated environments, we argue that knowledge management technologies are not simple containers for the storage of expertise, but that they are stages upon which individuals enact performances of expertise. Through a longitudinal study of the work of IT technicians we show that users of a knowledge management technology strategically craft their own information entries to position themselves as experts vis-à-vis their coworkers. The data suggest that proactive self-presentations enacted by a few actors early on may spur reactive behaviors of strategic self-presentation across the organization. We explore implications of these findings for theories of transactive memory systems and technology use in organizations.     

A new method to verify Bitcoin bubbles: Based on the production cost

As the first kind of digital cryptocurrency, the Bitcoin price cycle provides an opportunity to test bubble theory in the digital currency era. Based on the existing asset bubble theory, we verified the Bitcoin bubble based on the production cost with the application of VAR and LPPL models, and this method achieved good predictive power. The following conclusions are reached: (1) PECR is constructed to depict the deviation degree between the price and production cost, while BC is used to illustrate the bubble size in the price, and both are effective measures; (2) the number of unique addresses is a suitable measure of the use value of Bitcoin, and this result has passed the Granger causality test; (3) PECR and BC are verified via the LPPL model, and the next large bubble is expected in the second half of 2020. Considering that Bitcoin will see 'output halved' in May 2020, this prediction is a high-probability event.