High‐Involvement Work Practices and the Opportunities for Promotion in the Organization

Using the linked employer–employee component from the National Employer Survey, I examine the effect of employees’ participation in high‐involvement work practices (HIWP) on their opportunities for promotion within the organization. I find participation in HIWP to be positively related to promotion opportunities for individuals, especially for those in lower hierarchical levels and for the supervisors of these levels. In part, these findings can be explained by the new skills acquired while participating in these practices through formal training and informal on‐the‐job learning, and by the use of promotions as an incentive mechanism to motivate workers to engage in HIWP.     

U.S. High‐Performance Work Practices at Century's End

This study examines the incidence, industry differences, and economic environment of work practices in the United States in 1994 and 1997 using census data from a nationally representative random sample of establishments. Self‐managed work teams were used by a majority of workers in some sites. Work‐related meetings had higher incidence. A high‐performance work organization is used in about 1 percent of establishments. There were significant industry differences associated with globalization, namely, imports and exports.     

Employee Voice in Union and Non-union Australian Workplaces

The fall in unionism and the rise in the non-union workplace over the past two decades raises the question as to whether workers now have a reduced capacity to initiate issues and articulate grievances. For some commentators independent unions are the only source of genuine voice. Others have argued that the adoption of the HRM paradigm within an enterprise will provide workers with adequate voice mechanisms. This paper addresses the issue by comparing employee voice in non-union and unionized Australian workplaces.     

Beyond the High‐Performance Paradigm: Exploring the Curvilinear Relationship between High‐Performance Work Systems and Organizational Performance in Taiwanese Manufacturing Firms

In this study, we explore the potential downside of the ‘high‐performance’ paradigm by examining the curvilinear relationship between high‐performance work systems (HPWS) and organizational performance and the moderating effects of the industry type. Using data from Taiwanese manufacturing firms, we find an inverted‐U pattern between HPWS and organizational performance in high‐technology firms (N = 74), and a linear relationship in traditional manufacturing firms (N = 86). These findings are consistent with the viewpoint of diminishing returns of HPWS and the contingency perspective. Theoretical and practical implications of our findings are also discussed.     

High‐Performance Work System and Organizational Turnover in East and Southeast Asian Countries1

In this paper, we examine the impact of high‐performance work systems (HPWSs) on both voluntary and involuntary organizational turnover rates. Most research on this topic has been done in the United States. Given the global competitive pressures confronting many of the countries of East and Southeast Asia, companies in this region are seeking to become more flexible and often adapt HPWSs practices. We explore the impact of HPWSs in both locally owned companies and subsidiaries of multinational corporations in Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Thailand. These countries have significantly different national cultures from the United States and most other Western countries and HPWSs effects in relation to turnover might vary from the studies based in the United States. Our findings are, however, somewhat consistent with U.S.‐based studies. In fact, HPWSs were found to be more effective in reducing turnover in locally owned companies than in subsidiaries of Western and Japanese multinational companies.     

Organizational‐Level Gender Dissimilarity and Employee Commitment

This study explores the extent to which gender dissimilarity in the workplace affects employees' commitment to their organization, using data from the British (1998) Workplace Employee Relations Survey. The results showed that the effects of organizational‐level gender dissimilarity on organizational commitment were more complex than has commonly been assumed in the literature. The relationship between organizational‐level gender dissimilarity and employee commitment was U‐shaped for women whereas it was not significant for men. The relationship was moderated by the respondents' status as measured by their level of pay. For men, the relationship between gender dissimilarity and commitment was negative for high‐paid individuals but not for low‐paid ones, while for women the U‐shaped relationship was weaker for high‐paid individuals than for low‐paid individuals.     

Knowledge Sharing through Face‐to‐Face Communication and Labour Productivity: Evidence from British Workplaces

We investigate whether the adoption by workplaces of human resources management (HRM) practices that enhance face‐to‐face communication (FTFC) among employees is associated with productivity gains. The analysis is based on a nationally representative sample of over 500 British trading establishments drawn from the linked 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey and Annual Business Inquiry, for which objective measures of labour productivity (value added per employee) are available. We find a positive association between productivity and FTFC in problem‐solving groups, teams and meetings of senior or line managers and employees, provided that FTFC is adopted on a continuous basis. Our finding suggests that British workplaces in the trading sector could increase their productivity by implementing HRM practices in such a way as to enhance knowledge sharing through employees' personal interactions.     

De‐escalation Mechanisms in High‐technology Product Innovation

Many decision‐makers struggle to reduce commitment to failing endeavors. While de‐escalation mechanisms have been documented and tested in information technology, accounting, psychology, and organizational behavior, little work has addressed de‐escalation in innovation. This study identifies and examines the applicability of de‐escalation mechanisms specifically in new product development (NPD) projects. Initially, we conducted an extensive literature review to identify de‐escalation mechanisms found in research across different academic disciplines. Subsequently, we conducted a qualitative study using semistructured interviews to gather primary data. In total, using a sample of organizations that compete in high‐technology industries, 31 managers and engineers in 15 NPD projects that were terminated prior to completion were interviewed regarding mechanisms used to de‐escalate commitment to failing new product innovation projects. Several mechanisms reportedly used for innovation projects parallel those identified in the previous literature. More importantly, the authors uncover novel and previously undocumented ways to discontinue or redirect poorly performing projects. Specifically, internal competitions, feature‐level de‐escalation, continual assumption assessment, benchmarking, roadmaps, and comprehensive product testing are particularly well suited for innovation projects. These findings extend the body of extant literature on de‐escalation of commitment to include innovation, notably in high‐technology settings. The study also highlights that organizations may want to accept or even encourage failure, thereby increasing the efficacy of resource use. Implications for further research and practice are offered.     

Domain‐Relevant Commitment and Individual Technical Innovation Performance

Individual innovators play a critical organizational role in that they generate and often champion technology and product ideas. Amidst an ongoing stream of organizational and team innovation research, few empirical studies focus on differences in individual innovation performance despite the importance of the individual innovator to a firm's innovation efforts. Based on goal commitment theory, we introduce a new domain‐relevant commitment construct and develop a conceptualization of conditional indirect effects. Our model suggests that relevant individual abilities enhance commitment to technical innovation and innovation performance while also insulating against the impact of situational variables, making employees' commitment to innovation performance less dependent upon context. Hypotheses are tested using two sources of data and a sample of 339 R&D professionals from a Fortune 100 industrial firm. Results suggest that commitment to innovation is a key motivational factor in explaining individual technical innovation performance. Situational characteristics impact motivation differently for individuals with lower vs. higher ability levels, even in this context in which truly low‐ability individuals, in the absolute sense, have been screened out by the employment selection process. The relationship between commitment and innovation performance is strengthened by higher levels of individual ability.     

Licensing Essential Patents: The Non‐Discriminatory Commitment and Hold‐Up

Licensors of patents essential to a standard are often required to license on reasonable and non‐discriminatory (RAND) terms. Using a model with owners of essential patents and licensees who invest into standard‐conforming technologies, this paper demonstrates that the non‐discriminatory commitment alleviates the hold‐up problem. Moreover, it improves consumer and social welfare, and promotes upstream innovation as licensing revenue is increased. In an extended model with each licensor independently choosing whether to make the commitment, all licensors voluntarily commit in the unique equilibrium.     

Vertical restraints in the Australian Trade Practices Act

Vertical restraints are singled out for detailed legislative treatment in the AustralianTrade Practices Act. Resale price maintenance and third-line forcing (tying another firm's products) are illegal per se while price discrimination and non-price vertical restraints (apart from third-line forcing) are subject to a competition test. Most vertical restraints may be either authorised by the Trade Practices Commission or given statutory exemption from the Act under a notification procedure unique to vertical restraints. The ability to seek an authorisation or to notify the Commission about a vertical practice has meant that the economic issues in this area have been dealt with mainly in administrative processes outside the courts. While issues of economic efficiency have been important, the main objective of the Commission has been to benefit consumers by promoting competition as a process. This paper briefly overviews what is probably the most complex area of antitrust in Australia yet, which has received negligible academic comment.     

Flexibility and Fairness in Liberal Market Economies: The Comparative Impact of the Legal Environment and High‐Performance Work Systems

This paper compares management flexibility in employment decision making in the United States and Canada through a cross‐national survey of organizations in representative jurisdictions in each country, Pennsylvania and Ontario, respectively, that investigates the impact of differences in their legal environments. The results indicate that, compared to their Ontario counterparts, organizations in Pennsylvania have a higher degree of flexibility in employment outcomes, such as higher dismissal and discipline rates, yet do not experience any greater flexibility or simplicity in management hiring and firing decisions. One explanation for this result may lie in the finding that organizations in Pennsylvania experience greater legal pressures on decision making, reflecting the generally more intense conflict in the employment law system in the United States. By contrast, high‐performance work systems, which some have looked to as a possible management‐driven mechanism for enhancing fairness in employment, had more modest effects.     

Transient Solidarities: Commitment and Collective Action in Post‐Industrial Societies

Solidarity has long been considered essential to labour, but many fear that it has declined. There has been relatively little scholarly investigation of it because of both theoretical and empirical difficulties. This article argues that solidarity has not declined but has changed in form, which has an impact on what kinds of mobilization are effective. We first develop a theory of solidarity general enough to compare different forms. We then trace the evolution of solidarity through craft and industrial versions, to the emergence of collaborative solidarity from the increasingly fluid ‘friending’ relations of recent decades. Finally, we examine the question of whether these new solidarities can be mobilized into effective collective action, and suggest mechanisms, rather different from traditional union mobilizations, that have shown some power in drawing on friending relations: the development of member platforms, the use of purposive campaigns and the co‐ordination of ‘swarming’ actions. In the best cases, these can create collective actions that make a virtue of diversity, openness and participative engagement, by co‐ordinating groups with different foci and skills.     

Gender‐Compensation Differences Among High‐Level Executives in the United States

Bertrand and Hallock (2001: 3) present compelling evidence that female executives in the United States earned 45 percent less total compensation than their male counterparts for 1992–1997. We complement their results by analyzing data over a longer time period and, more importantly, contend that most of the unexplained gender difference in total pay among executives was due to gender differences in the portion of variable pay, in particular a different cash payout from stock option exercises.     

Interorganizational Imitation and Acquisitions of High‐tech Ventures

Research summary: This article shows that there is a positive association between the changes in the number of prior acquisitions or the changes in the prominence of prior acquirers within the focal venture's subfield and the venture's likelihood to be acquired. Results are in line with the existence of frequency‐ and trait‐based imitation in acquisitions targeting tech ventures. More importantly, these positive associations are more pronounced when (a) exogenous technological uncertainty within the venture's subfield increases and (b) there are significant differences between the focal venture's and acquirer's technological resources. Our findings are in accord with the suggestion that uncertainty in the technology domain is an important boundary condition in moderating the extent of imitation in technology acquisitions. We also discuss alternative explanations and implications. Managerial summary: The findings of this article suggest that when deciding whether or not to acquire a technology venture (i.e., startup company in a high‐tech industry), managers infer information by observing other acquisitions in the venture's subfield to make assessments about the underlying value of the potential targets. We also find that receiving some informational cues from previous acquisitions would be more useful when there is high technological uncertainty in the potential target's subfield about which technologies will be dominant, and when the potential acquirer and the tech venture operate in dissimilar technological areas. This article shows that imitation can be one way to deal with decision‐making under uncertainty when making acquisition decisions in high‐tech environments. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

High‐Reputation Firms and Their Differential Acquisition Behaviors

Research summary: E merging reputation research suggests that high‐reputation firms will act to maintain their reputations in the face of high expectations. Yet, this research remains unclear on how high‐reputation firms do so. We advance this research by exploring three questions related to high‐reputation firms' differential acquisition behaviors: Do high‐reputation firms make more acquisitions than similar firms without this distinction? What kind of acquisitions do they make? How do investors react to high‐reputation firms' differential acquisition behaviors? We find that high‐reputation firms make more acquisitions and more unrelated acquisitions than other firms. Yet, we also find that investors bid down high‐reputation firms' stock more than other firms' in response to acquisition announcements, suggesting that investors are skeptical of how high‐reputation firms maintain their reputations . Managerial summary: W e know that high‐reputation firms wish to maintain their elite standing in the face of high‐market expectations, but we know little about how they do so. We explore this puzzle by investigating how reputation maintenance influences high‐reputation firms' acquisition behaviors. We classify high‐reputation firms are those firms that make Fortune's M ost A dmired annual list, and we find that high‐reputation firms make more acquisitions and more unrelated ones than other firms. Surprisingly, we also find that the market tends to react negatively to these acquisitions. Thus, managers may want to reconsider their strategy of making acquisitions as a means to maintain their firms' high reputations . Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

High‐end Encroachment Patterns of New Products

Previous research describes two key ways in which a new product may encroach on an existing market. In high‐end encroachment, the new product first sells to high‐end customers and then diffuses down‐market; in low‐end encroachment, the new product enters at the low end and encroaches up‐market. This paper focuses on high‐end encroachment, which can further be broken down into three subtypes, which are called the immediate, the new‐attribute, and the new‐market forms of high‐end encroachment. This paper makes three key contributions. First, it provides a sound theoretical underpinning for the three distinct subtypes of high‐end encroachment—a linear reservation price curve model (LRPCM) is used to establish this theoretical foundation. Second, this paper delineates and illustrates four different ways the high‐end new‐market diffusion process may progress over time. These four are: (1) the traditional type, where the new product diffuses relatively slowly and methodically over time; (2) the fad scenario, where the new product opens a new market but then fizzles out after a relatively short period of high sales; (3) the rapid diffusion outcome, where the new product opens a new market and then rapidly diffuses down‐market; and (4) the prolonged‐niche type, where the new product purposefully restricts itself to its own niche rather than diffusing down‐market. The third key contribution of this paper is to offer managerial insights into the new‐market high‐end encroachment process by discussing two short case studies; namely, a retrospective look at the introduction of the iPhone, and a prospective look at Tesla's challenges in growing the market for its electric car. With regard to the iPhone, it helps explain why Apple precipitously dropped the price of the iPhone by one third only 68 days after its introduction. With regard to Tesla, it discusses how Tesla must leverage the revenues that stem from its current high‐end pricing power. Tesla must be able to progress down the learning curve fast enough so that it can create a virtuous cycle; a cycle in which cost reductions and technology improvements lead to price reductions and increased sales, which in turn lead to further cost reductions. At the conclusion of the paper, a step‐by‐step approach is offered to aid in determining which type of encroachment should be pursued and in determining how the encroachment pattern will eventually develop. The encroachment framework and the step‐by‐step approach are intended to help managers better assess and mitigate the risks inherent with a new product introduction.     

HRM Practices and the Within‐Firm Gender Wage Gap

The effect of HRM practices on the within‐firm gender gap in wages in manufacturing is investigated merging a 1999 survey on work practices among Danish firms to matched employer–employee panel data. Self‐managed teams, project organization and job rotation schemes are the most widely introduced practices. Accounting for non‐randomness in adoption, the pay gap is reduced among hourly paid workers but increases among salaried workers. Considering practices individually, wage gains from adoption accrue to males except for salaried workers in firms that adopt project organization and for hourly paid workers in firms that introduce quality control circles.     

User Involvement throughout the Innovation Process in High‐Tech Industries

The feedback and input of users have been an important part of product innovation in recent years. User input has been studied from different approaches and is applied through different methods in particular phases of the innovation process. However, these methods are not integrated into the whole innovation process and are used only in particular phases or on an ad hoc basis. New developments in technology, social media, and new ways of working closer with customers have opened up new possibilities for firms to gain user input throughout the whole innovation process. However, the impact that these new developments in technology offer for user input innovation in high‐tech firms is unclear. Therefore, we study how high‐tech firms collect and apply user feedback throughout the whole innovation process. The paper is based on a comparative case study of eight cases in the high‐tech industry, in which qualitative data collection was applied. The key contribution of the paper is a conceptual framework on user data‐driven innovation throughout the innovation cycle. This framework gives insight into user involvement types and approaches to collect and apply user feedback throughout the innovation process.