Generating Business Referrals for SMEs: The Contingent Value of CEOs' Social Capital

We examine how small and medium‐sized enterprise (SME) chief executive officers' (CEOs) social capital (as measured by strength of ties and structural holes) can help them bring business to their firms through the spread of positive referrals. Based on a sample of 408 French SME CEOs, we find a direct effect of social capital. Such effect is contingent on the CEO's personality, with social capital being most beneficial to CEOs with low levels of conscientiousness. CEOs' social ties facilitate the distortion of information, thereby leading personal contacts to give referrals to and endorse a focal CEO, even in the presence of negative signals, such as low conscientiousness.     

Foreign Direct Investments and Domestic Employment of German SMEs: The Moderating Effect of Owner Management

Despite considerable research, the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and domestic employment is still inconclusive. The present paper contributes to extant research by providing differentiated findings on the FDI and domestic employment relationship. We examine how horizontal and vertical FDI impact domestic employment and how the effects are contingent on the ownership structure of the firm. Testing hypotheses on a dataset of 1,079 German small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) shows that horizontal FDI has a positive influence, whereas vertical FDI has a negative influence on domestic employment. Furthermore, domestic downsizing due to the establishment of foreign production subsidiaries is less severe in owner‐managed SMEs.     

The Moderating Influence of Financial Market Development on the Relationship between Loan Guarantees for SMEs and Local Market Employment Rates

We empirically examine whether a major government intervention in the small firm credit market yields significantly better results in markets that are less financially developed. The government intervention that we investigate is Small Business Administration (SBA) guaranteed lending. After controlling for the appropriate cross‐sectional market characteristics, we find that SBA guaranteed lending has a significantly more positive impact on the average annual level of employment when the local market is relatively less financially developed. This result has important implications for public policy directives concerning where SBA guaranteed lending should be directed.     

Understanding Cosmopolitanism and Brand Origin Recognition Accuracy: The Moderating Effect of Need for Cognition

This paper investigates whether cosmopolitan individuals have a greater knowledge of brand origins compared to non-cosmopolitans. The moderating effect of need for cognition is tested. Additionally, this work tests whether the level of confidence in assigning a country of origin to a brand affects brand attitude. The results show that cosmopolitan individuals have significantly higher brand origin recognition accuracy scores than non-cosmopolitans. Second, an interaction is found between cosmopolitanism and need for cognition to impact the brand origin recognition accuracy. Third, when individuals are more confident about the origin of a brand, brand attitude increases.     

Organizational Ambidexterity and Innovation Performance: The Moderating Effect of Entrepreneurial Orientation

The influence of organizational ambidexterity on innovation and the growth of enterprises has gradually become an important research topic in the field of strategic management and organization theory. This paper builds up a theoretical framework of the relationship between organizational ambidexterity and innovation performance with regards to corporate entrepreneurship orientation. We select 175 companies from high and new technology industries in China’s three large cities, Beijing, Tianjin and Dalian, as samples to carry out an empirical test. We find that the balance and complement of organizational ambidexterity are positively correlated with the innovation performance of enterprises; a corporate entrepreneurial orientation has a significantly moderating effect on the relationship between the balance dimension of organizational ambidexterity and innovation performance, yet it has no significant positive moderating effect on the relationship between the combined dimension of organizational ambidexterity and innovation performance.     

Early‐Stage of Innovations: Selection System Criteria for Funding U.S. Biotech SMEs

The focus of this paper is small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in the U.S. biotechnology industry and how they compete for financial resources during the early stages of innovation development. We utilize selection system theory, which describes how selectors use reputation‐based information about selectees as decision factors when making investments. Our findings suggest that there are different predictive variables for SME categories and the types of investors attracted to these categories, which is consistent with selection system theory. We extend prior studies by providing context to early‐stage innovation investment funding within an environment characterized as having a long development cycle and representing high uncertainty.     

The Effect of Corporate Social Performance on Financial Performance: The Moderating Effect of Ownership Concentration

The purpose of this study is to extend prior research on this topic by investigating whether the impact of ownership concentration moderates the link between corporate social performance (CSP) and financial performance (FP). This study uses a set of unique, hand-collected pollution control data to measure CSP, based on a sample of Taiwanese listed companies during the period from 1996 to 2006. The results of the empirical analysis provide firm support for the idea that the divergence between control rights and the cash flow rights of controlling owners negatively moderates the link between social and short- and long-run FP.     

核心自我评价与个体创新行为:集体主义导向的调节作用

在区分个体创造力和创新的基础上,文章考察了225名企业员工的核心自我评价、集体主义导向与上司评定的创新行为的关系.结果表明个体创新过程中的创意产生和创意实施行为正相关;核心自我评价与创意产生正相关,但与创意实施无显著相关关系;集体主义导向在核心自我评价与创意产生和实施行为关系中均起调节作用:对集体主义导向较强的员工来说,核心自我评价对创新行为的影响反而较弱,对低集体主义导向的员工来说,核心自我评价对创新行为的影响则相对较强.文章最后对研究结果进行了讨论,并指出了研究的贡献与不足.     

Entrepreneurial orientation,entrepreneurial competencies,innovation, and performances in SMEs of Pakistan: Moderating role of social ties

The current study examines the mediating role of innovation and entrepreneurial competencies in entrepreneurial orientation’s relationship with financial, social, and environmental performance. This research also determines the role of social ties in strengthening the association between innovation and entrepreneurial competencies with social, financial, and environmental performance. Using multi-source and time-lagged studies, the data was collected from 297 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Pakistan, and structural equation modeling was used to test direct, indirect, and moderating hypotheses. The findings show that entrepreneurial orientation, entrepreneurial competencies, and innovation positively correlate with all the types of performance under investigation and confirm the mediating role of innovation and entrepreneurial competencies. Additionally, social network ties strengthen innovation—financial performance, and entrepreneurial competencies—social performance relationship. This research proposes significant theoretical and managerial implications by determining the impact of entrepreneurial orientation on SMEs in Pakistan.     

Exploration and exploitation in established small and medium-sized enterprises: The effect of CEOs' regulatory focus

Based on theory of regulatory focus and organizational ambidexterity, we hypothesize that the level of engagement in exploration and exploitation in a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) is affected by the respective CEO's chronic regulatory focus. In our analysis of survey responses from CEOs in Switzerland, we find that the CEO's level of promotion focus positively affects the firm's engagement in both, exploration and exploitation, while the CEO's prevention focus is negatively associated with the firm's exploration but not significantly related to its exploitation. The positive associations between a CEO's promotion focus and the firm's exploration/exploitation activities are enhanced under conditions of intense competition.     

CSR and Service Brand: The Mediating Effect of Brand Identification and Moderating Effect of Service Quality

This article examines the mediation effect of brand identification and the moderating effect of service quality (SQ) on the effects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) association on service brand performance. A survey of customers of mobile telecommunications services was conducted. The study finds, first, that both CSR and SQ have direct effects on brand identification and customer satisfaction and indirect effects on customer satisfaction (via brand identification) and on service brand loyalty (via customer satisfaction and via “brand identification/customer satisfaction”). Second, SQ enhances the effect of CSR on brand identification. This study contributes to the literature by incorporating three perspectives of service brand performance – CSR association, SQ, and brand identification – into one general framework that stresses (a) the mediating role of brand identification in predicting customer satisfaction and service brand loyalty; and (b) the interactive effect of CSR and SQ in predicting brand identification.     

The Relationship between Mutual TSI and Interfirm Contracts: The Moderating Effect of Strong Ties

ABSTRACT

Purpose: This study examines the influence that tie strength has on contractual relationships between exchange parties with specific investments and also explores the role of network intensity in contractual relationships between buyers and suppliers. We hypothesize that the relationship between transaction-specific investments (TSIs) and contracts is moderated by network intensity.

Methodology: An empirical test is carried out by analyzing buyer–supplier relationships of manufacturing companies. The construct measures were based on those obtained from prior research, and the reliability and validity were established using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The overall measurement model was then assessed with structural equation modeling using AMOS.

Findings: We focus primarily on contract variables as a governance mechanism that can be affected by the strength of ties among firms and the results of our empirical study indicate that supplier TSIs improve the use of informal contracts while the use of formal contracts undermines the effect on supplier TSIs. In addition, we found that firms with weak ties with their partners in the network are more likely to use both formal and informal contracts than those with strong ties.

Contribution: Our study has several contributions. First, our research improves the understanding of the relationship between TSIs and the choice of contracts as a governance mechanism, especially for mutual TSIs. Second, our research improves our understanding of the network strength in the context of business-to-business relationships extending the understanding of the relationship intensity among firms in a network. Third, we focused on the effects of network intensity on contractual relationships.     

心理契约、员工满意与离职意图:基于自我效能感的调节效应分析

以往对离职意图影响因素的研究主要集中于各种情景变量,文章以412名餐饮业员工作为被试样本,采用分层回归方法检验了心理契约和自我效能感与员工满意和离职意图的关系.研究结果表明:交易契约对员工满意产生负影响,对离职意图产生正影响,而关系契约的作用截然相反;自我效能感只对员工满意有主效应,并且调节两种心理契约对员工满意和离职意图的影响.研究结果进一步证实个体特质对工作态度有重要影响.     

The Moderating Effect of Seasonality on Household Apparel Expenditure

This research explores if and how seasonality moderates the effect of consumer characteristics on household per capita expenditure for apparel. The Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression analysis was based on quarterly micropanel data from the Continuing Consumer Expenditure Survey. The results confirmed that seasonality moderates the relationship between consumer characteristics and per capita apparel expenditure: the income elasticity of apparel expenditure varied by season as did the effects of age, ethnicity, household size, region, and housing tenure.     

Pirate or Buy? The Moderating Effect of Idolatry

Due to the development of information technology, music piracy has become an escalating problem. This study attempts to employ the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and the social identity theory to investigate the antecedents of downloading pop music illegally from the Internet, the relationship between the intention to illegally download music and the intention to buy music, and the moderating effects of idolatry. Data were collected from 350 teenagers in Northern Taiwan through questionnaire interviews conducted in city centers where teenagers gather. The results of partial least squares (PLS) analyses reconfirm the explanatory power of the TPB model with regard to the pop music illegal downloading behavior. However, it is interesting to note that the intention to illegally download music does not have a significant influence on the intention to buy music. This finding contradicts our common intuitions. Further analyses also reveal that idolatry moderates the relationship between the intention to illegally download music and the intention to buy music. For teenagers with high idolatry, a higher music downloading intention results in a lower buying intention. One possible explanation is the price of music CDs. Several interviews were also held to verify our results. Implications and a discussion are then provided.     

国有企业员工编制身份与组织承诺——内在薪酬感知的调节作用

国有企业作为社会经济发展的奠基石,肩负着艰巨的历史使命和现实重任,而国有企业员工作为企业发展的第一要素,员工组织承诺对企业的发展具有十分重要的影响。文章从身份视角切入,基于社会认同威胁理论,探讨员工编制身份如何影响组织承诺,以及这一影响过程是否受内在薪酬感知的调节作用。281份有效问卷的研究结果表明：员工编制身份对组织承诺有正向影响;内在薪酬感知在“编制身份-组织承诺”关系中部分起负向调节作用,即内在薪酬感知能够部分减少“双轨制”带来的员工价值认同、回报以及继续留在组织意愿的差距。内在薪酬感知的具体调节作用存在差异,即内在薪酬管理并不如预想中有效。文章对国有企业雇佣制度的理论研究和管理实践具有一定的启示意义。     

Innovation Capability and Performance Of Manufacturing SMEs: The Paradoxical Effect of IT Integration

In theory, IT integration through applications such as enterprise resource planning, manufacturing resource planning, and electronic data interchange provides an organization with the ability to exploit innovation capabilities. Based on survey data obtained from 309 Canadian manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), this study aims to identify the enabling effect of IT integration on the innovation capability of manufacturing SMEs—in terms of growth and productivity outcomes—and to verify if this effect is subject to industry influences. While the firm's innovation capability was found, as expected, to be positively related to the growth and productivity of manufacturing SMEs, the results underline paradoxical effects of IT integration in this regard. While IT integration was not seen to enable the innovation capability of manufacturing SMEs in terms of growth, it was seen to have a disabling effect on this same capability with regard to productivity.     

CSR in SMEs: do SMEs matter for the CSR agenda?

In this paper we argue that the collective grandness of small business is often underestimated in CSR research and policy-making. We emphasize the importance of understanding the contexts and the ways in which small- and medium-sized companies engage in CSR and how they differ from multinational companies. We suggest that it might be that researchers and practitioners are asking the wrong questions in their ambitions to prove 'the business case for CSR'. Perhaps we should rather focus on the 'how' and the 'with what impact' questions to understand better the SME engagement in CSR.