Entrepreneur political skill and new venture performance: Extending the social competence perspective

Research on the social competence perspective holds that since operating high performing new ventures is dependent on entrepreneurs’ ability to influence stakeholder actions, entrepreneur social competence is likely critically important to new venture performance. Using a sample of 163 entrepreneurs throughout the USA, we extend such research by examining the entrepreneur political skill new venture performance relationship. Our results suggest that political skill, which is the component of social competence which specifically assesses an individual's ability to influence other's actions within the business environment, is positively associated with new venture performance. Study results provide additional support for the social competence perspective.     

Team leader experience in improvement teams: A social networks perspective

In this research, we disentangle the relationship between several key aspects of a team leader's experience and the likelihood of improvement project success. Using the lens of socio-technical systems, we argue that the effect of team leader experience derives from the social system as well as the technical system. The aspects of team leader experience we examine include team leader social capital (a part of the social system) and team leader experience leading projects of the same type (a part of the technical system).We examine four different, yet related, dimensions of a team leader's social capital, which we motivate based on the social networks literature. One dimension, team leader familiarity, suggests that social capital is created when team leaders have experience working with current team members on prior improvement projects, and that such social capital increases the likelihood of improvement project success. We develop three additional dimensions, using social network analysis (SNA), to capture the idea that the improvement team leader's social capital extends beyond the current team to include everyone the leader has previously worked with on improvement projects. Contrasting our SNA-based dimensions with team leader familiarity enables us to better understand the impact of a team leader's social capital both inside and beyond the team. We also examine the effect of a team leader's experience leading prior projects of the same type, and consider the extent to which organizational experience may moderate the impact of both team leader social capital and same-type project experience.Based on analysis of archival data of six sigma projects spanning six years from a Fortune 500 consumer products manufacturer, we find that two of our SNA-based dimensions of team leader social capital, as well as experience leading projects of the same type, increase the likelihood of project success. In addition, we show that organizational experience moderates the relationship between team leader same-type project experience and project success. However, this is not the case for the relationship between the dimensions of team leader social capital and project success. These results provide insights regarding how dimensions of team leader experience and organizational experience collectively impact the operational performance of improvement teams.     

Understanding supplier structural embeddedness: A social network perspective

Despite a significant amount of attention, the potential of supplier structural embeddedness (i.e., the value of the structural position in an extended network) to improve the performance of a buying firm remains poorly understood. This study drew on the social network theory to empirically examine a conceptual framework specifying a relationship between the efforts of a buying firm to understand supplier structural configuration and operational and financial performance. This study also examines how the comprehension of structural embeddedness is transformed into performance for a buying firm through relational embeddedness (i.e., the strength of a dyadic relationship). Survey data collected from companies in the U.S. were analyzed using hierarchical regression analysis. The results indicate that the understanding of the structural dimension does help to enhance operational performance of a buying firm, but it does not lead to better financial performance. Empirical evidence shows that a buying firm does improve the quality of a dyadic relationship between the buying firm and a supplier by understanding how the supplier is connected to other firms and what positional values are produced. Further, relational embeddedness is found to mediate the influence of the enhanced understanding of the structural configuration on operational performance.     

A dynamic perspective: local interactions driving the spread of social networks

ABSTRACT

This study takes a micro standpoint to quantitatively verify the extent to which local interactions affect the expansion of dynamic social networks. By reviewing and synthesizing the theoretical literature in this article, we seek to establish a pragmatic analytical framework to capture the underlying functioning of local interactions. It then aims to produce findings on seven distinct marketing campaigns in which the real-world virtual communities offer intact time-series connections. In our considered cases, the firm-to-consumer interactivity plays a pivotal role in social media marketing while the customer-driven influence advances individual information transmission. The significant positive relationships demonstrate features of interactivity within subgroups including reciprocal edges and directed 3-cliques associated with the evolution of the virtual community by electronic word-of-mouth (WOM) of both firm-to-consumer and consumer-to-consumer interactions. More importantly, the attenuation of local interactions to a large extent leads to the cut-off point of the growth of the dynamic social network.     

Extrinsic motivation as a determinant of knowledge exchange in sales teams: A social network approach

This paper investigates extrinsic motivation as a determinant of knowledge exchange among employees in sales teams. Applying a social network approach, we study different forms of knowledge-exchange behaviors from the perspective of a focal employee and from the perspective of the dyad. From the focal employees' perspective, we disentangle knowledge seeking from knowledge providing, and argue that these two behaviors are affected differently by employees' extrinsic motivation. From the dyad perspective, we take similarity in motivation of tied-to employees and reciprocity of exchange ties into account. To test our hypotheses, we apply exponential random graph models to data gathered from 138 employees in five different sales teams distributed across three companies in Central Europe. The results of our analysis from the focal employees' perspective show that extrinsically motivated employees generally engage in less knowledge exchange. The dyad perspective further highlights that sales employees proceed purposefully when they exchange knowledge with coworkers. For instance, two employees' relative levels of extrinsic motivation determine their willingness to engage in reciprocal knowledge exchange. We discuss the implications of our findings for research on the microfoundations of organizational knowledge management and draw conclusions concerning HRM practices used to foster extrinsic motivation, thereby affecting knowledge exchange.     

The symbiosis of entities in the social engagement network: The role of social ventures

Social entrepreneurship is increasingly recognized as a mechanism for creating social and economic value. By applying population ecology, resource dependency and resource-based view perspectives, this paper develops a conceptual model to provide greater insight into how social entrepreneurship ventures collaborate with other organizations in a network to fulfill resource requirements. Through this process social ventures address unmet social needs to create value which leads to the development and growth of individuals, communities, and regions. Using a large city's economic development actors involved in small business promotion as test cases, this exploratory study illustrates that social ventures effectively acquire resources from the primary social engagement network actors: corporations, governments, and other social ventures. The framework introduced in the paper provides a means by which to better understand the context in which relevant social engagement players in a network exist and the synergies that they can develop.     

乡镇移民安置与社会网络支持

广义上 ,移民安置不仅包括生产生活的调整和文化整合 ,还暗含着社会关系网络的重建。针对社会关系网络中断后移民所出现的种种社会适应不良 ,本文建议通过发掘个人社会网络资源 ,来实现移民安置的自我解决 ;并构筑社会保障和制度支持网 ,给予移民安置外部支撑     

Nationality,social network and psychological well-being: expatriates in China

Expatriate social networks constitute an under-emphasized area in expatriate literature. The current study contributes to the expatriate adjustment literature by empirically testing the relationship between expatriate personal networks and psychological well-being. The current study also investigates the hypothesis that expatriates from different cultural backgrounds will establish different social networks and adjust differently in China. A survey of 166 expatriates in China from North America, Europe and other countries in Asia showed significant support for the hypothesis that expatriate network characteristics have a direct and significant influence on expatriate psychological well-being. In addition, as predicted, expatriates in China from different cultural backgrounds (Overseas Chinese, other Asian, North American and European) established personal networks with different characteristics.     

Bringing Networks In: A model of organizational socialization in the public sector

Abstract

Integrating new employees so that they perform well, fit in well and are committed to the agency is a salient concern for public managers. Organizational socialization is the process by which new employees learn the knowledge, skills and values required to become organizational members. This article develops a model of organizational socialization grounded in newcomer social networks and set within a context of public service identity. Social network theory and methods offer a means for examining and interpreting patterns of interactions between newcomers and organizational members. This article concludes with propositions for future studies of organizational socialization and social networks.     

A longitudinal investigation on the factors affecting newcomers' adjustment: evidence from Japanese organizations

Using the longitudinal survey data of newcomers working for Japanese firms, this study demonstrates that the socialization tactics used by Japanese firms were positively related to the degree of socialization of newcomers, which eventually correlated positively with the time-series differences in organizational commitment and achievement motivation from the first year (T1) to the second year (T2) of their organizational entry, and negatively with the longitudinal change in turnover intention from T1 to T2. In addition, the results show that the newcomers' attitudes toward their pre-entry job search efforts, as with their entry (T1), had a negative influence on the change in value commitment from T1 to T2, indicating that those who rated their past job search activities as successful tended, as of their entry into the organization, to diminish their level of acceptance of their organization's values over a year. Findings are used to discuss how firms can effectively manage their entry-level employees to facilitate their adjustment and retention.     

公共管理社会化与公共服务市场化--美国"政府再造"对珠海市城市管理制度创新的启示

文章认为公共管理社会化与公共服务市场化是美国“政府再造”的重要政策工具。在分析美国地方政府推行公共管理社会化和公共服务市场化经验教训以及珠海城市管理面临问题基础上 ,提出珠海城市管理体制创新的具体策略 ,包括 (1)推动非政府、非营利组织发展 ;(2 )大力推进社区建设 ;(3)完善“两级政府、三级管理”的城市管理体系 ;(4)全面开展公共服务市场化改革 ;(5 )吸引非国有资本参与基础设施建设 (6 )建立科学的政府绩效评估制度。     

A new emergency management dynamic value assessment model based on social media data: a multiphase decision-making perspective

ABSTRACT

User-Generated Content (UGC) is becoming a powerful data source to support emergency management. Managers usually face two difficulties in practical emergency management. First, the requirement topics for emergency management are changing over time. Second, the value of the same microblog is changing over different emergency phases. The contributions of this study lie in the following aspects. First, this paper develops a multiphase dynamic assessment model. Second, an idea for the dynamic evaluation of UGC is proposed. Third, this paper presents an effective quantification method to assess the dynamic value of social media data.     

社会多元化与政府转型情境下的规划模式转变——浅析多伦多新型社会规划

面对当前社会日益多元化的发展趋势,以及政府职能调整为社区发展带来的两难困境,加拿大多伦多市在反思传统社会规划模式局限性的基础上,开创性地进行了新型社会规划模式的探索,为我国城市规划领域中社会规划的发展提供了新的思路和启示.     

Overcoming the liability of smallness by recruiting through networks in China: a guanxi-based social capital perspective

We investigate the role of guanxi in Chinese entrepreneurial firms’ recruitment practices in attempting to overcome the liability of smallness. Combining insights from the social capital and guanxi literature, we theorize the guanxi-based social capital perspective and use it to analysis 96 in-depth interviews with multiple members (entrepreneurs, senior managers and factory workers) from 15 die-casting entrepreneurial firms in Guangdong province, China. We find that the use of guanxi in recruitment practice can overcome the liability of smallness because it makes the hiring process more convenient, improves firms’ attractiveness to jobseekers and enhances the person-organizational fit between new hires and firms. We discuss how Chinese entrepreneurs and their senior managers use guanxi strategically to achieve these advantages. On the other hand, our findings suggest that jobseekers can also use guanxi to increase their options, improve their bargaining power and distract firms’ attention away from hiring the most appropriate candidate for the job in order to undermine the effectiveness of Chinese entrepreneurial firms’ recruitment procedures. We explore the implications of these findings for academic research and managerial practice.     

Returning to the workforce after retiring: a job demands,job control,social support perspective on job satisfaction

Despite growing interest in the aging of the workforce, few investigations have explored a key aspect of diversity among older workers: whether or not they consider themselves retired. Using a sample of workers ages 50 and older from the National Study of the Changing Workforce (2008), we apply career development theory and the job demand–control(–support) framework to investigate potential differences between working retirees (i.e. employed older adults 50+ who consider themselves retired) and working non-retirees (i.e. employed older adults 50+ who do not consider themselves retired) in terms of their job characteristics (i.e. demands, control, support) and how these job characteristics are related to job satisfaction. We find that working retirees report lower job demands and higher social support, and that there is limited evidence for the buffering hypothesis. Implications for researchers and employers are discussed.     

The problem of employees' network centrality and supervisors' error in performance appraisal: A multilevel theory

This article reveals an unexplored paradox for HR managers: the centrality of an employee in the social network benefits performance but hampers performance appraisal because it affects supervisors' rating errors. Central employees can be erroneously rated high on performance even when they are not high performers because supervisors tend to overappraise their performance. A distinction is made between rating precision, which depends on supervisors' uncertainty regarding employees' performance, and rating accuracy, which depends on supervisors' bias in favor of employees. Employee centrality is posited to be beneficial to precision but deleterious to accuracy because it regulates the diffusion of positive information, status, and power, all of which distort supervisors' capacity and motivation to accurately appraise performance. It is then argued that rating errors caused by network centrality affect aggregate perceptions of justice in organizations. When employees are highly connected to each other in a dense network, organizations have a strong and positive justice climate. Yet when some employees are more central than others in a centralized network, organizations have a negative and weak justice climate. The article contributes to the literature because it identifies an unexplored dark side of network centrality and offers recommendations for HR managers to cope with its deleterious consequences and for scholars to study them.     

A Systematic Review of Co-Creation and Co-Production: Embarking on the social innovation journey

Abstract

This article presents a systematic review of 122 articles and books (1987–2013) of co-creation/co-production with citizens in public innovation. It analyses (a) the objectives of co-creation and co-production, (b) its influential factors and (c) the outcomes of co-creation and co-production processes. It shows that most studies focus on the identification of influential factors, while hardly any attention is paid to the outcomes. Future studies could focus on outcomes of co-creation/co-production processes. Furthermore, more quantitative studies are welcome, given the qualitative, case study, dominance in the field. We conclude with a research agenda to tackle methodological, theoretical and empirical lacunas.     

The impact of boundaryless careers on organizational decision making: an analysis from the perspective of Luhmann's theory of social systems

Research on careers has recently discovered the growing relevance of inter-organizational, boundaryless careers. The new paradigm of career studies that goes hand in hand with the concept of boundaryless careers, though, has not yet paid very much attention to the impact of new career patterns on how organizations function. To fill this gap, the paper analyses the effects of boundaryless careers on organizational decision making. Drawing on Niklas Luhmann's theory of social systems, we elaborate how observing a (potential) employee's life in terms of career generally facilitates organizational decision making by what we call the evaluative capacity of career. Further, the paper shows in what respect employing this mode of observation is rendered more difficult by the emergence of boundaryless careers. Based on the theoretical framework developed, we finally deduce and apply a scheme of classification of possible reactions to the organizational problems caused by boundaryless careers. In sum, the paper provides a new theoretical approach to analysing different ways of how organizations can cope with the challenges of new career patterns.