Effects of responsible human resource management practices on female employees’ turnover intentions

This study focuses on the effects of socially responsible human resource management (SR‐HRM) practices on female employees’ turnover intentions and the moderating effect of supervisor gender on this relationship. With a sample of 212 female employees from eight different industries in Finland, the results indicate that SR‐HRM practices promoting equal career opportunities and work–family integration play a significant role in reducing women's turnover intentions. The study adds to the academic discourse of corporate social responsibility by highlighting the impact of the organizational‐level HRM determinants on the individual‐level outcome. In addition, supervisor gender makes a difference in the studied relationship: female supervisors have a stronger and more significant impact on the relationship than male supervisors. Our findings suggest that organizational measures which support work–family integration should be taken seriously to decrease female employees’ turnover intentions. Male supervisors could adopt some gender‐incongruent leadership behaviors, such as individualized emotional concern and caring when dealing with female employees. In the future, other gender combinations in the supervisor–employee relationship would merit research.     

Boundary Spanners' Satisfaction with Organizational Support Services

SUMMARY

Internal services (i.e., support services) are an important form of organizational support for external boundary spanners (e.g., salespeople, customer service representatives). Internal services such as information systems, market research, training, accounting, and facilities support are intended to allow boundary spanners to better serve the firm's customer. Little research, however, has addressed factors that influence a boundary spanner's satisfaction with such services. The research presented here offers insight into how internal communication by both managers and service providers impacts a boundary spanner's satisfaction with support services. Results indicate that service provider and manager communications are largely complementary and that satisfaction with service outcomes, rather than service quality, appears to have an enduring impact upon a boundary spanner's overall job satisfaction. Implications for future research are addressed.     

The Value of Information Integration in Meeting Delivery Dates

In this article, we consider the value of shared information within a business network. To make the problem concrete, we focus on a specific operational problem: How the final supplier to the customer determines promised delivery dates. In a traditional supply chain, the final supplier has little or no information on the delivery performance of intermediate suppliers and thus, has limited information with which to set delivery dates. On the other hand, in an information-integrated business network, the final supplier's enterprise resource planning (ERP) system can interact with all the intermediate suppliers' ERP systems to determine exactly how far ahead or behind schedule the network is in meeting the needs of a specific customer. This information should improve the final supplier's ability to set realistic delivery dates. We attempt to quantify the value of this information and determine precisely why it is valuable so that management can best exploit information integration.

We use a modeling approach in this research, beginning with simple analytic models and progressing to more realistic simulation models. Our analytic model establishes an important principle: Information integration not only significantly improves the average on-time delivery performance of a business network, but also dramatically improves its worst-case performance. Because customer dissatisfaction is generally associated with worst-case performance, information integration may be highly beneficial even if its effect on average on-time delivery is small. Simulation models allow us to compare the performance of more realistic business networks. These models suggest, for example, that the value of information integration is dependent on both the structure of the network itself (whether serial or arborescent) and on the typical customer order date in the production cycle. These insights allow us to begin to identify the types of business networks in which information integration will have the highest value.     

Community Social Responsibility and Its Consequences for Family Business Performance*

Family‐centered businesses may have unique perspectives of socially responsible behavior due to family involvement and ties to the community. This research explored the antecedents and consequences of community social responsibility (CSR) for family firms operating in small and rural markets. Using a national sample from the 2000 wave of the National Family Business Survey (NFBS), researchers profiled family business operators' (n = 221) to determine if their CSR orientation contributed to family business performance. Enlightened self interest and social capital perspectives provide a framework for elaborating the role of CSR in sustaining family businesses in changing small communities. Results indicate that three dimensions, commitment to the community, community support, and sense of community, account for 43 percent of the variation in family business operators' CSR. Size of the business was significantly related to family firms' ability to give and receive community support. Further, commitment to the community was found to significantly explain perceived family business performance while community support explained financial performance. Findings suggest that socially responsible business behaviors can indeed contribute to the sustainability of family businesses in small rural communities.     

Effects of family control on the degree and type of diversification: Empirical evidence for business groups

This article analyzes the impact of ownership structure on corporate diversification, with reference to large listed family business groups. By considering agency theory and socioemotional wealth, the study examines the relationship between family ownership, concentration of ownership, and degree and type of diversification. The study considers 99 Spanish listed business groups (50 family‐controlled‐ and 49 nonfamily‐controlled groups) and considers diversification of business group as the focus of analysis. The results show how family business groups present a lower preference for unrelated diversification than related diversification. There is also a nonlinear relationship between the concentration of ownership in family groups and the degree of diversification, showing different behaviors in family groups according to shares owned by the family's leading shareholders. This article contributes to the literature by providing a more precise identification of the corporate strategy adopted by business groups and establishing new evidence about the impact of family control on diversification strategies and the differences regarding nonfamily business groups.     

Adolescents' perceptions of family communication patterns and some aspects of their consumer socialization

This study examined the effects of family communication patterns (FCP) on adolescent consumers' decision‐making styles and influence in family purchase decisions. Two underlying dimensions of FCP (concept‐orientation and socio‐orientation) were measured separately for mother–child communication and father–child communication and regressed on adolescents' use of the selected decision‐making styles and influence in purchase decisions involving durable products and nondurable products for their own use. Results show that only mother–child communication patterns have significant associations with adolescents' decision‐making styles and family purchase influence. Specifically, mothers' concept‐oriented communication was positively linked to children's use of utilitarian decision‐making styles (e.g., careful and deliberate decision making) and social/conspicuous decision‐making styles (e.g., recreational and hedonic decision making) as well as to children's influence in family purchase decisions involving both durable and nondurable products for themselves. On the other hand, mothers' socio‐oriented communication was linked positively to children's use of undesirable decision‐making styles (e.g., confusion by overchoice) and negatively to children's influence in family purchase decisions. This study also investigated the presence (or absence) of a same‐gender effect in the relationships between parent–child communication orientations and children's consumer socialization outcome. If present, a same‐gender effect would be indicated by a greater influence from the same‐sex parent's communication orientations on the adolescent's decision‐making styles and influence in family decisions relative to that of the opposite‐‐ sex parent's communication orientations. Comparisons of the two gender‐group regression results revealed no systematic pattern that suggests the presence of such an effect. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Immigrant business enterprises: A classification framework conceptualization and test

This article proposes the Immigrant Business Enterprises Classification Framework to organize immigrant‐owned businesses into categories associated with different levels of business integration into a host country's mainstream business community. The article applies the framework and reports the findings of structured face‐to‐face interviews with 199 Hispanic business enterprises (HBEs) in Indianapolis. The authors find Hispanic‐owned businesses hold different characteristics depending upon the integration category in which they are classified; the findings suggest that to support immigrant entrepreneurship, governments, business development organizations, and researchers should address category‐specific challenges, opportunities, and needs. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Personal Characteristics Underlying Ethical Decisions in Marketing Situations: A Survey of Small Business Managers*

This study analyzes the marketing ethics decision‐making process of small business managers. In particular, it examines the relative influences of ethical perceptions, personal moral philosophies, and gender on ethical intentions of small business managers. The sample of this study consists of professional members of the American Marketing Association working in companies with 500 employees or fewer. The results reveal that perceived ethical problem is a positive factor of a small business manager's ethical intention. The results generally support our hypothesis that female managers tend to be more ethical in their intention than their male counterparts. However, the results indicate that neither dimension of personal moral philosophy—idealism and relativism—is a significant predictor of a manager's ethical intention.     

Forward looking or looking unaffordable? Utilising academic perspectives on corporate social responsibility to assess the factors influencing its adoption by business

The paper demonstrates its ‘CSR at a tipping point’ thesis by juxtaposing views of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as essential for business and societal sustainability against those that see CSR as unaffordable or irrelevant in the current economic climate. Drawing from Kohlberg's seminal theory of moral development, CSR is conceptualised as the development of organisation moral reasoning, and the proposition is illustrated by demonstrating inter‐disciplinary similarities in levels of ethical concern within different approaches to the practice of marketing, human resource management (HRM) and performance management. Levels of concern for CSR are related to environmental and firm‐specific drivers and constraints that influence the CSR dynamic. Environmental influences on organisational CSR stances emanate from a range of stakeholder constituencies, while the importance accorded to CSR is also influenced by firm‐specific factors such as the organisation's stage of development, strategy and leadership. The paper's identification of inter‐disciplinary similarities in the varying levels of concern for CSR and its delineation of CSR drivers and constraints contribute to CSR theory, and these frameworks also represent analytical tools that managers can use to assess or to change an organisation's CSR stance. The multi‐level perspective on CSR adopted by the paper links an organisation's overall or ‘macro’ CSR stance to the ‘meso’ levels of CSR represented by practice within its specialist functions. It proposes that the ‘CSR at a tipping point’ proposition is assessed by utilising the conceptual model in the paper within a case‐study research design to determine whether specific organisations – identified as ‘CSR‐positive’ ones by their relatively high level of concern for stakeholder welfare – are changing the importance they accord to CSR as a result of the new business context, and the extent to which practice in their marketing, HRM and performance management functions are shapers or consequences of this.     

Enhancing Dyadic Performance Through Boundary Spanners and Innovation: An Assessment of Service Provider–Customer Relationships

Firms recognize that working together through collaborative relationships offers potential benefits such as improving cooperation, information sharing, and overall performance. An additional and extremely valuable benefit of working together is the potential for creating innovative business approaches and solutions. Thus, developing external linkages has become a higher priority within many organizations. Boundary spanning employees offer one means of achieving closer cross‐firm relationships. We investigate the roles of boundary spanners by examining service providers and their relationships with customers. More specifically, we examine boundary spanning employees that are physically on‐site at customer facilities. Results provide strong support that boundary spanners perceiving higher levels of external organizational support from a client subsequently develop affective commitment to the customer. This, in turn, drives knowledge exchange and logistics innovation. A relationship between logistics innovation and performance (of service providers and of customers) was also found. Managerial implications of the research findings are discussed and suggestions presented covering future research.     

A study of the impact of owner's mode of entry on venture performance and management patterns

This study examines if firm performance and the associated patterns of management vary with the owner-manager's mode of entry into the firm in owner-started (OS), buyout (BO), and family firms (FF). Prior research suggests that these three types of firms differ on certain managerial characteristics but has not examined the role of the owner-manager's mode of entry in determining firm performance on the one hand and its influence on the firm's management pattern on the other.We collected data from 345 firms, employing four to 99 employees, operating in four northeastern states. Self-reported return on assets (ROA), annual sales, business strengths, competitive strategies, and management practices were compared for OS, BO, and FF firms. Performance was found to vary with owner's mode of entry. The 227 OS firms' average ROA was significantly higher than that of the 61 family firms and the 57 BO firms. Successful start-up owners may have enjoyed greater profits because they assumed greater risk compared to those who opted to buy an existing venture or took over a family firm. Annual sales were highest for FFs, second for OS firms, and the lowest for BOs. In terms of management patterns, owner-started firms rated themselves significantly higher on business strengths and tended to have higher self-ratings for competitive strategies and operations strengths than did FFs or BOs. All of these differences were significant after controlling for the age and size differences among the firms, indicating that mode of entry did directly impact performance as well as the management patterns.Examining the impact of mode of entry versus management patterns on venture performance, we found that while the OS mode of entry was associated with greater ROA, this was primarily due to the different management patterns adopted by the OSs. Looking at annual sales, the FF mode of entry was associated with higher sales, and this was independent of the types of management patterns adopted by the firms. A priori, BOs would appear to be in a better position to achieve superior performance, but this was not so in this sample.Further analysis revealed different paths to profitability for the three entry modes. For OS firms, high ROA was associated with operating in the service and retail sectors, developing a broad range of business strengths, and offering competitively priced but higher quality customized products. For OSs, ROA was also enhanced by using informal and personalized management practices. Sales performance was greatest when OSs employed trained staff for functions such as budgeting and sales. For FFs, ROA was enhanced by broad-ranging strengths, but it was hurt by price and quality competitiveness—mainly because on average, their lower prices were not supported by a competitive cost of goods. Sales performance was greatest when FFs had owner-managers with extensive industry experience, were conservative in adding workers, emphasized product customization, relied on written reports, but avoided long-range operations planning. Management patterns of BOs were not related to their ROA, but their annual sales were marginally higher when the acquiring owners had extensive industry background and employed a large workforce.Thus, this study confirms our hypotheses that performance and management patterns vary across mode of entry as does the effectiveness of strategic management patterns. Further, our findings concurred with previous studies which suggested that sales performance and profitability were likely to be influenced by different management actions. This study demonstrates that owner's mode of entry is an important explanatory variable for variations in performance as well as management patterns. Venture CEOs need to recognize that different management approaches may be needed for success depending upon whether they founded, purchased, or inherited their firms.     

家族、家族文化与家族企业发展

本文从我国家族和家族文化的视角入手,探讨了家族和家族文化在家族企业发展中的积极影响:节约管理隐性成本;面对多变经营环境快速作出反应;劳资关系的和谐稳定;企业原始积累快;管理决策高效;企业人力资源易整合,及企业发展提供所需的企业精神动力。这些积极因素的有效利用,有助于家族企业在发展中赢得其他经济组织所没有的竞争优势。同时家族企业需善用家族资源,防止家族资源的负化。     

Critical success factors determining performance of cross‐border acquisition: Evidence from the African telecom market

This study investigates the factors affecting Bharti Airtel's cross‐border postacquisition performance in an African market. This study describes the relationships among various factors such as technical capability, affiliated firm's absorptive capacity, and organizational learning capabilities, which determine the successful operations of the Zain acquisition deal in South Africa. This paper adopts a qualitative approach to identify factors that influence the postacquisition performance. Seven factors are identified based on the literature. Consequently, it has become a necessity to encapsulate these factors in suitable proportions. In this study, we have developed a total interpretive structural modeling (TISM) to analyze the postacquisition performance of Bharti Airtel in South Africa. Our research has highlighted six dynamic factors (organizational learning capability, knowledge management, technology capability, technology relatedness, acquirer's absorptive capacity, and national culture difference) that affect the firm's postacquisition performance. The interpretive structural model (ISM) and total interpretive structural model for postacquisition performance are built‐up. The developed TISM will support academics and practitioners to develop their understanding of acquisition performance of parent companies in the context of telecom business in the South African market.     

Knowledge Management in Central and Eastern Europe Through Network Development and Boundary Spanners

ABSTRACT

Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries have become a popular research venue due to their transitioning into market based economies. For international business scholars this represents a unique opportunity, as one of the key driving forces is the privatization of state-owned enterprises. Due to the market's great potential, many multinational enterprises are entering CEE countries and realizing that a transfer of market knowledge (i.e., customer tastes, distribution methods/channels, etc.) from the host country to the multinational, as well as from the multinational to the host country (i.e. technology, management/marketing capabilities, etc.), is essential.

The lack of host country skills have made knowledge transfer difficult. Also, the tacit nature of some of the most important knowledge embedded within the host country's organization and the multinational makes knowledge diffusion a daunting task to manage. However, successful knowledge management will assist in positive performance measures so researchers are examining knowledge management and its constructs (acquisition, transfer, conversion, and application).

Our research explores the linkage between knowledge management and performance in host country firms in a CEE country, Croatia. We also explored antecedents of successful knowledge management that of networks and human resources (boundary spanners). Finally we explored whether cultural distance moderates these relationships in the knowledge management process.     

Community differences in business births and business growths

The published literature relating to the location of a business tends to support two different kinds of theories: (1) that business locations are selected to minimize costs; or (2) that decision-makers select locations because of personal preferences. This study attempts to find explanations as to why certain communities have grown faster than others, and to provide a model for the location decision of a start-up business.We find a negative correlation of two entrepreneurship measures to environmental factors that are usually considered to be desirable, i.e., health care and the environment, climate and terrain, recreation, and low crime. We find a weak correlation between community attitudes and the entrepreneurship measures. We also find a positive correlation of entrepreneurship with a high number of college graduates; a negative correlation when a high proportion of the population is over age 65.Population mobility and low unemployment are also positively correlated with the measures, but those factors seem at least as likely to be results as to be causes of business births and business growth.We believe that start-ups are vital for any community that wishes to grow, therefore the location decision of start-up businesses seems important. We propose a model of the location decision of a start-up, a model that emphasizes the individuality of the decision maker and the specific success requirements of the business. The driving force behind a start-up can be a decision-maker's desire for personal gain, a problem that begs a solution, or a solution that is looking for a problem. In some cases, the reason for starting a business will dictate its location. In other cases, success requirements of the business will dominate. We believe that researchers can gain a true understanding of the location decision only by considering both the preference of the decision-maker and the requirements of the specific business.     

Task Conflict,Narcissism and Entrepreneurial Capability in Teams Planning a Business: A Moderated Moderation Approach to Explaining Business Planning Performance

Drawing on the dynamic self‐regulatory processing model of narcissism, we hypothesize that in teams planning a business, task conflict relates positively to business planning performance and that this link is reinforced by the team's narcissism. By integrating aspects of human capital theory, this brighter side of narcissism is amplified where the narcissism is aligned with entrepreneurial capability and the team members' belief in their entrepreneurial capability. The findings of the moderated moderation analysis examining 66 teams of entrepreneurship students support the study's assumptions and provide meaningful implications for social psychology and personality researchers in entrepreneurship.     

Knows Me and My Business: The Association between Preference for Relational Governance and Owners' Choice of Banks

We explore the relative importance of relational and economic preferences in small business owners' choice of a primary bank. We measured preferences directly at three points within 14 years and found that business owners' preference for relational versus economic governance was associated with the type of bank chosen and that the effect of relational preference remained relatively stable over time. Our findings support the idea that a preference for social relations might shape even the most straightforward economic decisions and suggest that variation in this preference is large, persistent enough to support business opportunities for small firms, including small banks.     

Gender differences in knowledge and attitude regarding breastfeeding

The literature presented evidence that the opinions and attitudes of the father or male partner towards breastfeeding have a strong positive correlation with breastfeeding initiation and duration. Men are also found less knowledgeable about breastfeeding and are more positive towards formula feeding than women. Using a survey of college‐aged men and women, this study provides in‐depth understanding of gender differences in knowledge and attitude regarding breastfeeding. The Infant Feeding Knowledge Test and the Iowa Infant Feeding Attitude Scale were included in the questionnaire in addition to questions about the respondents' intention to breastfeed, exposure to breastfeeding during infancy and socio‐demographic characteristics of the family of origin. The final sample consists of 181 women and 88 men enrolled in a university in the Southern US. Linear regressions with gender interaction terms were estimated in order to isolate the gender‐specific correlations between their family background and their knowledge and attitude regarding breastfeeding. A series of Chi‐square tests examined whether the regression coefficients were significantly different between men and women. Results support existing evidence of gender gap in breastfeeding knowledge and attitude. More importantly, the study reveals that the influence of one's family background on their knowledge and attitude regarding breastfeeding is significantly different between men and women. It suggests a possibility of greater disagreement regarding feeding choices within a higher socioeconomic status (SES) couple. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Gender as a determinant of small business performance: Insights from a British study

The performance of small businesses, that is the ability of small firms to contribute to job and wealth creation through business start-up, survival and growth, has been an important area of policy and academic debate in the 1980s. Surprisingly little has been written about gender and small business performance. Our literature search revealed only a small number of studies of any substance on this subject, though over forty made some mention of it, Most studies shied away from direct examination of quantitative performance measures (such as jobs created, sales turnover, annual growth), tending to concentrate on qualitative measures of success or failure. The paper examines small business performance and gender using data obtained from a survey of 600 (300 women, 300 men) Scottish and English small business ownermanagers, part of a three year study on the impact of gender on small business management. Analyses suggest that the relationship between gender and small business performance is complex, but that gender still appears to be a significant determinant even after other key factors are controlled for.     

Speed to Legal Registration and Nascent Venture Performance: A Temporal Dilemma for Nascent Entrepreneurs in an Emerging Economy

In this paper, we examine the effect of a nascent venture's speed to legal registration during its formation on the initial venture performance in an emerging economy. Quickly obtaining legitimacy via legal registration in the early stages of a new venture's formation accelerates its resources acquisition and transition to other start‐up activities, facilitating the venture to seize dynamic entrepreneurial opportunities; however, in an emerging economy, quick legal registration also incurs substantial costs and compliance activities that may inhibit the venture's engagement in other start‐up activities. A nascent venture in an emerging economy suffers from being either too fast (early) or too slow (late) in registering its business during the formation process, and the relationship between the speed to registration and nascent venture performance is best reflected by an inverse U‐shape. Moreover, the inverse U‐relationship becomes more pronounced when the entrepreneurial opportunity is more innovative. Based on analyzing 145 nascent entrepreneurs from the event history data set of the China Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics (CPSED), we found strong support for our arguments.