A study of HRM and recruitment and selection policies and practices in Taiwan

In this paper, the authors present and discuss the findings of a survey of human resource management (HRM) and recruitment and selection policies and practices in a sample of manufacturing industry in Taiwan. The results indicate that there is a general desire among HR professionals in participant companies that HRM policies are integrated with corporate strategy and that HRM should be involved in decision making at board level. Evidence was also obtained that some HRM decisions are shared between line management and HR specialists and that line managers had a particularly influential role in decisions regarding recruitment and selection, training and development, and workforce expansion/reduction. There was also some evidence supporting an assertion that certain recruitment and selection practices were culturally sensitive and this was supported by evidence of association between recruitment and selection practices and country of ownership.     

Theories from the Lab: How Research on Science Commercialization can Contribute to Management Studies

Universities and research centres have long been used to study management issues. A growing body of research has focused on how science can be effectively commercialized, emphasizing technology commercialization activities, university–industry collaborations, and academic entrepreneurship. While much of this work has documented empirical relationships, our aim in this introductory article of the special issue is to show how research on science commercialization may yield conceptual contributions to the field of management. Hence, we first discuss the importance of context for theory development. We then review how the science commercialization context has been used for theory development, identifying two facets used to conceptualize science commercialization (i.e., managing the transition between institutional contexts, and the multiple goals and impacts of actors engaging in science commercialization). This forms the basis for discussing what makes this context suited for theory development in general management and for outlining a future research agenda. We conclude by summarizing the papers in the special issue.     

Habermas and information systems research: New directions

Habermas' critical social theory has proven to be an important and useful lens in information systems research, especially in understanding the communicative potential of information systems and in conceiving alternative approaches to information systems development. As communication and engagement have become increasingly important in the context of today's information systems, his work has perhaps even greater applicability. However, concerns that it is too utopian to apply in organizational settings have led to skepticism regarding Habermas' work. Participation by all, the “ideal speech situation” and the consensus ideal are each Habermasian requirements that have sparked this criticism.However, Habermas' work has continued to grow and evolve since the Theory of Communicative Action, the basis of much IS research drawing on his work. His contributions in discourse ethics (1990, 1993) and deliberative democracy (1998) have offered us new and important theory, and have brought to light Habermas' own clarification and evolution of his original ideas.The intent of this paper is to reopen a communicative dialog about Habermas' work. After summarizing his critical social theory, we turn to addressing our two main objectives: first, to demonstrate that evolutions in Habermasian thought have renewed its empirical possibilities and, second, to show that this new understanding constructively informs future IS research. As an illustration, we sketch out the conditions for a Habermasian-inspired requirements process and show their application to a well-studied IS development model, ETHICS (Mumford, 1983). We conclude by suggesting that Habermas' theoretical ideas can no longer be dismissed as naive, but as a constant guide to critical action — as a reference point for opening up new possibilities for communicative action in IS research and activity.     

Simply the best? The case for using ‘threshold selection’ in hiring decisions

This paper argues the case for a more progressive approach to diversity and inclusion that incorporates a form of positive discrimination in the selection process: ‘threshold selection’. It outlines the distinctive features of threshold selection and argues that it is an approach that resolves the tension between suitability and acceptability criteria, relies on high formalisation and transparency, can mitigate some of the self‐serving bias among selectors and ties the selection needs to the goals of the organisation. In these respects, although controversial, threshold selection offers a thorough and systematic approach that is entirely consistent with the general tendency towards greater professionalisation of HRM.     

Are family ownership and control in large firms good,bad, or irrelevant?

Family ownership and control play an important role in large firms in Asia. There is a puzzle regarding the relationship between concentrated family ownership and control on the one hand and firm performance on the other hand. Three positions suggest that such concentration may be good, bad, or irrelevant for firm performance. This article reports two studies to shed further light on this puzzle. Study 1 uses 744 publicly listed large family firms in eight Asian countries (Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand) to test competing hypotheses on the impact of family ownership and control on firm performance. On a country-by-country basis, our findings support all three positions. On an aggregate, pooled sample basis, the results support the “irrelevant” position. Using 688 firms in the same eight countries, Study 2 endeavors to answer why Study 1 obtains different results for different countries. We theorize and document that Study 1 findings may be systematically associated with the level of (minority) shareholder protection afforded by legal and regulatory institutions. Study 2 thus provides critical insights on a cross-country, institution-based theory of corporate governance.     

The extent and nature of heterogeneity of venture capital selection behaviour in new technology‐based firms

The success of technology transfer depends in part on new technology‐based firms (NTBFs) accessing venture capital (VC). Yet, little is known about venture capitalists' selection processes in this context. We examine the heterogeneity in the selection behaviour of VCs using a unique hand‐collected dataset comprising 68 European early‐stage high‐tech VC investors. We follow an inductive research design and use a conjoint analysis to decompose the investment decisions of VC investors. We identify three different clusters of VC investors: those who focus on technology (technology investors), those who focus on finance (financial investors) and those who focus on human capital (people investors). Technology investors attach more importance to the appropriability of the technology and contact with the entrepreneur than the other groups of VCs. For people investors, the human factors such as leadership capacities of the entrepreneur and the quality of the team are most important. Financial investors make their investment decision based on a limited set of factors such as ROI, growth and team completeness. Our results have important implications for NTBFs, venture capitalists and universities involved in technology transfer through spin‐off companies.