Meta‐Analytic Research in Management: Contemporary Approaches,Unresolved Controversies,and Rising Standards

Early meta‐analyses in management research sought primarily to resolve seemingly conflicting findings by estimating a relationship’s population‐level effect size. Since then, management researchers have adopted increasingly sophisticated approaches that permit new theorizing, testing and comparing sophisticated models, and identifying boundary conditions. We summarize three of these approaches – i.e., qualitative meta‐analysis (QMA), meta‐analytic structural equation modeling (MASEM), and meta‐analytic regression analysis (MARA) – along with the special issue papers that adopt each approach. We conclude by raising three unresolved controversies that we believe deserve more attention and by offering our thoughts about how to maximize a meta‐analytic study’s chances for publication and impact.     

Organizational Controls and Performance Outcomes: A Meta‐Analytic Assessment and Extension

Managing employees and external partners effectively has been a primary concern for organizations and their managers. Many studies have investigated the effectiveness of organizational controls in a wide variety of contexts. Using organizational controls literature that discriminates among outcome, behaviour, and clan control, this study synthesizes the research on the effectiveness of these controls. In particular, the study examines 23,839 organizational controls–performance relationships from 120 independent samples, and tests several new hypotheses using advanced meta‐analytic methods. The results indicate that outcome, behaviour, and clan controls generally enhance performance, with each control having a distinct performance effect. Our analysis also demonstrates that controls function as complements to one another. This finding indicates that one form of control increases the effectiveness of other forms of control. We also examine the organizational controls–performance relationships across various contexts, and our results show that they vary according to the type of task. The paper concludes with a discussion on the theoretical and managerial implications of these findings.     

ISO 14001, EMAS and environmental performance: A meta‐analysis

The adoption of voluntary environmental certifications such as ISO 14001 and Eco‐Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) has gained momentum in the last two decades. The scholarly literature has analyzed in depth the performance implications of the adoption of these certificates. Yet the findings are scattered and inconclusive. This article aims to shed light on this issue by meta‐analyzing the influence of the adoption of voluntary environmental certifications on corporate environmental performance, drawing on a sample of 53 scholarly studies analyzing a total of 182,926 companies. The findings show a positive influence of ISO 14001 and EMAS certifications on corporate environmental performance. A set of underlying moderating effects are also identified, such as a more pronounced positive effect for adoptions based on environmental innovation and for firms with a more mature certification. Implications for scholars, managers, and other stakeholders are discussed.     

A Process Perspective on Organizational Failure: A Qualitative Meta‐Analysis

An important stream of the organizational failure literature has proposed process models to describe how firms fail. Despite much progress, this stream is currently at a crossroads. Previous process models try to capture how failure unfolds in singular models that describe organizational failure as the result of either inertia or extremism or as a mixture of both. However, it remains unclear how these competing explanations are related and what underlying mechanisms explain why organizational failure processes unfold as they do. We address these issues by examining failure processes using a qualitative meta‐analysis research design. The qualitative meta‐analysis allows us to analyse and synthesize the wealth of previously published single‐case studies in order to develop process models of organizational failure. The most salient finding of our analysis is that failure processes converge around four distinct process archetypes, which we name imperialist, laggard, villain, and politicized. Each process archetype can be explained by the interplay of distinct rigidity and conflict mechanisms. Differentiating the four process archetypes and explaining the underlying mechanisms helps to resolve some contradictions in the previous failure process literature.     

公共交际技能教学对批判性思维影响的元分析研究

元分析（又称整合分析）作为一种将多个研究结果组合的统计方法，其目的是解决单一研究样本数量少使研究结果的准确性降低的问题，而整合多个研究结果可更准确地分析数据。本元分析研究、对比、分析了各种现有的公共交际技能教学对批判性思维的影响。其结果表明，参与交际技巧韧I练对批判性思维的改善非常显著（纵深法分析r=0．18，横断法分析r=0．20）。其中辩论课对参与者在批判性思维能力提高上影响最明显。研究采用二项式效应大小展示原理（Bonomial Effect Size Display）累积数据显示交际技能教学能够提高44％的批判性思维能力。此项结果为在交际法教学中开设公共演讲及辩论课程提供了有力的证据。     

绿色屋顶的城市降温与建筑节能效果研究

绿色屋顶对建筑能耗的节能效果和对城市热岛效应的减缓作用得到大量案例研究的证实,但其推广进程却因为缺乏一般性的规律认识而受阻。对全球23个国家或地区的89项研究进行荟萃分析发现,绿色屋顶对建筑制冷的平均节能效果在30%左右,高于14%的平均供暖节能效果;对微气候的平均降温效果在2.9℃左右。节能效果方面,隔热良好的建筑反而阻隔了绿色屋顶蒸发蒸腾作用对建筑的冷却作用。保温层每增加1 cm,绿色屋顶的节能效果减少1%。微气候调节方面,气候类型、季节、植物类型均对降温效果有显著影响,影响幅度在1.4~3.1℃左右。研究结果可为宏观层面的模型模拟提供实证参数,为城市可持续发展与绿色屋顶的推广提供决策支持。     

Loan guarantee schemes in the UK: the natural experiment of the enterprise finance guarantee and the 5 year rule

Loan guarantee schemes have existed since 1953 (in the US) and are widely used throughout the world to provide financial support to smaller firms by guaranteeing loans from commercial banks. The UK government has been an active supporter of loan guarantees since 1981, and has a long track record of modifying its scheme to reflect changing market conditions and the financing needs of its SME sector. Arguably the two most significant changes occurred in 2008 when the 5-Year Rule on eligibility was removed and in 2009 when the long-standing Small Firms Loan Guarantee Scheme was replaced by the Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme. We treat the removal of the 5-Year Rule as a natural policy experiment and empirically question whether, on economic grounds, this was a sensible policy. Our findings suggest that the 5-Year Rule was a better policy choice with regard to employment but had no impact on sales growth.     

Where in the world is it cheapest to cut carbon emissions?*

Countries with low marginal costs of abating carbon emissions may have high total costs, and vice versa, for a given climate mitigation policy. This may help to explain different countries’ policy stances on climate mitigation. We hypothesize that, under a common percentage cut in emissions intensity relative to business as usual (BAU), countries with higher BAU emission intensities have lower marginal abatement costs, but total costs relative to output will be similar across countries, and under a common carbon price, relative total costs are higher in emission‐intensive countries. Using the results of the 22nd Energy Modeling Forum (EMF‐22), we estimate marginal abatement cost curves for the US, EU, China and India, which we use to estimate marginal and total costs of abatement under a number of policy options currently under international debate. This analysis provides support for our hypotheses, although its reliability is limited by the shortcomings of the EMF‐22 models and the degree to which our econometric model can adequately account for the substantial differences among them.     

高校物流管理本科专业培养方案研究

分析当前高等教育中物流专业发展现状及存在问题的基础上,运用系统分析的思想,从培养物流人才的社会需求有效途径、专业课程体系两个维度研究物流管理本科专业培养方案,提出了系统化的培养体系。     

POST‐PRIVATIZATION OWNERSHIP AND FIRM PERFORMANCE: A LARGE META‐ANALYSIS OF THE TRANSITION LITERATURE

This paper aims to perform a large‐scale meta‐analysis of the relationship between post‐privatization ownership and firm performance in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Baseline estimation of a meta‐regression model that employs a total of 2,894 estimates drawn from 121 previous studies indicated the superior impact of foreign ownership on firm performance in comparison with state and domestic private entities. Furthermore, the estimation of an extended meta‐regression model that explicitly controls for the idiosyncrasies of transition economies and privatization policies strongly suggested that differences between countries in location, privatization method, and speed of policy implementation strongly influence the link between post‐privatization ownership structure and firm performance. We also found that these factors not only cause a remarkable gap between countries in terms of ex post improvement in firm performance but also significantly affect the interrelationship between foreign investors, domestic outsider owners, and firm managers, and the relative superiority of various domestic outsiders. Conclusive evidence of the harm caused to ex post firm performance by voucher privatization is one of the most noteworthy empirical findings in this paper.