Lead users and the adoption and diffusion of new products: Insights from two extreme sports communities

Lead users are proposed as a valuable resource for marketers in terms of the (1) development, (2) adoption, and (3) diffusion of new products. We present the first consumer study to provide evidence that the latter two suggestions are justified. First, we find that lead users demonstrate stronger domain-specific innovativeness than more “ordinary” users. Second, lead users perceive new technologies as less “complex” and might therefore be better prepared to adopt them. Third, we find that lead users demonstrate stronger opinion leadership and weaker opinion seeking tendencies. Finally, we discuss the implications of our findings for the marketing of new products.     

Does servant leadership foster creativity and innovation? A multi-level mediation study of identification and prototypicality

The purpose of this multi-level study is to examine how servant leadership affects both employee creativity and team innovation. Drawing from social identity, in particular, relational identification theory, we found on the basis of a two-nation Asian sample of 154 teams that servant leadership promotes individual relational identification and collective prototypicality with the leader which, in turn, fosters employee creativity and team innovation. In addition, our study suggests that the mediated effect of leader identification is strongest when team climate for innovation is high.     

The study of service innovation for digiservice on loyalty

Advocates of management of service innovation see this area as a new and promising research field. As services are increasingly becoming driving forces of economies, the introduction of new services to satisfy customer needs is becoming a critical issue for managers. This research attempts to address the consumer issue of service innovation. The research entails a comprehensive study of the impacts of service innovation on consumer loyalty in the digiservice context. The study examines service innovation loyalty from the consumer perspective; namely, technology leadership, service leadership, switching cost, brand equity, and customization. Personal interview data from 475 consumers provides the data for empirical hypothesis testing of the relationships between variables. The conceptual model investigates the relevant relationships among the constructs by using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM). Findings from the research sample support the argument that technology leadership, service leadership, brand equity, and customization are the key determinants of loyalty. The paper also includes a discussion on the theoretical and managerial implications of the research findings.     

中国共产党领导下的早期审计制度（1921—1927年）：动因分析、路径选择与经验启示

中国共产党对审计制度的早期探索,在内因上是基于马克思主义政党本质属性驱动下的必然选择,具有丰富的理论基础和清晰的理论发展脉络;在外因上受到当时政治经济环境的深刻影响,特别是经济环境的差异直接推动了审计制度探索路径的多元化。这一时期,审计制度探索形成了一定的历史经验和规律性认识：在目标定位上,审计始终坚持党的集中统一领导,紧紧围绕党的中心任务开展经济监督;在运行机制上,较早形成了审计独立和审计公开理念,探索审计机构与财政机构分离设置,在一定范围内公开审计结果;在作用功能上,较早发挥了审计反腐功能,有意识地通过审计监督揭示重大贪腐案件;在方式方法上,以账目检查为主,并出现了事前预算审核、事后收支账目检查、集中清查彻查、定期报送检查等多种审计方法。     

包容型领导对员工即兴行为的影响:工作卷入的中介作用

员工即兴行为是企业应对外部环境动态性、复杂性和模糊性的有效抓手。虽已有研究对包容型领导和员工即兴行为之间的关系进行了探究,但目前对二者之间的作用机制知之甚少。论文从社会交换理论视角出发,基于458份问卷数据,实证了包容型领导与员工即兴行为的关系,研究结果表明:包容型领导正向影响员工即兴行为,工作卷入在包容型领导和员工即兴行为之间起部分中介作用,员工主动性人格正向调节包容型领导和工作卷入之间的关系。     

企业的领导权结构对技术创新的影响———基于上市公司的实证研究

企业治理结构中领导权结构的不同安排会改变经理人决策自由和创新意愿,进而导致企业创新活动的效率差异。但相对于股权激励、资本结构等其他机制而言,领导权结构与技术创新的关系是隐性和间接的。文章构建了一个有调节的中介作用模型来研究企业领导权结构对技术创新绩效影响。基于上海证券交易所2009～2011年上市公司的数据．发现对于中国上市公司而言,领导权结构的不同安排确实会对技术创新绩效产生显著影响：私营企业的CE0两职合一会比国有企业带来更好的创新绩效,并且这一关系主要是通过经营者时技术创新决策的支持而实现的。     

Last dance or second chance? Firm performance,CEO career horizon,and the separation of board leadership roles

In recent years, many firms have chosen to separate their CEO and board chair positions. Prior research has demonstrated that there are three forms that a CEO–board chair separation can take: apprentice, departure, and demotion. In this paper, we examine the antecedents of these three types. Our results show that the three types of separation each have different profiles in terms of the prior performance of the firm, the independence of the board, and the career horizon of the incumbent CEO. The findings in this paper provide unique insights into the factors that drive boards' structural choices. As questions about board leadership structure become more nuanced and more relevant in both scholarship and practice, a full understanding of these factors will only become more important. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effects of ethical leadership on manager job satisfaction,commitment, behavioral outcomes,and firm performance

This study investigates the effects of ethical leadership on a hotel middle manager's job satisfaction and affective commitment, which in turn influence that manager's behavioral outcomes (e.g., extra effort and turnover intention) that can also impact the hotel's performance. Mail surveys were distributed to 30 U.S. hotels, representing more than 8 different national and international brands, and 324 middle managers participated in the survey. This study demonstrates that executives’ ethical leadership is positively related to their middle managers’ job satisfaction and their affective organizational commitment. Middle managers’ job satisfaction is positively related to organizational commitment, but job satisfaction does not necessarily lead to their willingness to exert extra effort. The positive linkage between middle managers’ extra effort and the hotel's competitive performance is also confirmed.     

Public or Private Sector Wage Leadership? An International Perspective*

Whether a government acts as a wage leader, placing pressure on private‐sector wages (more open to competition), or whether it plays a passive role and merely follows wage negotiations in the private sector, there are important implications for macroeconomic development, particularly in small open economies and/or countries that are members of a monetary union, such as those of the European Monetary Union. With the notable exception of the case of Sweden, opinion on this issue is still divided. In this paper, we look at public‐ and private‐sector wage interactions from an international perspective (18 OECD countries). We focus on the causal two‐way relationship between public and private wage setting, confirming that the private sector, on the whole, appears to have a stronger influence on the public sector, rather than vice versa. However, we also find evidence of feedback effects from public wage setting, which affect private‐sector wages in a number of countries. When the private sector takes the lead on wages, there are few feedback effects from the public sector, while public wage leadership is typically accompanied by private‐sector feedback effects.     

Building value through sustainable project management offices

Organizations' attempts to implement and gain value from investments in project management have resulted in the rapid growth and, in some cases, demise of project management offices (PMOs). The recent research literature on PMOs provides an ambiguous picture of the value case for PMOs and suggests the tenuous nature of their current position in many organizations. In studying project management implementations for the Value of Project Management project, we chose to use three detailed cases and comparisons with the remaining 62 organizations in the value project to study how PMOs are connected to value realization for organizations investing in project management. Specifically, we sought to understand how PMOs deliver sustained value to organizations. Using the theories of Jim Collins (Collins, 2001; Collins & Porras, 1994) as an interpretive framework, we explore these cases to understand how to create and sustain project management value through investment in PMOs.