Abstract

Managers of international subsidiaries, especially subsidiary CEOs, operate at critical interfaces within multinational enterprises (MNEs) and hold strategic responsibility for the operations in their country. Yet, their impact on subsidiary performance has received scant research attention. Building on the subsidiary entrepreneurship and strategic leadership literatures, we develop a model of how subsidiary CEOs' entrepreneurial leadership affects subsidiary performance, and how this relationship is moderated by the subsidiary context that determines managerial discretion. We combine survey data of 291 international subsidiaries in South Korea with archival data to test our hypotheses. Our results show that subsidiary CEOs' entrepreneurial leadership enhances subsidiary performance and that this relationship is strengthened by managerial discretion. Our study highlights the pivotal role of subsidiary CEOs within MNEs and contributes to a microfoundational understanding of international subsidiary management.

Keyword

Decision autonomy ;  Entrepreneurial leadership ;  Managerial discretion ;  Organizational inertia ;  Subsidiary performance ;  Task complexity

Abstract

In China, due to lack of clear regulation on care pathway of patients, it is commonly observed that the system experiences substantial utilization imbalance. One way to address this challenge is through creating healthcare alliances. Among the alliance, patients can be referred from high utilized hospitals to low utilized ones for services that can be provided in both types of hospitals with similar service qualities. Such an alliance system, usually includes one upper level high utilized hospital (ULH) (e.g. a Comprehensive Hospital) and several lower level hospital (LLH) that are low utilized (e.g. Community Hospitals). The alliance hopes to reduce waiting time of the system, especially the waiting time in the high utilized hospital. As a result, the utilization of the low utilized hospitals will be improved. Nevertheless, it remains unclear how to control the referral decision process. In this paper, we investigate when patients at the ULH will need to be referred to the LLH and to which LLH they should be referred to. Firstly, we focus our attention on an easy-to-implement threshold policy for the ULH for making the decision whether to referral patients. Then, we analyze five different selection strategies (Random Transfer, Maximum Number of Beds Available, Minimum Number of Beds Available, Maximum Available Beds Rate Status, and Minimum Available Beds Rate Status) to determine the LLH to which the patient is referred to. Simulation experiments are performed to make these analyses. Opposite to the intuition that it is best to send patients to the LLH with the most available beds, the results show that sending patients to the LLH with the lowest available bed rate (Minimum Available Beds Rate Status) is the best strategy. This is because that the ULH's waiting time is more important in the objective, sending patients to an LLH that its current available resources are more likely to be occupied by its own normal patients later, will help improve the overall probability that the ULH successfully refer patients out in the long run. Secondly, we also developed a PSO-OCBA method which integrates the idea from Optimal Computing Budget Allocation (OCBA) into the searching Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm for generating best control threshold. We find that if we can adaptively achieve the optimal K with the different selection strategies, the difference of the performance between the five strategies will be highly reduced. Our research is the first work that applies system engineering to the real-time referral decision problem between one ULH and several LLHs. It provides a novel perspective of patient referral control studies in the coordination alliance operation literature. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keyword

ALGORITHM ;  Coordination ;  Decision making ;  Healthcare ;  MODEL ;  Referral alliance ;  SIMULATION-OPTIMIZATION ;  SYSTEM ;  Threshold control policy

Abstract

Researchers have emphasized the value of authenticity, but not much is known about what makes a person authentic in the eyes of others. Our research takes an interpersonal perspective to examine the determinants of followers’ perceptions of leader authenticity. Building on social identity theory, we propose that two fundamental self-identifications–a leader’s sense of uniqueness and sense of belongingness–interact to influence followers’ perceptions of a leader’s authenticity via perceptions of a leader’s self-concept consistency. In a field study conducted among leader–follower dyads and in a controlled laboratory experiment, we find that when a leader feels a low sense of belongingness, there is a positive relationship between a leader’s sense of uniqueness and perceptions of leader authenticity. When a leader feels a low sense of uniqueness, there is a positive relationship between a leader’s sense of belongingness and perceptions of leader authenticity. This is because followers perceive this leader as having high self-concept consistency.

Keyword

Perceived leader authenticity ;  Self-concept consistency ;  Sense of belongingness ;  Sense of uniqueness ;  Social identity theory

Abstract

A high-performance work system (HPWS) is defined as a series of performance-enhancing human resource management practices. Many studies have demonstrated the positive relationship of HPWSs with organizational, group, and individual performance. However, evidence has indicated that HPWSs can also exert negative effects. In this paper, taking a dialectical view, we elaborate several propositions regarding why HPWSs have negative effects and when these negative effects occur, mainly from the perspective of employees. We also propose several research directions enriching knowledge of the relationship between HPWSs and organizational outcomes.

Keyword

Boundary conditions ;  High-performance work system ;  HPWS ;  Mechanism ;  Negative effect

Abstract

Keyword

MANAGEMENT RESEARCH ;  CONTEXT ;  EDITORS ;  CONSTRUCTION ;  ORGANIZATION ;  TRANSLATION

Abstract

We contribute to the understanding of the relationship between organisational identification and work-related stress by examining the role that expanded forms of organisational identification play in explaining the nature of this relationship. The current study explores the extent to which organisational identification and other expanded forms of identification predict employee strain. We hypothesise that ambivalent identification, neutral identification, and disidentification will moderate the negative relationship between organisational identification and exhaustion and ego depletion, such that the link between identification and strain will be stronger when the other dimensions are low. We tested these predictions in a survey among 228 employees of care homes for the elderly (72% social-sanitary operators, 27% nurses). Results largely supported the hypotheses and show reliable interactions for ambivalent, neutral identification, and disidentification on both exhaustion and ego depletion. Results showed a significant moderation by ambivalent identification for exhaustion but not for ego depletion. We discuss limitations and future implications for research and practice of the expanded model of organisational identification in organisational interventions that deal with work-related stress.

Keyword

rganisational identification ;  exhaustion ;  ego depletion ;  disidentification ;  ambivalent identification ;  neutral identification

Abstract

Drawing from social exchange theory, this article explores the founder–successor relationship quality as a mediated pathway in examining the effects of founder–successor value congruence on successor’s willingness to take over the business. Based on survey data from 102 founder–successor dyads, polynomial regression analysis shows that when both a founder and a successor have high value congruence in family prosperity, the relationship quality will be enhanced, which leads to higher successor’s willingness. When there is value incongruence between a founder and a successor, the successor’s family prosperity value has a more important impact on the founder–successor relationship and successor’s willingness.

Keyword

family prosperity ;  founder–successor relationship ;  social-exchange theory ;  successor willingness ;  value congruence

Abstract

Purpose Despite touting the value of green practices, many firms struggle to respond appropriately to the diverse environmental issues. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the external and internal pressures interplay to influence top management championship, which, in turn, fosters the company's green culture and the adoption of green practices. It thus helps to explain Chinese firms' diversity with respect to the adoption of green practices. Design/methodology/approach A conceptual model is developed that summarizes the interplay of external and internal pressures, top management championship, green culture and the adoption of green practices. Data from 148 Chinese manufacturing firms were collected and a structural equation model was used for statistical analysis. Findings Government policy that provides incentives to adopt green practices and overseas customers' green demand has significant positive influences on top management championship, while resources pressure has a significant negative effect. Government command and control policy, domestic customers' green demand and organizational inertia do not impact top management championship. Furthermore, top management championship is positively correlated to both green culture and green practices, and green culture contributes to implementing green practices. Practical implications The findings help us understand which external and internal factors inspire or force top management to adopt green practices, and how they do so. Moreover, managers must also be aware of the bridging role of green culture. The findings will be valuable to policy makers in forming and enforcing stick or carrot environmental policies. Originality/value Leveraging a multi-theoretic approach, the authors' research builds on insights from the institutional theory, natural resource-based view (NRBV) and upper echelons perspective, so as to increase the authors' understanding on how firms adopt green practices to respond to environmental sustainability pressures. The institutional theory and the NRBV are leveraged in this study to recognize that firms perceive not only external institutional pressure for environmental management but also the internal pressure from resource constraints and capability to change. Upper echelons perspective is integrated into this study to explain the leadership role that top management serves in the management of the organization's response to dynamic changes in the institutional environment and cultivate green culture within organization.

Keyword

Green practices ;  Green culture ;  Institutional pressure ;  Internal pressure ;  Top management championship

Abstract

This study examines how quality signals sent by technology ventures jointly affect investors' decisions under information asymmetry. We categorize signal contents as concerning technology development, venture officers, or early investors. Because similar information may not much reduce information asymmetry, different signals of the same content substitute for one another in enabling ventures to raise capital in their initial public offerings (IPOs). In contrast, signals of different contents collectively reduce information asymmetry, and thus complement each other. Furthermore, public investors may be more capable of assessing, and therefore give more weight to, signals based on the abilities and commitment of venture officers and early investors than to signals based on the viability and appropriability of technology development. We employ fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) and find evidence for these mechanisms from data on 268 IPOs of biotechnology ventures in the United States.

Keyword

Quality signals ;  Technology ventures ;  Initial public offerings ;  Signal configurations

Abstract

Research Question/Issues Most extant literature implicitly equates obtaining information through board interlocks to acting on the information. We investigate triggers that help to translate the information into action. In addition to exposure to the information by board interlocks, we suggest that the self‐interest of the individuals who create these ties and hierarchical power of interlinked firms determines the likelihood of taking actions of adopting new practices. Research Findings/Insights Using the action of adopting two distinctive governance practices, stock option pays or board reform, we find that sent ties and received ties affect the adoption decisions differently. Whereas sent ties reflect managerial interests, received ties derive power from a hierarchical relationship between the focal firm and the interlinked firm. Such differential nature of sent and received ties drives a differential result in terms of adopting two distinctive governance practices. We also find support for different moderating effects of firm performance on the impact of sent and received ties. Theoretical/Academic Implications In this study, we incorporated the self‐interest of executives with sent ties to prior adopters and the power of directors who establish ties with prior adopters that are hierarchically positioned. By doing so, this study paints a more fine‐grained picture regarding underlying mechanisms by which information gained through ties is translated into action. This provides important insights for both agency theory and resource‐dependency theory. Practitioner/Policy Implications Hierarchical board ties are not a unique phenomenon in Japan. We often find such ties in business groups in China, India, Korea, and some European countries. Establishing board interlocks among subsidiaries in a business group is an important governance resolution for controlling the whole business group. Hence, our findings that the ties carry not only information but also agent's interest and hierarchical power should be taken into account when a business group designs board interlocks.

Keyword

blockholder ownership ;  board policy issues ;  Corporate governance ;  Japan ;  resource dependence theory