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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

Abstract

Using a nationally representative sample (n=3112), we examine the ways in which two major and related governmental institutions of China, the Party and national union, could exert different effects on the attitude and behaviour of people toward the environment. While administratively the union is under the Party, we find differences between the two government institutions. Our results indicate that both the Party and union have a positive and generally significant effect on the attitudes of their members, but only the union effect is significant for individual behaviour directed at protecting the environment. Moreover, the union effect is much stronger than that of the Party in attitudes and especially in taking action to improve the environment. We outline reasons for this finding to enhance our knowledge of the impact of different human resource institutions in China on their members.

Keyword

attitudes ;  behaviour ;  China ;  Communist Party of China ;  environment ;  institutions ;  unions

Abstract

This study investigates a novel mechanism—multiple‐winner award rules—that are widely used in e‐procurement auctions and crowdsourcing sites. In many e‐procurement auctions, the auctioneer (i.e., the buyer) specifies three rules before the auction starts: (i) the size of the finalist set (from which the winner[s] will be chosen); (ii) the number of winners; and (iii) the allocation of the contract among the winners. We examine how these three rules affect auction performance using a dataset of online procurement auctions across a variety of product categories. We find that the multiple‐winner award rules significantly impact the suppliers’ participation decisions, which is an important factor in determining the economic performance of the auction (i.e., buyer's savings). Most interestingly, these three rules systematically induce opposite effects on auction participation for two types of suppliers: experienced and inexperienced bidders. For example, increasing the number of winners encourages experienced suppliers, but discourages inexperienced suppliers from participating in the auction. On the other hand, raising the disparity in the contract allocation among winning bidders (e.g., from 50/50 to 90/10 split) deters experienced suppliers, but motivates inexperienced suppliers to participate. These findings provide guidelines for industrial buyers and crowdsourcing hosts on how to effectively make use of multiple‐winner design levers to promote suppliers’ participation when designing procurement auctions and crowdsourcing contests.

Keyword

online auctions ;  industrial procurement ;  auction desig ;  multiple winners ;  award allocation

Abstract

In a sample of 522 police officers and staff in an English police force, we investigated the role of authoritarian leadership in reducing the levels of employee ethical voice (i.e., employees discussing and speaking out opinions against unethical issues in the workplace). Drawing upon uncertainty management theory, we found that authoritarian leadership was negatively related to employee ethical voice through increased levels of felt uncertainty, when the effects of a motivational-based mechanism suggested by previous studies were controlled. In addition, we found that the negative relationship between authoritarian leadership and employee ethical voice via felt uncertainty is mitigated by higher levels of benevolent leadership. That is, when authoritarian leaders simultaneously exhibit benevolence, they are less likely to cause feelings of uncertainty in their followers who are then more likely to speak up about unethical issues. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of the findings.

Keyword

Authoritarian leadership ;  Ethical voice ;  Felt uncertainty

Abstract

This study examines the role of international institutional complexity, which is defined as the scope and multiplicity of institutional dimensions across foreign markets, on emerging market multinational companies (EMMCs)' innovation performance. We propose that the international institutional complexity provides learning opportunities for EMMCs' innovation performance but also incurs higher management costs to handle information overload from overextended internationalization. We further propose that the host exposure and the heterogeneity of an EMMC's top management team (TMT) moderate the main effect of international institutional complexity on EMMC innovation. The empirical testing utilizes a longitudinal panel data of 7,072 foreign expansion steps by 767 Chinese firms between 2001 and 2010, offering strong support for the proposed hypotheses.

Keyword

emerging market multinational companies ;  innovation ;  international institutional complexity ;  TMT heterogeneity ;  TMT host exposure