Abstract

It has been recognized that previous experiences can provide different types of feedback. However, it has not been systematically explored why firms are more likely to learn effectively from certain types of experience than others. From a feedback-based learning perspective, we argue that it is useful not only to focus on feedback valence (success or failure experiences) but also to examine feedback saliency (the magnitude of the experience’s influence). Based on a sample of acquisitions by U.S. firms, our results indicate that a firm’s success experience drives up the premium that it pays for a subsequent acquisition, whereas a failure experience reduces this subsequent premium. Moreover, we find that the magnitude of the effects of the four types of experiences—small failure, big failure, small success, and big success—does not follow a symmetrical pattern of inverse effects.

Keyword

acquisition experience ;  acquisition premium ;  feedback-based learning ;  feedback saliency ;  feedback valence

Abstract

This paper contributes to a multidimensional perspective on the speed of SME internationalization. It examines the influence of entrepreneurial characteristics – experience, rationales and innovation strategies – on multiple dimensions of internationalization speed. Findings from a sample of 180 SMEs show that earliness, speed of deepening, and speed of geographic diversification can be viewed as three different strategic alternatives and that each dimension is predicted by a different set of entrepreneurial antecedents. Earliness of internationalization is associated with entrepreneurs’ international business experience and their perception of opportunities abroad as well as preference for an innovation strategy characterized by ambidextrous innovation. Speed of deepening is related to entrepreneurs’ international business experience, their orientation towards differentiation vis-à-vis competitors, and commitment to innovation and a strategy focusing on exploration. These results indicate the importance of distinguishing between different forms of innovation. Speed of geographic diversification is predicted only by entrepreneurs’ orientation towards differentiation vis-à-vis competitors.

Keyword

Earliness ;  Entrepreneurship ;  Internationalization ;  SMEs ;  Speed of deepening ;  Speed of geographic diversification

Abstract

This study investigates the joint effects of business and political ties, cognitive capital, and institutional support on product innovation performance in China and India. The hypotheses are empirically tested using bootstrap and multiple group structural equation modeling methods, and data collected from 300 Chinese and 200 Indian manufacturers. The results reveal that cognitive capital mediates business ties’ impacts on product innovation performance in both China and India and that institutional support mediates the effects of business and political ties on product innovation performance only in China. The study also finds that political ties increase institutional support in India and that the effect of cognitive capital on product innovation performance is significantly stronger in India than in China. This study clarifies the mechanisms through which business and political ties enhance product innovation performance and generalizes the results in two emerging markets. The cross-country comparison sheds light on the influences of cultural and institutional environments on such mechanisms and provides insights into how to utilize managers’ business and political ties for product innovation in China and India.

Keyword

Business ties ;  China ;  Cognitive capital ;  India ;  Institutional support ;  Political ties ;  Product innovation performance

Abstract

There has long been interest in how leaders influence the unethical behavior of those who they lead. However, research in this area has tended to focus on leaders' direct influence over subordinate behavior, such as through role modeling or eliciting positive social exchange. We extend this research by examining how ethical leaders affect how employees construe morally problematic decisions, ultimately influencing their behavior. Across four studies, diverse in methods (lab and field) and national context (the United States and China), we find that ethical leadership decreases employees' propensity to morally disengage, with ultimate effects on employees' unethical decisions and deviant behavior. Further, employee moral identity moderates this mediated effect. However, the form of this moderation is not consistent. In Studies 2 and 4, we find that ethical leaders have the largest positive influence over individuals with a weak moral identity (providing a "saving grace"), whereas in Study 3, we find that ethical leaders have the largest positive influence over individuals with a strong moral identity (catalyzing a "virtuous synergy"). We use these findings to speculate about when ethical leaders might function as a "saving grace" versus a "virtuous synergy." Together, our results suggest that employee misconduct stems from a complex interaction between employees, their leaders, and the context in which this relationship takes place, specifically via leaders' influence over employees' moral cognition.

Keyword

employee deviance ;  ethical leadership ;  moral disengagement ;  moral identity ;  unethical behavior

Abstract

Innovative work behavior has recently attracted considerable interest of both researchers and practitioners. Although extant research provides valuable insights into employees' innovative behavior, knowledge on top executives' innovative behavior, its antecedents, and its outcomes is scarce. Drawing on upper echelons theory, this study considers whether different facets of top executives' positive self-regard enhance or harm their innovative behavior. The authors theorize that top executives' selfism, hypercore self-evaluation, and overconfidence-all of which imply a strong positive self-regard-distinctly determine their willingness and ability to engage in innovative behavior, which in turn is critical for new product program newness. Time-lagged data from a sample of 214 top executives and 647 matched subordinates reveal that seemingly similar psychological characteristics of top executives affect innovative behavior differently. Selfism and overconfidence negatively influence innovative behavior; hypercore self-evaluation has a positive effect. A structural mediation analysis confirms a multistage, causal chain that links the three psychological characteristics with product program newness, mediated by top executives' innovative work behavior. Furthermore, moderated mediation analysis suggests that some demographic characteristics of top executives moderate the effects of hypercore self-evaluation and overconfidence on innovative behavior, whereas the effect of selfism remains unchanged regardless of their tenure or power. Hence, this study provides a more fine-grained perspective on top executives' positive self-regard and its contingencies in the innovation context.

Keyword

Abstract

In its recent anti-corruption campaign, China removed the criminal immunity originally enjoyed by its leaders. Absent fundamental changes in the political institution—in which incumbent leaders, instead of citizens at large, select the next leaders—such a partial reform pays off only if (i) it takes place at the “right” time, (ii) it goes easy on corrupt low-rank officials, and (iii) the government is reasonably centralized. Failing any of these, such a partial reform would lead to rampant corruption throughout the government hierarchy—an outcome far worse than retaining leader immunity.

Keyword

Autocracy ;  Corruption ;  Hostage motive ;  Leader immunity ;  Party elites

Abstract

This study examined how social comparison (i.e., comparing one's pay to similar others' pay) and deserved comparison (i.e., comparing one's pay to one's deserved pay) affect pay fairness perceptions, and the individual differences in the comparison processes. Results based on a field study with a sample of 167 employees showed pay fairness was low when employees received lower pay than a similar other (or what they deserved), increased as their pay exceeded that of a similar other (or deserved pay) to some extent, and then decreased when overpayment was considerable. Second, pay fairness increased as one's actual and similar others' pay levels both increased while pay fairness remained the same as one's actual and the deserved pay levels both increased. In addition, the “threshold” that people start to perceive overpayment as less fair occurred more quickly for those with higher preference for consistency in social comparison and for those with higher preference for the merit principle in deserved comparison. We also conducted experiments, and the results generally replicated the findings in the field study. These findings offer theoretical implications regarding organizational justice, as well as practical implications for designing and executing a compensation system.

Keyword

deserved comparison ;  pay fairness ;  preference for consistency ;  preference for the merit principle ;  social comparison

Abstract

In today's organizations, employees are often assigned as members of multiple teams simultaneously (i.e., multiple team membership), and yet we know little about important leadership and employee phenomena in such settings. Using a scenario-based experiment and 2 field studies of leaders and their employees in the People's Republic of China and the United States, we examined how empowering leadership exhibited by 2 different team leaders toward a single employee working on 2 different teams can spillover to affect that employee's psychological empowerment and subsequent proactivity across teams. Consistent across all 3 studies, we found that each of the team leaders' empowering leadership uniquely and positively influenced an employee's psychological empowerment and subsequent proactive behaviors. In the field studies, we further found that empowering leadership exhibited by one team leader influenced the psychological empowerment and proactive behaviors of their team member not only in that leader's team but also in the other team outside of that leader's stewardship. Finally, across studies, we found that empowering leadership exhibited on one team can substitute for lower levels of empowering leadership experienced in a different team led by a distinct leader. We discuss our contributions to the motivation, teams, and leadership literatures and provide practical guidance for leaders charged with managing employees that have multiple team memberships.

Keyword

multiple team membership ;  leadership ;  empowerment ;  proactivity ;  spillover

Abstract

Prior research describes international expansion as a series of discrete steps and notes that taking them threatens new ventures' survival, especially due to unexpected setbacks. Seen through the lens of social science, the source of such threat becomes clearer. In this paper, we argue that internationalization in new ventures involves what social anthropologists call a liminal transition – a betwixt-and-between period lying between the intent to internationalize and the realization of a stable internationalized state. The ambiguous and transitory nature of this liminal transition has the potential to increase the odds of overreach (e.g. a high-cost market entry without sufficient resources). Avoiding the negative influence of liminality – and instead harnessing its positive effect – relies on three sources of support that we refer to as opportunity scaffolding: self-reflective learning, peer learning and consultative learning. We argue that entrepreneurs with personality profiles high in levels of core self-evaluation (CSE) are more likely to utilize the scaffolding like that available in business incubators effectively. This leads to the development of a more reflective mindset, making capability learning more likely, preventing decisions that lead to overreach and reducing the threat to INV survival. However we also strike a note of caution in that at excessive (hyper) levels of CSE, the internationalizing new venture could become the victim of hubris. Emboldened with unrealistically high self-confidence, hubristic entrepreneurs are more likely to rebuff use of scaffolding, leading to a more reactive mindset, increasing the probability of liminal overreach and threatening INV survival.

Keyword

Abstract

Drawing on Denison and Mishra (1995)’s framework of organizational culture, this study examines why and when organizational culture is related to knowledge workers’ affective commitment. Data were collected from 640 employees working in three high-technology companies in China. The findings indicate that the relationship between organizational culture and affective commitment is mediated by perceived psychological contract fulfilment. In addition, organizational tenure moderates the relationship between two external dimensions (i.e. adaptability and mission) of organizational culture and perceived psychological contract fulfilment. This study extends the current theoretical framework of organizational culture by demonstrating the underlying mechanism and the boundary condition of the relationship between organizational culture and affective commitment. The findings also provide practical implications for international managers to design appropriate human resource management policies and practices in China.

Keyword

affective commitment ;  China ;  Organizational culture ;  organizational tenure ;  psychological contract fulfilment