Sustainability and organizational behavior: a micro-foundational perspective

Organizational behavior is a well-established academic field comprising a comprehensive and wide range of extant literature. In contrast, sustainability and micro-foundational literature constitute significant but nevertheless more relatively recent emergent bodies of work with each having developed particular predilections in the manner in which they are cast and discussed. There is scope, therefore, to bring to bear a range of organizational behavioral insights in conjunction with these areas thereby creating a fusion which surfaces the drivers and antecedents that operate and play out in the dynamic between these domains. The mechanism employed to do this is through the development of a special issue of papers, drawing on a range of methodological approaches and sectorial perspectives. This is important and has the aim of generating fresh insights and challenging conventional ways of viewing the behavioral dimensions of sustainability and especially through a micro-foundational lens. The analyses in the special issue underlines and demonstrates the value of engaging a range of national contexts, sectorial settings and historical and contemporaneous perspectives which shed novel light on the confluences of sustainability, organizational behavior and micro-foundations. The Special Issue also suggests future directions that subsequent research may take in these arenas

Perceived Corruption, Business Process Digitization, and SMEs’ Degree of Internationalization in sub-Saharan Africa

This paper contributes to international business literature by investigating the relationship between perceived corruption and the degree of internationalization (DoI) through business process digitization (BPD). Moreover, the paper examines the moderating effect of firm age on the correlation between perceived corruption and BPD. Using data collected from two subSaharan African countries—Ghana and Nigeria, the findings show that perceived corruption is positively correlated to BPD and this correlation is stronger among younger firms. Besides, the findings reveal that BPD is positively correlated to DoI. Moreover, the results of our analysis also indicate that BPD mediates the correlation between perceived corruption and DoI. The limitations of the study and the implications of its findings for researchers and practitioners are discussed

Revisiting the Accelerated Internationalization of Emerging Market SMEs : The Roles of Firms’ Collaborations and Environmental Management Practices

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Climate change, consumer lifestyles and legitimation strategies of sustainability-oriented firms

This study explores the links between climate change, consumer lifestyles, and legitimation strategies of sustainable firms. Our findings offer new insight into this under-researched area based on qualitative case studies of four Nordic firms operating in industrial and consumer contexts. We find that climate change consciousness is a major driver for all case firms’ sustainability-focused operations, but the dynamics differed. Achieving sociopolitical legitimacy emerges as an important factor for the case firms operating in the energy sector, especially as it connects to government incentives and regulative pressures. However, cognitive legitimacy is increasingly important for them also, and the firms are trying to connect to their consumers’ lifestyles as well. In turn, for the case firms operating in the consumer (clothing) industry, functionality and the use of products are highlighted even though cognitive legitimacy based on linking to their consumers’ lifestyle is visible. Finally, the findings reveal that despite the sustainable lifestyles are increasingly important and better recognized in firm strategies and practices, other practicalities of running the business successfully in a highly competitive marketplace are relevant. Building legitimacy in such a way that captures and justifies different approaches, therefore, emerges as the connecting factor between the changing consumer behavior and pro-environmental firm practices.publishedVersio

Vertical alliances and innovation : A systematic review of the literature and a future research agenda

For this paper, we conducted a systematic review of 116 articles on vertical alliances and innovation published in 35 leading journals between 2000 and 2021, and provide an integrative and in-depth evaluation of the current state of the vertical alliances and innovation literature. Through such review, this article makes three key contributions to the extant literature. First, it provides an integrative overview of vertical alliances and innovation. Second, it maps the depth and scope of the study of vertical alliances and innovation by highlighting the research methods, geographical coverage, industries, and theoretical perspectives deployed by the extant scholarship. Third, it develops a multi-level framework of the vertical alliances and innovation relationship, and discusses the findings based on research linkages between antecedents, mediators, outcomes, and moderators. This framework led us to identify key research gaps and to highlight additional theoretical approaches that may shed light on this important topic, given the growing importance of technological advancement and networks for innovation.© 2022 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

The Internet of Things, dynamic data and information processing capabilities and operational agility

WWhilst there are promising links between the Internet of Things (IoTs), dynamic data and information processing capabilities (DDIPCs), and operational agility, scholars have not conducted enough empirical studies that offer convincing evidence for the use of the IoTs and relevant linkages. This study therefore examines the links between such constructs and provides managerial implications for contemporary data and information driven managers who adopt evidence-based decision making for better operational outcomes. The results obtained from structural equation modelling indicate that the use of the IoTs is the key determinant for operational agility and also plays a vital role in establishing DDIPCs that further reinforce it. Additionally, DDIPCs mediate the relationship between the use of the IoTs and operational agility. By persuasively building these links based on theoretical arguments and testing them by using a unique dataset, this study contributes to the deeper understanding of the mechanisms by which the use of the IoTs and DDIPCs strengthen operational agility

The Performative University: ‘Targets and Terror’ in Academia (Stream18),

The performative university: ‘targets and terror’ in academia Stream proposal, 10th International Critical Management Studies Conference, Liverpool, 3-5 July 2017 The year 1917 saw the advent of the Russian Revolution, which gradually gave way to the Soviet economic system that has been characterized as governed by ‘targets and terror’ and which was notorious for its almost epidemic ‘gaming’ (Bevan & Hood, 2006; Nove, 1958). The same decades that saw the gradual demise of the Soviet system also witnessed the advent of the neo-liberal policy doctrines of ‘Reinventing government’ and ‘New Public Management,’ according to which public sector organizations (including universities) should become more ‘business-like,’ intent on managing performance and building accountability on the basis of quantitative, mostly financial targets (Clegg, 2015; Diefenbach, 2009). It was a historical coincidence in relation to which Bevin & Hood (2006, p. 519) observed: ‘ironically perhaps, just as the targets system was collapsing in the USSR, the same basic approach came to be much advocated for public services in the West by those who believed in ‘results-driven government’ from the 1980s.... It resonated with the ideas put forward by economists about the power of well-chosen numéraires linked with well-crafted incentive systems.’ Exactly a century after the Russsian Revolution, due to these developments it appears that within universities not only the ‘targets and terror’ have persisted from these old and troubled times, but other totalitarian characteristics as well (Geppert & Hollinshead, 2017; Lave et al., 2010). The ‘terror’ has become manifest in the demise of older, more collegial forms of university administration and their large-scale replacement by authoritarian, top-down management by ‘professional’ managers who have no connection or affinity with academic teaching and research (Chandler et al., 2002; Parker, 2014). It has led to a division among university staff between ‘regime sweethearts,’ ‘silent collaborators,’ ‘pragmatist survivors’ and a small ‘active resistance,’ and also to a concomitant closed, anxious and defensive working climate, typical of most totalitarian systems (Alvesson & Spicer, 2016, Butler & Spoelstra, 2014; Teelken, 2012). The ‘targets’ have become manifest in the demise of older, more qualitative forms of collegial feedback and intervision and their large-scale replacement by quantitative performance measurement and management systems that reduce academic teaching and research to ‘scores’ in student surveys and abstract publication ‘points’ in journal ranking systems, respectively (Burrows, 2012; Craig et al., 2014; Mingers & Willmott, 2013). It has led to forms of performance evaluation and accountability that have become more judgmental and punitive and less developmental and supportive, thus further increasing employee anxiety and defensiveness (Kallio et al., 2016; Ter Bogt & Scapens, 2012; Visser, 2016). And, even old forms of propaganda have returned, flooding university campuses and websites with posters, banners and proclamations extolling the virtues and accomplishments of the ‘corporate university’ (Geppert & Hollinshead, 2017; Parker, 2014). In addition, government cutbacks and a neo-liberal penchant for competition and semi-markets have increasingly forced universities to compete with each other for external funds (Wigger & Buch-Hansen, 2013). This has not only led to an increasing commercialization of university teaching and research, catering to business’ interest in ‘commodified’ students and research (Wilmott, 1995), but also a increasing precariousness of university work, in which low-paid, high-stress temporary staff appointments gradually replace existing tenured staff positions and in which academic identities become insecure and fragile (Knights & Clarke, 2014; Lynch & Ivancheva, 2015). Admittedly, not all universities in all parts of the world are equally affected by these developments. The situations appears most alarming in many UK business schools, followed by business schools and faculties in the rest of the Anglo-Saxon world, while many schools and faculties on the Continent appear less affected (Craig et al., 2014; Geppert & Hollinshead, 2017; Parker, 2014; Teelken, 2012)

Exploring the factors influencing the negotiation process in cross-border M&A

This research study provides an empirical examination of the impact of national cultural distance, organizational cultural differences, communication, and planned employee retention on the effectiveness of negotiation process in the cross-border mergers & acquisitions (M&As). We developed and tested a conceptual framework of negotiation process in order to provide a framework for analysis of the key components of the negotiation process in the cross border M&A. The findings indicate that communication positively influence antecedent and concurrent phase of negotiation process. In addition, national cultural distance and organizational cultural differences negatively influence the effectiveness of concurrent phase. We also found that national cultural distance moderates the relationship between communication and effectiveness of concurrent phase of the negotiation process, as such that the positive effect of communication is lower when national cultural distance is higher. Furthermore, we found that planned employee retention positively affect the effectiveness of concurrent phase. Finally, the effectiveness of concurrent phase positively influence the effectiveness of consequent phase i.e. M&A agreement. The contribution of this study lies in providing new insights on negotiation-associated factors for incumbent executives, in order to enable them to better plan and implement cross-border mergers and acquisition deals

Triggering Innovation Through Mergers and Acquisitions:The Role of Shared Mental Models.

In this article, we analyze how shared team and task mental models, developed prior to an acquisition, affect exploration and exploitation activities in the postacquisition phase, and how these effects are dependent on relative size. With a sample of 101 transactions of acquirers from the German-speaking part of Europe, we provide empirical evidence that both shared team and task mental models positively influence exploitation activities following an acquisition, whereby only shared team mental models (TMMs) are beneficial for exploration. We provide empirical evidence that shared mental models in terms of task and team are an important informal source for enhancing exploration and exploitation innovation activities. However, this source of informal coordination is contextual. Although the relationships on exploitation are stable, the beneficial effect of TMMs on exploration is sensitive and devitalized by an increasing relative size. Implications for further research and management practice are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR

Investigating Employee and Organizational Performance in a Cross-Border Acquisition : A Case of Withdrawal Behavior

Research Funding Research Development Fund (RDF-18-01-16) and Key Special Program (KSF-E-15) of Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool UniversityPeer reviewedPostprin