Crisis leadership: A review and future research agenda

The past few decades have witnessed numerous crises that have drawn increasing attention to the study of crisis leadership. However, research in this field remains fragmented and existing reviews often adopt a subjective approach to identify and synthesize the findings of relevant articles. These limitations make it difficult for scholars to appreciate the progress made in the literature, to derive comprehensive and objective insights, and to forge a path ahead. This study synthesizes theoretical insights and empirical findings in the crisis leadership literature using bibliometric techniques. We first review the intellectual structure of the crisis leadership literature by conducting co-citation and bibliographic coupling analyses. We then map the major conceptual themes in the crisis leadership literature via a co-word analysis. To supplement the findings of the bibliometric analyses, we review the key methodological approaches adopted by crisis leadership researchers. Based on the integrative insights, we propose a research agenda highlighting opportunities for theoretical and methodological advancements in crisis leadership research.     

Journal of International Management: A 25-year review using bibliometric analysis

The Journal of International Management (JIM) is a leading international academic journal in the field of international business. This study presents a retrospect of the publications in JIM for the last 25 years (as JIM was founded in 1995) through a bibliometric methodology using the Scopus database and Web of Science. The study graphically maps the bibliographic material using VOS viewer software and applies co-citation analysis, bibliographic coupling, and co-occurrence of author keywords. We identify that the journal has expanded consistently and steadily in terms of both number of publications and citations. The collaboration network has expanded over the years, and the geographical focus is more global, encompassing Asia and Oceania. Bibliographic coupling of JIM publications reveals several distinct, major themes in the international management/business domain. Conventional international management themes that have emerged include market entry modes, globalization, international human resource management, cross-cultural management/leadership, and expatriate management. New emerging themes include emerging markets, global sourcing, innovation performance, digital firms, diversity of global teams, internationalization in uncertain environments, and virtual teams. A summary of the shifting research trends and themes in the discipline and their development is presented in this review, culminating in future directions for prospective publishers of JIM.     

The impact of positivity and transparency on trust in leaders and their perceived effectiveness

A critical challenge facing today's organizational leaders is gaining their followers' trust and having them view leaders as effective in addressing turmoil and change. Using a downsizing scenario as the context, this field experiment examined how a leader's positivity and transparency impacted followers' perceived trust, defined in terms of willingness to be vulnerable, and effectiveness of their leader. To test the hypotheses, 304 participants were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions of high (low) leader positivity × high (low) leader transparency. Results of our mixed methods study indicated both the leader's level of positivity and transparency impacted followers' perceived trust and evaluations of leader effectiveness. Besides limitations and suggestions for future research, we conclude with the practical implications that positive, transparent leaders may have on building trust and perceived effectiveness among their followers.     

Evolution of industry 4.0 and international business: A systematic literature review and a research agenda

Industry 4.0 has attracted significant attention from researchers in the international business field for a decade. This paper critically analyzes the literature on the relationships between Industry 4.0 and international business. A systematic literature review of 59 studies published between 2011 and December 2020 is conducted. Using the Theory, Context, Characteristics, and Method (TCCM) framework, the review identifies various gaps in research and proposes future research agenda. The results show that (1) Industry 4.0 modifies specific domains in the field of international competitiveness and organization and (2) international business affects the choices and opportunities of adopting Industry 4.0. The need for further theoretical development in the relationships between international business and Industry 4.0 is observed especially in terms of location choices, global value chains, international organizations and international trade. The results contribute to the relevant research field and provide substantial managerial implications.     

The impact of international business education on career success—Evidence from Europe

In today's globalized world, career paths are becoming increasingly international, and so managers need respective cross-cultural strengths in order to act effectively in various cultural environments. Even though education—especially business education—is progressively becoming more international to meet these organizational demands, little is known about whether the extent of international business education influences careers, and in particular career success. In addressing this research deficit, we explore whether and how international business education affects career success. As the major contribution of this paper we suggest a conceptual framework which posits global identity and international experience as mediators of this relationship. The assumptions of this framework are confirmed by an investigation amongst 450 alumni of a European business school. Additional contributions include that we extend the limited body of research on the construct of international business education and its measurement, by providing an all-encompassing definition and much-needed operationalization. Furthermore, we contribute a European perspective on international business education through our empirical evidence.     

Image is everything: Reflections on the dominance of image in modern organizational life

We develop the notion of image as a “covering concept,” one that subsumes several major ideas in organization study. We draw on a number of literatures, including social psychology, marketing/branding, political science and organization studies, to make the case that “image is everything.” We consider not only the pervasiveness of image, but also the power of image including its transformational potential for altering the character of even our most fundamental concepts in personal and organizational study, including identity. We articulate two major theses: (1) image harbors the power to transform substance into image, and more radically that (2) image can itself become substantive. We therefore articulate not only a substance → image transformation, but also an image → substance transformation.     

Assessing the spiritual leadership effectiveness: The contribution of follower's self-concept and preliminary tests for moderation of culture and managerial position

This research examines several determinants considered to influence the spiritual leadership (SL) effectiveness, including one motivational mediating factor of follower's self-concepts, and two conditional factors, i.e., culture (as a macro-level factor) and managerial position (as a micro-level factor). The construct of SL was validated using a sample comprising 591 employees from various profitable organizations in two major Chinese societies: China and Taiwan (n = 372; 219). A second sample of 122 military police in the army was also recruited for validation purpose. We integrated the follower's transcendental self-concepts into the existing SL framework, and validated their substantiality to leadership effectiveness. In addition, the results showed that culture differs on the SL effectiveness, while position hierarchy (managerial vs. non-managerial positions) does not moderate between the intrinsic motivations of SL and in-role/extra-role performance.     

A new substitute for leadership? Followers' state core self-evaluations

In this experimental study we integrate transformational leadership theory with recent theoretical considerations and research on core self-evaluations (CSE) in a contingency approach to leadership. We analyze to what extent high state CSE may represent a substitute for transformational leadership in terms of its influence on follower motivation and performance. In a 2 × 2‐design the relationship between transformational leadership and followers' motivation and performance is compared for followers with high versus low state CSE. Participants (76 students) were randomly assigned to four groups. High or low state CSE was activated through a priming manipulation. After that, participants were presented with a written vignette of a transformational or a nontransformational leader who instructs them to perform the subsequent task, a word-search puzzle. Results reveal that followers' state CSE moderated the relationship between transformational leadership and followers' motivation and performance. As expected, followers' state CSE represents a substitute for transformational leadership. Results are discussed for leadership research and management practice.     

A follower-centric approach to the vision integration process

Leaders increasingly understand the importance of involving followers in the vision implementation process. Viewing vision as a guiding framework that may or may not be adopted by followers throughout the organization, we test a model of the leader–follower communication processes involved in linking vision with follower work behaviors and decisions. Using a cross-sectional research design, we examine the basic relationships in a hypothesized model of the vision integration process. Employees from a health maintenance organization (HMO) (N = 340) completed surveys concerning leader–follower communication, perceptions of the company's vision, and its integration into their work behaviors. Not surprisingly, leader–follower communication regarding vision is crucial. More importantly, how the vision is understood and integrated by followers into work behaviors and decisions significantly predicts commitment, job satisfaction, and supervisory ratings of performance. Based on these findings, a more follower-centered conceptualization of vision is offered.     

Organizational cynicism: Spillover effects on supervisor–subordinate relationships and performance

Organizational cynicism has grown in contemporary Western organizations. However, its impact on interpersonal relationships and consequently on organizational functioning remains understudied. The present study addresses these gaps by: a) exploring the spillover effect of organizational cynicism on supervisor–subordinate relationships, and b) examining if the spillover effect extends to employee performance. Specifically, it examines if affective commitment to the supervisor mediates the relationship between the PSS × organizational cynicism interaction effect and performance (i.e., mediated-moderation). Data were collected from both employees and supervisors (N = 274) from 45 organizations. Our results generally support our hypotheses. This study provides evidence that organizational cynicism interferes in the relationship employees develop with their supervisors, with consequences to performance. This study opens new avenues for research on organizational cynicism and carries implications for theory and practice.     

Leadership across levels: Levels of leaders and their levels of impact

This article assesses 25 years of empirical leadership research in 11 top journals with the goal of understanding current practice and future needs for drawing solid conclusions about leadership at different hierarchical levels of the organization, as well as leadership’s effects on individuals, teams, units and organizations. We summarize the hierarchical level of leader and outcome level of analysis studied in different theoretical perspectives on leadership (traits, behavioral, transformational, LMX, strategic, shared) and by journal outlet. Among our findings, we observe that significantly less attention has been devoted to team- and unit-level emergent processes and outcomes, despite its conceptual relevance for leadership theory and practice. Four critical opportunities for advancing leadership science are presented.     

Revisiting Institutional Voids: Advancing the International Business Literature by Leveraging Social Sciences

Institutions are vital for solving collective action problems and enabling functioning markets. Based on this notion, the institutional voids literature has offered a dynamic research agenda for international business scholarship. In this perspective article, we leverage work from political science, development economics, legal studies, and anthropology to: (a) expose hidden assumptions about institutional voids in the management literature; (b) propose new directions for research based on our revised assumptions; and (c) provide direction-specific theoretical constructs from other social sciences to stimulate theory-building and empirical inquiry into institutional voids. We develop a framework that identifies four revised assumptions about institutional voids research that we derive from current studies and elaborate on eight theoretical constructs from other social sciences that exemplify the revised assumptions and generate future research questions for international business scholars.     

Leadership decision-making: A behavioral reasoning theory analysis

Behavioral reasoning theory proposes that context-specific reasons are critical in decision-making, intention formation, and behavior. Reasons are especially important for leaders because of their frequent need to justify their decisions to others. Past behavioral intention theories, such as the theory of planned behavior, have not accounted for the impact of reasons on decision-making processes. Moreover, behavioral reasoning theory hypothesizes that reasons not only influence leaders' attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived control to act, they also directly influence leaders' intentions to act (through explicit or implicit processes). We tested theoretical propositions in a special case of executives' decisions to employ youth workforces (N = 283). Results demonstrated support for the theory, including its predictive validity over the theory of planned behavior. Regarding theoretical extensions for future research, the theory suggests that leaders' decisions could benefit from a careful analysis of their attitudinal, normative, and control perceptions as well as an explicit consideration of their specific behavioral reasons that are grounded in relevant fact, objective evidence, and empirical research. Finally, the possible link between leaders' justifiable reasoning and followers' perceived procedural justice and satisfaction is discussed.     

The mediating effects of leader integrity with transparency in communication and work engagement/performance

We examined in a 3-month longitudinal study how leader behavioral integrity relates to individual follower work engagement, and how that relationship, in turn, connects to performance. We hypothesized that ratings of leader behavioral integrity would mediate the relationship between leader transparent communication and follower work engagement, which would also have a positive relationship with performance. We tested our hypotheses using data collected from military cadets (n = 451), who each rated their respective leader. Our findings show that followers who rated their leaders as exhibiting more transparent communication at Time 1, also rated themselves as more engaged in their work role at Time 2 (3 weeks later), and that their perceptions of leader behavioral integrity mediated that relationship. Follower engagement also positively related to third-party ratings of follower performance at Time 3 lagged 3 months. We discuss the implications of these findings for research on leader integrity, authenticity, follower engagement, and performance.     

When do leaders sacrifice?: The effects of sense of power and belongingness on leader self-sacrifice

Past research on leader self-sacrifice has focused entirely on the effects of this leader behavior on followers and its implications for organizations. The present research focused on antecedents of leader self-sacrifice. We argued that self-sacrifice is positively influenced by leaders' sense of belongingness to the group they supervise. Furthermore, leaders' subjectively sensed power can serve as a moderator of this effect. We expected this because a high sense of power is known to facilitate goal pursuit. Given that organizational goals often prescribe serving the interests of the organization, leaders' sense of belongingness should promote self-sacrifice particularly among leaders low in subjective power; leaders high in subjective power should display self-sacrifice regardless of their sense of belongingness. Two field studies supported these predictions. A final experiment supported a critical assumption underlying our argument in showing that the sense of power × sense of belongingness interaction is restricted to situations that prescribe cooperative goals. When situations prescribe competitive goals, this interaction was absent.     

Internationalization of Digital Innovations: A Rapidly Evolving Research Stream

This perspective paper synthesizes the burgeoning literature on internationalization of digital innovations to identify promising areas for future research. We first integrate multiple perspectives on digital innovations to offer a coherent and unified definition of digital innovations. Next, we synthesize digital innovation research into a theoretical framework that discusses the interrelationship between digital innovations and international business environment and its implications for international penetration of digital innovations. Our synthesis of literature highlights the increased research focus on demand-side perspective as an appropriate theoretical framework to explain the unique dynamics of digital internationalization. Finally, we take account of recent trends in digital economy as well as important gaps in current literature to propose promising avenues for future research. We particularly emphasize the need to integrate current institutional transitions of a digital era as well as emerging theoretical perspectives such as demand-side perspective and opportunity logic in digital internationalization research. We hope our perspective paper will contribute toward a more systematic and theoretically grounded advancement of digital internationalization research.     

A new approach to analyzing the Achilles' heel of multisource feedback programs: Can we really trust ratings of leaders at the group level of analysis?

This research addresses the Achilles’ heel of all multi-source leadership feedback programs regardless of whether they use 360°, 270°, or 180° ratings. Namely, should all feedback be universally aggregated by feedback groups and reported to respondents? A sample of raters from the Center for Creative Leadership (N = 15,500 including subordinates, peers, and others) was grouped to align with each raters’ matching focal subject (J = 1,550). Two scales from CCL’s Benchmarks instrument (Building and Mending Relationships and Career Management) were used to: (1) predict a derailment factor (Problems with Interpersonal Relationships) and (2) determine the operative level of analysis and its aggregation characteristics using Within and Between Analysis (WABA). In many cases, the variables under consideration did not aggregate optimally. Using a technique based upon each group’s coefficient of variation as a measure of internal consensus, between 3% and 25% of groups should not have their averages reported. Alternative approaches are discussed.     

At the crux of dyadic leadership: Self–other agreement of leaders and direct reports — Analyzing 360-degree feedback

The purpose of this research is to investigate the use of dyads instead of whole rating groups for analyzing 360° feedback. A Center for Creative Leadership sample of direct subordinates was matched with their focal leaders (J = 4810 dyads). Two CCL Benchmark scales (Building & Mending Relationships and Problems with Interpersonal Relationships) were used to determine if this dyadic pairing produced high self–other agreement (SOA). Using Within and Between Analysis (WABA), results suggest the viability of detecting unitary, whole dyadic effects only under specific boundary conditions. Other conditions produced highly dispersed dyadic results. Thus, dyadic convergence is not a universal phenomenon in these data. Tying the dyadic results back to the original rater group's consistency as reported in Markham, Smith et al. (2014), those rater groups with high internal agreement form clearer dyadic pairings when compared to rater groups that were moderate or low in agreement. Implications and future directions are discussed.     

Riding the Fifth Wave: Organizational Justice as Dependent Variable

This chapter calls attention to a paradigmatic shift in the organizational justice literature, in which fairness serves as the dependent rather than independent variable. Drawing on two taxonomic dimensions, we structure approaches to studying fairness as a consequence rather than as a cause. One dimension refers to the focal party whose reactions are being examined (the actor, the recipient, and the observer) whereas the other consists of the nature of the reaction itself (behavior, desire, and perception). We sample selectively from the nine cells emanating from the 3 × 3 classification scheme, emphasizing conceptual and empirical works that advance our understanding of fairness or connect fairness with other literatures in organizational and social psychology, such as ethics, social hierarchy, trust, self-handicapping, and construal level theory. Thus, we illustrate how the study of fairness as a dependent variable enriches not only theory and research in organizational justice, but also how it may contribute to other literatures. Additionally, we consider some of the practical implications and future research possibilities related to studying fairness as a dependent variable.