The organisational environment’s impact on the servitization of manufacturers

The transformation of product-centric businesses towards service provision is claimed to be a viable strategy for manufacturers across industries and sectors. However, previous research on servitization has not paid sufficient attention to explicitly investigating its suitability for manufacturers operating in different organizational environments. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to establish propositions on the contingency factors in the organizational environment that affect the servitization of manufacturers at the industry level. Drawing on the theory of organisational ecology, the propositions include the effects of population density, competing populations, resource dependency, institutional linkages, technology, and political forces. Our study suggests that the operating environment explains at least part of the difficulties in the servitization process, which have been identified in previous studies, but whose causes have remained without full explanation. The study adds to the current understanding of the contingencies of transformation toward service provision and contributes to the managerial decision-making processes related to servitization.     

Overcoming pandemic challenges through product innovation: The role of digital technologies and servitization

The fast-changing scenario related to the COVID-19 pandemic calls for firms to rapidly redefine and innovate their strategies to sustain their businesses, with research emphasizing the key roles of digital technologies and servitization. We aim to enrich the theoretical debate on this matter by assessing how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) achieve product innovation under time constraints by leveraging two specific technology groups (information and communication technologies [ICT] and Industry 4.0 data-processing technologies) and servitization. The research is based on a mixed-method approach consisting of an original survey completed by 257 Italian SMEs (grounded on a previous qualitative study about such SMEs' behaviors during the first Italian lockdown), followed by in-depth interviews with the owners and/or managers of the eight SMEs that participated in the survey. The results show a positive relationship between the increased use of digital technologies (ICT and Industry 4.0 data-processing technologies) during the pandemic with servitization and, in turn, with product innovation. Specifically, the increased use of ICT during the pandemic had a direct positive effect on product innovation, while Industry 4.0 data-processing technologies affected product innovation only through the full mediation of servitization. The qualitative study allowed us to highlight how the different kinds of digital technologies supported SMEs’ innovation (servitization and product innovation) during the pandemic. The theoretical and practical contributions of this study are discussed.     

Research into the psychological contract: Two Australian perspectives

Despite their increasing relevance, employees' psychological contracts have attracted little research attention in Australia. The present paper presents two studies, which examined the psychological contracts of specific cohorts of professional employees and those in a managerial career track. The first study was an in-depth qualitative investigation of research scientists in an Australian public sector research organisation. They were found to have a strong professional affiliation and had developed psychological contracts that were best understood by reference to the ‘ideological currency’ of the scientific community. The second study was a quantitative examination of 156 MBA students at an Australian university, and how their psychological contracts could be related to perceptions of the contextual variables of organisational justice, perceived organisational support and external employability. Organisational justice and perceived organisational support were found to be related to the nature of the psychological contracts measured, but perceptions of external employability were not.     

CSR committees on boards: the impact of the external country level factors

Journal of Management and Governance - This article explores the spread of corporate social responsibility (CSR) committees in the European countries, examining whether and what country level...     

Managing C-suite conflict: The unique impact of internal and external governance interfaces on top management team reflexivity

The ability of Top Management Teams (TMTs) to reflect critically on their own actions represents an important element of effective TMT decision making and governance effectiveness. This paper therefore examines how the TMT-board interface internal to the organization, as well as the TMT interface with the external supervisory authority, shape TMT reflexivity. Drawing from governance and psychological theories, we posit that cognitive conflict at the TMT-board interface can escalate by increasing levels of affective TMT-board conflict, and hereby, harm TMT reflexivity if not managed well. This proposition was tested in a multisource team-level data set collected in the field among TMTs (N = 111 TMT members) and their supervisory boards (N = 152 board members) of 56 Dutch insurance companies. The findings demonstrate that the link between cognitive and affective TMT-board conflict is mitigated by board membership influx. Yet in cases where conflict escalation does occur, its subsequent impact on TMT reflexivity hinges on the degree to which an external supervisory authority monitored TMT actions. The results illustrate that TMT decision making processes can be effectively influenced by internal and external TMT-governance interfaces, yet at different conflict stages, and through different governance actions.     

领导研究中的“情境”——内容、方法与未来展望

本文对20世纪80年代以来情境相关的中西方领导研究文献进行了全面的分析和综述。首先对近20年来情境相关的领导研究进行了整体性的归纳与总结;然后从组织结构、组织文化、组织氛围及状态、其它组织内部情境和组织外部情境五个方面对领导研究中涉及的情境内容进行了梳理与具体分析,并从理论的情境化和情境的理论化两个视角对已有领导研究中的情境处理方法进行了探讨;最后进行了总体性评价与讨论,并对未来的研究给出建议。     

The availability of personal and external coping resources: Thier impact on job stress and employee attitudes during organizational restructuring

This study examines the relationships among personal coping resources, social support, external coping resources, job stressors and job strains in a sample of 110 American Telephone and Telegraph employees undergoing a major organizational restructuring. The study expanded on a model suggested by Ashford (1988) by defining another category of coping resources that employees may draw upon to deal with the stressors and strains which occur during major organizational changes. External coping resources were defined as those which provided employees with a sense of 'vicarious control' in stressful situations. Results indicated that personal coping resources, social support and external coping resources had a direct effect upon job stressor and strain levels. No 'buffering' effect of these coplng resources was found. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that external coping resources added to the prediction of job stressors and strains even when pertonal coping resources and social support were entered first into the prediction questions.     

QoS in the internal supply chain: the next lever of competitive advantage and organisational performance

This article presents a research that examines the relationship of quality of service (QoS) and organisational performance in a manufacturing setting. There are few empirical studies that measure QoS in the manufacturing supply chain. A model linking QoS with organisational performance through intermediate variables of satisfaction, loyalty and competitive advantage is introduced and tested in the internal supply chain of three automotive organisations. The research design for this article includes a combination of literature review, exploratory interviews with scholars and practitioners, and a survey of 156 practitioners in three automotive companies in North India. Structural equation modelling has been used for data analysis. This research comes out with four factor scale for internal service quality and six-factor scale for external service quality. The research revealed that employee-driven QoS is a source of value addition that is positively linked with the organisational performance. This study would be of interest to manufacturing industry practitioners interested in internal and external service quality improvements. Future researchers could validate this scale, and empirically test the proposed model.     

The relationship between organisational change and being a perpetrator of workplace bullying: A three-wave longitudinal study

ABSTRACT

While research has unravelled the association between organisational change and being a target of workplace bullying, scholars have still to shed light on the perpetrator perspective of this association. In the current study, we further the literature by investigating the relationship between exposure to organisational change and being a perpetrator of workplace bullying. We introduced perceptions of psychological contract breach as a mechanism that accounts for the process in which exposure to organisational change leads employees to direct bullying behaviours to other members of the organisation. Using three-wave longitudinal data from 1994 employees we estimated a between-subjects mediation model controlling for autoregressive effects. Results confirmed our hypothesis that exposure to organisational change at Time 1 was positively related to being a perpetrator of workplace bullying at Time 3 through perceptions of psychological contract breach at Time 2. These findings suggest that organisations should invest in factors that lower employees’ likelihood to perceive psychological contract breach in the aftermath of organisational change because these perceptions may indeed result in the enactment of workplace bullying towards other members of the organisation.     

中国情境下的精神型领导模型与测量研究

针对基于西方文化提出的精神型领导概念,试图在中国情景下验证其模型与测量工具的适用性.在文献梳理的基础上,通过探索性因子分析和验证性因子分析发现,中国情景下的精神型领导内容包括愿景和利他之爱2个维度,愿景维度由9个测量题目构成,利他之爱由11个测量题目构成.经过实证研究,构建了中国文化情景下精神型领导的二维模型,并开发了具有较高信度和效度的测量工具.     

中国情境下追随力的内涵、结构与测量

在回顾现有研究的基础上,首先运用质性研究方法初步确定了中国情境下追随力的测量题项;随后采用探索性因素分析和验证性因素分析对量表进行实证检验;最终开发了一个6个维度、21个题项的本土追随力测量量表。研究结果进一步完善和修正了现有研究对追随力的界定,编制的中国情境下追随力行为量表为深化和推进领导力及追随力研究提供了可操作化的范式,也为企业了解和培养员工追随力提供了理论依据和指导。     

Learning by Interaction: Absorptive Capacity, Cognitive Distance and Governance

This article analyses problems and solutions in thegovernance of knowledge exchange and joint knowledgeproduction. The analysis is based on a theory whichcombines elements of transaction cost economics,social exchange theory and theory of knowledge. Thetheory of knowledge yields an analysis of absorptivecapacity, communicative capacity and learning byinteraction. In that setting, the paper analysesproblems of governance: hold-up problems as a resultof specific investments in setting up knowledgeexchange, spill-over problems, a trade-off betweenstability and change of exchange relations, and atrade-off between novelty and understandability(`cognitive distance'). A survey is given ofcontingencies that affect the size of problems and theefficacy of instruments for their governance.     

The impact of external,internal, and dual relational embeddedness on the innovation performance of foreign subsidiaries: Evidence from a developing country

As parts of a global network, foreign-owned subsidiaries enjoy privileged access to knowledge sources both internal (within their multinational group) and external (involving other organizations in the host location), and this has proven especially relevant in their assumption of greater creative responsibilities that increase the technological capabilities of their multinational group. This study investigates whether external and internal relational embeddedness are mutually reinforcing (complementary) or whether they act separately in explaining superior innovation performance of foreign-owned subsidiaries in terms of a greater propensity to obtain radical innovations. The empirical analysis uses both direct and indirect tests to evaluate the complementarity, as well as a rich firm-level panel data on foreign subsidiaries, extracted from a census of Colombian manufacturing firms for the period 2008–2014. Our findings reveal that external relational embeddedness in isolation (without internal embeddedness) has a positive impact on performance only in terms of incremental innovation, while internal embeddedness alone (without external embeddedness) has no effect on the innovation performance of subsidiaries. However, we find that a complementary and dynamic relationship exists between external and internal linkages to spur radical innovation outcomes, which in turn are related to the competence-creating roles in foreign subsidiaries as prior literature has shown.     

关系情境、供应商承诺与合作效应的实证研究

基于249家供应商的样本数据,运用结构方程模型对供应链双方的关系情境、供应商承诺与合作效应之间的关系进行实证研究,发现供应商承诺意愿促进其承诺行动,关系情境中的环境动态性、供应商信任和供应商依赖等因素对供应商承诺意愿及承诺行动分别有不同的影响,供应商承诺意愿和承诺行动可以促进双方合作程度和供应商运营获益,双方合作程度的加深能增大供应商运营获益.     

Predictors of Parental Risk Perceptions: The Case of Child Pedestrian Injuries in School Context

The objective of this article is to explore the factors that influence parental risk perceptions of child pedestrian injuries in the elementary school context. Parents (n= 193) from six different schools responded to a questionnaire on road safety, including a measure of their risk perception. Results of bivariate analyses show that eight variables are significantly related to risk perception. Environmental variables, as we measure them, were not significant, contrary to our initial hypotheses. Only three variables, parent's gender, perceived primary source of danger, and sense of control remained significant in OLS regression analyses (adjusted R² of 0.16, F= 9.27; p= 0.00). Since parents’ perceptions of road risks are an important factor in their road safety practices and in their choice of transportation mode used for their child's journey to school, our analysis elucidates factors underlying these choices. Our results can help decisionmakers to design traffic injury prevention measures and to promote physical activity through the use of active modes of transport.     

Framing strategy under high complexity: Processes and practices of ongoing reframing in the becoming of strategy

Framing is a key concept in research on how strategists legitimize and win support for strategic change by establishing a frame of reference for that change. This article advances research on strategy framing by showing how, under conditions of high complexity and uncertainty, strategists continuously reframe strategy in relation to shifting constellations of stakeholders. It presents the findings of an ethnographic study of strategizing in the highly complex context of the digital transformation journey of a global manufacturing firm. It shows how (re)framing practices are combined to iteratively shape strategy formation in ways that sustain strategic influence in the face of constant threats to legitimacy. By accounting for how (re)framing practices reach back and forth in time, the ethnographic findings refine the conventional understanding of how framing resources of past strategizing enter and reworked in present strategy work. Finally, the article contributes empirical insights into how information systems specialists, often marginalized as strategic actors, frame and pitch strategic projects to gain and exert influence in strategy formation processes.     

A contingency view on the impact of supplier development on design and conformance quality performance

This study extends contingency theory’s account of organisational size and culture by exploring the relationship between supplier development and internal quality performance. Drawing on supplier development research, the study aims to examine the moderating impact of organisational size and culture on the relationship between supplier development and design and conformance quality dimensions. Using survey data of 518 UK manufacturing organisations, we found that larger organisations with greater access to resources and a strong supply chain orientation culture tend to place the most weight on supplier development programmes which in turn yield higher internal quality performance. These findings contribute to ‘Operations Management Practice Contingency Research (OM PCR)’ and will raise awareness among operations managers of their future sourcing decisions.     

管理创新研究的国内外对比及其启示

基于国内外主流期刊上的299篇管理创新研究文献的回顾和梳理,对国内外研究中管理创新的影响因素及其作用途径进行比较分析.然后,在中国情境视角下分析并解释了中国企业管理创新的特有影响因素,并在此基础上得出对中国情境下管理创新研究的启示.研究结果表明,管理创新的影响因素分布在企业家个体、管理团队和组织3个层面、6个维度上.此外,在国内外研究中,影响因素及作用机理既存在一致性,也存在差异性,即国外研究更关注高层管理团队的作用,国内研究则更加关注企业家个人因素的作用;同时,国内研究比国外研究更关注社会资本和技术创新对管理创新的影响.在未来的研究中,要重视这些特有影响因素及相应的情境因素的作用,为构建中国情境下的管理理论奠定基础.     

新创企业内部资源与外部关系的战略平衡

由于受新创劣势的约束,新创企业的战略行为需平衡内部资源和外部关系． 基于创业成长的演化视角,本文将创业导向和创新能力定义为内部资源,外部关系构念区分为支持型和合作型关系,分析其中的战略平衡机制． 通过224 家上市创业企业的经验研究显示: 内部资源与外部关系中的政府支持和金融机构支持形成战略替代效应,演进模型的检验也证实新创企业对这种非市场关系资源形成路径依赖的特征; 而在合作型关系中,内部资源与企业联盟之间形成互补效应的平衡机制,但是在演进模型中并没有显著的变化趋势． 研究结论为我国创业企业的战略决策提供一定的实践启示,也为战略创业观点提供理论参考．     

新创企业内部资源与外部关系的战略平衡——中国情境下的经验研究

由于受新创劣势的约束,新创企业的战略行为需平衡内部资源和外部关系.基于创业成长的演化视角,本文将创业导向和创新能力定义为内部资源,外部关系构念区分为支持型和合作型关系,分析其中的战略平衡机制.通过224家上市创业企业的经验研究显示:内部资源与外部关系中的政府支持和金融机构支持形成战略替代效应,演进模型的检验也证实新创企业对这种非市场关系资源形成路径依赖的特征;而在合作型关系中,内部资源与企业联盟之间形成互补效应的平衡机制,但是在演进模型中并没有显著的变化趋势.研究结论为我国创业企业的战略决策提供一定的实践启示,也为战略创业观点提供理论参考.