Business models and business model innovation: Between wicked and paradigmatic problems

While research on business models and business model innovation continue to exhibit growth, the field is still, even after more than two decades of research, characterized by a striking lack of cumulative theorizing and an opportunistic borrowing of more or less related ideas from neighbouring fields in the place of cumulative theory. We argue that the lack of cumulativeness stems from lack of construct clarity (i.e., BM and BMI are seldom defined with much precision) and lack of agreement on definitions, which in turn imply that the core constructs are not dimensionalized in a way that eases theory-building and empirical testing. Lack of progress on these matters partly reflect that the BM and BMI constructs are used in multiple explanatory contexts, so that it is not entirely clear what are the problems that BM and BMI research seek to solve. We argue, with Teece (2010), that the BM and BMI constructs are fundamentally about the architecture of the firm's value creation, delivery and capture mechanisms; theoretically the key aspect of BMs is complementarity between activities underlying these mechanisms; BMI means novel changes of such complementary relations; and this understanding not only unifies diverse contributions to the literature but is also productive of new insight.     

Affect and leader-member exchange in the new millennium: A state-of-art review and guiding framework

The idea that affect plays a key role in leader-member exchange (LMX) processes is not new, but it has become a subject of considerable research attention since the turn of the Millennium. This interest has, however, resulted in a multiplicity of views that have tended to obfuscate rather than clarify the affect-LMX nexus. To deal with this lack of clarity, we conducted a systematic integration of affect-LMX literature published in leading journals since 2000, including the role of personal affectivity, discrete affect, emotional intelligence, emotional labor, and affective climate. We structured our review using a multilevel framework of affect that encompasses five levels of analysis: (1) within-person, (2) between persons, (3) interpersonal, (4) team, and (5) organizational levels; as well as consideration of cross-level effects. We address in particular three fundamental issues that we argue may have hampered the development of the affect-LMX nexus in the literature: theoretical diversity, problems of data analysis, and measurement issues. We conclude by discussing opportunities for future research across the different levels and develop a set of research questions that we hope will help to promote research into the role of affect in LMX.     

Approximations to Optimal k‐Unit Cycles for Single‐Gripper and Dual‐Gripper Robotic Cells

We consider the problem of scheduling operations in bufferless robotic cells that produce identical parts using either single‐gripper or dual‐gripper robots. The objective is to find a cyclic sequence of robot moves that minimizes the long‐run average time to produce a part or, equivalently, maximizes the throughput. Obtaining an efficient algorithm for an optimum k‐unit cyclic solution (k ≥ 1) has been a longstanding open problem. For both single‐gripper and dual‐gripper cells, the approximation algorithms in this paper provide the best‐known performance guarantees (obtainable in polynomial time) for an optimal cyclic solution. We provide two algorithms that have a running time linear in the number of machines: for single‐gripper cells (respectively, dual‐gripper cells), the performance guarantee is 9/7 (respectively, 3/2). The domain considered is free‐pickup cells with constant intermachine travel time. Our structural analysis is an important step toward resolving the complexity status of finding an optimal cyclic solution in either a single‐gripper or a dual‐gripper cell. We also identify optimal cyclic solutions for a variety of special cases. Our analysis provides production managers valuable insights into the schedules that maximize productivity for both single‐gripper and dual‐gripper cells for any combination of processing requirements and physical parameters.     

What is strategic leadership? Developing a framework for future research

We attempt to bring clarity to the concept of strategic leadership and guide its development by reviewing and synthesizing the existing management literature on how top managers and board directors influence organizations. We propose a new definition of strategic leadership and offer a framework organized around the essential questions of what strategic leadership is, what strategic leaders do, why they do it, and how they do it. To answer these questions, we organize our review around the eight functions strategic leaders serve, the key attributes of strategic leaders, the theories scholars have used to relate these functions and attributes to outcomes, contextual factors, and the organizational outcomes that strategic leaders affect. We identify how strategic leadership research is concentrated in five streams that rarely interact with each other, and offer suggestions for connecting these streams. Our review provides a big picture of what is known about individuals at the top levels of organizations and highlights the key areas where future investigation is essential.     

Ubiquitous yet Ambiguous: An Integrative Review of Unpaid Work

The expansion of participation in unpaid work such as internships, volunteering and educationally focused work placements may constitute evidence of deleterious changes to labour markets increasingly characterized by competition, precarious work and prolonged transitions to secure employment. Unpaid work, although under‐researched, is increasingly relevant in times of ubiquitous unpaid internships and the use of volunteers in roles that would have been previously paid. Yet there remains a lack of clarity in terminology and focus across studies of unpaid work. This review article addresses this concern through two primary aims. First, we review the available literature around unpaid work setting out five themes: characterizations of unpaid work; the prevalence and underlying drivers of unpaid work; the apparent benefits of participation; the costs of participation; and regulatory and structural responses to unpaid work. Together, these themes set out a holistic interpretation of the accumulated state of knowledge in this area of inquiry including the implications for organizations, employers, higher education institutions, policy makers and unpaid workers. The second aim is to synthesise the current and emerging insights arising from the review as a matrix which delineates four distinct forms of unpaid work along two dimensions – purpose of participation and level of participatory discretion. The review and resulting matrix provides conceptual clarity around unpaid work practices that informs future research. It also raises pragmatic implications for institutional and managerial decision‐making which is cognisant of the range of risks, costs, benefits and ethical issues associated with unpaid work.     

`Quantitative' and `Qualitative' Research: An Analysis

It is widely believed that there is a clear distinction between `quantitative' and `qualitative' research, and these embedded or institutionalised terms profoundly affect the practice of such research. In this article the clarity and/or usefulness of the distinction is challenged together with the whole idea that there are given `methodologies' for research. Almost everything turns on conceptual clarity in relation to the initial research-questions: that leads the research to methods which follow logically from the concepts involved. The alleged `quantitative'/`qualitative' distinction does no more than pre-empt methods and procedures of research which should be left open.     

Formation and Constitution of Effectual Networks: A Systematic Review and Synthesis

The co‐creational processes of effectuation represent an important development in understanding of entrepreneurial action. They also manifest in networks that are themselves important artefactual outcomes of effectual processes. To synthesize research connecting effectuation to the networks involved, this paper offers a systematic literature review. Following recent theorizing, the authors organize the literature around two general themes: (1) why and how network development occurs; and (2) what network develops. The resultant thematic model offers a comprehensive perspective on network development under effectuation logic. The analysis identifies that understanding of effectual networking and effectual networks is fragmented, incomplete and constrained by a lack of construct and contextual clarity. The authors present alternative perspectives on constructs and assumptions surrounding networks in effectuation, integrate network theory into effectuation, and generate important trajectories for future research.     

Servant Leadership: A systematic review and call for future research

Notwithstanding the proliferation of servant leadership studies with over 100 articles published in the last four years alone, a lack of coherence and clarity around the construct has impeded its theory development. We provide an integrative and comprehensive review of the 285 articles on servant leadership spanning 20?years (1998–2018), and in so doing extend the field in four different ways. First, we provide a conceptual clarity of servant leadership vis-à-vis other value-based leadership approaches and offer a new definition of servant leadership. Second, we evaluate 16 existing measures of servant leadership in light of their respective rigor of scale construction and validation. Third, we map the theoretical and nomological network of servant leadership in relation to its antecedents, outcomes, moderators, mediators. We finally conclude by presenting a detailed future research agenda to bring the field forward encompassing both theoretical and empirical advancement. All in all, our review paints a holistic picture of where the literature has been and where it should go into the future.     

Systematisierung der Erfolgsfaktoren von Wissensmanagement auf Basis der bisherigen empirischen Forschung

Zusammenfassung  Der vorliegende Beitrag leitet aus einer umfassenden Bestandsaufnahme der empirischen Forschung zum Wissensmanagement einen Bezugsrahmen der Erfolgsfaktoren ab. Ziel ist die Zuordnung der identifizierten Erfolgsfaktoren zu übergeordneten Aggregationsniveaus (Untersuchungsfelder, Kategorien und Dimensionen) und damit die Reduzierung von Komplexit?t und Systematisierung der bisherigen Befunde. Weiterhin sollen aus den Ergebnissen der vorliegenden Analyse Implikationen für die weitere Forschung im Wissensmanagement abgeleitet werden. Als Ergebnis resultiert ein Modell, welches die Inhalte als auch die hypothetischen Beziehungen zwischen den identifizierten Aggregationsebenen veranschaulicht. Er bildet damit Grundlage für eine weitere Analyse der Erfolgsfaktoren, ihrer Auspr?gungen und Interdependenzen. Aus der Heterogenit?t der Studien konnten weitere Implikationen für die theoretische Wissensmanagement-Forschung abgeleitet werden.

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Knowledge management factors of success: A review of empirical findings and a model for future research

Summary  This paper derives a framework of key success-factors from an in-depth review of empirical research in knowledge management. Our first objective was to reduce the complexity of previous findings in the field of knowledge management by developing a model-structure that focuses on the interdependencies of the identified variables and to develop a framework that would allow for further research. We thus iteratively aggregated the identified factors of success to superior fields of analysis (named research fields, categories and dimensions). Our second objective was to extract from the analysis further implications for future research. The derived hypothetical framework maps the identified levels of aggregation and its describing factors, as well as the hypothetical interdependencies among them. Therefore this framework not only structures the findings, but also provides a basis for further analysis that aims at sound confirmation of the knowledge management factors of success, their characteristics and interdependencies. The observed heterogeneity of existing research points towards further research implications for knowledge management theory.

Forschungsschwerpunkte: Mergers & Acquisitions, Projektmanagement, Wissensmanagement     

Group Emotions: Cutting the Gordian Knots Concerning Terms,Levels of Analysis,and Processes

Abstract

Research has established that groups are pervaded by feelings. But group emotion research within organizational science has suffered in recent years from a lack of terminological clarity, from a narrow focus on small groups, and from an overemphasis on micro-processes of emotion transmission. We address those problems by reviewing and systematically integrating relevant work conducted not only in organizational science, but also in psychology and sociology. We offer a definition of group emotions and sort the conceptual space along four dimensions: group emotion responses, recognition, regulation, and reiteration. We provide evidence that group emotions occur at all levels of analysis, including levels beyond small work groups. The accounts of group emotion emergence at higher levels of analysis differ substantially between organizational science, psychology, and sociology. We review these accounts—emergence through inclination, interaction, institutionalization, or identification—and then synthesize them into one parsimonious model. The consequences of different group emotions are reviewed and further constructs (including emotional aperture, group emotional intelligence, emotional culture, and emotional climate) are discussed. We end with a call for future research on several neglected group emotion topics including the study of discrete shared emotions, emotions at multiple levels, the effects of social network patterns, and effects on group functioning.     

Examining the Ability,Motivation and Opportunity (AMO) framework in HRM research: Conceptualization,measurement and interactions

Despite the increasing popularity of the Ability, Motivation, Opportunity (AMO) framework in the Human Resource Management (HRM) field, AMO research is at a crossroads in theoretical and empirical development. This is due to (a) a lack of clarity about the conceptualisation and measurement of AMO variables, (b) the construction of AMO articles that do not distinguish between AMO differences and AMO-enhancing HRM practices and fail to integrate them, (c) a lack of understanding about how AMO variables at the individual and organizational levels interact to generate individual and organizational performance, and (d) a lack of consideration of the process (mediators and moderators) through which AMO generates performance gains. Based on the analysis of 104 quantitative HRM articles published between 1997 and 2022, this study helps to draw clearer distinctions among AMO variables and levels of analysis. The review of the empirical literature shows that there is excessive heterogeneity with regard to the conceptualization and utilisation of AMO variables, which in turn leads to scale proliferation. We find that research on AMO-enhancing HRM practices and AMO differences is rarely combined and tends to be tested at a single level rather than more logical cross-level effects between AMO-enhancing HRM practices, AMO differences and performance. We also found that whereas Ability and Motivation differences mediate the relationship between AMO-enhancing HRM practices and performance, opportunity appears to be a boundary condition in the relationship between Ability and Motivation with performance outcomes. The paper concludes with relevant avenues for future AMO research suggested for the field of HRM.     

Strategic Renewal: Past Research,Theoretical Tensions and Future Challenges

Strategic renewal has become a prominent theme in a variety of organization and management research domains in recent years. It refers to the process that allows organizations to alter their path dependence by transforming their strategic intent and capabilities. With contributions from an increasing range of theoretical perspectives and research contexts, the strategic renewal literature has become fragmented and lacks common definitions and conceptual clarity, which prevent cross‐fertilization and harm further development. This study systematically reviews the various literature streams on strategic renewal to provide a more integrative perspective. The authors identify three key theoretical tensions at the heart of strategic renewal research, namely learning vs. resource, induced vs. autonomous, and co‐alignment vs. co‐creation. By exploring these key tensions, the authors define strategic renewal's conceptual core, identify gaps in the past literature, and provide guidance for future research.     

The Measurement of Subjective Probability: Evaluating the Sensitivity and Accuracy of Various Scales

The RISK of an event generally relates to its expected severity and the perceived probability of its occurrence. In RISK research, however, there is no standard measure for subjective probability estimates. In this study, we compared five commonly used measurement formats—two rating scales, a visual analog scale, and two numeric measures—in terms of their ability to assess subjective probability judgments when objective probabilities are available. We varied the probabilities (low vs. moderate) and severity (low vs. high) of the events to be judged as well as the presentation mode of objective probabilities (sequential presentation of singular events vs. graphical presentation of aggregated information). We employed two complementary goodness‐of‐fit criteria: the correlation between objective and subjective probabilities (sensitivity), and the root mean square deviations of subjective probabilities from objective values (accuracy). The numeric formats generally outperformed all other measures. The severity of events had no effect on the performance. Generally, a rise in probability led to decreases in performance. This effect, however, depended on how the objective probabilities were encoded: pictographs ensured perfect information, which improved goodness of fit for all formats and diminished this negative effect on the performance. Differences in performance between scales are thus caused only in part by characteristics of the scales themselves—they also depend on the process of encoding. Consequently, researchers should take the source of probability information into account before selecting a measure.     

From Rocking the Boat to Wagging the Dog: A Literature Review of Subsidiary Initiative Research and Integrative Framework

This literature review on the topic of subsidiary initiatives discloses a certain lack of conceptual clarity concerning the phenomenon. After providing an overview of the research field, the paper applies a conception of entrepreneurship inspired by Schumpeter (1912) as a basis for refining our understanding of just what a subsidiary initiative is and of the different kinds of subsidiary initiative. A framework is developed with a view to the current and anticipated growing importance of highly populated countries like China and India which are bound to raise the MNC-internal profile and weight of subsidiaries serving these national mega-markets. The framework distinguishes between organizational disequilibrium and market disequilibrium as a way to classify different types and different degrees of subsidiary initiative. It is argued that prior conceptions of subsidiary initiative in practice reveal a bias towards organizational disequilibrium and tend to overlook important MNC subsidiary initiatives involving market disequilibrium, generally neglecting the entrepreneurial dimension that Birkinshaw (1997) associated with the term when he initiated this research stream. Metaphorically speaking, although Birkinshaw was always clearly interested in MNC subsidiary initiatives that “wag the dog,” most follow-up research examines initiatives that merely “rock the boat.” Our framework helps capture the distinction and anticipates more dog-wagging by MNC subsidiaries in the future.     

Analysis of the Market‐Based Adjustable Outsourcing Contract under Uncertainties

The market‐based adjustable contract for customized goods or services has emerged in outsourcing practices. Its objective is to minimize the operational risks inherent in today's volatile environment of operations. Our research reveals several important properties of this contract through a continuous‐time analytical approach. Specifically, we consider the determination of this contract between two risk‐averse firms through a Nash bargaining process. We derive the optimal adjusting mechanism analytically and extensively analyze the application boundary of the market‐based adjustable outsourcing contract. We conclude by discussing implications for practice and research.     

A network DEA quantity and quality-orientated production model: An application to Australian university research services

The motivation for this analysis is the recently developed Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) program developed to assess the quality of research in Australia. The objective is to develop an appropriate empirical model that better represents the underlying production of higher education research. In general, past studies on university research performance have used standard DEA models with some quantifiable research outputs. However, these suffer from the twin maladies of an inappropriate production specification and a lack of consideration of the quality of output. By including the qualitative attributes of peer-reviewed journals, we develop a procedure that captures both quality and quantity, and apply it using a network DEA model. Our main finding is that standard DEA models tend to overstate the research efficiency of most Australian universities.     

Current debates in global strategy

Debates help drive research forward. This paper is unique in its review of four current debates in the global strategy arena: (1) cultural vs institutional distance; (2) global vs regional geographic diversification; (3) convergence vs divergence in corporate governance; and (4) domestic vs overseas corporate social responsibility. For each debate, the history is tracked and the emerging tension highlighted. By introducing both sides of four lively and timely debates, the paper provides an innovative way of reviewing the literature and helping to advance the field. It is argued that an underlying theme connecting these four diverse debates is the institution-based view of global strategy.     

Is time consistency compatible with risk aversion?

Managerial decision models applied in operations research, finance, information management, and many other disciplines are typically both dynamic and stochastic. When decisions at different points in time are allowed, the question arises what conditions guarantee the absence of incentives to deviate from the ex ante optimal policy at later dates. We term such a policy time consistent. A well-known result states that additively separable objective functions ensure time consistency under risk neutrality. Unfortunately, this is no longer true when decision makers are risk averse. Then, (much) more restrictive assumptions are needed. The aim of this paper is to provide clear-cut conditions that ensure time consistency in an expected utility framework. Our main findings are twofold: on the one hand, constant absolute risk aversion can guarantee time consistency when final values are under consideration. On the other hand, time consistency and risk aversion are incompatible when intertemporal payments are aggregated by means of net present values.     

Adjustment and work outcomes of self-initiated expatriates in the United Arab Emirates: Development and testing of a model

Drawing upon anxiety/uncertainty management (AUM) theory and organization support theory (OST), we developed and tested a model on how globally mobile talent – in this instance, self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) - stay and perform well in the organization. We collected data from 276 superior-subordinate dyads, which were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). Our results suggest that role clarity mediates the influence of perceived organizational support and work adjustment. Furthermore, we found that work adjustment mediates the influence of role clarity on task performance and organizational citizenship behavior. We draw out the implications for advancing theory and practice in expatriate management.     

Understanding founder–CEO’s replacement in venture-backed companies: A theoretical and empirical analysis

This research provides an accurate picture of situations in which founder–CEOs are replaced (or not) by venture capitalists. Our analysis aims to go further than the schematic case of the founder being simply dismissed by investors in a conflictual context. We first review the literature dedicated to this subject in the light of the agency theory (AT) and the resource-based view (RBV). However, the limits of these theoretical frameworks lead us to investigate their extensions: the entrenchment theory (ET), the dynamic capabilities approach (DCA) and the cognitive governance perspective (CGP). In a second phase, in order to decode the replacement process, we designed an exploratory methodology based on qualitative data, thus deepening our understanding of the issues it entails in venture-backed companies. Finally, this field analysis allows us to build a typology of replacement scenarii, with each scenario being interpreted by combining relevant theories to explain all aspects of it. In line with the AT, the ET focuses on the FCs strategy to retain their position. The DCA analyses the CEOs’ resources from a dynamic angle, in accordance with the RBV. The CGP is mobilised to characterise a conflict originating in a lack of skills. These results lead us to rethink the role of time and the nature of conflicts in the relationships between FCs and venture capitalists.