A Comment on “Can Relaxation of Beliefs Rationalize the Winner's Curse?: An Experimental Study”

Ivanov, Levin, and Niederle (2010) use a common‐value second‐price auction experiment to reject beliefs‐based explanations for the winner's curse. ILN's conclusion, however, stems from the misuse of theoretical arguments. Beliefs‐based models are even compatible with some observations from ILN's experiment.     

Stewardship as process: A paradox perspective

Long-term stewardship is usually represented as a stable structural condition and portrayed as a source of competitive advantage to firms (including family businesses) that use it as a mode of governance. Less is known about how organizations engage with stewardship as a process. We embrace a process approach to report a case study about the unfolding of stewardship in a multi-business family group. We conclude that stewardship is a process marked by critical tensions and paradoxes; by exploring the nature of these we uncover further dimensions and responses to the paradoxes of stewardship.     

How feedback about leadership potential impacts ambition,organizational commitment,and performance

In the present research we report results from two experimental studies that examine how feedback about leadership potential impacts leadership ambition, organizational commitment, and performance. Study 1 used an experimental vignette methodology that controls for prior performance. Results show that individuals who receive feedback that they have low potential to be a future leader have lower ambition and organizational commitment relative to those who receive feedback that they have high potential to be a future leader. Study 2 provides evidence of the causal behavioral effects of feedback about leadership potential using a real task effort environment. Results show that participants informed to be unlikely future leaders display lower performance in a subsequent task than participants informed to be likely future leaders. The findings from the two studies demonstrate that information about leadership potential affects subsequent ambition to become leaders as well as performance. We discuss the implications of these findings for the importance of followership, talent management, and leadership succession.     

Surprises in Management and Organization: Concept,Sources and A Typology*

We discuss why surprises, defined as events that happen unexpectedly or expected events that take unexpected shapes, are important to organizations and should be considered in the organization and management literature as an umbrella concept, encompassing a variety of related phenomena. The concept of organizational surprises is unpacked and a typology is built around the (un)expectedness of the issue and the (un)expectedness of the process. This typology uncovers the several types of surprising events that organizations may face, and contributes to the literature by identifying how different types of surprises require distinct managerial approaches.