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Firm performance remains at the heart of strategic management. In the quest to refine the field’s contribution, Venkatraman and Ramanujam (1986) argued that reliance upon single measures of firm performance is risky and firm performance should be treated as a multidimensional construct. Subsequently, researchers have examined trends in firm performance measurement ever since. Over a decade since the last examination of this issue, this study aims to add to the ongoing conversation.

The authors investigated 1,972 research papers published in five premier management journals for the years 2015–2019 to determine if multidimensional measurement of firm performance has improved.

The findings suggest that approximately two-thirds of papers that measure firm performance are published using only a single measure of firm performance, and approximately three-fourths do not measure firm performance across multiple dimensions.

This study contributes to the literature by emphasizing the necessity to consider the dimensionality of firm performance, use multiple measures and consistently ground firm performance variables with theory – especially control variables – to keep firm performance as the focus of the strategy field. Evidence and implications are discussed and recommendations for researchers and reviewers are provided.

Responding to Martin, Turner, and Hitlin, we clarify possible misunderstandings of our two papers on “agency.” First, they do not presume or commit us to any form of universal determinism. We merely assume that the job of sociologists is to try and causally explain as much as we can of the variations in social life. Though our best efforts leave huge amounts of variance unexplained, there is no good reason for calling this unexplained variance “agency,” and there are several good reasons for not doing so. Second, we acknowledge our use of “structure” is quite a loose one, simply referring to the combination of environmental and personal factors that can help us explain social phenomena. Our notion of “causation” is, admittedly, no less “slipshod” than that used by most social scientists. We are happy to leave questions as to the true nature of causation to the philosophers. Third, we do not see in what way using the notion of “agency” to describe, much less account for, novelty (Martin), or to help “organize” the potentially infinite number of forces in play (Hitlin), advances our understanding or explanatory power. The normative and voluntaristic connotations of the term only serve to muddy the explanatory waters. Fourth, this doesn't preclude empirically examining the sense of “agency” and its causes and consequences. Even if the current wave of enthusiasm for “agency” is waning, a thorough conversation remains worthwhile if only to help avoid the same confusions popping up again in the future.

Amasyali and van de Berg's discussions of Agency were edifying and scholarly, but curiously sideline some of the very pockets of sociology that might most fully address their concerns with this slippery concept. This response suggests some counterexamples to some of their strongest claims that deny the utility or the exploration of agency, ultimately suggesting that sociological social psychology, understood in its probabilistic format, helps address the lack of precision around this commonly employed concept.

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictions created a range of potential additional stressors for families, particularly for parents living with children. This study aims to explore whether there were any differences in the mental health and emotional experiences of those living with children, and those who were not, during the pandemic and related lockdowns; and whether there were any specific risk factors associated with these mental health outcomes and emotional experiences.

Regression analyses of ten-wave repeated cross-sectional surveys between May 2020 and November 2021 on a total sample of 42,529 UK adults, which measured mental health with a range of pleasant and unpleasant emotional experiences. The interaction effects of living with children and age as well as marital status were tested.

During the pandemic, individuals who were living with children were more likely to feel hopeful (OR: 1.1) and grateful (OR: 1.163), less likely to feel hopeless (OR: 0.918) and lonely (OR: 0.799), while more likely to feel guilty (OR: 1.185), unprepared (OR: 1.195) and pressurised (OR: 1.14), than those not living with children. More nuanced findings and diverse emotional experiences were also found in people of different age groups and marital statuses.

This study has highlighted that being parents and living with children could be important factors of emotional distress, especially during the special circumstances of the pandemic and lockdowns, drawing on the large-scale national data.

Van den Berg and Amasyali make a persuasive (though not yet definitive) case that, in practice, appeals to ideas about agency do little to advance our sociological understanding. However, they seem to treat the antithesis of this (vague as it is) notion, explanatory determinism, as if it were stable. Not only are the two concepts equally paradoxical, but one calls out for the other, and we cannot criticize and dispense with one while retaining its twin.

This paper aims to examine how the interrelation between architecture and the physical environment came to prominence and influenced the pioneering modernist architects to acquire the features of modern architecture that the British modernists later adopted. How the post-war urban poor of Britain, suffering from ill-health and dire need of sun, air and a good environment, played an essential role in alleviating the environmental concerns of the modern movement architects.

The methodology of this research involves a comprehensive architectural analysis of the Finsbury Health Centre alongside an in-depth historical investigation of modernist design principles. This review article examines books, articles and some archival materials, such as recordings, pictures, etc. on the early phase of British modernism and its environmental dimension by looking at the works of historians, architects and critics.

Design based on modernist principles. While it can be seen as the political agenda of the Labor Party, this building was not only functionally efficient but also represented the biometric concerns of modern architecture with the most natural means.

While this study provides valuable insights, it may be limited by historical documents and data availability.

The originality and value of this paper lie in its examination of the Finsbury Health Centre as a case study, shedding light on the environmental rhetoric of modernism in historic architecture. By providing a holistic assessment of the building’s environmental aspects, this research contributes to both architectural history and contemporary sustainable design practices.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

This paper identified that strategic and budgetary planning are essential for business performance and maintaining a positive outlook on the business.

The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

The use of digital technology is crucial for building resilience and shaping competitive advantages in project-based organizations (PBOs). The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of digital elements on organizational resilience and resilience enhancement paths in PBOs represented by the construction industry in the context of digitization.

This study uses multivalue-set qualitative comparative analysis (mvQCA). First, we collect digitization keywords from the annual reports of PBOs in the construction industry and classify them as process digitization, digital technology application and production intelligence while also considering word frequency statistics as antecedent conditions. Second, through a literature review and the use of the data collected, we define organizational resilience as the ability of organizations to defend, resist, recover and develop. Then, we use the mvQCA approach to examine how digital antecedent variables collectively advance PBO resilience.

By collecting data on 79 listed Chinese construction companies and utilizing mvQCA, we identify five combinations of conditions that produce high levels of organizational resilience, and the solution coverage is 1. These methods are (1) digital technology application-oriented, (2) process digitalization-oriented, (3) digitized multifactor coupling, (4) process digitization and digital technology application-driven and (5) process digitalization and production intelligence-driven.

These findings have important theoretical and practical implications for revealing the digital-driven path to high levels of PBO resilience. In theory, this study enriches the research on organizational resilience and expands the application scope of organizational resilience theory and the QCA method. Furthermore, this study provides new ways and ideas for PBOs to effectively integrate and utilize internal and external digital resources to increase their levels of organizational resilience.