Search results

This manuscript explores the evolving roles of HR professionals amidst global megatrends and organizational transitions, focusing on the Italian context, which has experienced disruptive adoption of new forms of work such as remote and hybrid work. In this challenging scenario, our research aims to uncover if and how HR professionals are transforming their roles or maintaining the status quo in navigating organizational changes, dealing with the upcoming working scenario, and challenging conventional perceptions of HR practitioners.

The study employs the social-symbolic work lens, that contributes to a deeper understanding of how HR professionals work to construct organizational life, the identities of employees, and the societal norms and assumptions that provide the context for organizational action. This perspective highlights HR professionals’ personal efforts, consisting of the emotional labor entailed in steering organizational transformations and, eventually, maintenance in a context where remote work has become prevalent. Data was collected through 16 online focus groups involving 76 HR professionals from Italian organizations.

Our research offers two interrelated contributions to HR literature. First, we provide pieces of evidence on how HR practitioners act as agents of change in two emerging roles: the “Wannabe Hero” and the “Ordinary Hero”. This challenges the prevailing rhetorical discourse about the so-called HR business partner. Secondly, we delve into the persistent obstacles that hinder HR professionals from making a substantial impact in addressing radical changes. These findings will provide useful insights into effectively engaging HR practitioners as agents of change in organizational transformation, shedding light on praxis, structures, and their emotional work.

The paper analyzes HR professionals’ social-symbolic work, which offers an original contribution to the comprehension of the activities they carry on in practice and the emotions they have been experiencing. These influence both the way HR professionals play their role and the organizational and institutional environment.

We investigate whether/how various kinds of experience predict managers' selection outcomes.

Drawing from personnel selection and decision-making research, we used a multilevel model to examine whether various types of experience predict employee selection outcomes in the National Basketball Association. We examined 289 selection events of basketball players by 63 general managers. Measures of general manager experience included tenure, education level, family relations, experience as a college coach, experience as a National Basketball Association Player, experience as a National Basketball Association scout and experience as a National Basketball Association coach.

College coaching experience, tenure and vicarious experience through family relations improved selection decision outcomes, while experience as a basketball player reduced the quality of selection decision outcomes. Tenure was associated with general managers’ ability to select employees who made high individual contribution to team wins; vicarious experience improved ability to select players with high peak individual performance, and college coaching experience improved general managers’ ability to select employees with higher contributions to team wins, higher peak individual performances and higher average performances over the course of players’ careers.

Experience’s importance is taken for granted, but this paper demonstrates that all experience is not equally effective. Notably, experience as a professional athlete did not seem to make managers better decision-makers about personnel than people who did not have that experience.

Human resource analytics (HRA) is an HR activity that companies and academics increasingly pay attention to. Existing literature conceptualises HRA mostly from an objectivist perspective, which limits understanding of actual HRA activities in the complex organisational environment. This paper therefore draws on the practice-based approach, using a novel framework to conceptualise HRA-as-practice.

The authors conducted a systematic literature review of 100 academic and practitioner-oriented publications to analyse existing HRA literature in relation to practice theory, using the “HRA-as-practice” frame.

The authors identify the main practices involved in HRA, by whom and how these practices are enacted, and reveal three topics in nomological network of HRA-as-practice: HRA technology, HRA outcomes and HRA hindrances and facilitators, which the authors suggest might actualize enactment of HRA practices.

The authors offer HR function and HR professionals a basic ground to evaluate HRA as a highly contextual activity that can potentially generate business value and increase HR impact when seen as a complex interaction between HRA practices, HRA practitioners and HRA praxis. The findings also help HR practitioners understand multiple factors that influence the practice of HRA.

This systematic review differs from the previous reviews in two ways. First, it analyses both academic and practitioner-oriented publications. Second, it provides a novel theoretical contribution by conceptualising HRA-as-practice and comprehensively compiling scattered topics and themes related to HRA.

In recent years, the development of metaheuristic algorithms for solving optimization problems within a reasonable timeframe has garnered significant attention from the global scientific community. In this work, a new metaheuristic algorithm inspired by the inflection mechanism of the avian influenza virus H5N1 in poultry and humans, taking into account its mutation mechanism, called H5N1.

This algorithm aims to explore optimal solutions for optimization problems by simulating the adaptive behavior and evolutionary process of the H5N1 virus, thereby enhancing the algorithm’s performance for all types of optimization problems. Additionally, a balanced stochastic probability mechanism derived from the infection probability is presented. Using this mechanism, the H5N1 algorithm can change its phrase, including exploitation and exploration phases. Two versions of H5N1, SH5N1 and MH5N1, are presented to solve single-objective optimization problems (SOPs) and multi-objective optimization problems (MOPs).

The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using a set of benchmark functions, including seven unimodal, six multimodal, ten fixed-dimension multimodal to solve SOPs, ZDT functions and CEC2009 has been used to demonstrate its superiority over other recent algorithms. Finally, six optimization engineering problems have been tested. The results obtained indicate that the proposed algorithm outperformed ten algorithms in SOPs and seven algorithms in MOPs.

The experimental findings demonstrate the outstanding convergence of the H5N1 algorithm and its ability to generate solutions of superior quality.

Digital game-based learning (DGBL) has emerged as a new learning method that offers ample advantages compared to traditional learning environments. Although previous research supports the effectiveness of DGBL, there is a lack of studies explaining the relationship between the concrete elements of a digital game and the highly abstract and intangible personal values. Thus, this paper aims to employ means-end chain (MEC) theory to identify the attributes of DGBL, the benefits that learners derive from these attributes and how these benefits contribute to learners’ terminal values.

This paper used MEC theory to map the attributes, consequences and values of DGBL. The study was conducted on 20 students at a European university, and data analysis using the laddering technique included content analysis, classification into A-C-V levels, construction of an implication matrix and generation of a hierarchical value map (HVM).

This study provides insight into key design elements of digital educational games through a hierarchical value map, identifying how attributes such as interactive content, simulation of real-world situations and adaptability influence psychological and functional consequences that lead to higher student values: happiness, achievement, personal growth and autonomy. The four dominant trajectories associated with DGBL are the happiness-driven, achievement-driven, growth-driven and autonomy-driven trajectories, each of which is supported by relevant learning and motivation theories. The study also highlights the importance of elements such as reduced cognitive load, greater emotional engagement and tailored educational content in improving learning outcomes.

The research is based on subjective, self-reported data and a sample of higher education students at a single European university, which may limit the applicability of the findings to lower educational levels and other cultural contexts. Additionally, the analysis encompasses DGBL in general, without focusing on specific types of games or modes of play.

The results obtained from the means-end analysis are valuable for understanding the fundamental values of learners that motivate them to engage in DGBL, offering insight into game design attributes and consequences related to higher-order personal values. The present study shows that the three most important game design elements are interactive content, simulation of the real-world and customization.

This study extends the application of the MEC approach in a new context and validates the laddering technique, revealing the hierarchy of values that students realize through DGBL. It also provides insight into the pathways linking attributes, consequences and values and offers a solid HVM framework for future research on the impact of game design elements on learning outcomes.

This paper aims to investigate how institutional entrepreneurs in a mature field acquire different forms of legitimacy through various narrative strategies, as revealed by a historical analysis of the Late Qing Dynasty of China. Specifically, the study seeks to illuminate the narrative techniques employed by these entrepreneurs to build multi-level legitimacies for their new systems during the national crises of the late 19th century.

This study employs a qualitative approach based on three historical case studies of Westernization, namely advocates, reformists and revolutionaries during the Late Qing Dynasty of China. It delves into the institutional entrepreneurial activities of these groups, investigating how they navigated and influenced their sociopolitical context through narrative strategies.

The findings reveal that institutional entrepreneurs utilize various narrative techniques to build legitimacy. These include (1) modifying and disseminating narratives at the proper time, (2) ascribing their proposed system to cultural tradition by reinterpreting classical works and (3) offering understandable and concrete promises to stakeholders. The study also identifies an evolving pattern of narratives underpinned by mutual learning and continuous iteration among different factions of institutional entrepreneurs.

This paper adds new insights to the literature on institutional entrepreneurs and, more broadly, to institutional research literature by advancing our understanding of the discursive dynamics underlying institutional changes. It unveils the complex interplay of narrative techniques and legitimacy building in the context of societal and institutional upheaval, providing a nuanced understanding of the role of narratives in institutional entrepreneurship.

Digital platform work monitored by algorithms is increasingly supplementing or substituting standard employment. Though gig workers are faced with the vulnerable, fragile and precarious digital platform work environment, the reason why gig workers remain highly willing to show good task performance has been so far unexamined. Building upon the reciprocity of the social exchange theory, this study aims to explore the antecedents and boundary condition of facilitating gig workers’ task performance.

First, to minimize common method variance, decline spurious mood effects and ensure data robustness, we conducted a two-wave time-lagged survey and collected 269 survey responses from gig workers on different gig platforms in China (e.g. Meituan, Eleme, Didi, Credamo, Zaihang) at two time nodes. Second, abiding by two stage procedures of the PLS-SEM (partial least square structural equation model) approach, we analyzed a moderated mediation model in the digital platform work context.

Results present that both platform work remuneration and flexibility help gig platforms develop an affective trust relationship with gig workers, thus encouraging them to repay the platform by performing platform tasks well. Algorithmic monitoring shows a “double-edged sword” moderating role since it weakens the indirectly positive relationship between platform work remuneration and task performance via affective trust but enhances the indirectly positive relationship between platform work flexibility and task performance via affective trust.

Understanding the importance of remuneration and flexibility in developing affective trust can help platforms design effective human resource management (HRM) strategies that enhance worker motivation of maintaining high engagement and performance under precarious working conditions. Additionally, optimizing the “double-edged sword” moderating role of algorithmic monitoring makes it more humanized, enhancing the efficiency with these HRM strategies and making both workers and platforms beneficial.

These findings offer an affective trust-based explanation for the mechanism of maintaining high work performance motivation in the nonstandard and precarious employment from the social exchange perspective, while understanding the (de)humanized aspect of algorithmic monitoring by revealing its “double-edged sword” moderating role.

The core notion of this study is to examine the change in tariffs impacts of Pakistan Sri Lanka Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) on the micro-level financial factors like profits, debt ratios and dividend payments.

The investigation has been conducted by using regression analysis. The data of 157 listed non-financial local and international firms are collected from Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSE).

The results depicted that because of modification in tariffs, various firms are facing trade contest experience, a decline in profitability, surge in debt ratios as well as reduction in dividend payments. However, several firms improve their productivity by importing contemporary technology and other firms, which surge their exports leading to enhanced profitability, reduced debt ratios and surge in dividend disbursement.

To the best of my knowledge, this study is unique in a sense that it identifies the potential exports sectors of Pakistan and helps the decision-makers to develop the trade agreements with other South Asian economies. Moreover, the financial managers are able to create a financial policy for the multinational company to compete in South Asia.

The purpose of this paper is to answer a well-known but always-current question: what is the focus of entrepreneurship research? Usually, scholars address their attention toward the boundaries of entrepreneurship, and question the possible overlaps with innovation, on the one hand, and management, on the other. Despite their relevance, achieved results are still uncertain and opaque. To overcome these limits, the present paper adopts a different approach and, instead of delimiting the boundaries, looks for the heart of entrepreneurship research – H.E.R.

This paper reviews entrepreneurship literature not as a whole, but according to four main strands of research, respectively dealing with the telos (the Greek word standing for the aims), psychological traits, the context and the network. The results are read and interpreted to intertwine them and look for H.E.R.

This paper achieves two main results. First, it is clarified that H.E.R. consists of the adoption of dynamic capabilities by entrepreneurs and their networks in an attempt to foresee the future; the effort to work on entrepreneurial opportunities to make them mature for stakeholders and the market, thus reducing the likeability bias; and the reference to a context characterized by unknown unknowns. Second, by looking for H.E.R., it is possible to clearly distinguish entrepreneurship from other fields of research.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper is among the first that look for H.E.R., the heart – and not the boundaries – of entrepreneurship research. Originality consists of adopting an unusual perspective to advance entrepreneurship studies and contribute to the international debate about their focus.