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The aim of this study is to test for a moderating role of employee participation in volunteering in links between employees' relationships with peers and supervisors, work meaningfulness (WM) and affective commitment (AC).

The study is based on a survey conducted on a sample of 711 employees, both those involved and those non-involved in corporate volunteering (CV).

The results suggest that employee participation in CV strengthens the effects that employees' perceptions of positive relationships with peers and perceived supervisor support (PSS) have on employees' AC. Contrary to expectations, although participation in CV strengthens employees' sense of WM, it does not affect its links with other phenomena analyzed in this study.

CV is a fast-growing practice in corporate social responsibility. The reasons companies implement CV include the benefits they gain from it, such as positive effects on employee attitudes and behaviors. The paper contributes to the understanding of CV effects on employee attitudes and behaviors and builds a better business case for this CSR practice.

This paper aims to examine corporate volunteering as a form of social responsibility carried out by companies in relationships with non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Applying the value creation concept, the success of such relationships is based on value created between the focal company, its employees engaging in the volunteer work and the collaborating NGO actors representing the beneficiaries of the volunteer work. However, how to meaningfully engage employees and strategically manage company–NGO relationships in corporate volunteering has received less scholarly attention. The study hence asks the question: How is mutual value created in corporate volunteering collaborations between business organizations and NGOs?

Two qualitative case studies of company–NGO relationships involved in corporate volunteer programs for social benefit in Poland and Finland are analyzed.

Corporate volunteering offers value creation opportunities for each of the three actors in the relationships, namely, the company, the NGO and the employees who participate in the volunteer work. Particularly, employment and volunteering relationships appear to be catalysts for the creation of mutual value in the organizational relationship between a company and NGO.

The present study contributes to the current understanding of company–NGO relationships by emphasizing the role of individual employee volunteers in creating relationship-level value. The study adds also to existing research on corporate volunteering by identifying the way value is created in company–NGO relationships within corporate volunteering.

Together with increasing ambiguity and frequency of changes, management becomes full of seemingly conflicting choices, i.e. paradoxes, coming up in the process of decision-making. Successful management of paradoxes, i.e. treating them as “both/and” constructs leads to innovative solutions and better overall organizational performance. In response to a significant research gap regarding antecedents of managing paradoxes, the aim of the paper is to investigate how individual characteristics of strategic decision-makers, specifically their age, tenure and educational background, affect the ability to combine contradictions in their strategic choices.

An empirical study was conducted among 201 managers representing furniture companies in Poland. The CATI technique with an interview questionnaire was adopted in order to identify respondents' opinions on the main features, traits and dimensions of the strategy implemented in their companies. Participants' tenure, age and education were measured by single items.

The study suggests that the ability to manage paradoxes increases with age and tenure in a company and at a current position. At the same time economic/business educational background appears to be unsupportive in this regard.

While the issue of managing paradoxes energizes researchers in various disciplines, we still do not know much about antecedents of the process. The study shed light on effects that managers' demographics have on their ability of managing paradoxes. It contributes to the theory on strategic paradoxes as well as theory on the influence of decision-makers' individual characteristics on their decisions.

There is a research gap regarding frameworks identifying the specific activities and resources used by companies to build and enhance social ties between them and business actors. The purpose of this paper is to identify those activities and resources and propose a model of them for referring to successive stages of business relationship-building.

Qualitative research was conducted in the form of 16 semi-structured in-depth individual interviews in four companies operating in Poland, representing the construction, chemical, alcoholic beverages and automotive industries.

Resources and activities used by companies to build and strengthen interpersonal bonds within business relationships may be categorised according to the dimension of relationship-focused (RF) vs deal-focused (DF) approach. In the companies analysed, the RF approach appeared dominant, while some symptoms of changes towards a DF approach were observed.

The proposed model of resources and activities used in companies at successive stages of business relationship-building extends the understanding of how high-quality relationships are built. The study is exploratory in nature and aims to inspire further in-depth analyses, including cross-cultural comparisons.

The paper helps managers in their day-to-day management of B2B relationships. It provides particular guidelines for business people seeking a potential business partner in Poland and other countries with a communist past.

The paper’s originality results from combining the behavioural approach to B2B relationships with the concept of the RF vs DF approach. The latter concept is based on the experience and observations of its author and, as such, has so far received limited attention in the literature.