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The Bureau of Economics in the Federal Trade Commission has a three-part role in the Agency and the strength of its functions changed over time depending on the preferences and ideology of the FTC’s leaders, developments in the field of economics, and the tenor of the times. The over-riding current role is to provide well considered, unbiased economic advice regarding antitrust and consumer protection law enforcement cases to the legal staff and the Commission. The second role, which long ago was primary, is to provide reports on investigations of various industries to the public and public officials. This role was more recently called research or “policy R&D”. A third role is to advocate for competition and markets both domestically and internationally. As a practical matter, the provision of economic advice to the FTC and to the legal staff has required that the economists wear “two hats,” helping the legal staff investigate cases and provide evidence to support law enforcement cases while also providing advice to the legal bureaus and to the Commission on which cases to pursue (thus providing “a second set of eyes” to evaluate cases). There is sometimes a tension in those functions because building a case is not the same as evaluating a case. Economists and the Bureau of Economics have provided such services to the FTC for over 100 years proving that a sub-organization can survive while playing roles that sometimes conflict. Such a life is not, however, always easy or fun.

The goal of this paper is to identify core IT value drivers in firms and to model them as an IT production function to help disclose and measure the IT value creation process and to guide managers in seeking adequate ways of employing the IT resource.

Based on a critical review of the literature on the resource‐based view, an IT value framework based on the constructs IT capability, resource, and routine is developed and then formalized as an IT production function.

Organizational routines are decisive for turning firm resources into an IT capability and in turn into better business process performance. Shows how the IT value creation process in general and routines in particular can be measured and formalized.

As the interaction between IT and business units is crucial for IT value generation, organizational routines provide for important knowledge flows that turn firm resources into value generating capabilities. Proposes a concrete method to measure and evaluate these routines and thereby contribute to making the IT resource controllable.

The main contribution is the identification and analytical formalization of the role of routines for IT value creation. Shows how insights from the resource‐based view, microeconomic theory (Cobb‐Douglas/CES production function), and Granovetter's strength of ties argument can be used to describe, measure, and guide IT value creation and to develop an IT production function.

This first chapter explores the basic foundation of corporate ethics: the human person in all its dignity and mystery, its corporeality and emotionality, and its cognitive and volitive capacities of moral development. Four fundamental characteristics of the human person, namely individuality, sociality, immanence, and transcendence, will be examined for their potential to understand, live, experience, and witness corporate ethics and morals. We explore the profound meaning and mystery of human personhood invoking several philosophies of the good and human dignity as exposed by Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas in the West, by the doctrine of Dharma in the East as expounded by Gautama Buddha, Mahabharata, and Bhagavad Gita, and by Prophets Confucius and Tao, in the East. Several contemporary cases of great human personhood are analyzed: for example, Peace Nobel Laureate Nelson Mandela from South Africa (1993) and Peace Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo from China (2017) – cases of human abuse that turned into triumphs of human dignity.

The entrepreneurial process often cannot be explained by a single entrepreneurial theory. Instead, it is more likely the result of the interaction between various entrepreneurial behavior patterns and different environmental conditions. However, existing research has frequently overlooked the complexity inherent in the entrepreneurial phenomenon. Building on a configurational perspective, this study aims to examine how new ventures can use different behavioral configurations to achieve high performance amid various uncertain environments.

Based on the survey data from 143 new start-ups in China’s software industry, this study uses fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA).

This study jointly considers multiple entrepreneurial behaviors − causation, effectuation and entrepreneurial bricolage and different types of environmental uncertainty − state uncertainty, effect uncertainty and response uncertainty. The findings reveal three behavioral configurations for high/nonhigh new venture performance.

This study expands previous insights into the relationship between entrepreneurial behaviors and new venture performance from the perspective of configurational theory. Moreover, it offers new insights into the types of uncertainty, further refining our understanding of the uncertainties inherent in entrepreneurial activities.

Professionals often dislike dirty work, yet they accommodate or even embrace it in everyday practice. This chapter problematizes Andrew Abbott’s professional purity thesis by examining five major forms of impurities in professional work, namely impurity in expertise, impurity in jurisdictions, impurity in clients, impurity in organizations, and impurity in politics. These impurities complicate the relationship between purity and status as some impurities may enhance professional status while others may jeopardize it, especially when the social origins of professionals are rapidly diversifying and professional work is increasingly intertwined with the logics of market and bureaucracy. Taking impurities seriously can help the sociology of professions move beyond the idealistic image of an independent, disinterested professional detached from human emotions, turf battles, client influence, and organizational or political forces and towards a more pragmatic understanding of professional work, expertise, ethics and the nature of professionalism.

This paper is an analysis of knowledge creation following implementation of the world's leading quality assurance standard, ISO 9000. We combine the perspectives of Nonaka on knowledge creation (Nonaka, 1994; Nonaka & Takeuchi 1995; and Krogh, Nonaka, & Nishiguchi, 2000) with those of authors who have dealt with the dynamics of rules and routines (March, Schulz, & Zhou, 2000; Nelson & Winter, 1982; Cohen & Bacdayan, 1994). On the basis of our analysis of ISO 9000 implementation we develop observations about rules and learning and about rule integration, absorption, and renewal. Our paper fits into the growing literature on the role of learning and knowledge transfer in quality improvement and the evolution of dynamic capabilities in the firm using routines and learning mechanisms such as knowledge codification.

Persistent change has placed considerable pressure on organizations to keep up or fade into obscurity. Firms that remain viable, or even thrive, are staffed with decision-makers who capably steer organizations toward opportunities and away from threats. Accordingly, leadership development has never been more critical. In this chapter, the authors propose that leader development is an inherently dyadic process initiated to communicate formal and informal expectations. The authors focus on the informal component, in the form of organizational politics, as an element of leadership that is critical to employee and company success. The authors advocate that superiors represent the most salient information source for leader development, especially as it relates to political dynamics embedded in work systems. The authors discuss research associated with our conceptualization of dyadic political leader development (DPLD). Specifically, the authors develop DPLD by exploring its conceptual underpinnings as they relate to sensemaking, identity, and social learning theories. Once established, the authors provide a refined discussion of the construct, illustrating its scholarly mechanisms that better explain leader development processes and outcomes. The authors then expand research in the areas of political skill, political will, political knowledge, and political phronesis by embedding our conceptualization of DPLD into a political leadership model. The authors conclude by discussing methodological issues and avenues of future research stemming from the development of DPLD.

Despite its central importance in nearly all societies, religion has been largely neglected in the study of organizations and management. In this introduction to the volume on religion and organization theory, we argue that such neglect limits unnecessarily the relevance and scope of organization and management theory (OMT) and that there is therefore great value in connecting organizational research with a deeper appreciation and concern for religion. We begin by speculating about some of the reasons why organization and management theorists are hesitant to study religion, and go on to discuss some nascent points of contact between religion and OMT. We conclude with a discussion of the articles in this volume, which represent an attempt to remedy this unfortunate blind spot within OMT scholarship.

The purpose of this paper is to show how firms can enhance their service quality to increase customer satisfaction and thus financial performance? In answer to this question, four factors (i.e. employees, perceived service quality, customers, and financial performance) are critical to the success of service firms. The purpose of this research is to provide a research framework that examines relationships among employees, perceived service quality, customers, and financial performance.

This research develops valid and reliable instruments to measure employee training, a shared understanding, perceived service quality, customer satisfaction, and financial performance. Structural equation modelling is employed to test hypotheses following the research framework.

Drawing on a sample of 129 hotels, the results of this research show that employee training has an influence on perceived service quality. A shared understanding among employees plays a critical role in enhancing perceived service quality. In addition, customer satisfaction mediates between perceived service quality and financial performance.

This research illustrates that management may keep the consistency and reliability of perceived service quality by increasing the capability of employees through training and a shared understanding. In the literature, the relationship between perceived service quality and financial performance has shown a mixed picture; both positive and negative influences. This research provides empirical evidence that customer satisfaction mediates between perceived service quality and financial performance. This research may help service firms understand how the important elements (i.e. employees, customers, perceived service quality, and financial performance) interact to influence the overall performance.