Sharon Purchase, Christina Kum and Doina Olaru
The purpose of this study is to investigate sequences of event and the resulting innovation paths and trajectories followed by a university spin-off organization.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate sequences of event and the resulting innovation paths and trajectories followed by a university spin-off organization.
Design/methodology/approach
A single longitudinal case study methodology was applied to analyze innovation events and paths along the trajectory. Narrative methods were used to analyze actor perceptions on innovation processes/events.
Findings
The study categorizes events and paths in two categories, technical and commercialization, and finds that lock-in events matter for convergence of an innovation trajectory. The results indicate that understanding critical events may assist timely interventions in the innovation paths, thus potentially avoiding disruptions of the development of an innovation trajectory. The temporal processes reveal contrasting convergence–divergence patterns in the trajectory, depending on the types of events that occur.
Research limitations/implications
Using a single case data may limit the applicability of the findings, which calls for future research.
Practical implications
Industries could monitor the technical and commercialization paths as a strategy to reduce “vulnerability” of the innovation trajectory and possible negative impacts. Knowledge about the role of the CEO is key for a university spin-off organization.
Originality/value
This study presents a new typology of events and paths, identifies and characterizes lock-in events and shows the relatively fragile dexterity between convergent and divergent paths along an innovation trajectory.
Details
Keywords
Elias Ertz, Laura Becker, Marion Büttgen and Ernest Emeka Izogo
Customer sweethearting is a common illicit behavior of frontline employees in service firms. This paper aims to examine the impact of supportive–disloyal leadership behavior on…
Abstract
Purpose
Customer sweethearting is a common illicit behavior of frontline employees in service firms. This paper aims to examine the impact of supportive–disloyal leadership behavior on customer sweethearting at different levels of leader–member exchange (LMX) quality.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on imitation theory and need-to-belong theory, the paper builds a conceptual model and empirically tests it using data from a survey-based study and a complementary experiment.
Findings
The authors find that employees’ customer sweethearting is affected by their supervisors’ supportive–disloyal behavior (employee sweethearting) through two divergent paths: employees imitate the sweethearting behavior of their supervisors; and employee sweethearting triggers employees’ feelings of belongingness to their organization, which reduces their customer sweethearting behavior.
Practical implications
The findings suggest that service firms can mitigate customer sweethearting by raising awareness that supervisors act as negative role models to subordinates and fostering high-quality LMX relationships, which give employees a sense of belonging to the supervisor and the organization.
Originality/value
By taking supervisors’ supportive–disloyal leadership behavior as an ambivalent driver of customer sweethearting into account, this paper provides further insight into the occurrence of customer sweethearting, particularly its underlying contrasting psychological mechanisms.
Details
Keywords
Sanju Kaladharan, M. Dhanya and G. Rejikumar
Eat Right India (ERI) is a flagship initiative by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India to transform the food system to ensure sustainable, safe and healthy food for…
Abstract
Purpose
Eat Right India (ERI) is a flagship initiative by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India to transform the food system to ensure sustainable, safe and healthy food for all. The study summarizes the strategies, policies and programs using the NOURISHING framework.
Design/methodology/approach
This study identifies and reviews documents related to ERI through a comprehensive search of research literature, policy documents and information available from the institutional websites. The NOURISHING framework, which proposes a methodology to categorize, report and monitor actions to promote healthy eating, is used as a guiding framework.
Findings
Upon analyzing various strategies put forward by the ERI initiative, it was found that there are many inter-sectoral collaborations, successful institutionalizations and behavioral interventions implemented through the initiative. However, there are a few areas that require attention, which include health taxation, children's exposure to unhealthy food marketing, regulations in food advertisements and the incentivization of retailers and consumers for healthy food delivery and consumption. There is a need for a holistic approach with a congruence of health and food systems in the backdrop of a strong and efficient policy and regulatory framework to tackle the threat of Non-communicable diseases (NCD).
Originality/value
This article contributes to a significant discussion about transforming food systems to tackle (NCDs). It summarizes the existing initiatives in India for establishing healthy food environments and also suggests a few strategies for taking it forward. The study calls the policymakers to action for restructuring the food and health system into resilient, contextually relevant and interoperable mechanisms to address the threat of NCDs.