This study aims to extend understanding of individual innovation by examining how learning strategies and relational dynamics influence the generation and promotion of innovative…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to extend understanding of individual innovation by examining how learning strategies and relational dynamics influence the generation and promotion of innovative ideas. By investigating the extent to which the relationship between learning strategies and innovation varies as a function of a social factor (i.e. leader–member exchange), this research strengthens the conceptual model of individual innovation by integrating cognitive, behavioral and environmental factors.
Design/methodology/approach
Data collected from 667 working adults met satisfactory standards of construct reliability, and confirmatory factor analyses were used to verify sufficient convergent and discriminant construct validity. A first-stage moderated-mediation model was used to measure the direct and indirect effects of the independent variable on the dependent variable, as well as the effect of the moderating variable.
Findings
Leader–member exchange positively moderated the relationship between behavioral learning strategies and idea generation, but not the relationship between cognitive learning strategies and idea generation. Furthermore, idea generation mediated the relationship between the interaction (i.e. behavioral learning strategies × leader–member exchange) and idea promotion. Idea generation also mediated the relationship between cognitive learning strategies and idea promotion.
Originality/value
This research extends the generalizability of social cognitive theory within individual innovation processes and provides a greater understanding of how relational dynamics strengthen employee innovation through behavioral learning strategies. Support for the hypothesized moderated-mediation model empirically validates how organizational leaders can leverage relational dynamics and learning strategies to elicit the conceptualization and championing of innovative ideas in the workplace.
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Patrick J. Murphy, Jack Smothers, Milorad M. Novicevic, John H. Humphreys, Foster B. Roberts and Artem Kornetskyy
This paper examines the case of Nashoba, a Tennessee-based social enterprise founded in 1824 by Scottish immigrant Frances Wright. The Nashoba venture intended to diminish the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines the case of Nashoba, a Tennessee-based social enterprise founded in 1824 by Scottish immigrant Frances Wright. The Nashoba venture intended to diminish the institution of slavery in the USA through entrepreneurial activity over its five years of operation.
Design/methodology/approach
This study methodology entailed mining primary source data from Wright’s letters; communications with her cofounders and contemporaries; and documentations of enterprise operations. The authors examined these data using social enterprise theory with a focus on personal identity and time-laden empirical aspects not captured by traditional methodologies.
Findings
The social enterprise concept of a single, self-sustaining model generating more than one denomination of value in a blended form has a deeper history than the literature acknowledges. As an entrepreneur, Wright made strategic decisions in a context of supply-side and demand-side threats to the venture. The social enterprise engaged injustice by going beyond market and state contexts to generate impact in the realms of institutions and non-excludable public goods.
Research limitations/implications
This study generates two formal implications for the development of new research questions in social enterprise studies. The first implication addresses the relation between social entrepreneurs and their constituencies. The second implication pertains to the effects of macro-level education, awareness and politics on social enterprise performance and impact. The implications herald new insights in social enterprise, such as the limits of moral conviction and the importance of social disruption.
Originality/value
This paper broadens the current understanding of how social enterprises redress unjust and unethical institutions. It also contributes new insights into social enterprise launch and growth based on shared values within communities and coordinated strategic intentions across communities.
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H. Kristl Davison and Jack Smothers
The purpose of this paper is to propose that the Theory X style of management arose from a fundamental attribution error, in which managers assumed that employees’ lack of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose that the Theory X style of management arose from a fundamental attribution error, in which managers assumed that employees’ lack of motivation was a disposition rather than a function of unmotivating work situations.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reviews the nature of work during the industrial revolution from a Job Characteristics Model perspective and compares Theory X and Theory Y perspectives in terms of their emphasis on dispositional or situational influences on behavior.
Findings
It was found that factory work performed during the industrial revolution was likely to be deficient in terms of the five core dimensions of the Job Characteristics Model, and would have been unmotivating. Because of the fundamental attribution error, managers would have assumed that workers were unmotivated by nature, but the situation was likely the cause of their lack of motivation.
Practical implications
As illustrated by our findings, management theory development and interpretation can benefit from understanding the historical context within which the theory was developed. Considering both situational and person (i.e. individual differences or traits) effects is particularly important for theory development.
Originality/value
The unique contribution of this paper is to make the connection between the characteristics of work performed during the industrial revolution and consequent inaccurate managerial attributions of worker motivation (i.e. Theory X).
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Jack Smothers, Mario Hayek, Leigh Ann Bynum, Milorad M. Novicevic, M. Ronald Buckley and Shawn Carraher
The purpose of this paper is to summarize the life and works of Alfred Chandler and highlight the impact of his thoughts on organizational theory, strategy and history.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to summarize the life and works of Alfred Chandler and highlight the impact of his thoughts on organizational theory, strategy and history.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper analyzes Alfred Chandler's life and the lasting contributions his works have provided to many disciplines as well as the work of his revisionists. Furthermore, the paper analyzes his contributions to the understanding of US business history and global business history.
Findings
Chandler's conceptualization of the growth of large business and management practices have shaped business history by transitioning from an American exceptionalist view to a more global comparative perspective.
Practical implications
The paper provides Chandler's insights as well as those of his revisionists regarding USA and comparative global business history.
Originality/value
The paper highlights Chandler's cross‐disciplinary impact and analyzes Chandlerian and revisionist perspectives in both the American exceptionalist as well as the global comparative eras of Chandler's life.
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Jack Smothers, Patrick J. Murphy, Milorad M. Novicevic and John H. Humphreys
The aim of this paper is to propose an action-interaction-process framework to extend research on institutional entrepreneurship. The framework examines an actor's…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to propose an action-interaction-process framework to extend research on institutional entrepreneurship. The framework examines an actor's characteristics, interactions in an institutional context, and the process by which entrepreneurial action is accomplished.
Design/methodology/approach
Via a sociohistorical archival method of narrative analysis, the action-interaction-process framework is applied to an exemplary case of institutional entrepreneurship – the case of James Meredith and the integrationist movement at the University of Mississippi in the 1960 s.
Findings
The findings show that institutional entrepreneurs who maintain little power and influence over the institutional field must form strategic alliances to mobilize constituents and capitalize on the convergence of resources in the social setting.
Practical implications
Through the process of collective action, institutional entrepreneurs can overcome resistance to change and displace inequitable institutional policies, while establishing new practices and norms.
Originality/value
This research provides a stronger approach to examining institutional entrepreneurship and institutional entrepreneurs, the interaction between the institutional entrepreneur and the social context in which the individual operates, and the process by which inequitable institutionalized norms are reformed through collective action. This approach is useful to researchers examining institutional entrepreneurship or any area in which power disparity plays an important role.
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THERE WAS A TIME when any self‐respecting British housewife, while scorning the culinary prowess of the French (“Don't they smother everything with sauce so you can't see what it…
Abstract
THERE WAS A TIME when any self‐respecting British housewife, while scorning the culinary prowess of the French (“Don't they smother everything with sauce so you can't see what it is?) took a modest pride on her ability to turn out good wholesome dishes for her family. She may have been a ‘plain’ cook, but she was eminently good at it.