Patricia Wolf, Surabhi Verma, Pierre-Yves Kocher, Maximilian Joseph Bernhart and Jens O. Meissner
The interrelationship between organizational learning (OL) and organizational culture (OC) is often assumed at an abstract theoretical level, but there is yet no systematization…
Abstract
Purpose
The interrelationship between organizational learning (OL) and organizational culture (OC) is often assumed at an abstract theoretical level, but there is yet no systematization of scholarly knowledge allowing to conceptualize and understand its precise nature. In this article, we therefore ask “How can we, based on the insights from the dispersed research studying OC and OL, conceptualize the interrelationship between the two concepts?” Our purpose is to create an overview on the past development path and the current status of research interrelating OL and OC, to use it as basis for the conceptualization of this interrelationship and to identify avenues for future research.
Design/methodology/approach
This article utilized a systematic literature review methodology by combining bibliometric and content analysis using relevant articles identified from the Scopus database. A two-stage literature review research approach was employed: (1) Bibliometric analysis was used to identify 416 relevant contributions and to present a comprehensive contextual picture of the interrelations between OL and OC research by analyzing the 162 most relevant articles. (2) A subsequent qualitative content analysis of the 45 most relevant academic contributions detailed and solidified the insights.
Findings
We identify four weakly linked thematic clusters on the interrelationship of OC and OL. Based on that, our analysis confirms the theorized bidirectional relationship between OC and OL: OC acts as antecedent, driver and result of OL processes, and OL processes are constrained by and alter OC. We moreover develop three propositions that put knowledge at the center of scholarly attention for understanding this interrelationship in more depth and develop avenues for future research.
Practical implications
Our research has important implications for managers as it shows that mastering leadership challenges is central for the success of OL processes and OC change. We moreover specify the leadership challenges that relate to particular types of OL processes. Managers need to take this interrelationship into account when setting out for OL or OC change processes, and carefully reflect on whether or not the decided OL measures fit the given OC, and the other way round.
Originality/value
Our contribution to existing research is threefold: It first lies in analytically mapping out the research field, second in conceptualizing the interrelationship between OC and OL and third in identifying open research questions and topics.
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The purpose of this paper is to follow the general question, how technical rebreather divers ensure their survival during performing of highly demanding dives – and what…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to follow the general question, how technical rebreather divers ensure their survival during performing of highly demanding dives – and what organisations could learn from these practices. As one form of complex adaptive system, technical divers perform different routines before and during the dive. These practices are formally trained and also informally mediated and developed. After investigating theoretical concepts like high reliability organising, Safety-I and -II as well as organisational resilience management, the authors scope on the existing risk and resilience practices in technical rebreather diving. Finally, the insights of the empirical research are used to make the transfer to the field of management studies – and ask relevant questions regarding their applied resilience intelligence.
Design/methodology/approach
The empirical research is analysed by applying Hollnagel’s Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM) which leads to the reconstruction of an extended resilience management model for technical rebreather diving. The model development bases on a field study which comprised 300 hours of observations.
Findings
The findings are depicted in an FRAM model that exactly shows how technical divers perform high reliability operations and thus manages and increase the resilience of their socio-technical system.
Research limitations/implications
Research results show the depicted model and the potential learnings for organisations and organisational resilience. However, the research remains inductive and is qualitative. Deductive and quantitative research would enrich and complete the picture.
Practical implications
The research is informative and offers an interdisciplinary but comprehensive bridge between the specific high reliability organisations/resilience practice of technical divers and the potential learnings for organisations. Companies can take the identified categories and mechanisms to match them to their own resilience activities.
Social implications
Increasing organisational resilience means to increase societal resilience and thus sustainability. The research aims to support this interdisciplinary learning process.
Originality/value
The originality lies in the research object itself (technical diving practices), that never has been researched with an FRAM before. It is an interesting, comprehensive and interdisciplinary show case that is used to derive practical considerations for companies to strengthen their organisational resilience.
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Katarina Labajova, Julia Höhler, Carl-Johan Lagerkvist, Jörg Müller and Jens Rommel
People’s tendency to overestimate their ability to control random events, known as illusion of control, can affect financial decisions under uncertainty. This study developed an…
Abstract
Purpose
People’s tendency to overestimate their ability to control random events, known as illusion of control, can affect financial decisions under uncertainty. This study developed an artifactual field experiment on illusion of control for a farm machinery investment.
Design/methodology/approach
In an experiment with two treatments, the individual farmer was either given or not given a sense of control over a random outcome. After each decision, the authors elicited perceived control, and a questionnaire collected additional indirect measures of illusion of control from 78 German farmers and 10 farm advisors.
Findings
The results did not support preregistered hypotheses of the presence of illusion of control. This null result was robust over multiple outcomes and model specifications. The findings demonstrate that cognitive biases may be small and difficult to replicate.
Research limitations/implications
The sample is not representative for the German farming population. The authors discuss why the estimated treatment effect may represent a lower bound of the true effect.
Originality/value
Illusion of control is well-studied in laboratory settings, but little is known about the extent to which farmers’ behavior is influenced by illusion of control.
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This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.
Design/methodology/approach
This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.
Findings
Innovation and creativity are prerequisites to successful development of both new processes and new products. Therefore, these attributes are essential for companies wishing to remain competitive. But where do these necessary attributes come from? Is it through good management? Is it by hiring the most creative individuals? Does it require an institutional culture that fosters creativity? These are all important questions that need to be addressed by firms wishing to increase creativity and competitiveness. Small and medium‐sized enterprises (SME) may be particularly keen to discover how they can compete with larger companies by becoming more innovative and creative than their larger competitors.
Practical implications
The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.
Originality/value
The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to digest format.
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Antonio Prencipe, Danilo Boffa, Armando Papa, Christian Corsi and Jens Mueller
The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of human capital related to gender and nationality diversity in boards of directors on the innovation of university spin-offs…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of human capital related to gender and nationality diversity in boards of directors on the innovation of university spin-offs (USOs) in their entrepreneurial ecosystem. Following the intellectual capital (IC) framework and the resource dependence theory, upper echelons theory and critical mass theory, it hypothesizes that the relationship between board diversity and USOs’ firm innovation is non-linear.
Design/methodology/approach
To test the research hypotheses empirically, a sample of 827 Italian USOs over the period 2009–2018 was analyzed using zero-inflated Poisson regression modeling. A robustness test was also performed.
Findings
Gender obstacles remain in USOs’ entrepreneurial ecosystem, with little involvement of women in boards, and the benefits of human capital for firm innovation emerge with increased female representation. Nevertheless, a few foreign-born directors embody valued IC in terms of human capital from an internationally linked entrepreneurial ecosystem, which decreases with more foreign-born directors due to communication costs and coordination problems.
Research limitations/implications
The emerging non-linear relationships imply that gender- and nationality-diverse boards in USOs constitute critical human capital factors boosting the devolvement of entrepreneurial processes, in terms of firm innovation, in university entrepreneurial ecosystems.
Originality/value
This study contributes significantly to the move from traditional corporate governance analysis through an IC framework, fostering an understanding of the role of human capital and its diversity determinants in spurring firm innovation among USOs considering the university entrepreneurial ecosystem.
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The rise of East Asia to most dynamic center of processes of capital accumulation on a world scale is a phenomenon of the 1970s and 1980s. As a first approximation, the extent of…
Abstract
The rise of East Asia to most dynamic center of processes of capital accumulation on a world scale is a phenomenon of the 1970s and 1980s. As a first approximation, the extent of this rise can be gauged from the trends depicted in figure 1. The figure shows the most conspicuous instances of “catching‐up” with the level of per capita income of the “organic core” of the capitalist world‐economy since the Second World War. As defined elsewhere, the organic core consists of all the countries that over the last half‐century or so have consistently occupied the top positions of the ranking of GNPs per capita and, in virtue of that position, have set (individually and collectively) the standards of wealth which all their governments have sought to maintain and all other governments have sought to attain. Broadly speaking, three regions have constituted the organic core since the Second World War: North America, Western Europe and Australasia (Arrighi, 1991: 41–2; Arrighi, 1990).
Carolin Baier, Markus Beckmann and Jens Heidingsfelder
The paper investigates how the alignment of two corporate functions, sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) and trade compliance (TC) can help companies to take corporate…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper investigates how the alignment of two corporate functions, sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) and trade compliance (TC) can help companies to take corporate value chain responsibility (VCR). In particular, the authors investigate how evolutionary system theory can explain the coevolution of two distinct VCR functions (SSCM and TC) and the potential and challenges for their future alignment.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors introduce evolutionary system theory as a powerful explanatory perspective to the field of VCR, SSCM and TC. By applying evolutionary system theory to the VCR debate, the authors analyze the potential for aligning both functions. They further analyze the inherent challenges of such an alignment by discussing the concept of organizational path dependencies.
Findings
The paper spells out a research agenda and formulates testable propositions for further investigating the interplay of environment and system as well as the structural options for a functional alignment of SSCM and TC.
Originality/value
The corporate function of TC has been widely overlooked by supply chain and sustainability scholars. This paper adds the function of TC to the wider discussion on SSCM and corporate VCR. Furthermore, the paper develops a research agenda for a pioneer topic and triggers discussion in academia and corporate practice.
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Jens Ola Eklinder-Frick and Lars-Johan Åge
Historically, a transactional perspective has dominated the business negotiation literature. This perspective includes the notions that business negotiations are a linear process…
Abstract
Purpose
Historically, a transactional perspective has dominated the business negotiation literature. This perspective includes the notions that business negotiations are a linear process that follows episodic or stage models, business negotiations are geared toward an outcome in the form of a one-time transaction, business negotiations focus on a single negotiator or negotiation in a dyad and the research has historically viewed negotiation as a “zero-sum” game. Inspired by a long tradition of empirical studies of business relationships, there is good reason to apply a conceptual analysis to challenge these four assumptions and propose an alternative view on the negotiation process. The purpose of this paper is to contrast how aspects of business negotiations are commonly conceptualized with the industrial marketing and purchasing (IMP) perspective and develop propositions that will contribute to future research by offering guidelines for the development of business negotiation literature.
Design/methodology/approach
To contribute to a discussion on the relation between conceptualization and research results, definitions within the existing literature regarding business negotiation are contrasted with similar definitions of concepts from the IMP perspective.
Findings
Four propositions have been formulated that further the conceptual understanding of business negotiation. Moreover, a need for future methodological deliberations is demonstrated, and suggestions for future research in the field are offered.
Originality/value
Introducing a relational perspective into the conceptually rather underdeveloped stream of research would help to develop the existing critique within the business negotiation literature of its transactional, linear and dyadic focus.
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Lars-Johan Åge and Jens Eklinder-Frick
This paper aims to suggest a dynamic model incorporating the important dimensions that exist in negotiation processes.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to suggest a dynamic model incorporating the important dimensions that exist in negotiation processes.
Design/methodology/approach
To produce a general and conceptual theory of negotiation, the grounded theory methodology is deployed.
Findings
The core process in this model is dubbed “goal-oriented balancing” and describes how he negotiator is continuously balancing opposing, and seemingly contrasting, forces in a situation specific and dynamic manner to reach agreements. Based on these findings, this study also suggests a concept to describe negotiations that is focused on collaboration and that is not an oxymoron as is the concept of “win–win”.
Practical implications
This conceptual model can be used by managers and practitioners to navigate in a negotiation process.
Originality/value
This is the first grounded theory study in negotiation research and attempt to describe negotiation processes as dynamic events in which different dimensions are managed simultaneously.