Marcus Strömgren, Andrea Eriksson, Linda Ahlstrom, David Kristofer Bergman and Lotta Dellve
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relation between leadership and social capital and what qualities of leadership are important for social capital among employees in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relation between leadership and social capital and what qualities of leadership are important for social capital among employees in hospital settings over time.
Design/methodology/approach
A cohort of employees in hospitals answered a questionnaire at three occasions. Five small (approx. 100-bed) or mid-sized (approx. 500-bed) hospitals were included. The response rate was 54 percent at baseline (n=865), 59 percent at one-year follow-up (n=908) and 67 percent at two-year follow-up (n=632).
Findings
Repeated measures over time showed differences between groups in levels of social capital with respect to levels of leadership quality. Relation-oriented leadership had the strongest association with social capital. There was evidence that leadership was associated with social capital over time and that different kinds of leadership qualities were associated with social capital.
Research limitations/implications
This study conducted and analyzed quantitative data, and therefore, there is no knowledge of managers’ or employees’ own perceptions in this study. However, it would be interesting to compare managers’ decreased and increased leadership quality and how such differences affect social capital over time.
Practical implications
The findings feature the possibility for healthcare leaders to build high quality leadership as an important resource for social capital, by using different leadership orientations under different circumstances.
Originality/value
The paper showed that leadership was an important factor for building social capital and that different leadership qualities have different importance with respect to certain circumstances.
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Wen-Ting Lin, Ying-Yu Chen, David Ahlstrom and Linda C. Wang
This paper aims to use the institutional and information-processing perspectives to explore their association with between internationalization and the Penrose effect phenomenon…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to use the institutional and information-processing perspectives to explore their association with between internationalization and the Penrose effect phenomenon for business groups (BGs).
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use ordinary least squares regression models to test arguments about data pertaining to 101 Taiwanese BGs’ foreign direct investments.
Findings
The results indicate that greater levels of depth and scope in the process of internationalization during one period may negatively affect rates of growth in the following period. The results further demonstrate that institutional distance moderates the relationship.
Research limitations/implications
Using the perspective of information-processing demands, the authors provide alternate explanations regarding the relationship between the process of internationalization (depth, scope and rhythm) and the Penrose effect.
Originality/value
Owners and managers should focus on both the depth and the scope of internationalization. BGs are likely to incur high dynamic adjustment costs, which then limit the rate of BGs’ growth. Managers should balance international market uncertainty with current managerial resources when determining how deeply and broadly to expand internationally and where to enter. In addition, as recent major panel studies suggest, management capabilities and practices can improve significantly, which has a positive effect on firm growth and performance. This does require the careful development and acquisition of the managerial resources needed for internationalization.
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Inakshi Kapur and Pallavi Tyagi
The ability to create and sustain competitive advantages depends on cultivating employee’s capabilities. Entrepreneurial orientation (EO) can foster an organisation-wide culture…
Abstract
Purpose
The ability to create and sustain competitive advantages depends on cultivating employee’s capabilities. Entrepreneurial orientation (EO) can foster an organisation-wide culture of exploring new opportunities and creating new learnings. Sustainable competitive advantages should be based on long-term behavioural changes rather than ad hoc adjustments made for short-term gains, enabling employees to become a source of unique and inimitable advantages. This study aims to explore how each external environment impacts the dimensions of EO. The study also introduces environmental jolts as a dimension of the external environment.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors considered a sample of 39 organisations in IT companies from India to study the external environment’s effect on their EO. Using covariance-based structural equation modelling, the authors measured the impact of external environment variables on EO. A total of 250 responses were found suitable for analysis.
Findings
Certain crucial factors were identified through an extensive analysis of the relationships between individual factors of the external environment and EO. Technological opportunities showed a strong positive association with all factors of EO, whereas dynamism of the environment had a positive relationship with innovativeness and proactiveness. Environmental jolts showed a negative impact on innovativeness and risk-taking propensity.
Research limitations/implications
EO has been developed and researched extensively in the Western context as a unidimensional construct. In the present study, the relationship between the external environment factors and each dimension of EO has been analysed individually, thus following a multidimensional approach. Moreover, environment jolts as a factor of the external environment have been introduced, and their effect on the dimension of EO has been studied. Finally, the implications of encouraging entrepreneurial behaviours to develop sustainable competitive advantages have been discussed.
Originality/value
The research explores the multidimensionality of the EO construct and also introduces environmental jolts as a dimension of the external environment.
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David Ahlstrom and Linda C. Wang
France's defeat by Germany in 1940 is one of the most shocking events in the annals of military history. Explanations for France's defeat have traditionally focused on battlefield…
Abstract
Purpose
France's defeat by Germany in 1940 is one of the most shocking events in the annals of military history. Explanations for France's defeat have traditionally focused on battlefield mistakes, an unmotivated population, and even bad luck. Yet, the seeds of France's failure were sown long before her 1940 surrender. The purpose of this paper is to examine the presence of groupthink in the French General Staff during the interwar years with its deleterious effect on France's military preparedness.
Design/methodology/approach
Groupthink is used to understand the reasons behind France's decisive defeat at the start of World War II. Historians of the period and primary and secondary works were consulted and analyzed.
Findings
Multiple examples of the main eight groupthink symptoms were identified from the documentary evidence. Groupthink present in the French General Staff had an adverse impact on the France's preparations. Groupthink led to the downplaying of important information, the failure to question vital assumptions about German capabilities, and the misapplication of new military technology. This led to inflexibility and the inability to respond to innovative German technology and operational doctrine.
Research limitations/implications
Groupthink is useful in explaining complex historical events – events which often have been attributed to poor leadership, corrupt or incapable politicians, or simply luck. The application of social science theory and methods to well‐documented events, whether “historical” or otherwise has the potential to enrich the understanding of these events and the ways in which they may be studied.
Originality/value
This study also contributes to evidence on groupthink and the application of theory in social science and management to the study of well‐documented historical events.
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Brian Low and Wesley J. Johnston
The purpose of this paper is to identify why and how organizational network legitimacy facilitates firms' access to knowledge networks and reciprocal knowledge exchange between…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify why and how organizational network legitimacy facilitates firms' access to knowledge networks and reciprocal knowledge exchange between stakeholders.
Design/methodology/approach
The study involves a managerially oriented inductive interpretative research, with empirical evidence sourced from a single in‐depth case study, complemented by hands‐on experience with the industry.
Findings
Subsidiaries of multinationals operating in China's politically sensitive and protective mobility technology market have stronger proactive and collaborative aspirations towards exploiting emerging technological opportunities in the external environment and developing technological capabilities because they are more inclined to pursue organizational network legitimacy initiatives.
Research limitations/implications
How organizational network legitimacy is produced, where does it become manifest, and at what administrative layers within China's politically sensitive and protective telecommunications are systematic empirical research questions that could be examined in the future.
Practical implications
Internalizing, driven only by market and/or technology legitimacy, falls short of realizing the organizational network legitimacy goal. It must also include cognitive understanding of the net sum of relational, investment and social legitimacies, as these are cognitively binding as well as benefiting with respect to subsidiaries of multinationals in accessing knowledge networks.
Originality/value
The paper underscores the importance of studying organizational network legitimacy and how it impacts on firms' access to knowledge networks, in a politically sensitive and protective Chinese mobility technology market.
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Jamie D. Collins, Dan Li and Purva Kansal
This study focuses on home country institutions as sources of variation in the level of foreign investment into India. Our findings support the idea that institutional voids found…
Abstract
This study focuses on home country institutions as sources of variation in the level of foreign investment into India. Our findings support the idea that institutional voids found in India are less of a deterrent to investments from home countries with high levels of institutional development than from home countries with similar institutional voids. Overall, foreign investments in India are found to be significantly related to the strength of institutions within home countries. The levels of both approved and realized foreign direct investment (FDI) are strongly influenced by economic factors and home country regulative institutions, and weakly influenced by home country cognitive institutions. When considered separately, the cognitive institutions and regulative institutions within a given home country each significantly influence the level of approved/realized FDI into India. However, when considered jointly, only the strength of regulative institutions is predictive of FDI inflows.
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The purpose of this article is to augment evaluation of the effectiveness of broadband videoconferencing among distributed research teams.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to augment evaluation of the effectiveness of broadband videoconferencing among distributed research teams.
Design/methodology/approach
Textual output from informal interaction in videoconferencing and chat room sessions was recorded and analyzed using qualitative and content analysis methods to test for knowledge processes thought to be embedded in informal collaborative interaction. An exit survey used nominal and ordinal data categories to measure participant perceptions of using videoconferencing technologies to enhance knowledge‐based collaboration. Indicators of informal interaction and knowledge processes were drawn from the knowledge management (KM) and videoconferencing literatures.
Findings
Analysis confirms communication and informal interaction dynamics supportive of knowledge creation and transfer. A summary assessment of the research addresses barriers identified in the study and suggests approaches for future KM research in video‐mediated research domain.
Research limitations/implications
Project time and resource constraints imposed research limits in terms of inter‐coder reliability and attention to several human factors and behavioral considerations highlighted in the study. The latter, however, are suggestive of further research opportunities, specifically in terms of user expectations and cultures of use of videoconferencing in the organizational setting.
Practical implications
The research provides a template for communications‐based evaluation of advanced applications using broadband technology and collaborative workwares.
Originality/value
The paper is a first‐of‐its‐kind evaluation of true broadband videoconferencing that advanced a knowledge management perspective based on human communication dynamics over a normative information technology framework.
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Vassilios P. Valsamakis and Linda G. Sprague
This work is focused on small‐ to medium‐sized manufacturers (SMMs) within supply chains and, in particular, on how such SMMs develop effective working relationships with…
Abstract
This work is focused on small‐ to medium‐sized manufacturers (SMMs) within supply chains and, in particular, on how such SMMs develop effective working relationships with customers. Development of a model based on the literature was followed by a mail survey, augmented by semi‐structured interviews with SMMs. Factor analysis and multiple regression analysis were used to provide an understanding of the underlying processes.
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Ownership issues are an important feature of corporate governance when firms focus on global expansion in multiple and diverse regions. Drawing on resource dependence theory…
Abstract
Purpose
Ownership issues are an important feature of corporate governance when firms focus on global expansion in multiple and diverse regions. Drawing on resource dependence theory (RDT), the purpose of this paper is to address the phenomenon regarding the extent to which international market distance affects equity stakes in group-affiliated firms held by business group headquarters.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses longitudinal data on foreign direct investments by 106 business groups (BGs), including 561 group-affiliated firms, from Taiwan over a five-year period from 2006 to 2010.
Findings
The results show that the equity stakes of the BG headquarters in the group-affiliated firms in foreign markets were positively associated with the geographic distance between the country of the BG headquarters and the host country of the foreign group-affiliated firms, the cultural distance between the country of the BG headquarters and the host country of the foreign group-affiliated firms and institutional distance between the country of the BG headquarters and the host country of the foreign group-affiliated firms.
Research limitations/implications
Most studies of corporate governance and international business are based on a transaction cost economics approach, a resource-based perspective and agency and institutional theories. In contrast, this study, by using RDT, provides an alternative explanation regarding the factors that affect the equity stakes of parent firms in group-affiliated firms.
Practical implications
This study presents two basic pieces of advice for consideration. First, at the managerial level, group-affiliated firms should develop their own resources and capabilities in order to become more autonomous in pursuing advantageous international activities that the parent firms may not foresee. Second, and again at the managerial level, business group headquarters should adopt a strategy to balance the dependency relationship between group-affiliated firms and business group headquarters.
Originality/value
This study provides the most finely grained analysis, to date, regarding how international market distance affects business group headquarters from newly industrialized economies in terms of diverse equity stakes in foreign affiliates, the unique attributes of BGs and international market distances’ relationship with both the operations and the expansion opportunities of BGs.