British Journal of Management最新文献

Drawing upon the conservation of resources theory, we investigate the serial mediation relationship between co-worker incivility, work engagement, turnover intentions and knowledge hiding. We also examine the moderating effects of employee cynicism in the incivility–knowledge–hiding relationship through work engagement. We found that the negative relationship between co-worker incivility and knowledge hiding is complex and mediated by work engagement and turnover intentions. Incivility, as a negative workplace stressor, triggers a negative work-related state of mind (work engagement) and withdrawal cognition (turnover intentions), which in turn lead to knowledge hiding (behaviour). Finally, the mediated relationship between incivility and knowledge hiding through work engagement was moderated by cynicism, such that the association is more robust when cynicism is high.

The complexity of performance evaluation and the insufficiency of objective measures to make informed performance decisions is an ongoing challenge. We suggest that extracting supportive information from social cues during supervisor–subordinate interactions can aid in navigating these complexities. The current study assesses how signals transmitted during supervisor–subordinate interactions play a crucial role in providing additional information for evaluations. We propose the ‘signalling chain’ concept based on signalling theory, which elaborates on the reciprocal exchange of signals between the sender and receiver, ultimately mitigating information asymmetry for both parties. We collected data from 253 matched supervisor–subordinate dyads to study the proposed relationships and analysed the data using structural equation modelling techniques. The findings show that the supervisor's signals of liking and relational fairness from interpersonal affect and interactional justice positively influence the subordinate's organizational commitment. The findings also suggest that subordinates reciprocate their obligation to the supervisor by being committed to the organization that counter-signals involvement and identification to supervisors and aid in performance evaluation. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our study and offer future research directions.

Prioritizing human resource (HR) practices has been found to improve innovation outcomes in organizations. However, most previous studies have concentrated on internal mechanisms, leaving a gap in our understanding of how HR practices facilitate organizations in adapting external knowledge and technology to drive innovation. To bridge this research gap, we study the mediating role of employees’ innovative work behaviour (IWB) and an organization's capacity for learning and transformation (CLT) in the relationship between HR practices that strengthen intellectual capital (IC) and product innovation. The hypotheses were tested using a time-lagged design and survey data from the healthcare industry collected over three waves. The findings indicate that employees' IWB mediates the relationship between IC-enhancing HR practices and the organization's CLT. IC-enhancing HR practices are also associated with product innovation through the serial mediation effects of IWB and CLT. The study also highlights the moderating role of transformational leadership in the indirect relationship between IC-enhancing HR practices and the organization's CLT via IWB. This research demonstrates that HR systems, although internally designed, can capture external transformations. Moreover, it emphasizes the importance of the combined impact of well-designed HR systems and leadership for driving innovation.

This paper studies the pre-Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) announcement drift at the stock level. We hypothesize that investors have a higher propensity to speculate before the monetary policy announcements by the FOMC, due to the resolution of uncertainty and associated reduction in investors' fear. Indeed, we find evidence that there exists a drift of lottery-like stocks in the pre-FOMC window, when investors' fear gauge is lower, together with higher demand for lottery-like stocks and higher realized skewness. Moreover, we show that the demand for lottery-like stocks ahead of FOMC announcements is more prominent among institutional investors than retail investors. Our findings also identify the key role of transient and quasi-index institutional investors in our documented flight-to-lottery effect. Our findings advance the ongoing debates about the role of firms' investor heterogeneity in determining how monetary policy affects corporate managers' decisions. Our paper has important implications for central banks and managers by showing that investors' preference for lottery-like stocks increases before FOMC announcements.

Based on the notion that organizations are complex systems, this study combines the configurational perspective with the performance feedback theory to explore constellations of multi-level causal conditions that explain variations in firm risk-taking behaviour. Using the fuzzy set methodology as our analytic approach, we derive multiple configurations based on a dataset of 1753 observations belonging to 402 firms from the US pharmaceutical industry. Our findings espouse equifinality and the differential importance of factors denoting a firm's ability, motivation and opportunity space in determining low and high levels of risk-taking. Across historical and social aspirations, our results disclose significant differences and similarities in constellations of causal conditions leading to high and low levels of risk-taking, respectively. Our findings contribute to the behavioural theory of the firm and have important implications for managerial practice.

Recent research into the gender aspects of small business financing has shown that in crisis periods, banks actively reward female entrepreneurs with privileged access to loans because they put forward more realistic and cautious funding proposals compared to hubristic male entrepreneurs. We build on this research by considering in greater detail how broader gender differences in entrepreneurial confidence play out in the context of bank lending. Further, we also question whether banks treat overconfident female entrepreneurs differently from their overconfident male counterparts. Our findings show that on average there is no discrimination, but if a female entrepreneur dares to exhibit overconfidence then this changes.

This study examines the effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on Chinese firms’ probability of survival using 2426 firm-year observations over the period 2011–2019. We find evidence that CSR has a positive effect on firms’ survival prospects. This effect is stronger for state-owned enterprises (SOEs). The result is robust to an instrumental variable approach and several quasi-natural experiments. We further decompose CSR into its components, and we identify a more prominent positive effect of the CSR environmental component for SOEs. SOEs generally appear to have an easier path to survival when engaged in CSR activities. The results remain valid when accounting for a set of robustness checks related to alternative CSR measures, financial constraints, provincial diversity, exogenous shocks, and placebo tests. Overall, this study provides evidence that CSR activities improve firms’ probability of survival in a government intervention setting.

This study investigates the effect of historical military conflict (between the home countries of venture capital (VC) firms and portfolio companies) on the performance of cross-border VC investments. Using exhaustive data on global cross-border investments during 1986–2017, we find that adverse memories imprinted by historical military conflict have a negative effect on cross-border performance as measured by internal rate of return and public market equivalent. We show that nation-dyadic (i.e. political affinity) and ownership control strategy (i.e. board seat and syndication)-related contingencies moderate the relationship between historical military conflict and cross-border performance. Collectively, our findings shed light on the presence of intergroup interaction challenges and mistrust when investing in cross-border VC deals and demonstrate channels to mitigate their adverse effects.

From employees’ varied interpretations of software efficacy to consumers’ diverse beliefs about data privacy, technology frames refer to cognitive interpretations, assumptions and expectations that people use to comprehend the essence of information technology within a particular context. These frames differ across groups with different values, interests, experiences and expertise, having critical implications for researchers, managers and organizations. Despite theoretical enthusiasm to understand technology frames, limited methodological insights exist on how to systematically explore and compare technology frames. This gap impedes researchers from exploring novel questions related to technology frames, their variations and how they can be managed effectively. This paper proposes a cognitive method for comparing and elaborating on technology frames. Building on causal mapping and empirical studies, the method formulates steps to plan, elicit, compare and elaborate on the relationships that underlie framing differences. The method offers detailed recommendations and templates for effectively organizing and communicating diverse manifestations of framing differences and their implications. The paper concludes by highlighting the method's practical implications and encouraging research to advance extant knowledge of technology frames in the rapidly changing digital world.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the lives of billions around the globe. Yet, our understanding of its impact on psychological distress and work productivity remains limited. Using data from two waves of the Understanding Society COVID-19 study, a representative British survey of reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic, comprising 5829 individuals, we find that perceived health risks related to COVID-19 affect the productivity of working individuals negatively via increased psychological distress. Results also show that the extent of homeworking amplifies the negative relationship between psychological distress and productivity. Additionally, we find that the negative relationship between psychological distress and productivity is stronger for self-employed individuals compared to those who are in paid employment. Psychological distress, self-employment status and gender jointly interact in reducing productivity, such that self-employed women experience the strongest decline in productivity. We discuss the implications of our findings in light of supporting individuals to reduce psychological distress and maintain their productivity following the COVID-19 pandemic.