British Journal of Management最新文献

At the core of each grand challenge is a society that is thought to have a need and organizations with an ambition to address that need. This article explores the necessary negotiations between organizations and society as they address a grand challenge involving an ambitious programme of change. Using Narrative Inquiry, we analysed 78 interviews conducted with organizations and society in rural Sarawak (Borneo) to understand the process of negotiating narratives of public value when intervening in the societal grand challenge of rural electrification. We found that organizations and society amplified and attenuated narratives of public value through a boundary object (electrical energy), where they pushed out and pulled in viewpoints to adapt narratives of the intervention's public value. The paternal nature of the organization's management of the intervention created conflict about what its perceived and real benefits were. The model we develop explains how conflicting narratives of public value are negotiated and adapted using boundary objects. In illustrating this process, we provide a theoretical model that management research can use to assess the boundary objects, narratives and public values that organizations apply when they seek to do good, and to understand the conflict and negotiation with society where they intervene.

The fashion industry makes a sizeable contribution to climate change. Research on grand challenges has now gained momentum in the management literature, given the vast array of grand challenges that are now globally affecting industries, societies and governments, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and global warming. By coupling paradox theory with the literature on circular economy, this paper investigates the end-of-life circular practices implemented by ‘born-circular’ Italian fashion companies. The paper focuses on upcycling and remanufacturing, which have been neglected in the literature and whose widespread implementation has been deemed suitable to tackle climate change. The analysis of several in-depth interviews with companies and industry experts results in the development of a process model. The model provides granular insights into the environmental value created by the implementation of end-of-life circular practices by fashion firms in their quest to tackle climate change. The study both suggests that paradox theory is likely to have broader applicability to reconcile a wide set of managerial and societal issues and also supports the argument that overcoming an intrinsic paradox could lead to a strategic pivoting within an industry that might yield a paradigm shift.

This study sheds light on how socioemotional wealth (SEW) theory functions in family firms. Focusing on the impact of the most highly appraised FIBER dimensions on the performance of such firms, we contextualize SEW by discussing the heterogeneity among family principals via the under-researched role played by specific characteristics of family CEOs. Integrating arguments from SEW and generational theory, we test our theoretical hypotheses using global survey data from a sample of 1833 family firms from 33 countries. The main findings suggest that while family control and influence is not associated with performance, family members’ identification with the firm (FI) improves performance. Moreover, the positive impact of FI on family firm performance weakens in family firms with long-tenured family CEOs. Finally, in family firms led by Millennial CEOs, the positive impact of FI on family firm performance is stronger. Our findings enrich both the theoretical insights into and practical comprehension of SEW priorities in relation to family firm performance, thereby underscoring the diverse performance outcomes associated with various types of family CEOs.

Digitalization can profoundly change resource mobilization, including the search, access and governance of resources. In this introductory paper to the Special Issue on Digitalization and Resource Mobilization, we review existing research to identify different approaches towards digitalization, different conceptualizations of what resources are in this context and different aspects of resource mobilization across studies and theories. Drawing on these insights, we illustrate contemporary research examples and outline the way forward for two research streams focusing on resource mobilization in a digital context – specifically, the crowdfunding and human resources literature. We conclude by proposing four new areas to further advance the field.

Technology transfer in international collaborations is challenging but can bring benefits to both local and foreign-owned firms in emerging economies. In this paper we focus on conditions for potential technology transfer in emerging economies. We develop a configurational theoretical framework and empirically operationalize it using qualitative comparative analysis. Building on differences in absorptive capacity between these two kinds of firms and relying on data from the construction industry in Ghana, we develop a process model of technology transfer in emerging economies. Our model shows that technology transfer in local and foreign firms can be achieved through different combinations of human resource development and knowledge management, as well as international collaborations and networks. The model also explicates mechanisms leading to potential technology transfer. Based on the findings and the process model, the study makes several contributions to the absorptive capacity and technology transfer literature in emerging economies by shedding light on the underlying processes that foster a firm's ability to absorb technology in international collaborations.

To shed light on the interrelationship between risk and logics, we explore how multiple institutional logics shape management educators’ experiences of risk in classroom teaching. Using a two-case research design, we analyse an empirical case study of management educators in a UK business school during the COVID-19 pandemic and a case study of emergency physicians during the Ebola epidemic. Comparing these two focal cases of different types of frontline professional work during global health crises, we develop a model of how perceptions of risks and their mitigation shape, and are shaped by, experiences of compatibility, contestation and rejection among multiple logics. Our study extends the literatures on institutional logics and risk by providing insight into the role of multiple logics in the social construction of risk. We also contribute to the management education literature by focusing attention on the risks of physical harm in classroom teaching and by theorizing when, how and why management educators apprehend these risks as ordinary or extraordinary to their normal professional role. Finally, our study has practical implications for risk mitigation at individual and organizational levels and for creatively and safely adapting teaching and learning practices with students during extreme events.

An ambidextrous approach to selling, in which salespeople are concurrently responsible for both selling to and servicing the customer, has become the norm in today's selling organizations. To date, the literature points to a ‘the more, the better’ mentality when it comes to the servicing part of sales–service ambidexterity. However, little is known about the value of servicing across sales jobs with varying demands for selling effort. To address this gap, the authors first propose a more generalizable sales job typology that is based on the amount of effort salespeople are required to invest in selling, that is, sales provision effort (SPe). Second, in two subsequent studies, they show that the value of servicing depends on the type of sales job performed. Interestingly, servicing is less valued among customers in sales encounters with low levels of SPe, while salespeople in such jobs find high demands for servicing to be a welcoming challenge. For managers, this implies the need to find a balance between challenging their salespeople and ensuring effective direction of sales resources towards improvement of customer satisfaction and loyalty.

How might interpretivist qualitative researchers tackle large data sets consisting of millions or even billions of words? Corpus-assisted discourse studies (CADS) is the approach we explore here. Specifically designed for the analysis of voluminous textual data, it offers a recognized empirical approach for making sense of such data. But it does so within an epistemology that understands language to be central in shaping our understanding of the world around us, so that CADS can assist researchers in revealing the social dynamics of the text – including the ideology and power that is latent in many such corpora. Bringing together the training of applied linguists and a management scholar, we discuss the background to CADS and its differences from text-mining approaches such as topic modelling, which have been more widely used in management studies to date. Focusing on the needs of people who are new to the approach, we then offer a worked example to show CADS’ potential in exploring a management-related corpus. Our paper concludes with a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the approach and its potential for future discursively orientated management research – especially in the context of the rise of ‘big data’.

Knowledge about whether entrepreneurs’ backer-oriented actions help facilitate successful fundraising, and the mechanism behind it, is still limited. This study aims to mitigate this gap by exploring reward-based crowdfunding success through the consumer-based perspective (CBP). Using the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), we investigate how entrepreneurs’ backer-oriented behaviour influences potential backers’ information processing and changes their attitude towards campaigns. By analysing a unique dataset collected from China's largest reward-based crowdfunding platform, our empirical results demonstrate that an entrepreneur's backer-oriented behaviour and strength are positively associated with reward-based crowdfunding success. This paper provides a new angle to investigate reward-based crowdfunding success, emphasizing the importance of CBP during the fundraising stage. In addition to high-quality campaign content, entrepreneurs’ backer-oriented actions, such as answering questions and providing elaborate answers, are crucial in facilitating fundraising. The implications for future theory development, empirical research and crowdfunding practitioners are discussed.

In a world increasingly influenced by digital technologies, incumbent organizations are urged to equip their employees with digital skills to unlock the transformative power of digitalization for their strategy and business model. Yet, extant research lacks guidance on how to mobilize and implement effective initiatives to develop digital skills in incumbents. Therefore, through an in-depth case study of a utility company, this paper explores how an incumbent can mobilize its digital skills to embrace digital transformation. Based on the process perspective of resource mobilization, we shed light on the mechanisms for searching, accessing and transferring digital skills, namely: (i) unearthing dormant digital skills; (ii) awakening digital skill-holders; and (iii) disseminating digital skills. In the investigation of these mechanisms, we uncover the agentic role of digital champions, who become an organizational capability for mobilizing digital skills in incumbents. We also document how digital technologies, as operant resources, can transversally support all stages of the mobilization of digital skills aimed at developing and leveraging digital skills in incumbents. In doing so, we explore the role of digitalization, both as the content of resource mobilization, in terms of digital skills, and as the means through which mobilization is enacted, in terms of digital assets and initiatives. Based on the findings of this study, we contribute to knowledge at the interface between digitalization and resource mobilization in the broader context of digital transformation.