British Journal of Management最新文献

This research analyses managers’ perceptions of the multiple types of artificial intelligence (AI) required at each stage of the business-to-business (B2B) service recovery journey for successful human–AI collaboration in this context. Study 1 is an exploratory study that identifies managers’ perceptions of the main stages of a B2B service recovery journey based on human–AI collaboration and the corresponding roles of the human–AI collaboration at each stage. Study 2 provides an empirical examination of the proposed theoretical framework to identify the specific types of intelligence required by AI to enhance performance in each stage of B2B service recovery, based on managers’ perceptions. Our findings show that the prediction stage benefits from collaborations involving processing-speed and visual-spatial AI. The detection stage requires logic-mathematical, social and processing-speed AI. The recovery stage requires logic-mathematical, social, verbal-linguistic and processing-speed AI. The post-recovery stage calls for logic-mathematical, social, verbal-linguistic and processing-speed AI.

Industry convergence (IC), the blurring of boundaries between previously separate industries, is a pervasive phenomenon. The emergence of new products, resources and competitors as a result of IC poses a threat to firm survival. Importantly, IC differs from other contexts of technological change that bear their origin in an emerging technology that may substitute or make obsolete an existing technology. Yet, little is known about how firms may survive IC. We theorize that the degrees to which firms explore or exploit using their growth modes (i.e. internal development, alliances and acquisitions) by emphasizing an ambidextrous posture may affect their likelihood of survival. We hypothesize that a high degree of exploration in internal development and alliances and a high degree of exploitation in acquisitions positively affect the likelihood of firm survival. Our hypotheses received strong support in a sample of 231 firms from a period of IC between the telecommunication equipment and data networking industries between 1989 and 2003. Our study opens a new research frontier on IC by proposing a novel theoretical approach based on examining the ambidexterity within and across growth modes to better understand firm outcomes during IC. It also contributes to research on growth modes.

In the social media era, Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) are increasingly using microblogging sites to communicate with the public. Drawing on schema-congruity theory and gender egalitarianism, we investigate how CEO gender and work–life content orientation interact to influence public engagement with CEOs on microblogs. Using China as our research setting, we conduct a content analysis of data collected from 63 high-profile CEOs’ microblogs and four laboratory studies with some 2000 respondents. Our results show that for female CEOs, work-related content leads to greater engagement than life-related content; for male CEOs, the effect is reversed. We find that such outcomes are driven by the incongruity between stereotypical gender roles and content orientation, which enhances perceived novelty and audience interest, thus leading to greater engagement. This effect diminishes when the audience has a very high or very low perception of gender equality in their society; or when the audience supports male privilege values personally. Our research provides new theoretical insights for online leadership communication, public engagement and gender research. It also offers useful managerial guidance for executives to effectively leverage the capabilities of social media in engaging with the public.

This paper proposes and tests a new conceptual framing for franchisee performance that draws on institutional complexity to explore the interaction of corporate, market, and relational logics of performance. Extant research draws on corporate and market logics to explain performance; however, this does not explain individual franchisee performance in complex institutional environments such as Base-of-the-Pyramid (BoP) markets where relational logics may be more important, thereby limiting explanations of how franchisee outlets perform. Drawing on data from a network of 58 franchise outlets in the context of Kenya, we conduct a configurational analysis related to sales outcomes. We leverage fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to map out the conditions under which franchisees exhibit higher sales performance. Results show that three distinct configurations can lead to increased sales performance. Our results paint a nuanced picture of combinations of factors that result in franchisee success with relevance to the BoP context and beyond.

The pre-deal phase of an acquisition is complex, with high stakes and high uncertainty. Consequently, acquisition decision making can be seen as an inherently political process. While political behaviour is a central concept in organizational theory, and despite its inevitability during acquisition decision making owing to the contested nature of the pre-deal phase, there is a shortage of theory and evidence concerning the antecedents, consequences and moderators of political behaviour. To address these theoretical shortcomings, we develop and test a theoretical model of political behaviour focusing on the psychological context of the top management team (TMT). We argue that while political behaviour risks undermining acquisition performance, the degree of board involvement during the pre-deal phase can enable some TMTs to attenuate the damaging effects of political behaviour. Further, we theorize two key antecedents variously fuelling and constraining political behaviour. We contend that while TMT cohesion reduces political behaviour, cognitive diversity increases political behaviour while suppressing the potential for TMT cohesion to prevent political behaviour. We test our theoretical model using a field-based sample of 109 UK acquisitions, combining multiple informants with objective secondary data.

Building on the Effort Recovery Model and Conservation of Resources Theory, this study provides new theoretical and empirical insights into how entrepreneurs increase their resilience by engaging in recovery experiences. Employing a longitudinal repeated survey design applied to 346 entrepreneurs, our findings reveal that control is the only recovery experience that directly influences resilience. We also uncover more complex indirect pathways through positive reappraisal and sleep. Overall, the study demonstrates that each recovery experience has a unique relationship with resilience, allowing us to theorize potential underlying mechanisms for how recovery translates into resilience. We offer practical suggestions for effective interventions addressing the recovery paradox in entrepreneurship during times of change and uncertainty.

Accountability-avoiding foreign direct investment (FDI) is a category of financial motives explaining where firms invest and how, yet our grasp of this phenomenon is incomplete. In contrast with tax-haven FDI, where multinational enterprises (MNEs) invest in a host country to pursue inbound profit shifting, we consider a novel motive – FDI attracted by low host country financial transparency that enables outbound profit shifting (OPS). Cross-border acquisitions (CBAs) are a takeover route to achieving OPS and global tax optimization. Our empirical context is 39,951 CBAs by 315 acquirers from 26 countries in the 1996–2015 period. We hypothesize and empirically show a positive relationship between OPS and CBAs and the probability that equity ownership of CBAs will be high. We find that the relationship between OPS and CBAs is stronger the more attractive or income unequal the host market, or when the multinational's industry is vertically or horizontally integrated. We attribute the lack of support for our hypothesis that MNEs require in-house capability to conduct OPS to tax planning consultancies’ services. These findings highlight the role of low financial transparency as a novel locational determinant of OPS-pursuing FDI and emphasize the distinction between inbound and outbound profit shifting as manifestations of accountability-avoiding FDI.

As businesses and society navigate the potentials of generative artificial intelligence (GAI), the integration of these technologies introduces unique challenges and opportunities for human resources, requiring a re-evaluation of human resource management (HRM) frameworks. The existing frameworks may often fall short of capturing the novel attributes, complexities and impacts of GAI on workforce dynamics and organizational operations. This paper proposes a strategic HRM framework, underpinned by the theory of institutional entrepreneurship for sustainable organizations, for integrating GAI within HRM practices to boost operational efficiency, foster innovation and secure a competitive advantage through responsible practices and workforce development. Central to this framework is the alignment with existing business objectives, seizing opportunities, strategic resource assessment and orchestration, re-institutionalization, realignment and embracing a culture of continuous learning and adaptation. This approach provides a detailed roadmap for organizations to navigate successfully the complexities of a GAI-enhanced business environment. Additionally, this paper significantly contributes to the theoretical discourse by bridging the gap between HRM and GAI adoption, the proposed framework accounting for GAI–human capital symbiosis, setting the stage for future research to empirically test its applicability, explore its implications on HRM practices and understand its broader economic and societal consequences through diverse multi-disciplinary and multi-level research methodologies.

This research examines whether prosumer-generated (vs. firm-generated) content fosters consumer engagement through content relevance and perceived content sponsorship. Four between-subjects experiments (N = 1048) show that prosumer-led (vs. firm-led) conversations, mediated by perceived content sponsorship and content relevance, generate higher engagement. Furthermore, consumer engagement increases significantly when prosumers share hedonic content and disclose information about their identity. A fifth study, a qualitative investigation with brand managers and marketing practitioners, further validates and extends these findings, providing nuanced insights in the form of four prosumer-led engagement strategies for consumer engagement. These strategies have practical implications for companies seeking to leverage prosumers in social media marketing. Together, the current work broadens the research scope of prosumers from content co-creators to drivers of brand engagement, while revealing the factors that increase the effectiveness of prosumer-led social media content. Specifically, this research suggests that content type and authenticity are fundamental criteria for choosing a prosumer to engage social media brand followers. From a managerial viewpoint, the findings indicate that companies should identify, connect, and engage with online prosumers, as they will actively contribute towards improving consumer engagement levels.

This study investigates the influence of corporate governance on firms’ transition into and out of zombiness. We underscore the beneficial role of external members in the corporate governance structure and long-tenured chief executive officers (CEOs) in facilitating access to the external resources that firms need to be successful. Using a sample of European listed firms over the period 2008–2018, we adopt a dynamic view of zombiness by identifying shifts in the state from zombie to non-zombie and vice versa. The results show that board independence is a twofold panacea against zombies, prompting zombie recovery and preventing healthy firms from becoming zombies. By contrast, leadership independence, materialized by separating the CEO and chairperson roles, hampers the recovery of zombies, probably because the cost of lacking unified leadership may exceed the benefits of external dependence minimization. Finally, the results suggest that longer CEO tenure helps healthy firms avoid zombiness. When considering a broader array of stakeholders, government bailout programmes impair zombie recovery, and stronger trade unions help healthy firms escape zombiness. Overall, this study brings a ray of hope to the zombie problem and provides a better appraisal of when supporting zombies might be worthwhile vis-à-vis saving promising firms and bringing them back to life.