British Journal of Management最新文献

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.

This study examines whether managers employ annual report textual disclosures as a conduit to communicate the probability of future corporate bankruptcy or to intentionally mislead stakeholders owing to impression management incentives. We conduct various examinations around the information content of the tone conveyed by textual disclosures in unstructured UK annual reports and the probability of corporate bankruptcy. We document that firms that communicate a more net positive tone are associated with lower bankruptcy risk. Importantly, this association is found to be stronger for firms whose managers have a lower incentive to mislead investors owing to better board monitoring, stringent stock market regulation, and Big 4 audits. We also offer complementary evidence that firms conveying a more net positive tone exhibit higher future performance and earnings persistence, and lower future performance volatility. These firms are also less likely to exhibit extreme corporate policies and to receive a qualified auditor's opinion. Overall, this study sheds light on whether managers tend to inform or misinform (bury their heads in the sand) about corporate bankruptcy.

As a departure from previous research that takes social ventures as a distinct organizational type, this study investigates the relationship between the pro-market institutions in a country and the degree of hybridity in social ventures, focusing on the dimension of organizational goals. Additionally, it examines the contingent effects of organizational activities, such as the novelty of market offering and the implementation of social performance measurement. Combining Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data in 2009 and 2015 with other cross-national databases, we test our theoretical predictions using 3648 startup social ventures across 42 countries. We find that pro-market institutions have an inverted U-shaped effect on the degree of hybridity in social ventures. Furthermore, the novelty of market offering and social performance measurement attenuate the impact of pro-market institutions on organizational hybridity by shifting the inverted U-shape to relatively negative and linear. Through this cross-level empirical exploration, we develop a richer explanation of organizational hybridity and contribute to the growing literature on social ventures and hybrid organizations.

Using the lenses of internationalization process theory and of effectuation theory, this study investigates how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) implement backshoring initiatives. A qualitative multiple case study is developed involving six SMEs that have relocated from China back to their respective home countries. The analysis illuminates SMEs’ perspectives on the uncertainty perceived when returning to the home country and on how SMEs dynamically manage their domestic commitment and network of relations. The study also sheds light on the different alternative approaches they employ during different phases of the backshoring process and on the outcomes of these initiatives. Notably, the study demonstrates that the conceptual frameworks commonly employed in the literature to explain internationalization can effectively be extended to the domain of backshoring. Successful backshoring for SMEs hinges on their accurate perception of domestic uncertainty and their dynamic utilization of both planning and effectuation implementation strategies. Conversely, the failure of backshoring initiatives can be traced back to SMEs’ misperception of their position within the domestic business network, a cognitive bias that can lead to suboptimal decisions and outcomes.

Resource mobilization is a significant challenge for firms seeking survival and competitive advantage, especially in the context of digital transformation. Data has emerged as a vital resource, but its intangible nature adds complexity to the interactions between resource holders and seekers. This paper aims to address the gaps in understanding data resource mobilization by integrating perspectives on information, dependence, and orientation asymmetry using a social exchange perspective. The study focuses on the regulated animal healthcare industry, where a large established organization acts as the resource holder, universities act as intermediaries, and startups act as resource seekers. Through three years of data collection, the study finds that the context is rich in all three types of asymmetries and characterized by high uncertainty surrounding data as a resource. Actors engage in direct social exchanges to address information asymmetries and in generalized exchanges through intermediaries to deal with dependence and orientation asymmetries. The study contributes to theory by providing insights into the complex dynamics of resource mobilization in the context of digital transformation and proposes practical implications for managing multiple asymmetries and mobilizing data effectively for firm performance in regulated environments.

Management Learning Education (MLE) research and curriculum and pedagogy innovation are urgently needed to lead our world out of crisis. If we are to take responsibility for educating future leaders of business, third- and public-sector organizations with the skills, competences and knowledge to deliver sustainable futures for the planet and people, then pedagogy cannot be a dirty word. In this essay, we consider the state we're in by looking at the juncture of [climate] crisis, with the lack of investment in MLE research and innovation, and management education market misfires – which together, constitute MLE as undervalued, underfunded and underdeveloped. We discuss advances in MLE theory to reveal a missing middle of understanding, namely between meta theories of pedagogic philosophies and values and infra theories of programme, course and project insights, as we work toward developing ‘responsible’ and ‘civic’ management schools. Drawing on our own experience as researchers, educators and pedagogy developers, and as past and present vice-chairs of the Management Knowledge and Education initiative at the British Academy of Management, we call for investments in supporting infrastructures to accelerate MLE and curriculum and pedagogy innovation, implicating learned societies, governments and higher education institutions.

Sports doping is a practice that continues, despite hostile public opinion and counter-efforts to close it down. In this paper we explore the maintenance of doping in the sport of professional road cycling. While studies of controversial practices find that they often benefit from levels of acceptance and even perceived value, we supplement such research by providing one of the few studies of practices that are subject to powerful social controls. In our case, the continual threat from anti-doping organizations means that the maintenance and disruption of doping represents a kind of dialectical pair. We utilize and extend a model of types of institutional work that has advantages as an analytical tool, exploring the support required in this setting. Sustaining work was highly dynamic, relying on distinct groups within cycling teams to marshal organizational skills and cope with disruption, while repairing internal defences and concealing activities.

Venture capital firms (VCs) provide certification and monitoring services to the initial public offering (IPO) companies they finance, as has been well documented in the academic literature. Yet, there are few studies that explore what role – if any – VCs play when an IPO company is subsequently acquired, particularly if that acquisition is legally contested. Using a sample of 721 merger and acquisition (M&A) offers for US VC-backed IPO companies, announced between 1996 and 2018, we find that a takeover bid that occurs in the presence of the lead VC commands a higher target firm valuation and is less likely to be legally contested than a bid for a company from which the lead VC has already exited. In addition, companies in which the lead VC is present enjoy higher stock-price returns in response to M&A announcements. Our results provide new evidence regarding VC certification and monitoring – including its role as a litigation deterrent – long after the IPO.