Asia Pacific Journal of Management最新文献

Occupational stigma is often viewed as challenging. Though researchers have proposed several coping strategies, empirical testing on their effectiveness is still insufficient. Focusing on occupational stigma’s negative social evaluation challenges and based on compassion theory, we propose that self-compassion can prompt individuals to craft their stigmatized job cognitively. Specifically, for individuals with higher self-compassion, the negative influence of occupational stigma on cognitive crafting will be weaker. Further, cognitive crafting is positively related to job engagement. Results from a time-lagged field study with 284 employees and their paired 99 leaders supported our hypotheses. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

This study examines how chief executive officers (CEOs) personally benefit from their firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and the contingencies in this relationship. We apply stakeholder theory and social identity theory to examine the idea that CSR contributes to CEOs’ self-perceived status. When firms obtain higher legitimacy, admiration, and respect from CSR, CEOs—as firms’ agents and representatives—are likely to associate the firms’ social worth with their own social values. Although responsible investments enhance executives’ self-satisfaction with status, we further argue that this relationship is stronger among CEOs with greater discretion. Thus, the main effect should become weaker when an executive lacks discretion, reflected by state ownership and stronger internal monitoring. We assess the aforementioned ideas by analyzing two waves of a nationwide time-lagged survey of a large sample of Chinese private firms; the empirical findings support these arguments and make important contributions to the literature on CSR, business ethics, and upper echelon theory.

Studies on workplace incivility have typically posited that the targets of incivility respond in a “tit-for-tat” manner. Moving beyond this dominant logic, we argue that in some cases, the targets may have a different response to incivility that potentially reduces its spiraling negative consequences. Drawing on attribution theory, we explored the following two aspects of the targets’ responses: psychological motivation and subsequent behavioral response. Based on 555 samples of experience sampling data collected from 61 nurses over 10 workdays at a hospital in China, we found that the nurses’ attribution of incivility to either the uncivil patient or themselves moderated the relationship between the patients’ incivility and the employees’ psychological motivation. When the nurses attributed the reason for a patient’s incivility to the patient, their experience of incivility triggered their revenge motivation. In contrast, when the nurses attributed to themselves the reason for a patient’s incivility, their experience of incivility triggered their forgiveness motivation. Furthermore, we found that the nurses’ revenge motivation positively affected their subsequent incivility toward third parties, whereas their forgiveness motivation positively promoted their subsequent helping behavior toward third parties. This study enriches the application of attribution theory to the spillover effects of incivility toward third parties.

This study aims to synthesize the extant research on the Born Global Firms (BGF) phenomenon, mainly focusing on the Asia Pacific region (APAC). We adopt the systematic literature review methodology to identify the main context-specific drivers (‘success factors’) and outcomes of BGFs’ accelerated internationalization and the challenges they face before, during, and after global expansion. The analysis and evaluation of relevant studies reveal several critical variables that need to be extensively investigated (separately and in tandem) by scholars in order to advance existing theories and, at the same time, explain the out-of-pattern behaviors of BGFs outside the typical ‘Western economy’ context. Among the core variables are international entrepreneurial orientation and culture adoption, organizational learning and networking strategies, global strategic human capital and network resources (as predictors of BGFs’ international performance) and resource constraints, institutional and cultural distances, and liabilities of newness, smallness, foreignness, outsidership, and emergingness (as constraints to BGFs’ success). By identifying the research gaps and proposing a comprehensive framework with promising avenues for future research into the phenomenon of BGFs from the APAC region, this study helps enhance our understanding of the global strategy formation and execution processes of international new ventures from ‘the East’ and stimulate interdisciplinary dialogue between international business, strategy, and entrepreneurship scholars.

This study provides a new behavioral explanation of corporate tax avoidance. Drawing on tax avoidance research and the insights from performance feedback literature, we identify performance above aspiration as an important antecedent of corporate tax avoidance. We also explore the contingency effect of CEO experience since it may influence how the CEO views performance above aspiration and implement tax avoidance decisions. This study considers two main aspects of CEO experience: CEO tenure (firm experience) and CEO financial experience (functional experience). Using a panel sample of Chinese listed companies from 2009 to 2018, we find that as performance rises above aspiration, firms increase tax avoidance at first, but, from a certain point onwards, they reduce such activities. We also find that this inverted U-shaped relationship is weakened by CEO tenure but strengthened by CEO financial experience.

Effective investment is recognized as a powerful determinant of firms’ growth and long-term advantages. However, despite long and extensive research on the upper echelons, the role of top managers’ work experiences in corporate investments remains unclear. With an investigation of the effect of CEO general managerial skills gained through lifetime work experiences on corporate overinvestment, the current study also tests boundary conditions at which this effect may be magnified or attenuated. An empirical analysis of Chinese publicly listed firms reveals that CEO general managerial skills increase corporate overinvestment: Generalist CEOs (versus specialist CEOs) are more likely to promote overinvestment. Moreover, whereas board size and economic policy uncertainty attenuate the relationship between CEO general managerial skills and corporate overinvestment, firm profitability magnifies the relationship. By examining the dark side of this managerial characteristic of CEO, this study provides important implications for literature about corporate investment and upper echelons.

The research on diversity and minorities in the Asia–Pacific region has not kept pace with the rapid politico-socio-economic development of this region. This article provides an indicative summary of extant research and emphasizes the need for more attention to addressing the research gap in the field. It outlines how the special issue contributes to advancing knowledge and suggests several future research avenues that align with the Sustainable Development Goals as a global vision.

This research examined whether, how, and when being envied by coworkers influences employee service outcomes in the service context. Drawing upon self-determination theory (SDT), we tested a moderated-mediation model using a sample of 217 frontline service employees in two Chinese hotels. By focusing on the envied targets, our research demonstrates that being envied by coworkers negatively influences the targets’ service performance and proactive customer service performance (PCSP). Moreover, relatedness need satisfaction mediates the influence of being envied by coworkers on service performance and PCSP. Furthermore, employee interpersonal sensitivity strengthens the direct effect of being envied by coworkers on relatedness need satisfaction, and the indirect effects of being envied by coworkers on service performance and PCSP through relatedness need satisfaction. The present study provides new theoretical insights for future studies and managerial implications for service organizations.

Innovation capabilities are considered a key factor impacting the success and sustainability of born global firms across the world. These capabilities are even more significant for the born global firms from emerging markets. In this study, we propose an overarching conceptual framework called ICONIC to explain the factors that are critical for developing innovation capabilities in born global firms. Using grounded theory with a triangulation approach, we define innovation capabilities as a multi-dimensional construct with three sub-dimensions: business model innovation, improvisation abilities, and personalized problem-solving. Furthermore, we identify three antecedents (firm-related factors, competition-related factors, and customer orientation) leading to innovation capabilities and discuss the tangible and intangible outcomes of innovation capabilities. In this study, we also propose a set of propositions describing the nature of the relationship between different constructs in our framework. Finally, we discuss the theoretical contributions and implications for born global firms and policymakers to realize the strategic goals of internationalization.

This study investigates whether sustainable and responsible investment (SRI) funds can serve as “social responsibility mentors” of focal firms in a Chinese context. On this basis, we posit that firms’ greenwashing motives may lead to a bias between information disclosure and actual performance in corporate social responsibility (CSR). Using data from China’s publicly listed companies, we find a U-shaped relationship between SRI fund ownership and CSR disclosure quality; intrinsic and extrinsic greenwashing motives can weaken this curvilinear relationship. Furthermore, we examine the influence mechanism and prove that SRI funds use social screening strategies as an indirect channel to affect CSR disclosure. This mechanism is also verified when we consider SRI funds’ number and investment portfolio. We conclude that SRI funds have a multifaceted influence on the CSR disclosure of focal firms, enriching the understanding of SRI funds and corporate sustainability in the capital markets of emerging economies.