Showing papers in "Academy of Management Journal in 2016"
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a special research forum on "Grand Challenges" which are formulations of global problems that can be plausibly addressed through coordinated and collaborative effort through management research.
Abstract: “Grand challenges” are formulations of global problems that can be plausibly addressed through coordinated and collaborative effort. In this Special Research Forum, we showcase management research ...
856 citations
TL;DR: An introduction is presented that discusses topics such as the use of inductive methods, novel ideas, and effective processes relates to rigorous research in management scholarship.
Abstract: An introduction is presented that discusses topics such as the use of inductive methods, novel ideas, and effective processes relates to rigorous research in management scholarship.
616 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that family firms invest less in innovation but have an increased conversion rate of innovation input into output and, ultimately, a higher innovation output than non-family firms.
Abstract: Family firms are often portrayed as an important yet conservative form of organization that is reluctant to invest in innovation; however, simultaneously, evidence has shown that family firms are flourishing and in fact constitute many of the world’s most innovative firms. Our study contributes to disentangling this puzzling effect. We argue that family firms—owing to the family’s high level of control over the firm, wealth concentration, and importance of nonfinancial goals—invest less in innovation but have an increased conversion rate of innovation input into output and, ultimately, a higher innovation output than nonfamily firms. Empirical evidence from a meta-analysis based on 108 primary studies from 42 countries supports our hypotheses. We further argue and empirically show that the observed effects are even stronger when the CEO of the family firm is a later-generation family member. However, when the CEO of the family firm is the firm’s founder, innovation input is higher and, contrary to our initial expectations, innovation output is lower than that in other firms. We further show that the family firm–innovation input–output relationships depend on country-level factors; namely, the level of minority shareholder protection and the education level of the workforce in the country.
562 citations
535 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors reflect on ways increased prevalence of technology and digital natives entering the workplace influence how work is approached and suggest both digital natives and digital immigrants could have the skills needed to utilize technology for manipulating data, problem solving, and new product creation.
Abstract: The authors reflect on ways increased prevalence of technology and digital natives entering the workplace influence how work is approached. They talk about competencies of the digital workforce and suggests both digital natives and digital immigrants could have the skills needed to utilize technology for manipulating data, problem solving, and new product creation. They comment on interpersonal relating and identity development in digital workforces, and the utilization of technology at work.
414 citations
TL;DR: Although the general picture in the organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) literature is that OCB has positive consequences for employees and organizations, an emerging stream of work has begun... as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Although the general picture in the organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) literature is that OCB has positive consequences for employees and organizations, an emerging stream of work has begun ...
339 citations
TL;DR: This article examined how leader humility influences team interaction patterns, emergent states, and an emergent state, using data from 607 subjects organized into 161 teams (84 laboratory teams, 77 organizational field teams).
Abstract: Using data from 607 subjects organized into 161 teams (84 laboratory teams, 77 organizational field teams), we examined how leader humility influences team interaction patterns, emergent states, an...
317 citations
TL;DR: For example, the authors in this article propose that the greatest challenge to business in Africa stems from the persistence of institutional voids, understood as the absence of market-supporting institutions, specialized intermediaries, contractenforcing mechanisms, and efficient transportation and communication networks.
Abstract: Africa is beginning to capture the imagination of entrepreneurs, corporate executives, and scholars as an emerging market of new growth opportunities. Over 15 years, the continent has experienced an average growth rate of 5% (World Economic Forum, 2015: v). Out of its 54 countries, 26 have achieved middleincome status, while the proportion of those living in extreme poverty has fallen from 51% in 2005 to 42% in 2014 (African Development Bank, 2014a: 49). Although there are regional differences, the primary drivers of growth have been rapidly emerging consumer markets, regional economic integration, investment in infrastructure, technological leap-frogging, and the opening up of new markets, especially in the service sector. African economies also face commensurate challenges. Across the continent, economies remain largely agrarian, underpinned by resource-driven growth and still dominated by the informal sector. But what is it about the context that makes Africa such fertile territory for management scholarship? Disciplines Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods This journal article is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/mgmt_papers/185 Bringing Africa In: Promising Directions for Management Research Gerard George, Singapore Management University Christopher Corbishley, Imperial College London Jane N. O. Khayesi, University of Essex Martine R. Haas, University of Pennsylvania Laszlo Tihanyi, Texas A&M University Published in Academy of Management Journal, 2016 April, 59 (2), 377-393. http://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2016.4002 Africa is beginning to capture the imagination of entrepreneurs, corporate executives, and scholars as an emerging market of new growth opportunities. Over 15 years, the continent has experienced an average growth rate of 5% (World Economic Forum, 2015: v). Out of its 54 countries, 26 have achieved middleincome status, while the proportion of those living in extreme poverty has fallen from 51% in 2005 to 42% in 2014 (African Development Bank, 2014a: 49). Although there are regional differences, the primary drivers of growth have been rapidly emerging consumer markets, regional economic integration, investment in infrastructure, technological leap-frogging, and the opening up of new markets, especially in the service sector. African economies also face commensurate challenges. Across the continent, economies remain largely agrarian, underpinned by resource-driven growth and still dominated by the informal sector. But what is it about the context that makes Africa such fertile territory for management scholarship? The greatest challenge to business in Africa stems from the persistence of institutional voids, understood as the absence of market-supporting institutions, specialized intermediaries, contractenforcing mechanisms, and efficient transportation and communication networks (Khanna & Palepu, 2013). In order to be successful, the private sector that generates 90% of employment, two-thirds of investment, and 70% of economic output on the continent needs to cope with the challenges presented by undeveloped market institutions and missing infrastructure (African Development Bank, 2013: 34). Nevertheless, several new trends in recent years have been changing the ways business is done in Africa. The rapid expansion of information and communication networks—specifically, mobile technology—has provided tremendous new opportunities. By 2025, half of the people on the continent will have Internet access, connecting them to services in health care, education, finance, retail, and government (McKinsey Global Institute, 2010). Instead of playing catch-up, entrepreneurs in Africa are “hacking” existing infrastructure gaps through technology, connecting Africans to new goods and services (e.g., mobile applications for activities ranging from private security in Ghana and monitoring patients in Zimbabwe to cattle herding in Kenya and connecting dirty laundry to itinerant washerwomen in Uganda). Inventive approaches to delivering new sources of value creation go hand in hand with Africa’s surprising demographics, where over half of the continent’s 1.1 billion population are currently under the age of 25. This unprecedented population growth will lead to a projected increase in the workforce of nearly 450 million between 2010 and 2035. The diversity of the African context is captured in Table 1, which outlines some of the human, economic, and institutional development indicators in a select set of countries. TABLE 1: Human, Economic, and Institutional Development in Ten Countries from Africa’s Five Regions Region and Country Populationa GDP per capitaa GDP per capita growth (%)a Openness (trade)a Human dev. (rank)b Econ. freedom (rank)c Political rightsd Civil libertiesd Corruption (rank)e
306 citations
TL;DR: The role of emergent organizations in responding to suffering and building resilience is an importan... as discussed by the authors, and understanding the role of emerging organizations in response to suffering, resilience, and resilience is a critical issue.
Abstract: Disaster events threaten the lives, economies, and wellbeing of those they impact. Understanding the role of emergent organizations in responding to suffering and building resilience is an importan...
298 citations
TL;DR: This editorial addresses both the collection and handling of big data and the analytical tools provided by data science for management scholars, and provides a primer or a “starter kit” for potential data science applications inmanagement research.
Abstract: The recent advent of remote sensing, mobile technologies, novel transaction systems, and highperformance computing offers opportunities to understand trends, behaviors, and actions in a manner that has not been previously possible. Researchers can thus leverage “big data” that are generated from a plurality of sources including mobile transactions, wearable technologies, social media, ambient networks, andbusiness transactions.An earlierAcademy of Management Journal (AMJ) editorial explored the potential implications for data science inmanagement research and highlighted questions for management scholarship as well as the attendant challenges of data sharing and privacy (George, Haas, & Pentland, 2014). This nascent field is evolving rapidly and at a speed that leaves scholars and practitioners alike attempting to make sense of the emergent opportunities that big datahold.With thepromiseof bigdata comequestions about the analytical value and thus relevance of these data for theory development—including concerns over the context-specific relevance, its reliability and its validity. To address this challenge, data science is emerging as an interdisciplinary field that combines statistics, data mining, machine learning, and analytics to understand and explainhowwecan generate analytical insights and prediction models from structured and unstructured big data. Data science emphasizes the systematic study of the organization, properties, and analysis of data and their role in inference, including our confidence in the inference (Dhar, 2013).Whereas both big data and data science terms are often used interchangeably, “big data” refer to large and varied data that can be collected and managed, whereas “data science” develops models that capture, visualize, andanalyze theunderlyingpatterns in thedata. In this editorial, we address both the collection and handling of big data and the analytical tools provided by data science for management scholars. At the current time, practitioners suggest that data science applications tackle the three core elements of big data: volume, velocity, and variety (McAfee & Brynjolfsson, 2012; Zikopoulos & Eaton, 2011). “Volume” represents the sheer size of the dataset due to the aggregation of a large number of variables and an even larger set of observations for each variable. “Velocity” reflects the speed atwhich these data are collected and analyzed, whether in real time or near real time from sensors, sales transactions, social media posts, and sentiment data for breaking news and social trends. “Variety” in big data comes from the plurality of structured and unstructured data sources such as text, videos, networks, and graphics among others. The combinations of volume, velocity, and variety reveal the complex task of generating knowledge from big data, which often runs into millions of observations, and deriving theoretical contributions from such data. In this editorial, we provide a primer or a “starter kit” for potential data science applications inmanagement research. We do so with a caveat that emerging fields outdate and improve uponmethodologies while often supplanting them with new applications. Nevertheless, this primer can guide management scholars who wish to use data science techniques to reach better answers to existing questions or explore completely new research questions.
251 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a theoretical model that explores how individuals appraise different types of stressful job demands and how these cognitive appraisals impact job performance is developed and tested, and the model also exp...
Abstract: We develop and test a theoretical model that explores how individuals appraise different types of stressful job demands and how these cognitive appraisals impact job performance. The model also exp...
TL;DR: This article developed a model of the functions of positive work relationships, with an explicit focus on the role that these relationships play in employable employability, and developed a series of qualitative and quantitative studies.
Abstract: In a series of qualitative and quantitative studies, we developed a model of the functions of positive work relationships, with an explicit focus on the role that these relationships play in employ...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe how entrepreneurs can signal about their need for external capital to secure investment, and how to signal about the need for investment to external investors. But, they do not discuss how to obtain the initial external capital.
Abstract: After new ventures have exhausted the limited financial resources of founders, family, and friends, they often pursue initial external capital. To secure investment, entrepreneurs can signal about ...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors developed a theory of resource dependence that boards of directors with political capital can benefit focal firms by reducing uncertainty and providing preferential resources, and developed theory reg...
Abstract: Resource dependence theorists argue that boards of directors with political capital can benefit focal firms by reducing uncertainty and providing preferential resources. Here, we develop theory reg...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors consider whether and under what circumstances firms learn from their failed innovation attempts, and they consider whether failure is an integral part of exploratory learning, or not.
Abstract: Do firms learn from their failed innovation attempts? Answering this question is important because failure is an integral part of exploratory learning. In this study, we consider whether and under ...
TL;DR: This paper investigated the link between rivalry and unethical behavior and found that people will be more likely to engage in unethical behavior when competing against their rivals than when competing with non-rival competitors.
Abstract: This research investigates the link between rivalry and unethical behavior. We propose that people will be more likely to engage in unethical behavior when competing against their rivals than when competing against non-rival competitors. Across an archival study and a series of experiments, we found that rivalry was associated with increased unsporting behavior, use of deception, and willingness to employ unethical negotiation tactics. We also explore the psychological underpinnings of rivalry in order to illuminate how it differs from general competition and why it increases unethical behavior. The data reveal a serial mediation pathway whereby rivalry heightens the psychological stakes of competition (by increasing actors’ contingency of self-worth and status concerns), which leads to the adoption of a stronger performance-approach orientation, which then increases unethical behavior. These findings highlight the importance of rivalry as a widespread, powerful, yet largely unstudied phenomenon with sign...
TL;DR: In emerging-market countries, commercial institutions do not always develop sufficiently quickly or effectively to support ambitious entrepreneurs as discussed by the authors, and how might intermediaries remedy these problems? And how might they remedy the problems?
Abstract: In emerging-market countries, commercial institutions do not always develop sufficiently quickly or effectively to support ambitious entrepreneurs. How might intermediaries remedy these problems? W...
TL;DR: The vertically integrated corporation of the 20th century has been replaced by disaggregated global supply chains across many industries as mentioned in this paper, where dis-integration can reduce costs, but also limits the ability of large corporations to control their supply chains.
Abstract: The vertically integrated corporation of the 20th century has been replaced by disaggregated global supply chains across many industries. Dis-integration can reduce costs, but also limits the abili...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present an analysis of how isolated acquirer-and deal-specific factors affect abnormal stock returns, and propose a method to identify the most important factors.
Abstract: Prior research on mergers and acquisitions (M&As) has substantially advanced our understanding of how isolated acquirer- and deal-specific factors affect abnormal stock returns. However, investors ...
TL;DR: The work life of "misfits" as mentioned in this paper, employees whose important values are incongruent with the values of their organization, represents an under-researched area of the person-environment fit literature.
Abstract: The work life of “misfits”—employees whose important values are incongruent with the values of their organization—represents an under-researched area of the person–environment fit literature. The u...
TL;DR: Can firms deceive their stakeholders, by failing to deliver on their commitments to undertake sustainability practices without being detected? Extant theory posits that, due to information asymmetr... as mentioned in this paper. But, as stated by
Abstract: Can firms deceive their stakeholders, by failing to deliver on their commitments to undertake sustainability practices without being detected? Extant theory posits that, due to information asymmetr...
TL;DR: Research about the effects of an organization's general reputation following a negative event remains equivocal: Some studies have found that high reputation is a benefit because of the stock of so-called companies as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Research about the effects of an organization’s general reputation following a negative event remains equivocal: Some studies have found that high reputation is a benefit because of the stock of so...
TL;DR: The authors developed a self-control framework to outline when and why abusive supervision is a reaction to subordinates' poor performance, based on prior work which has shown that abusive supervision The authors.
Abstract: Building on prior work which has shown that abusive supervision is a reaction to subordinates’ poor performance, we develop a self-control framework to outline when and why supervisors abuse poor-p...
TL;DR: Despite multiple high-profile calls to address the widening gap between science and practice, the relevance of research conducted in the management domain has not yet been recognized by the general public as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Despite multiple high-profile calls—across decades and from multiple stakeholders—to address the widening gap between science and practice, the relevance of research conducted in the management dom...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors introduce self-regulatory resource depletion stemming from family-work conflict (FWC) as an alternative theoretical perspective on why supervisors behave in such a way.
Abstract: Drawing on resource drain theory, we introduce self-regulatory resource (ego) depletion stemming from family–work conflict (FWC) as an alternative theoretical perspective on why supervisors behave ...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine how social inequality manifests in small-scale societies, and present research on organizational efforts to tackle multidimensional, complex, and interlinked societal challenges, such as poverty and inequality.
Abstract: This study advances research on organizational efforts to tackle multidimensional, complex, and interlinked societal challenges. We examine how social inequality manifests in small-scale societies,...
TL;DR: Time is inherently present in empirical research on institutional change as mentioned in this paper, and most studies sequence actions and events across stages of development, over time. Yet research has overlooked how temporalit...
Abstract: Time is inherently present in empirical research on institutional change—most studies sequence actions and events across stages of development, over time. Yet research has overlooked how temporalit...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the hybridization of field-level logics, a process that integrates previously incompatible logics within an organizational field, through an inductive study of the wind energy field.
Abstract: This study explores the hybridization of field-level logics, a process that integrates previously incompatible logics within an organizational field. Through an inductive study of the wind energy f...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined how micro-finance loans affect poor borrowers, and found that microfinance is a promising tool for addressing the grand challenge of global poverty, yet they know little about how m...
Abstract: Microfinance is a promising tool for addressing the grand challenge of global poverty. Yet, while many studies have examined how microfinance loans affect poor borrowers, we know little about how m...
TL;DR: Many social problems reflect sets of beliefs and practices, or "institutional logics" that operate at the societal level and rationalize the marginalization of certain categories of people.
Abstract: Many social problems reflect sets of beliefs and practices—or “institutional logics”—that operate at the societal level and rationalize the marginalization of certain categories of people. Studies ...