Showing papers in "Administrative Science Quarterly in 2012"
TL;DR: In this paper, a longitudinal analysis of U.S. software organizations between 1990 and 2002 showed that organizations that claim ambiguous labels are less appealing to consumers, an audience of market-takers, but more appealing to venture capitalists who are market-makers.
Abstract: This paper questions findings indicating that when organizations are hard to classify they will suffer in terms of external evaluations. Here, I suggest this depends on the audience evaluating the organization. Audiences that are “market-takers” consume or evaluate goods and use market labels to find and assess organizations; for them, ambiguous labels make organizations unclear and therefore less appealing. “Market-makers” are interested in redefining the market structure, and as a result, this type of audience sees the same ambiguity as flexible and therefore more appealing. I tested these ideas in a longitudinal analysis of U.S. software organizations between 1990 and 2002. As predicted, organizations that claim ambiguous labels are less appealing to consumers, an audience of market-takers, but more appealing to venture capitalists, who are market-makers. Further, when labels are ambiguous, aversion to or preference for ambiguity arises from the label itself. Identifying with multiple ambiguous labels ...
298 citations
TL;DR: Using data from embedded participant-observers and a field experiment at the second largest mobile phone factory in the world, located in China, the authors theorize and test the implications of transparent data.
Abstract: Using data from embedded participant-observers and a field experiment at the second largest mobile phone factory in the world, located in China, I theorize and test the implications of transparent ...
226 citations
TL;DR: In this article, performance pressure acts as a double-edged sword for teams, providing positive effects by enhancing the team's motivation to compete in a game, and they empirically test the proposition that performance pressure can act as a positive or negative influence.
Abstract: In this paper, I develop and empirically test the proposition that performance pressure acts as a double-edged sword for teams, providing positive effects by enhancing the team’s motivation to achi...
172 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined how career processes shape network structure and hypothesize that brokerage results from two distinct mechanisms, i.e., job placement and career progression. But they did not consider the effect of career outcomes on network structure.
Abstract: To extend research on the effects of networks for career outcomes, this paper examines how career processes shape network structure. I hypothesize that brokerage results from two distinct mechanism...
146 citations
TL;DR: The authors examine the determinants and consequences of impression management support in communications between CEOs and journalists, whereby CEOs of other firms provide positive statements about a focal CEO's leadership and strategy and/or external attributions for low performance at the focal CEOs's firm.
Abstract: In this study, we examine the determinants and consequences of impression management (IM) support in communications between CEOs and journalists, whereby CEOs of other firms provide positive statements about a focal CEO’s leadership and strategy and/or external attributions for low performance at the focal CEO’s firm. Drawing from social exchange theory, our theoretical perspective suggests how IM support may result from norms of reciprocity among corporate leaders. We consider the potential for direct and generalized reciprocity in the provision of IM support, including generalized reciprocity in which CEOs who received IM support previously pay the support forward to another third-party CEO, and a second form of generalized reciprocity in which CEOs reciprocate IM support to fellow CEOs whom they believe have given similar support to other CEOs in the past. We also draw from the social psychological literature on persuasion to suggest why IM support for another CEO may have a more positive influence on the tenor of journalists’ coverage about the firm’s leadership than impression management by the CEO about his or her own leadership and strategy. We test our hypotheses with data from large and mid-sized public U.S. companies from 1999 to 2007, including original survey data from a large sample of CEOs and journalists. The results supported our hypotheses, and additional findings suggested that the apparent effects of impression management by leaders and staff about their own firms following a negative earnings surprise may be partially attributable to the effects of IM support.
115 citations
TL;DR: This paper revisited the well-established notion that large and mature organizations stifle an employee's ability and motivation to become an entrepreneur, using unique data on U.S. mutual funds.
Abstract: This study revisits the well-established notion that large and mature organizations stifle an employee’s ability and motivation to become an entrepreneur. Using unique data on U.S. mutual funds fou...
115 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that benefits received through exchange foster group identification and solidarity but that this effect is stronger in generalized exchange systems (in which giving and receiving of resources occurs unilaterally among three or more individuals) than direct exchange systems, which feature reciprocal transfers of resources between two people.
Abstract: Here we propose an account of the link between exchange structure and the emergence of solidarity capable of accounting for the conflicting evidence social scientists have found regarding the relationship between social exchange structures and the emergence of intangible, affectively laden group sentiments. We argue that benefits received through exchange foster group identification and solidarity but that this effect is stronger in generalized exchange systems—in which giving and receiving of resources occurs unilaterally among three or more individuals—than direct exchange systems—which feature reciprocal transfers of resources between two people. At low levels of benefit to recipients, generalized and direct exchange systems will produce similarly low levels of group identification. At high levels of benefit, however, generalized exchange will result in relatively higher levels of identification. Higher levels of identification leads individual members in turn to view the group as higher in solidarity....
107 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the behavioral and knowledge creation implications of betting on the losing technology in a competing technology situation are discussed. But, they focus on three main outcomes: first, in a...
Abstract: This study theorizes about the behavioral and knowledge creation implications of betting on the losing technology in a competing technology situation and focuses on three main outcomes. First, in a...
107 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors studied how the wages of employees change after a male chief executive officer (CEO) has children, using comprehensive panel data on the employees, CEOs, and families of CEOs in all but the smallest Danish firms between 1996 and 2006.
Abstract: Motivated by a growing literature in the social sciences suggesting that the transition to fatherhood has a profound effect on men’s values, we study how the wages of employees change after a male chief executive officer (CEO) has children, using comprehensive panel data on the employees, CEOs, and families of CEOs in all but the smallest Danish firms between 1996 and 2006. We find that (a) a male CEO generally pays his employees less generously after fathering a child, (b) the birth of a daughter has a less negative influence on wages than does the birth of a son and has a positive influence if the daughter is the CEO’s first, and (c) the wages of female employees are less adversely affected than are those of male employees and positively affected by the CEO’s first child of either gender. We also find that male CEOs pay themselves more after fathering a child, especially after fathering a son. These results are consistent with a desire by the CEO to husband more resources for his family after fathering ...
98 citations
TL;DR: This paper examined the role of a practice's opacity (versus transparency) in the interorganizational diffusion of organizational practices and found that transparency may bring negative attention that, when observed by prospective adopters, inhibits them from following suit.
Abstract: We examine the role of a practice’s opacity (versus transparency) in the interorganizational diffusion of organizational practices. Though the opacity of a practice is typically thought to impede diffusion, a political-cultural approach to institutions suggests that opacity can sometimes play a positive role. Given that adoption decisions are embedded in a web of conflicting interests, transparency may bring negative attention that, when observed by prospective adopters, inhibits them from following suit. Opacity, in contrast, helps avoid that cycle. Using the curtailment of health benefits for retirees among large U.S. employers (1989 to 2009), we compare the diffusion of transparent adoptions (i.e., partial or complete benefit cuts) with opaque adoptions (i.e., spending caps that trigger disenrollment). We find that transparent adoptions reduce subsequent diffusion of the practice to other organizations. This effect is fully mediated by negative media coverage, which is itself conditioned by the presenc...
94 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the dynamics of consensus building in intracultural and intercultural negotiations achieved through the convergence of mental models between negotiators, working from a dynamical model.
Abstract: This research examines the dynamics of consensus building in intracultural and intercultural negotiations achieved through the convergence of mental models between negotiators. Working from a dynam...
TL;DR: This article investigated how organizations' reliance on employees' prior educational and employment affiliations for both employment relationships and interorganizational relationships contributes to inertia in organizational networks and proposed that these tendencies stabilize advantaged organizations' positions and limit disadvantaged organizations' positional mobility, thereby constr...
Abstract: This paper investigates how organizations’ reliance on employees’ prior educational and employment affiliations for both employment relationships and interorganizational relationships contributes to inertia in organizational networks. Analyses of data from U.S. venture capital and private equity firms support the theory I develop. First, increasing differences in educational prestige decrease both interpersonal co-employment rates and interorganizational co-investment rates. Second, two individuals who share a prior educational or a prior employment affiliation are more likely to be employed by the same organization than are two individuals who do not share such an affiliation. Third, the likelihood of two organizations forming a co-investment relationship increases with the number of prior educational or employment affiliations shared by their employees. I propose that these tendencies stabilize advantaged organizations’ positions and limit disadvantaged organizations’ positional mobility, thereby constr...
TL;DR: Free spaces are arenas insulated from the control of elites in organizations and societies as mentioned in this paper, and a basic question is whether they incubate challenges to authority, and whether they foster col...
Abstract: Free spaces are arenas insulated from the control of elites in organizations and societies. A basic question is whether they incubate challenges to authority. We suggest that free spaces foster col...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors study the individual and organizational learning mechanisms leading to the evolution of the division of value between economic actors under a given contractual arrangement, and find that employees learn, over time and with experience, how to be more productive under the implied objectives of the incentive regime, as well as how to game or exploit it.
Abstract: In this paper, we study the individual and organizational learning mechanisms leading to the evolution of the division of value between economic actors under a given contractual arrangement. Focusing on the division of value between a firm and its employees, we theorize that following a change in the organizational incentive structure, employees learn, over time and with experience, how to be more productive under the implied objectives of the incentive regime, as well as how to game or exploit it. Results, based on outlet-level data from a Polish commercial bank over a 13-month period, show that the bank outlets' value creation (sales revenue from primary loans) and value appropriation (the sum of outlet employees' monthly bonus) both increased, at a decreasing rate, over time as outlet employees gained experience under the new incentive regime. In parallel, the bank's share (the percentage of value created by outlets retained by the bank) increased at first, then, after reaching a plateau, decreased continuously, indicating that the ability of the incentive regime to induce the intended results evolved, giving rise to an incentive lifecycle. In exploring the underlying micromechanisms, we found strong quantitative and qualitative evidence for the presence and relative paces of productive and adverse learning in bank outlets, as well as for the role of prior experience. This is the first empirical study to show that individual and organizational learning processes can influence the evolution of the division of value between economic actors.
TL;DR: In this article, a historically sensitive model of entrepreneurship linking individual actors to the evolving social structures they must navigate to acquire resources and launch new ventures is presented, and a history of entrepreneurship is discussed.
Abstract: We craft a historically sensitive model of entrepreneurship linking individual actors to the evolving social structures they must navigate to acquire resources and launch new ventures. Theories of ...
TL;DR: Using archival data on a year of e-mail exchanges at a division of Enron and a field study of management professionals, this paper explore how the relative hierarchical rank of a messag...
Abstract: Using archival data on a year of e-mail exchanges at a division of Enron (Study 1) and a field study of management professionals (Study 2), we explore how the relative hierarchical rank of a messag...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a review of "Rethinking the Knowledge Controversy in Organization Studies: A Generative Uncertainty Perspective" by Walter R. Nord and Ann F. Connell.
Abstract: Review of "Rethinking the Knowledge Controversy in Organization Studies: A Generative Uncertainty Perspective" by Walter R. Nord and Ann F. Connell.