Showing papers in "Journal of Management Studies in 2018"
TL;DR: The concept of disruptive innovation has gained considerable currency among practitioners despite widespread misunderstanding of its core principles as mentioned in this paper. But subsequent empirical research has rarely engaged with its key theoretical arguments, and this inconsistent reception warrants a thoughtful evaluation of research on disruptive innovation within management and strategy.
Abstract: The concept of disruptive innovation has gained considerable currency among practitioners despite widespread misunderstanding of its core principles. Similarly, foundational research on disruption has elicited frequent citation and vibrant debate in academic circles, but subsequent empirical research has rarely engaged with its key theoretical arguments. This inconsistent reception warrants a thoughtful evaluation of research on disruptive innovation within management and strategy. We trace the theory’s intellectual history, noting how its core principles have been clarified by anomaly‐seeking research. We also trace the theory’s evolution from a technology‐change framework—essentially descriptive and relatively limited in scope—to a more broadly explanatory causal theory of innovation and competitive response. This assessment reveals that our understanding of the phenomenon of disruption has changed as the theory has developed. To reinvigorate academic interest in disruptive innovation, we propose several underexplored topics—response strategies, performance trajectories, and innovation metrics—to guide future research.
322 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyzed a major Italian news media publisher reacting to the advent of the internet and the emergence of new business models by entrants into the industry (1995-2017).
Abstract: Despite the growing importance of digital transformation and the notion of disruptive innovation, strategy literature still lacks a more complete picture of how incumbent organizations adapt their business models after disruptions. This research sheds light on this important process by analyzing a major Italian news media publisher reacting to the advent of the internet and the emergence of new business models by entrants into the industry (1995–2017). We specifically examine: (1) the drivers and impeding factors of business model adaptation; (2) how incumbents change strategies to cope with different components of the disruption process; and (3) how a closed business model can be renewed to develop an open, platform‐based business model to seize external opportunities, incur lower costs, and fend off disruptors. This study contributes to the burgeoning literature on disruption, business models, and platforms.
160 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors study intergenerational platform-technology transitions as instances of potentially disruptive innovation at the ecosystem level and find that platforms with advanced capabilities but high complement-development challenges show a pattern of defection of complementors toward rival, less challenging platforms.
Abstract: We study intergenerational platform-technology transitions as instances of potentially disruptive innovation at the ecosystem level. Examining the launch of 12 platform technologies in the U.S. videogame industry covering three console generations from 1993 until 2010, we show that incumbents introducing next-generation platform technologies with advanced capabilities increase the challenges of developing complements for the platform technology, steepening complementors’ learning curves and disrupting the very same complementors that platform owners need to thrive in the next-generation competition. We find that, because of these struggles, platforms with advanced capabilities but high complement-development challenges show a pattern of defection of complementors toward rival, less challenging platforms. Our study extends mainstream disruptive-innovation theory to the context of platform-based ecosystems by offering a systemic view that accounts for disaffection on the part of technology complementors—rather than end users—as the main reason for disruption.
129 citations
TL;DR: This paper proposed a systems perspective on paradox that discrimi-nates the epistemological understandings from the ontological reality of tensions. But, the focus on salient, perceived tensions impedes researchers from moving to more intricate insights into paradox, which could help address the realities of complex issues, such as wicked problems.
Abstract: Paradox theory has fundamentally changed how researchers think about organizational tensions by emphasizing their oppositions and their interdependencies. Yet, most paradox studies focus on salient, perceived tensions, ignoring latent, nested tensions and their complex interconnections. This partial view is rooted in the paradox literature focusing on the epistemological realm (actors’ perception of tensions) while disregarding the ontological realm (tensions’ underlying reality). The focus on the epistemological aspects of the tensions impedes researchers from moving to more intricate insights into paradox, which could help address the realities of complex issues, such as wicked problems. We propose a systems perspective on paradox that discrimi-nates the epistemological understandings from the ontological realities of tensions. By revealing the ontology of tensions, the underlying complexity becomes empirically interpretable. We illustrate the power of this perspective by offering two research strategies that can help researchers and organizations apprehend paradoxes grounded in systems.
124 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors anchor, explore and extend the meanings associated with the concept of disruptive innovation, and discuss several perspectives on disruption, including evolutionary, relational, temporal and framing, that culminate in a performative approach to thinking about the phenomenon.
Abstract: Everyday experiences speak to the accelerated pace of innovation in this era of continual change. Sometimes, innovations enhance the value of existing products and services. At other times, they render existing business models obsolete, disrupt value‐networks, prompt providers to rethink who their customers are, and lead customers to rethink what they value. What does it mean to manage in such a world of disruptive changes, and how might we research this phenomenon? Together with the contributors to this special issue, we anchor, explore and extend the meanings associated with the concept of disruptive innovation. In particular, we discuss several perspectives on disruption – evolutionary, relational, temporal and framing – that culminate in a performative (as opposed to a predictive) approach to thinking about the phenomenon. In doing so, our intention is to open up the agenda for both researchers and practitioners.
117 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present an ecosystem-level process model of the interlocking key activities of the business model disruptor, other ecosystem participants (customers, partners, media, analysts), and the incumbent.
Abstract: Based on a longitudinal case study, this paper presents an ecosystem‐level process model of the interlocking key activities of the business model disruptor, other ecosystem participants (customers, partners, media, analysts), and the incumbent. Together these constitute a strategic process of ecosystem evolution from incumbent‐centred to disruptor‐centred. We identify the phenomenon of a ‘disruptor's gambit’, where the disruptor reveals its intentions early on through effective framing, followed by rapid adaptation of its business model to satisfy ecosystem needs. These processes generate a virtuous framing‐adaptation cycle, where feed‐forward and feedback enable rapid response to customers and partners, while engaging them as force multipliers during new ecosystem creation. Our findings suggest that framing constitutes a dynamic strategic process enabling disruptors to reduce uncertainty, dislodge powerful incumbents, and shape new ecosystems through business model innovation.
112 citations
TL;DR: The cognitive processes associated with the attention paid to and interpretation of multiple, often incongruent signals that organizations send to consumers, financiers, and other stakeholders who make organizational assessments are discussed in this article.
Abstract: Research on organizational signaling tends to focus on the effects of isolated or congruent signals, assuming highly rational responses to those signals. In this study, we theorize about the cognitive processes associated with the attention paid to and interpretation of multiple, often incongruent signals that organizations send to consumers, financiers, and other stakeholders who make organizational assessments. Contributing a cognitive perspective of signal attention and interpretation, alongside the introduction of signal sets, we provide a more complete picture of how organizational signaling unfolds in the field. Our research opens new frontiers for future inquiry into the cognitive foundations of signal attention, multi-signal interpretation, and incongruent signals. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
112 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors developed a general perspective on ambidexterity, where frontline managers play a more central, proactive, and strategic role than purported by the established design perspective.
Abstract: Ambidexterity research has noted that firms’ simultaneous pursuit of exploration and exploitation causes organizational tensions that are difficult to resolve. To make these tensions manageable, scholars have generally suggested that senior managers take the central role in designing organizational solutions, such as the structural separation or contextual integration of the exploratory and exploitative tasks. Yet, in an inductive study of ten corporate innovation initiatives, we find that our informants assigned far less importance to the senior managers’ initial design choices than to the frontline managers’ subsequent configurational practices. Frontline managers used these practices to constantly adapt and align their initiatives’ organizational contexts, which allowed them to cope with persistent exploration-exploitation tensions in their daily business activities. Based on these empirical insights and drawing on paradox theory, we develop a configurational perspective on ambidexterity, where frontline managers play a more central, proactive, and strategic role than purported by the established design perspective on ambidexterity.
105 citations
TL;DR: Wang et al. as mentioned in this paper conducted a meta-analysis on the corporate governance literature on China and found that two major "good corporate governance" principles advocating board independence and managerial incentives are indeed associated with better firm performance.
Abstract: How has the impact of ‘good corporate governance’ principles on firm
performance changed over time in China? Amassing a database of 84 studies, 684 effect sizes,
and 547,622 firm observations, we explore this important question by conducting a metaanalysis
on the corporate governance literature on China. The weight of evidence
demonstrates that two major ‘good corporate governance’ principles advocating board
independence and managerial incentives are indeed associated with better firm performance.
However, we cannot find strong support for the criticisms against CEO duality. In addition,
we go beyond a static perspective (such as certain governance mechanisms are effective or
ineffective) by investigating the temporal hypotheses. We reveal that over time, with the
improvement in the quality of market institutions and development of financial markets, the
monitoring mechanisms of the board and state ownership become more strongly related to
firm performance, whereas the incentive mechanisms lose their significance. Overall, our
findings advance a dynamic institution-based view by substantiating the case that institutional
transitions matter for the relationship between governance mechanisms and firm performance
in the second largest economy in the world.
84 citations
TL;DR: Vandekerkhof et al. as mentioned in this paper, P (reprint author), Hasselt Univ, Agoralaan,Bldg D, B-3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium.
Abstract: Vandekerkhof, P (reprint author), Hasselt Univ, Agoralaan,Bldg D, B-3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium.
pieter.vandekerkhof@uhasselt.be
74 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors extend the current knowledge-based view on the configuration of alliance portfolios and their deployment in different external knowledge environments to investigate the inverted U-shaped associations of partner type variety and relevance in alliance portfolios with firm innovation performance.
Abstract: Our research extends the current knowledge based view on the configuration of alliance portfolios and their deployment in different external knowledge environments. We study these alliance portfolios in a longitudinal sample (1996–2010) for over three thousand firms that operate in a large number of industries in the Netherlands. Our findings indicate that partner type variety and partner type relevance, as different dimensions of partner diversity in alliance portfolios, both have an inverted U-shaped association with firm innovation performance. However, alliance portfolios characterized by both high partner type variety and high relevance cause inferior innovation performance. Different external knowledge environments, characterized by different levels of industry modularity and scope of knowledge distribution, moderate the inverted U-shaped associations of partner type variety and relevance in alliance portfolios with firm innovation performance in opposing directions. While for partner type variety, a high level is found to be optimal in environments with greater modularity or broader scope of knowledge distribution, for partner type relevance it turns out that a low level is optimal under more modular industry conditions.
TL;DR: In this article, social capital theory is used to analyze how compassionate ventures leverage network relationships to identify and mobilize resources to alleviate suffering and explore how differences in these approaches influence the magnitude, speed, and customization of the response, all of which are theorized indicators of the effectiveness of compassion organizing.
Abstract: Suffering comes in many forms that significantly impact organizations' operations and performance. As a result, recent research on compassion organizing seeks to explain how efforts to notice, feel, and respond to suffering create organizational (and societal) benefits. Widespread suffering can be generated by natural disasters, which in turn can trigger compassionate organizational responses. In this paper, we build on social capital theory to theorize about how compassionate ventures leverage network relationships to identify and mobilize resources. We also explore how differences in these approaches influence the magnitude, speed, and customization of the response, all of which are theorized indicators of the effectiveness of compassion organizing in alleviating suffering. We use structural equation modeling to test our model and find that compassionate ventures with stronger ties to the local community are more likely to bundle (i.e., stretch) resources, which facilitates a speedy, customized, and large magnitude response. In contrast, those with stronger ties outside the local community are more likely to pursue (i.e., chase) new resources, which results in a large magnitude response, but one that is not associated with speed or customization. We discuss the implications of our findings and make recommendations for future research. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors use dialectics theory to unpack the learning processes through which organizational members and collectives build their capacity to understand and cope with complex tensions over time.
Abstract: Paradox theory enables management research to replace either/or thinking with more integrative both/and approaches. Despite this achievement, greater theoretical complexity is needed to account for paradoxical tensions’ intricacies. We use dialectics theory to unpack the learning processes through which organizational members and collectives build their capacity to understand and cope with complex tensions over time. Building on these insights, we develop a paradox process model that resembles a learning spiral, in which organizations move through stages of convergence and divergence. During the convergence stages, they learn about and refine their current worldviews by constantly moving between the tension’s poles. During the divergence stages, they move beyond dynamic equilibrium to reach a higher understanding of tensions and their management. While organizations caught in equilibrium are prone to stasis and demise, those that move beyond equilibrium can achieve sustainability.
TL;DR: The authors explored the assumptions underlying the core concept of language used in the growing field of language-sensitive research in international management and explored the consequences that these underlying assumptions have for the study of language in multinationals.
Abstract: This paper explores the assumptions underlying the core concept of language used in the growing field of language‐sensitive research in international management. We reviewed 92 articles on the topic of language(s) in multinational corporations published during the period 1997‐2015, and applied a linguistic lens to uncover how these articles ‘talk about language’. The assumptions found in these articles can be grouped into three complementary categories that take a structural, functional or social practice view of language. We go beyond the review by also reflecting on the consequences that these underlying assumptions have for the study of language in multinationals. We consider the social practice view the most promising one, and propose a future research agenda for advancing it and thereby contributing to theorizing about the multinational corporation more broadly.
TL;DR: This article explored the effect of two sources of external knowledge: new product development (NPD) alliances, representing tightly coupled sources, and loosely coupled sources such as industry associations, and found that the extent to which firms utilize knowledge from NPD alliances has a curvilinear relationship with strategic flexibility.
Abstract: Strategic flexibility is a vital capability for new ventures to update their strategies in a timely manner. However, the role of external knowledge sources in new ventures’ endeavours to develop strategic flexibility are unclear. Drawing on the knowledge†based and relational views, we explore the effect of two sources of external knowledge: new product development (NPD) alliances, representing tightly coupled sources, and loosely coupled sources such as industry associations. Our field study of 148 high†tech ventures found that the extent to which firms utilize knowledge from NPD alliances has a curvilinear relationship with strategic flexibility, whereas the extent to which firms utilize loosely coupled sources has a positive linear relationship with strategic flexibility. We also found that in new ventures, decentralization of decision†making and institutional support enhance knowledge integration, positively moderating these relationships.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identify adaptation and replacement as two major mechanisms of inequality legitimization and examine their influence in the unique setting of a natural experiment, the reunification of socialist East Germany and capitalist West Germany.
Abstract: To explain the legitimation of inequality among the members of a social system, we blend system justification theory and the theory of social judgment. We identify adaptation and replacement as two major mechanisms of inequality legitimation and examine their influence in the unique setting of a natural experiment, the reunification of socialist East Germany and capitalist West Germany. We show that the new members of a society in which inequality is broadly endorsed and perceived as enduring will adapt to this perception and come to view inequality as acceptable. This process of adaptation reflects the subtle but powerful influence of collective legitimacy on an individual's tacit approval of inequality. Inequality also becomes legitimate as older cohorts are replaced by younger cohorts; however, this effect is weaker than the effect of adaptation. We contribute to the literature by demonstrating that developing and testing a theory of how inequality becomes legitimized can provide new insights into the ideational antecedents of inequality.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined borrowing discouragement among three predominant racial minority entrepreneur groups in the United States, i.e., African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans, using two independent samples from the US Federal Reserve Board.
Abstract: We extend organizational research on racial†minority social and economic inequality by developing a mixed embeddedness perspective to investigate whether and why certain racial†minority entrepreneurs become discouraged with important entrepreneurial tasks – namely, seeking capital from financial institutions. Concretely, we examine borrowing discouragement among three predominant racial†minority entrepreneur groups in the United States – African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans – using two independent samples from the US Federal Reserve Board. Our findings indicate that African Americans and Hispanic Americans are more likely to be discouraged than White Americans, while Asian Americans are less likely to be discouraged than African Americans. Our theory and findings suggest that for certain racial minorities, socio†historical experiences and shared knowledge of inequalities may influence individual behaviour through increasing discouragement toward important opportunities and entrepreneurial tasks.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors show that diversity in a firm's patent and alliance portfolios sends contrasting flow signals impacting its market value in a nuanced way, and that firms that do not maintain a ‘signaling fit' with market observers increase the probability of unintentional negative signaling effects.
Abstract: Integrating signaling theory and the portfolio diversity literature, we theorize that diversity in a firm's patent and alliance portfolios sends contrasting flow signals impacting its market value in a nuanced way. Diversity in an alliance portfolio mediates the patent portfolio diversity – market value relationship by suppressing the negative effect of patent portfolio diversity creating an overall positive effect. We test our mediation model on a longitudinal set of 225 U.S. biopharmaceutical firms that were awarded 17,078 patents and participated in 37,744 alliances between 1990 and 2006. Our theory and findings contribute three novel insights. First, we demonstrate the value of a temporal lens in explaining why diversity in a firm's patent and alliance portfolios send flow signals that establish expectations among market observers and have performance implications. Second, establishing that patent and alliance portfolio diversity are temporally sequenced provides compelling evidence for the value of studying multiple types of portfolios, their temporal relationships and effects on firm outcomes. Third, since diversity in a firm's portfolios can send contrasting flow signals conditioned on the cognitive demands and proximity involved in interpreting the signals, firms that do not maintain a ‘signaling fit' with market observers increase the probability of unintentional negative signaling effects. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
TL;DR: This paper explored immigrant entrepreneurship using structuration theory to understand how migrant-led venture creation conducts socially-intersective market activity in the host country of high economic inequality and social exclusion, and revealed a process by which home and host institutions shape immigrant entrepreneurial agency to identify nonethnic business opportunities and to form relationships across diverse actors that counter existing norms of intergroup segregation and hostility.
Abstract: We explore immigrant entrepreneurship using structuration theory to understand how migrant‐led venture creation conducts socially‐intersective market activity in the host country of high economic inequality and social exclusion. Applying Gidden's structuration theory to immigrant entrepreneurship (1994), we unravel the co‐evolutionary process of both the entrepreneurial agent and the social structure of the host country via three phases of venture creation. We collected and examined original and longitudinal empirical data of eight South African‐based immigrant entrepreneurs using a process‐oriented theory‐building approach. Our findings unveil a process by which home and host institutions shape immigrant entrepreneurial agency to identify non‐ethnic business opportunities and to form relationships across diverse actors that counter existing norms of intergroup segregation and hostility. The process illustrates how an immigrant's social orientation to his/her host country's structure changes over time, and symbiotically, how the immigrant entrepreneur's actions – which break socially constructed boundaries – also change the social structure.
TL;DR: In this paper, a qualitative, multi-case study on the responses of German publishing houses to the emergence of digitalization is presented, where organizational role identity and organizational domain identity interactively determine how organizations interpret and respond to a disruptive innovation, and it is shown that incumbents experience dysfunctional identity driven struggles when one of the two identity facets is challenged by the disruptive innovation while the other is enhanced.
Abstract: We adopt a multifaceted view of organizational identity to contribute to research on organizational identity and incumbent adaptations to disruptive innovations. Based on a qualitative, multi‐case study on the responses of German publishing houses to the emergence of digitalization, we distill a novel and thus far disregarded facet of organizational identity: organizational role identity. We show how organizational role identity and organizational domain identity – the facet that has so far dominated research on identity and innovation – interactively determine how organizations interpret and respond to a disruptive innovation. In contrast to previous studies, we show that incumbents experience dysfunctional identity‐driven struggles when one of the two identity facets is challenged by the disruptive innovation while the other is enhanced. We also induce that domain and role identities can jointly determine how quickly incumbents react to a disruption, whether they adopt that disruption, and the innovativeness of their responses.
TL;DR: This paper used meta-analytic techniques known as reliability generalization (RG) to cumulate alphas across 36 commonly used individual differences, attitudes, and behaviours from 1675 independent samples.
Abstract: Increasing precision of measurement is a goal of scientific advancement, but Nunnally's (1978) .70 benchmark for coefficient alpha (alpha) has remained the omnibus test for reliability for nearly 40 years. This likely arises due to there only being scattered empirical evidence of the degree to which the field has met or surpassed this standard. Using meta†analytic techniques known as reliability generalization (RG), we cumulate alphas across 36 commonly used individual differences, attitudes, and behaviours from 1675 independent samples (N = 991,588). Our primary finding is that alphas almost always exceed .70 and generally fall above .80. In addition, we identified factors that moderate alpha including the specific measure used, the number of scale items, and the rater. The study provides baseline alphas that can be used for research planning and design; it also offers best practices for RG and notes the benefits of RG for understanding systematic fluctuations in reliability.
TL;DR: In this paper, a framework focusing on five main contextual dimensions: organizational context and roles, geographical and spatial context, social context and teams, institutional and cultural norms, and temporal dynamics is presented.
Abstract: Scholars are paying more attention to knowledge workers (KW) as they gain importance in the knowledge-based economy. Knowledge worker mobility (KWM) can involve various forms of employee and entrepreneurial movements: the transfer of employees from one organization to another either through locational movement or through a change in ownership, the transfer of employees within the same organization but in different units and/or geographies, and the spinning off by employees into new ventures. KWM spans a variety of different contexts which have rarely been explored in prior research. We focus on advancing our understanding of KWM in context, pushing the boundaries of theory and methods by developing a framework focusing on five main contextual dimensions: organizational context and roles, geographical and spatial context, social context and teams, institutional and cultural norms, and temporal dynamics. We summarize the papers presented in the special issue and also identify an agenda for further research.
TL;DR: In this paper, an analysis of German biotechnology firms, based on database and survey data, indicates that each alliance management capability positively interacts with portfolio diversity to foster innovation, while portfolio coordination and proactive partner selection seem to substitute rather than complement each other.
Abstract: This study seeks to explain how the innovation potential entailed in the structural characteristics of a diverse alliance portfolio can be leveraged by two different alliance management capabilities of a focal firm: portfolio coordination and proactive partner selection. An analysis of German biotechnology firms, based on database and survey data, indicates that each alliance management capability positively interacts with portfolio diversity to foster innovation. In addition, regarding their joint influence as capability bundle on the portfolio diversity–innovation link, portfolio coordination and proactive partner selection seem to substitute rather than complement each other. These results suggest that firms realize innovation benefits from a diverse set of external alliance partners only when they focus on and apply internal coordination or partner selection routines to manage these alliances, thus acting as either portfolio coordinators or portfolio configurators.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors adopt the lens of institutional work in analysing South African mining employers' purposive efforts to ensure reliable access to cheap labour from the 1860s through until the infamous Marikana Massacre in 2012.
Abstract: Social inequality is underpinned by exploitative labour institutions, yet the agency of employers in establishing and maintaining such institutions remains underexplored. We thus adopt the lens of institutional work in analysing South African mining employers' purposive efforts to ensure reliable access to cheap labour from the 1860s through until the infamous Marikana Massacre in 2012. We find that while labour is scarce, employers engage in forcing: creating exploitative institutional devices through conscripting and controlling. But as labour becomes abundant (and political winds shift), employers engage in freeing: liberalizing institutional controls to give workers “choice,” while simultaneously outsourcing responsibilities and costs associated with the unjust employment relationship to others, including workers themselves. We thus explain how employers purposefully create and perpetuate their advantage in interaction with labour market dynamics, contributing to our understanding of inequality and the role of actors' intentions in impacting social systems. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
TL;DR: In this paper, the convergence and divergence of job discretion between occupations and institutional regimes in Europe from 1995-2010 were examined, and it was found that significantly different rates of change have led to an increasing polarisation of job-discretion between occupations between Nordic and other European countries.
Abstract: Drawing on technical change and institutional theories, this paper examines the convergence and divergence of job discretion between occupations and institutional regimes in Europe from 1995-2010. Latent growth modelling of a pseudo-panel data set derived from the European Working Conditions Survey reveals that significantly different rates of change have led to an increasing polarisation of job discretion between occupations and between Nordic and other European countries. Across occupations the findings are in keeping with routine-biased technical change rather than skill-biased technical change theories and suggest that the effects of technical change on job discretion depend largely on whether technology substitutes or complements job tasks. Across countries, the results are in line with employment regime theory, which suggests that institutional differences (particularly employment policies and trade union influence) are driving cross-national variation in job discretion. Overall, a more comprehensive empirical and theoretical understanding is provided of factors shaping change in a key aspect of job quality, namely job discretion. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
TL;DR: This article found that ambivalent identification, that is, the simultaneous identification and disidentification of an individual with an organization, is a key mediating mechanism that transfers the interactive relationship of PEP and POS to cynicism and silence.
Abstract: Drawing on the social identity literature, this study offers theoretical arguments and empirical evidence to understand reactions to divergent perceptions of organizational external prestige (PEP) and organizational support (POS)—two crucial bases of employees' social worth. Across three studies, using both experimental and field data, we find that PEP-POS discrepancy contributes to employees' perceptions of organizational cynicism and silence behavior, especially when PEP is high and POS is low (rather than the reverse). Consistent with our social identity perspective, we find that ambivalent identification, that is, the simultaneous identification and disidentification of an individual with an organization, is a key mediating mechanism that transfers the interactive relationship of PEP and POS to cynicism and silence. These findings contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the dynamics of individuals' social worth at work
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors advocate the new concepts of "mobility-isolation paradox" and "paradoxical imagination" by examining the nuanced, multifaceted conceptualizations of the mobilityisolation tensions facing home-based, self-employed, online knowledge-workers.
Abstract: We advance both mobility and paradox theorizing by advocating the new concepts of “mobility-isolation paradox” and “paradoxical imagination”. These emerged from examining the nuanced, multifaceted conceptualizations of the mobility-isolation tensions facing home-based, self-employed, online knowledge-workers. We thereby enhance current conceptual understandings of mobility, isolation and paradox by analyzing knowledge-workers’ interrelated, multidimensional experiences within restrictive home-based working contexts. We compare the dearth of research and theorizing about these autonomous online knowledge-workers with that available about other types of knowledge-workers, such as online home-based employees, and the more physically/corporeally mobile self-employed. This research into an increasingly prevalent knowledge-worker genre addresses these knowledge gaps by analyzing home-based knowledge-workers’ views, and tensions from paradoxical pressures to be corporeally mobile and less isolated. Despite enjoying career, mental and virtual mobility through internet-connectedness, they were found to seek face-to-face social and/or professional interactions, their isolation engendering loneliness, despite their solitude paradoxically often fostering creativity and innovation.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the implementation of Lean in a printing factory and trace the emergence of shopfloor opposition, ranging from tangible procedures such as sabotage and working-to-rule to more subtle forms reflecting irony and contempt.
Abstract: The spread of Lean management has fuelled debates over the changing nature of workplace domination. While Lean discourses often espouse a 'human relations' approach, research has suggested the proliferation of coercion systems and questioned whether Lean is instead shorthand for cost-cutting and new forms of domination. The varied interpretations of Lean have explained the heterogeneity of worker responses, including forms of resistance. Our ethnography explores this heterogeneity by examining the implementation of Lean in a printing factory and tracing the emergence of shopfloor opposition. Various tactics were devised by workers, ranging from tangible procedures such as sabotage and working-to-rule to more subtle forms reflecting irony and contempt. We argue that the distinctive manifestations of domination emerging during the Lean programme stimulated particular forms of worker reaction, which are explained through fieldwork illustrations. Overall, we produce a theoretical explanation of domination and resistance that builds upon and extends the extant scholarship.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors study how Ericsson tried to respond to the emergence of cloud computing, a digital platform technology, across its operations in more than 170 countries, revealing how incumbents need to match diverging customer demands with a complex innovation process, involving different approaches to experiments and trials, deployment strategy, and ecosystem development.
Abstract: In an age of rapid advances in technology, understanding how firms can respond to emergence of disruptive technologies is paramount for survival. While prior research on incumbents’ responses to disruptive technologies assumes demand homogeneity, many firms, including multinational enterprises (MNEs), need to respond to technological disruption in heterogeneous markets. To address this lacuna in our understanding, we study how Ericsson tried to respond to the emergence of Cloud computing, a digital platform technology, across its operations in more than 170 countries. We reveal how incumbents need to match diverging customer demands with a complex innovation process, involving different approaches to experiments and trials, deployment strategy, and ecosystem development. We also find that the success of incumbents’ responses depends on their capability for misalignment, which allows them to manage the inconsistencies in strategic direction, structure, and resource configuration associated with a complex innovation process.
TL;DR: The authors argue that the way we frame conversations about inequality reveals important information about how poverty and inequality have become institutionalized in modern society, and encourage new research that adopts a holistic reintegration of poverty and inequalities by attending to the dirty realism of the violence of poverty.
Abstract: This introduction to the Journal of Management Studies Special Issue on Inequality argues that the way we frame conversations about inequality reveals important information about how poverty and inequality have become institutionalized in modern society. We observe a distinct recent shift in the collective conversation about vulnerable populations in western society away from poverty and toward inequality. We question why this shift has occurred and who benefits from it. Drawing from the provocative papers that populate the Special Issue we describe how forms of talk can help create inequality, maintain it and holds the potential to change it. We encourage new research that adopts a holistic reintegration of poverty and inequality by attending to the ‘dirty realism’ of the violence of poverty and the dire consequences of internalized inequality.