Spotlight on new research publications

Abstract:
We investigate organizational members’ crisis sensemaking and construction of responsibility at the peak of a corporate scandal. We focus on those organizational members, who are not directly involved in the scandal but are still affected by it, as they are questioned about their collective and moral responsibility for being members of an organization that has engaged in wrongdoing. Our study is based on interviews with and observations of frontline employees and their managers at Danske Banke—a bank involved in a money laundering scandal of historical magnitude. We propose an antenarrative crisis sensemaking framework that enables us to contribute to the literature on crisis sensemaking in two significant ways. First, we advance existing knowledge on crisis sensemaking by focusing on the less visible, unfinished, fragmented, and polyphonic sensemaking of organizational members during a corporate scandal. Second, we demonstrate that organizational members at the peak of a scandal place responsibility in different timespaces as they construct others’ and their own responsibility both retrospectively and prospectively.

Abstract:
This study develops new insights into the spillover effects of foreign multinational enterprises (MNEs) on local firms’ export market entry, using the case of Vietnam—a notable global manufacturing hub located in Southeast Asia. The empirical analysis is based on a disaggregated firm-level panel dataset of 25,032 observations of Vietnamese food processing firms during the period 2011–2016. The food processing industry is an essential part of the country's thriving manufacturing sector, with enormous potential for exports. The random-effects Probit estimation results suggest that the presence of foreign MNEs significantly raises the likelihood that private local firms become exporters and thereby start integrating into global value chains. Further regressions reveal that foreign presence is also linked to higher export intensity among domestic firms, and that the magnitude of the estimated spillover effects is conditional on the specific measures of foreign MNE presence, the ownership structure in local industry, and the size of local firms. The findings highlight the considerable potential for foreign MNEs to influence local firms’ export prospects and validate the policy efforts to attract foreign direct investment inflows to the examined industry.

Abstract:
Industrial firms are increasingly seeking new means of competitiveness through digital servitization that involves incorporating digital services and platforms. Despite the growing prominence of digital servitization, we have yet to understand how such changes are being framed, reframed, and unfold in industrial firms. To this end, we undertake an in-depth longitudinal exploratory case study of an industrial firm to understand the organizational framing and reframing activities vis-à-vis digital servitization. Our findings identify how motivational, diagnostic, and prognostic framing gradually unfolds over distinct phases. Specifically, our findings reveal the occurrence of frame incongruence among different groups of actors, compelling the firm to engage in strategies and tactics to achieve frame alignment. Notably, we identify that management engages in the alignment processes of frame extension, translation, and clarification, which creates a space of workable certainty. While transient in nature, this state of workable certainty serves as a catalyst in propelling the firm forward in its pursuit of a digital servitization strategy. By shedding light on the process of digital reframing that firms undertake in order to materialize their digital servitization strategy, our study contributes to a deeper understanding of this phenomenon. Moreover, we raise pertinent managerial implications for firms embarking on the path of digital servitization, emphasizing the imperative of continuous attention to the ongoing framing and reframing processes accompanying such change endeavors.

Abstract:
Resources are central to value creation processes. Hence, marketing and service research rely heavily on conceptualisations of resources and resource integration for theory building efforts. One of the most widely accepted marketing lenses on resources and resource integration is the service-dominant (S-D) logic. Depicting resources as becoming and contextual, S-D logic argues that their usefulness co-depends on other resources. Some assumptions of S-D logic have been challenged particularly its dichotomous categorisation of operand and operant resources. To inform ongoing S-D logic theorising, our article problematises the multiple and contradictory ontological views upon resources and resource integration present within S-D logic. Moving beyond critique, we propose concrete means for reconciling these contradictions. Seeing a parallel between S-D logic’s ontological inconsistencies and past ontological disagreements in the philosophy of science, we draw on the philosophical perspective of Karen Barad to develop a consistent onto-epistemological foundation for conceptualising the becoming nature of resources in S-D logic. The theory adaptation we perform enhances the applicability and explanatory capacity of S-D logic, while also offering a more robust and rigorous foundation for marketing and service research at large and giving managers new means to make sense of co-dependent resource phenomena.

Abstract:
Using a multiple case study of Italian high-end fashion, we analyze how new ventures pursue an open innovation by forming network ties to facilitate symbolic value propositions. We identify three strategies to form these ties: leverage of extant ties, Product exposure, and Entrepreneur exposure. Discussing the specificity of our empirical setting, we find that the identified strategies accommodate an industry context where market value is socially constructed and uncertainty is high. As a result, rather than being set by entrepreneurs, symbolic value propositions result from a mix of multiple diverse network ties. New high-end fashion ventures form these ties by applying strategies facilitating flexibility through open-ended search.

Abstract:
We investigate organizational members’ crisis sensemaking and construction of responsibility at the peak of a corporate scandal. We focus on those organizational members, who are not directly involved in the scandal but are still affected by it, as they are questioned about their collective and moral responsibility for being members of an organization that has engaged in wrongdoing. Our study is based on interviews with and observations of frontline employees and their managers at Danske Banke—a bank involved in a money laundering scandal of historical magnitude. We propose an antenarrative crisis sensemaking framework that enables us to contribute to the literature on crisis sensemaking in two significant ways. First, we advance existing knowledge on crisis sensemaking by focusing on the less visible, unfinished, fragmented, and polyphonic sensemaking of organizational members during a corporate scandal. Second, we demonstrate that organizational members at the peak of a scandal place responsibility in different timespaces as they construct others’ and their own responsibility both retrospectively and prospectively.

Abstract:
This paper argues that population age structure plays a significant role alongside institutional, technological, political, and cultural factors when it comes to explaining shifts in urban, regional and national economic development. The paper demonstrates how demographic transitions lead to changes in population age structure which in turn correlate with global shifts in economic development from 1950 onwards. It then analyzes the role of population age structure at the sub-national level by reviewing some prominent cases of regional and urban shifts in Western Europe and North America. Population size, population density and migration have always been an integrated part of economic geography, and the consequences of ageing in national and regional economies are increasingly being studied. The specific role of population age structure as a driver of economic development has, however, so far largely been ignored in the field.

Abstract:
Among scholars and practitioners, Nordic countries are known for their comprehensive welfare states with universal high-quality services and an industrial relations model that fosters competitiveness, high wages and good working conditions. This explains why Nordic solutions are often highlighted as examples for European Union countries, especially in social and labour market policy (de la Porte and Palier, 2022). Yet, the Nordic countries also face short-term crises – like the COVID-19 pandemic, whereby sectors of the labour market were adversely affected – and longer-term challenges such as declining fertility rates – potentially undermining the quality of public welfare services. The key question is whether the Nordics have been able to successfully address these challenges, while maintaining a high level of growth, welfare and labour market integration. This paper examines how Nordic countries responded to challenges posed by the adverse labour market effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, as it stress-tested the welfare states. After that, we discuss whether there is (still) scope for social investment, focusing on early childhood education and care. We then assess whether the Nordic welfare model is resilient and if there are lessons to be learned for other countries in terms of governance and policy (see also de la Porte et al., 2023a).

Abstract:
Based on the author’s own experiences as an Industrial PhD funded by the Dan-ish Innovation Fund, the article centres on the expectations the PhD student is met with from several stakeholders in the research. The difficulties PhD students experience when being part of several workplaces have been known for years. Taking a point of departure in the known challenges, the article broadens our understanding of the zero-sum-game the Industrial PhD is part of, where the dual role can lead to the PhD student not being able to deliver high quality work in any of the two workplaces. The article does not bring answers, but argues that we, as a scientific community, need to have a debate on the changed funding landscape, and how the Industrial funding impacts the rules of the game on how research in the humanities and social sciences are undertaken.

Abstract:
Advances in reinforcement learning and implicit data collection on large-scale commercial platforms mark the beginning of a new era of personalization aimed at the adaptive control of human user environments. We present five emergent features of this new paradigm of personalization that endanger persons and societies at scale and analyze their potential to reduce personal autonomy, destabilize social and political systems, and facilitate mass surveillance and social control, among other concerns. We argue that current data protection laws, most notably the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, are limited in their ability to adequately address many of these issues. Nevertheless, we believe that IS researchers are well-situated to engage with and investigate this new era of personalization. We propose three distinct directions for ethically aware reinforcement learning-based personalization research uniquely suited to the strengths of IS researchers across the sociotechnical spectrum.

Abstract:
The advent of digitization has promised learning paradigms based on digital communication and virtual reality at the expense of physical presence. During the COVID-19 health emergency, the tension between digital distance and physical presence evolved from competing alternatives to a more nuanced coexistence. Several organizations resorted to hybrid arrangements; hybrid teaching is a notable example. In this paper, we draw from the theory of planned behavior to theorize the effect of physical presence on learning outcomes in the context of hybrid teaching. We differentiate between individual and team learning outcomes. We predict that physical presence induces competition and has a negative effect on individual learning outcomes. For team learning outcomes, we predict that physical presence induces cooper-ation and has a positive impact. We exploit two natural experiments in a French business school during the fall semester of 2020. The school’s administration allocated students to subgroups randomly for fairness reasons. This context offered a natural within-subjects exper-iment, where every student was randomly assigned to either in-person or online lectures. Students had up to 4.9% lower likelihood of correctly answering exam questions for lectures they followed in person rather than online. However, in group-work assignments, teams with one more student following in person tended to see a 3.6% increase in their team evaluation. Digital distance, therefore, constitutes a barrier to learning in a hybrid setting only when tasks are evaluated on a team basis.

Abstract:
Research Summary
This article examines a firm's investment in the general skills of contract workers in flexible work arrangements. It theorizes that this investment may prolong a productive firm-worker collaboration even when workers’ mobility barriers are low. It also proposes that achieving such benefits requires that the firm frames the relational benefits of the investments both to managers and workers. Such a “relational framing” mitigates worker concerns about subsequent productivity demands and manager concerns about worker mobility. Experimental and non-experimental studies conducted in a multinational cosmetics direct sales company support the theory. Investments in the general skills of workers—even those in flexible work arrangements—can benefit both firms and workers by deepening the firm-worker relationship while increasing value creation.

Managerial Summary
Should companies train workers in general skills if the workers can easily leave and transfer productivity gains to competing firms? A common answer to this question is “no,” especially when targeting workers hired under flexible arrangements, such as gig workers and direct sales representatives. This article offers a different perspective. It predicts that these investments signal a company's commitment to nurture workers’ development. In turn, workers reciprocate by prolonging a more productive collaboration. Training thus benefits workers and companies. Using relational terms to frame training programs enables the promotion by managers of training opportunities, and uptake by workers. This framing overcomes managerial concerns about worker exit and worker concerns about subsequent productivity demands. Studies conducted in a multinational cosmetics direct sales company support these arguments.

Abstract:
I analyse the relationship between hiring external consultants and firm innovation in emerging markets. Firms in these economic environments face specific problems that hinder organizational activities such as innovation. Hiring external consultants is considered a particularly important strategy to overcome these corporate inefficiencies as it provides firms with access to skills and knowledge. The results for a sample of firms from 32 countries imply that firms that hire external consultants are more likely to conduct product and process innovation. Moreover, the use of advisory services is positively associated with the likelihood of undertaking more ambitious innovation projects in terms of disruptiveness and the number of innovation types. Determining the impact of the consulting intensity, I show that the relation between the number of interactions with external consultants and innovation is inversely U-shaped. This implies that more consulting is not always better.

Abstract:
Purpose: This paper aims to study a circular economy business model that offers services with embedded information exchange capabilities to extend product life through maintenance and repair. Information exchange has been identified as a critical factor in advancing the principles of a circular economy, and this research was conducted to illustrate how information exchange can facilitate maintenance and repair.

Design/methodology/approach: The study has a case study approach of collecting data through semi-structured interviews and questionnaires.

Findings: Information exchange on what and when to do something engages end-users in maintenance and facilitates learning. For repair, the problem description and possible solutions are information that must be exchanged. Both types of information exchange are facilitated by simple tech solutions relying on known and inexpensive technology (e.g. e-mail service, video call and text messaging).

Research limitations/implications: The study contributes to the organisational development and knowledge management fields with novel insights on how information exchange and circular economy are related and can be facilitated.

Practical implications: The study provides insights for companies looking for solutions on how to generate revenue from services and reduce resource consumption. The findings of the study suggest that the development of circular business models does not always require expensive high-tech solutions.

Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is unique as it is empirically based on insights into how information exchange can extend product life through the use of simple digital tools.

Abstract:
Although some scholars raise alarm about societal harm emerging from Big Data practices, critical social theory (CST) Information Systems research on the structures and dynamics driving Big Data practices is rare. In this research commentary, we interrogate how tech firms use social practices and platform design to strategically manipulate individuals into accepting datafication and data assetization that accrue positive data network effects for themselves and mostly negative data network effects (economic loss, social and privacy harm) for individuals. We draw on the ideas of Heidegger and Marcuse to critically question the Big Data paradigm in order to develop better understanding of the social implications for individuals and society. Using the concepts of false consciousness, digital entrapment, and Faustian bargains, we critically inquire into the Big Data practices that keep us tethered to digital platforms. Specifically, we interrogate sociomaterial structures that socially condition individuals into a digital habitus and to identify themselves as homo digitalis, who view all their “relations” (social and economic) as digital. This social conditioning reproduces a false consciousness that constricts our worldview, undermines our rational choices, and enables the risky compromises we make with tech companies that manipulate and exploit us with their increasingly oppressive Big Data practices and related dark patterns. We critically analyze the case of Microsoft Viva to provide an illustration of how mundane digital tools can condition our reality and entrap us into an open prison. We argue that if we do not critically interrogate our false consciousness of the digital and understand how digital giants colonize our social systems by structurally embedding Big Data practices, we will continue to be susceptible to manipulation and digital entrapment. Ongoing risky compromises with tech firms will erode the very foundations of the “good life,” freedom, liberty, and personal privacy, and they will institutionalize the open prison. The CST explanation we propose and the research agenda we outline are meant to encourage research into solutions to the digital entrapment problem.

Abstract:
Platforms and ecosystems provide structures for constellations of economic actors to engage and interact as they seek to create and capture value. We consider how the constructs of platforms and ecosystems relate and explore why they have become more ubiquitous by focusing on the nature of their value-add. We propose that they emerge as a response to distinct market failures, which we identify, and we explain which specific externalities they help overcome. We also identify post-hoc endogenous functional and distributional failures that platforms and ecosystems, in turn, generate. We discuss implications for theory and practice.

Abstract:
According to the theory of Baron and Herslund, English has a tendency to have names for collective concepts such as “chairs” and “bowls”, whereas French more or less consistently lacks names for collective concepts and, instead, has different names for different chairs and bowls. This observation is crucial and is not restricted to English and French nouns – when English uses one verb in an utterance, but Chinese more than one verb, we are dealing with the same distinction. All existing models of lexical semantics may contain tools to describe this distinction, but they lack tools to explain it. This is largely due to the fact that they are grounded in Saussure’s dichotomic view of symbols, i.e., as consisting of an expression unit and a content unit in which there is an arbitrary and conventional relationship between the two sides . However, if one adopts a trichotomic view, where there is one expression unit but two content units, called images and ideas, it becomes possible to explain the differences between English and French. Moreover, it becomes clear that “convention” and “arbitrariness” should be kept strictly apart, since they concern different sides of the linguistic sign.

Abstract:
Danish political, educational and occupational discourse is dominated by one single concept; "faglighed': Today it is difficult to imagine a time when faglighed was not used to refer to an amal­gam of subject knowledge, expertise and profes­sional knowledge work. But before the 1980's the concept was virtually nonexistent. In this article we seek to challenge self-evident assumptions and uses of the concept, by tracing its historical spread from Danish educational policy struggles in the 1980s to virtually all politico-administra­tive domains in the 2000s. We discuss how the concept is used across, educational, professional, and political research areas. On this basis we cha­racterize it as a "floating signifier" which on the one hand is anchored in its reference to some set of skills and competencies, but simultaneously maximizes its usefulness by being able to incor­porate all, and often undefined forms of educa­tional or occupational collectives. "Faglighed" should therefore be seen as a unique alternative to professionalism or expertise, which reflects the partial repeal of the status and authority previ­ously associated with individuals' or groups' pos­session of certain knowledge claims. Ironically, the terrn's implied 'stability' hides the destabili­zation that characterizes its period of emergence, and the disagreements that persists around the skills, principles, and competences necessary for the future, and their valuation.

Abstract:
This article investigates how cross-selling affects relationship lending using internal data from a large bank and the Swedish credit registry. I show that within a bank–firm relationship, profit earned from non-loan products cross-subsidizes loans and increases (1) credit supply and (2) the likelihood of the bank’s pausing or waiving interest payments for delinquent loans (lenience in delinquency). For identification, I exploit the Basel II-induced exogenous variation in products’ profitability while holding constant the firm’s creditworthiness and relationship informativeness. I find that the average affected firm experienced a decrease of 6 percent ($400,000) in credit supply and 30 percent (9.8 pp) in lenience in delinquency. The results highlight the importance of cross-subsidization as a mechanism through which cross-selling affects bank–firm relationships and inform optimal regulatory design for lenders who multi-produce.

Abstract:
In this article, based on a Symposium held at the 2022 Academy of Management Meeting, we present a moderated discussion between established scholars in the field of grand challenges—Shahzad (Shaz) Ansari, Natalie Slawinski, and Eero Vaara—focusing on the role of institutional, paradox, and practice theories in research on grand challenges. Our goal for the symposium was to bring these theoretical perspectives into conversation, reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of the lenses, and discuss potential intersections for future research on grand challenges. We present the panelists’ prepared remarks as well as the interactive discussion covering four topics: the limitations of existing concepts and theories, materiality, impact, and relations between theory and practice. As part of these four discussion topics, we also present questions and reflections from the audience. We conclude by summarizing insights gleaned from the symposium about critical gaps and avenues for future research.

Abstract:
The Kárahnjúkar dam, power station and aluminium smelter opened in East Iceland in 2007 after many years of debate and discord. It is the largest ever industrial project in Iceland and had national as well as local implications, both responding to and in turn changing public expectations regarding participation, environmental impact assessment and community engagement. As Iceland seeks to harness an increasing supply of renewable energy, questions are raised about what constitutes a just transition in the Icelandic context. The article begins by discussing energy supply and demand, current and projected in Iceland. It then delves into theoretical accounts of just transition. It explores the decision-making process for the Kárahnjúkar project and the longer term impacts on the region before assessing these within the framework of just transition theory. A discussion follows that delivers insights into key aspects of the just transition that can be applied to new projects both in Iceland and further afield. These pertain in particular to employment and community benefits, environmental impact assessment and public participation.

Abstract:
Sociologist Niklas Luhmann argued that the law functions as society’s immune system by regulating conflicts that threaten the certainty of expectation structures. In this article, we argue that law itself has become a target of new social immune mechanisms. Since the 1980s, welfare states have increasingly seen their own structures as a threat. Today, the ideal is a public sector consisting of organizations that constantly emerge anew by selecting the structures that fit each specific moment, case, and citizen. To protect public sector organizations against their own structures, ‘potentialization’ now functions as a social autoimmune mechanism by initiating a constant search for new openings and possibilities. This critique of structures includes a critique of legal structures like rights. Looking at the Danish law of early retirement as our empirical case, this paper analyzes, how the tension between law and ‘potentialization’ is built into the law itself. While the law gives citizens certain rights to early retirement, it simultaneously ‘protects’ against the same rights by potentializing citizens. ‘Potentialization’ here functions as a mechanism that protects the operations of a system against its legal structures. It functions by ‘un-relating’ those operations from the structures. This means that when citizens claim their right to pensions, the social workers can reject them on the grounds of a right to a future that is not foreclosed and ‘parked’ on a pension. The paper’s contribution is to show how potentialization works by dissolving even fundamental legal expectations. This profoundly transforms the relationship between the citizen and the public sector.

Abstract:
Sociologist Niklas Luhmann argued that the law functions as society’s immune system by regulating conflicts that threaten the certainty of expectation structures. In this article, we argue that law itself has become a target of new social immune mechanisms. Since the 1980s, welfare states have increasingly seen their own structures as a threat. Today, the ideal is a public sector consisting of organizations that constantly emerge anew by selecting the structures that fit each specific moment, case, and citizen. To protect public sector organizations against their own structures, ‘potentialization’ now functions as a social autoimmune mechanism by initiating a constant search for new openings and possibilities. This critique of structures includes a critique of legal structures like rights. Looking at the Danish law of early retirement as our empirical case, this paper analyzes, how the tension between law and ‘potentialization’ is built into the law itself. While the law gives citizens certain rights to early retirement, it simultaneously ‘protects’ against the same rights by potentializing citizens. ‘Potentialization’ here functions as a mechanism that protects the operations of a system against its legal structures. It functions by ‘un-relating’ those operations from the structures. This means that when citizens claim their right to pensions, the social workers can reject them on the grounds of a right to a future that is not foreclosed and ‘parked’ on a pension. The paper’s contribution is to show how potentialization works by dissolving even fundamental legal expectations. This profoundly transforms the relationship between the citizen and the public sector.

Abstract:
In this paper, line managers’ experiences of, and discursive subject positioning in, a participatory work environment initiative in four nursing homes called ‘The Health Circle Project’ is examined. We focus on line managers’ change related subject positioning by interviewing the managers of the four workplaces before and after the initiative and conduct a comparative case study from a discursive psychology frame. The aim of this paper is to focus on change reactions from managers and move beyond a reductionistic dichotomy of change resistance/readiness. Instead, we focus our analysis on the change related subject positioning the managers engage in, and how they position both themselves and their subordinates. Hence, we examine how the line managers experienced the participatory Health Circle intervention, and how they reacted to potential loss of power to discursively construct and define work environment problems caused by the initiative. The study exemplifies how the line managers experienced the Health Circle intervention as both confirming and challenging their subject positions as capable managerial subjects. Finally, in the light of the analysis, the potential unintended consequences of engaging in participatory work environment intiatives and similar activities are discussed.

Abstract:
This article presents a longitudinal view on the development of digital finance in India, tracing the growth of digital finance in India from the 1950s to 2022. It discusses various legislations, litigations and civil society activism towards the initialization of digital finance in India. Consequently, this article studies the institutional development of digital finance in India using an institutional work framework. Further, it draws on the institutional voids and institutional work framework to reflect on the present state of digital finance and the work required to ensure that it is more inclusive and protective of its users' property rights. The article’s main contributions are that it applies the concepts of institutional voids and institutional works to the case of the
institutionalization of digital finance in India and studies the development of digital finance in India using expert interviews and secondary data analysis.

Abstract:
Persistent exploitation of farmworkers is a defining problem of our time. An estimated 32% of the global population is employed in agriculture. At the base of global food systems, agricultural workers sustain the world’s population while systematically excluded from labor rights protections. Through an analysis of restrictions on labor rights for agricultural workers in 110 countries, this Article distills a typology of legal exclusion that persists to date across the globe. These exclusions articulate labor exploitation at the base of agri-food supply chains and economic and social hierarchies constructed by race, caste, indigeneity, gender, and migration status. How can we upend this legal architecture of oppression, rooted in racialized and gendered capitalism? The global understanding advanced in this Article is critical to dismantling legal architectures of oppression. At the national level, it provides a framework for identifying and addressing layered mechanisms of legal exclusion in particular jurisdictions. Moreover, since agricultural supply chains operate globally, it provides important guidance for protecting workers’ rights on agri-food supply chains, including through binding due diligence legislation in headquarter economies of lead firms, enforceable brand agreements, and inclusion of labor rights in food safety and environmental standards. Finally, due to the structure of monopsony capitalism, in order to raise the floor for agricultural workers worldwide, legal exclusions must be ratcheted up across jurisdictions. Global analysis, then, provides a roadmap for strengthening international standards and global campaigns.

Abstract:
Elites often use merit to explain, justify, and make sense of their advantaged positions. But what exactly do they mean by this? In this paper, we draw on 71 interviews with elites in Denmark and the UK to compare self-justifications of meritocratic legitimacy. Our results indicate that while elites in both countries are united by a common concern to frame their merits as spontaneously recognized by others (rather than strategically promoted by themselves), the package of attributes they foreground vary significantly. In the UK, elites tend to be “talent meritocrats” who foreground their unique capacity for ideational creativity or risk taking, innately good judgment, and “natural” aptitude, intelligence, or academic ability. In contrast, in Denmark, elites are more likely to be “hard work meritocrats” who emphasize their unusual work ethic, extensive experience (as a signal of accumulated hard work), and contributions outside of work, particularly in civil society. We tentatively argue that one explanation for this cross-national variation is the role that different channels of elite recruitment play in amplifying legitimate notions of merit. In the UK, for example, elite private schools act to nurture ideas of exceptionalism and natural talent, whereas in Denmark elite employers socialize the connection between hard work and success. These findings suggest that nationally specific understandings of merit can have quite different implications for the legitimation of inequality.

Abstract:
This article examines the emotional labour of digital influencers to extend our understanding of the processes of transmutation of workers’ emotional systems. According to Hochschild (2012) transmutation occurs when workers’ emotional systems are engineered into commercial and organizational settings for economic profit. To date much work has been carried out within formal organizational settings on “surface acting”, which often leads to self-abuse, burnout and depersonalisation, and “deep acting”, which is associated with feelings of personal freedom. We use a multi-sited ethnography of digital influencers’ emotional work practices to show how so-called “person-brands” labour on the self through dialectical process between emancipating one’s person brand and exploiting oneself. We suggest a new mode of emotional labour in which transmutation happens in practices where influencers display their private actions to the public and where they transfer commercial agendas into their private realm and exploit their selves. Consequently, digital influencers work under the condition that they must self-exploit to succeed, and we demonstrate how they do this in seven distinct work-practices. While we suggest self-exploitation to be a condition of digital influencers’ work, we question whether this is a boundary condition in the transformation to become more powerful person-brands where work becomes more individualized.

Abstract:
 

This article examines factors that could contribute to explaining variation in take-up of leave among fathers in the light of the EU’s Work–Life Balance Directive (WLBD). The WLBD seeks to equalize care responsibilities between fathers and mothers, especially through reserved leave, with high compensation. The article begins with a cross-country overview of take-up of leave among eligible fathers, considering earmarking and the degree of compensation. Our results show variation, which cannot fully be explained by policy design (presence of high compensation with reserved leave for fathers). The article then theorizes that instrumental resources – information and accessible administrative application procedures – could be a missing link to understand the actual shift from de jure to de facto social rights. The article then carries out embedded case studies on these two aspects of instrumental resources, using original qualitative data collected during the implementation of the WLBD. The most striking finding is that countries with similar formal implementation of earmarked paid parental leave, display significant differences in commitment to instrumental resources. Put differently, the WLBD is being implemented differently, not regarding formal social rights, but on instrumental resources. This finding is important because it means that EU-initiated legislation on parental leave, could lead to differences in outcomes, that is, take-up of leave among fathers. The implication of our findings is that decision-makers and policy actors at EU level and in member states, should focus more on instrumental resources in the implementation process. This is particularly important for enhancing the de facto legitimacy of the EU in social policy, given that EU social regulation is increasing via the European Pillar of Social Rights.

Abstract:
Despite recognising the importance of emotions for careers, researchers rarely explore how career-related practices invoke emotions and the implications for professionals’ career aspirations and behaviours. Drawing on 50 interviews with lawyers on the partner track and human resource (HR) professionals, we develop the concept of an emotions career. The emotions career consists of four stages, each characterised by different primary emotions and socio-emotional dynamics. We find that career practices and social interactions elicit emotions that regulate professionals’ career aspirations and trajectories. Thus, professionals become emotionally invested in their careers, which in turn contributes to the maintenance of existing career systems. To better support professionals, we suggest that HR practitioners develop greater awareness of the emotional dynamics associated with careers and engage in career conversations, while organisational leaders should, collectively, consider ways to challenge negative perceptions of alternative career paths, generating more diverse thinking about careers.

Abstract:
Multinational enterprises (MNEs) are increasingly expected to make their global operations sustainable, while overcoming important obstacles in a rugged global landscape. In this perspective article, we argue that a focus on their corporate governance (CG) actors – i.e., owners, directors, and executives – is key for understanding the premises of MNEs’ sustainable value creation. We develop an actor-centered perspective on MNEs whereby factors inherent to and surrounding CG actors – e.g., their cognition, personality, and values, as well as their interactions and governance – will determine the pervasiveness of their bounded rationality and bounded reliability, thus influencing whether, how, and under what conditions these key actors will contribute through their decisions to sustainable value creation. Our perspective advances nascent actor-centered research on MNEs’ non-market strategies, including corporate social responsibility and sustainability. Exploring the underlying mechanisms at the source of individual-level variation (next to firm-, industry-, and country-level variation) related to sustainable value creation may support theory development that can ultimately break new ground in explaining the strategic behavior and sustainable performance of MNEs. We formulate future research suggestions toward that end.

Abstract:
Critical research is highlighting how processes of (in)security are transformed by the participation of new agencies and actors, especially data managers and IT systems operators. Expanding analysis to account for these new agencies and actors requires engaging with their professional practices. I argue that these actors can be understood as a guild of IT service managers who operate under a logic of service and are not just another (in)securitising actor. To do so, I analyse the practices of operational management carried out by the European Union Agency for the Operational Management of Large-Scale IT systems in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (eu-LISA). By organising its work in line with a logic of service, eu-LISA rationalises its seemingly contradictory relationship to the field of (in)security. Despite its active participation in the construction and maintenance of IT systems for border security, eu-LISA does not make sense of its work or role in terms of security. Rather, it views its work as distinct from but in support of that of professionals of (in)security. I characterise this relationship to the field as one of delimiting security. Identifying this relationship reframes the securitisation/desecuritisation dualism as a continuum, reflecting the increasing complexity of actors’ relationships to security.

Abstract:
Financial capital is currently being heralded for its potential to provide social and environmental transformations. This paper provides an in-depth case study of the Seychelles Blue Bond, highlighting the state’s (fiscal and planning) capacities as central in mediating the future rents and value production when channelling thematic bond proceeds. Even as the Blue Bonds tapped into private capital markets and bond proceeds were intended to provide leverage for private businesses, this operation was contingent on complex economic and environmental planning by the state. Using literature on fictitious capital, rent and the role of the state in governing natural resources, this paper shows how the state needed to govern investment flows and its environmental conditions simultaneously in the case of the Seychelles Blue Bonds. By examining how the state tries to govern environments and finance in tandem, this paper contributes to geographical research on public fiscal policy, financialisation and environmental governance.

Abstract:
The purpose of this paper is to explore how Work Integrated Learning (WIL) as pedagogical approach advances students’ life-long learning for a sustainable future. It addresses the research question: How can WIL enhance students’ transformative competencies for sustainability? The empirical focus lies on the development of a sustainabilityoriented WIL at the master’s programme in Business Administration at Kristianstad University. Based on the results, this paper suggests a sustainability-oriented WIL model showing how sustainable development can be embraced in higher education while fostering transformative competencies that have both direct and indirect beneficial impacts.

Abstract:
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to compare three models of employee ownership and to identify pros and cons in relation to how the models can overcome the barriers. Which choices are important when defining the overall rules around the models and the specific possibilities for variations and combinations and what are the pros and cons for these choices?

Design/methodology/approach
The comparison is based on the three main models of employee ownership identified from the country descriptions in this special issue.

Findings
The models do not exclude each other. The models can all be promoted in a specific country, leaving the choice of specific model to the stakeholders involved in the establishment of the employee-owned company. The article also shows the possibility of combining different models and in this way to adjust to specific preferences and conditions – e.g. whether employees and other stakeholders want collective or individual ownership and whether it concerns a start-up or a succession company.

Originality/value
This paper identified the key differences and similarities of different models for employee ownership including pros and cons of worker cooperative vs the Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) and the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) models.

Abstract:
Counterfactual explanations have become a very popular interpretability tool to understand and explain how complex machine learning models make decisions for individual instances. Most of the research on counterfactual explainability focuses on tabular and image data and much less on models dealing with functional data. In this paper, a counterfactual analysis for functional data is addressed, in which the goal is to identify the samples of the dataset from which the counterfactual explanation is made of, as well as how they are combined so that the individual instance and its counterfactual are as close as possible. Our methodology can be used with different distance measures for multivariate functional data and is applicable to any score-based classifier. We illustrate our methodology using two different real-world datasets, one univariate and another multivariate.

Abstract:
The Clustered Factor (CF) model is commonly used to parametrize block correlation matrices. We show that the CF model imposes additional superfluous restrictions. This can be avoided by a different parametrization, based on the logarithmic block correlation matrix.

Abstract:
We study the link between illiquidity and co-movement in illiquidity and the way asset managers trade off illiquidity and co-illiquidity in their portfolio allocation decision. By exploring two experiments – the 2005 SHO Regulation and 2016 Tick Size pilot program – we document the way fund managers manage co-illiquidity risk and the implication for the market degree of illiquidity and co-illiquidity.

Abstract:
Sharing economy (SE) service providers (e.g., home-sharing hosts) are regularly faced with customer misbehavior, either directly via their own experiences or indirectly via the experiences of other providers. In our study, we demonstrate that this increases providers’ perceived risk and, ultimately, their intention to quit sharing. Based on a comprehensive framework, we identify several boundary conditions for providers’ risk processing. We tested our model utilizing a sample of 1,312 owners of European holiday homes. Regarding sharing platforms’ management, our results offer insights for reducing provider turnover by selectively encouraging providers to share experiences with each other and by increasing service providers’ enjoyment in sharing. We performed an additional multigroup analysis to examine the role of providers’ places of residence, which reveals important differences. For example, it appears that risk-related information acquired in face-to-face interactions has a greater impact on perceived risk than information from indirect exchanges (e.g., online forums).

Abstract:
Most climate and energy scenarios created by interna-
tional organizations and researchers include a considerable expansion of nuclear energy. In the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report, for example, nuclear energy increases from a cur-rent 3,000 terawatt hours on average to over 6,000 terawatt hours in 2050 and to over 12,000 terawatt hours in 2100. This doubling and quadrupling of nuclear energy production by 2050 and 2100 is contradictory to the technical and economic realities: At no point have newly built nuclear energy plants ever been competitive, nor will they become so in the foresee-able future. This contradiction, referred to here as the nuclear energy scenario paradox, can be explained by a series of politi-co-economic, institutional, and geopolitical factors. In particu-lar, the close relationship between the military and commercial uses of nuclear energy as well as the interest of the nuclear industry and its organizations in self-preservation play a role. The assumptions and model logic of the scenarios must be critically scrutinized. There is the risk that considerable public and private funds will be invested in developing technologies for the commercial use of nuclear energy despite the fact that other technologies are expected to offer a significantly better cost-performance ratio with fewer economic, technical, and military risks. In light of the urgency of climate change mitiga-tion, continuing to channel personnel and financial resources into nuclear energy is problematic.

Abstract:
This article discusses the practice of academic critique in industrial architectural research. Based on examples from a PhD project conducted in collaboration between an architecture school and two different industrial partners, it shows the significance of the expectations we hold to critique. Often these expectations prove quite different for one who engages in critique in order to give an account of a broader issue in an academic context, and for the one who becomes involved in this critique in the role of an informant or as representing the studied practice. Focusing on notions of negative and affirmative critique, the article argues that, in addition to the alignment of expectations of interests and aims of the research between the collaborating parties (e.g., PhD candidate, academic institution and industrial participants), there is another kind of ongoing alignment that needs attention in the research process. This alignment concerns the cultivation of an ability to explain and redefine the purpose of academic critique and a readiness to acknowledge that industrial partners often have very legitimate reasons to question the ramifications that the critique may have for their professional practice.

Abstract:
In this essay, I reflect on the growing political obstacles to doing business history in China and how, in my doctoral dissertation research, I attempted to overcome them. More specifically, I discuss how I drew on unconventional historical sources and novel data to examine the relationship between informal entrepreneurial activity and economic change in Maoist China (1949–1978). Through the quantitative analysis of thousands of case files of individuals prosecuted as “speculators and profiteers”—discarded administrative documents that were recovered from Chinese flea markets—I reassessed the scale and scope of informal entrepreneurial activity in Maoist China. I then went on to triangulate these data with evidence found in other sources to illustrate how, over time, informal entrepreneurial activity became more collusive, encompassing, and impossible to contain. Ultimately, I argued that China’s “Reform and Opening Up” was not the state-led watershed event that it is often made out to be; rather, economic and institutional change was, at least partly, the result of a bottom-up transformation, decades in the making. This essay thus suggests that the use of unconventional sources and mixed methods presents opportunities both for doing research in contexts where history is being actively securitized and for producing countervailing narratives that decenter the state.

Abstract:
Although constraints on hours worked at the firm-level are viewed as an important determinant of firm wages, little direct evidence exists to support this view. In this paper, we use linked employer-employee data on hours worked in Denmark to measure hours constraints and to investigate how these constraints relate to firm wages. We show that firms with stricter constraints pay higher firm-specific wages and that these premiums are concentrated in more productive firms. Starting from these findings we discuss a framework in which hours constraints are motivated by the productivity gains derived from having a more cooperative production process, leading more productive firms to constrain hours and to pay compensating wage differentials.

Abstract:
Although cloud computing is associated with organizational agility, anecdotal evidence points to resistance to cloud computing by employees in information technology (IT) units. We explored the links between software as a service (SaaS) and organizational agility by conducting two stages of interviews with key informants in large organizations, and by employing affordance and inertia-theoretical lenses. Two basic affordances emerged from the retroductive data analysis – implementing quickly and sourcing independently – which in turn yielded two higher-level affordances: trialing alternatives and self-organizing business teams. We developed a model that explains how and why these four affordances enhance agility by accelerating the sensing-to-acting process of organizations. We also describe how five categories of organizational inertia in IT units hinder agility. Our main contribution is how adopting SaaS applications enables organizational agility while highlighting the role of IT unit inertia in SaaS affordance actualization processes.

Abstract:
This paper analyses the relations between intellectual capital (IC) and innovation. It links interest in the macro-effects of intellectual capital, typically found in cross-sectional studies on the effects of intellectual capital, to micro-studies of the performativity of intellectual capital. The former literature suffers from a lack of attention to the mechanisms that produce innovation, and the latter suffers from its focus on stabilising decisions in uncertain situations. The paper draws on the notion of perlocutionary performativity, which, in addition to suggesting that IC provokes effects, underlines that particular directions of these effects are uncertain, if not unknown. To show the mechanism through which perlocutions work, the paper draws on Butler’s (1993; 1997) distinction between citability and ex-citability. According to this perspective, a citation of an IC corpus of expressions (citations, references, information) may be transformed, by being circulated (re-cited) and brought into a new potentially innovative arrangement, something which goes beyond (ex-cites) the cited reference. Over time, IC citations provoke innovation. Such a relation can be traced as a bushy form of innovation, which develops from a set of IC citations that have some durability in being reproduced regularly. The paper shows, through the analysis of two decades of reporting from Autostrade, that IC is both a set of disciplined citations of a particular kind of use value, a set of obligations to invest along this use value, and an unpredictable capitalisation of items of innovation.

Abstract:
L’article se fonde sur la théorie de la typologie lexicale développée par Michael Herslund et sur l’application de ses travaux aux rapports entre langage, cognition et identité. La langue, en effet, n’est pas seulement un moyen de communication mais également de conceptualisation. Ainsi va-t-elle jouer un rôle dans la manière de concevoir le monde et dans l’établissement d’une « identité nationale », à savoir la manière dont les habitants d’un pays, dans leurs relations sociales, vont se distinguer de ceux d’autres pays. L’article traite plus spécifiquement des difficultés que rencontrent les locuteurs danois dans leurs rapports avec leurs homologues français.

Abstract:
Building on transaction cost economics and the literature on capabilities, we provide a new, integrative lens on core firms in ecosystems. Specifically, we characterize ecosystems with core firms as a hybrid governance structure and describe the externally-oriented capabilities of core firms as means to reduce ecosystem-level transaction costs. The starting point for our analysis is the identification of three adaptation problems that stem from limitations to modularity in ecosystems (interoperability, customization, and availability), and we argue that each is associated with observable characteristics of the technology prevalent in an ecosystem. Thus, the core firm's externally-oriented capabilities are geared towards solving the respective adaptation problems. We further distinguish between governance capabilities, which serve to influence other ecosystem participants in ways that mitigate the above-mentioned adaptation problems, and problem-focused capabilities, which are targeted at making sure that adaptation problems are solved or do not arise in the first place. Overall, our focus on adaptation problems and transaction costs allows us to provide a theoretically unified view on core firms in ecosystems while simultaneously showing how their capabilities systematically differ in different types of ecosystems.

Abstract:Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to give an updated overview over the development of employee-ownership in Italy, France, Spain including Mondragon, the UK, and the US with relatively many employee-owned firms. How has the barriers for employee-ownership been overcome in these countries?

Design/methodology/approach – The overview is based on updated descriptions of the development of employee-ownership included in this special issue. The analysis follows the structure of overcoming five barriers: the organization problem; the startup and takeover problem; the problem of entry and exit of employee-owners; the capital- and the risk problem.

Findings – Italy, France and Spain have overcome the barriers by specific legislation for worker cooperatives, this includes rules for entry and exit of employee members. Cooperative support organizations play an important role for monitoring and managing the startup problem and for access to capital. The Mondragon model includes individual ownership elements and a group structure of cooperatives. The EOT and ESOP models are well suited for employee takeovers, financing are eased by tax advantages, and they are all-employee schemes. While the EOT has no individual risks the ESOP model has the possibility for capital gains for employees but also the risk of losing these gains.

Originality/value – Comprehensive and updated overview of the development in employee-ownership in the five countries to identify successful formats of employee-ownership for implementation in countries with few employee-owned firms.

Abstract:
Counterfactual Explanations are becoming a de-facto standard in post-hoc interpretable machine learning. For a given classifier and an instance classified in an undesired class, its counterfactual explanation corresponds to small perturbations of that instance that allows changing the classification outcome. This work aims to leverage Counterfactual Explanations to detect the important decision boundaries of a pre-trained black-box model. This information is used to build a supervised discretization of the features in the dataset with a tunable granularity. Using the discretized dataset, an optimal Decision Tree can be trained that resembles the black-box model, but that is more interpretable and compact. Numerical results on real-world datasets show the effectiveness of the approach in terms of accuracy and sparsity.

Abstract:
Denne artikel sætter fokus på de sidste 30 års udvikling i den internationale klimaret i forhold til kompensation for tab og skader som følge af den globale opvarmning. I 1992 – med virkning fra 1994 – blev Riokonventionen (UNFCCC) vedtaget i FN uden at inddrage kompensation for klimaforandringerne. Ved COP 27 besluttede FN at oprette en fond med henblik på kompensation for tab og skader som følge af klimaforandringerne for små og sårbare lande under Riokonventionen og Parisaftalen. De seneste 30 års fokus på nedbringelse af drivhusgas på en omkostningseffektiv måde er således blevet udfordret og i artiklen analyseres reglerne for tab og skader i den internationale klimaret og den kommende fond for tab og skader.

Abstract:
We construct and run an experiment to test the most basic choice effect predicted by Salience Theory. Subjects allocate wealth between a risky and a safe investment. While we vary an apparent payoff ratio to influence salience, treatments have economically equivalent consequences. Most other theories of behavior then predict zero effect. Our experimental findings are strongly consistent with the behavioral implication of a continuous version of Salience Theory. We provide a novel structural estimate on the strength of salience. In our setting, increasing the relative payoff contrast by one percent is equivalent to an increased odds ratio by about 0.4 percent.

Abstract:
Ownership strategy is a governance mechanism formulated to reach consensus between owners on how to direct their organization towards value creation. Once implemented within an organization, questions arise as to how the ownership strategy influences board dynamics, board decision-making, and, if the company’s governance improves as a result. These important questions are addressed in this study by means of a theoretical discussion and empirical case-based research. This approach looks at how an ownership strategy influences board dynamics as defined by the intellectual capital framework by Nicholson and Kiel (2004). Results of the study suggest that an ownership strategy influences board dynamics and affects board decision-making through board procedures and norms. The results suggest a positive association between board dynamics and an ownership strategy as it creates a clearer framework for decision-making. This study contributes by developing the concept of ownership strategy and explores its influence on board dynamics and decision-making. Given the results, company owners and corporate governance practitioners should consider ownership strategy as a possible governance mechanism to align owners with their board of directors. Policymakers, business owners, and directors interested in promoting long-term governance models can benefit by contemplating the role of an ownership strategy within organizations.

Abstract:
AI-generated text production is on the rise Zandan (2020), and AI writers seem to be playing an increasingly important role in marketing, L2 text production, lexicography and language teaching, cf. Simonsen (2020b; 2021a; 2022a; 2022b; Sharples/Pérez Y Pérez 2022; ChatGPT 2023; RYTR 2023; Writewithlaika 2023). In addition to that large national language datasets are being developed in many countries, cf. for example Kirchmeier et al. (2020), and these national word registers are expected to become an important backbone in AI-based lexicographic services. On this background, there seems to be a need for AI-based business models for lexicography. This article draws on a literature review focussing on business models and business-related considerations of relevance for lexicography. The insights from the literature review led to the development of a number of theoretical considerations on AI-based business models for lexicography. The article suggests three AI-based business models for different types of lexicography and demonstrates how these business models could be implemented in three concrete projects.

Abstract:
Significant greenhouse gas emission reductions can come from changing consumer behaviors. While the technical mitigation potential of such changes is known, evidence of their feasibility is less abundant. In a pre-registered international survey with mostly North American and European participants (n = 7,349), we examined the predictors and interrelationships between people’s perceived feasibility of changing consumer behaviors with low and high climate impact, their performance of these behaviors, and their support for behavior-regulating policies. Using regression analyses, we found that the key predictors of perceived behavioral plasticity, policy support, and behavioral performance were the perceived need for system change and environmental identity with more mixed results for the perceived effectiveness of individual action and trust in government. Our findings underscore the untapped potential of individual behavior change to accelerate climate change mitigation, demonstrating considerable plasticity in several high-impact behaviors and that individual behavior change need not preclude support for political change.

Abstract:
This paper debates whether the Association for Information Systems (AIS) and similar academic associations should leverage their power, resources, and collective expertise to promote the utilization of information technology for supporting social action undertaken by its members. Social action refers to activities designed to generate an impact on the well-being of society. The paper suggests that the AIS should advance cautiously by supporting and empowering members in their quest to engage in social action. The paper also explores the mechanism needed to realize this vision. We conclude that the community should hold further debates on the scope of the association’s involvement and procedures in various fora of interest.