Spotlight on new research publications in July

‘Being a Professional is Not the Same as Acting Professionally’: How Digital Technologies Have Empowered the Creation and Enactment of a New Professional Identity in Law
Abstract:
This paper shows that digital technologies have empowered new work practices and identity work in the setting of the legal profession in five different countries. Using qualitative data from 33 interviews with legal tech lawyers, supported by workplace and conference observations and photographs, we analyse how legal tech lawyers use social and material attributes to craft and enact a new identity. This identity is distinctly different from the established professional identity of lawyers, showing that legal tech lawyers see, and express, themselves as legal professionals in a broader sense, rather than identifying with traditional law. This paper explains how technology has functioned as an enabler for them to craft this new identity, much influenced by how, where, and when their work is done. The paper supports and extends a sociomaterial approach to understanding the implications of digital transformation and shows the potential of looking into the development of professional identities in this transformation.

Addressing a Human Rights Paradox in the Green Transition: Guidance for Invested Mining Operations to Benefit Local Communities
Abstract:
Current understandings of ‘cleaner production’ include views that companies should act on problems involving human rights, resources, and community involvement. They should contribute to human development and social enhancement through minimization of risks to people and communities, and support their development. While theory-based knowledge on how investors may do this remains limited, some transnational business governance instruments provide guidance. This article discusses how the human rights paradox of the green transition to fight climate change can be turned into opportunities for investors to contribute to local communities hosting transition minerals mining. We do this by examining guidance from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a major market for transition minerals or energy-related products containing such minerals, and China, the world's largest buyer and manufacturer of transition minerals. We identify actions suggested by these guidance instruments for investors to cascade human rights due diligence and relevant capacity through the investment chain in ways that both limit harmful impacts and contribute to communities' human rights.

Affiliation-based Hiring in Startups and the Origins of Organizational Diversity
Abstract:
Multiple imperatives call for more diversity in organizations, yet we know surprisingly little about why some organizations become more diverse than others. We focus on the early stages of organizations—the composition of founding teams (FTs) and the evolution of subsequent hiring practices, namely the prominence of finding new employees via founders’ prior employer and educational affiliations. Drawing upon theories of entrepreneurial resource mobilization and attraction–selection–attrition (ASA), we argue that FTs with common professional ties imprint post-founding hiring routines by making affiliation-based hiring (ABH) a more prominent practice to select new personnel. We posit that, although ABH fades quickly after founding, using this hiring strategy in the early stages of an organization shapes its trajectory for diversity and contributes to workforce homogenization in several dimensions as new firms mature. Using a mixed-methods approach combining large-scale employer–employee linked data from Denmark and in-depth surveys with founders from the US and UK, we find robust support for our theory and provide novel insights to the hiring processes in entrepreneurial firms. Our work advances our understanding of the enigmatic origins of within-organization homogeneity progression and offers important contributions to both theory and practice.

App-device Fit Matters: Understanding User Perceptions of Apps on Smartwatches and Smartphones
Abstract:
The smartwatch market is rapidly expanding, with a diverse range of apps now available to users. This study examines users’ perceptions and attitudes toward apps on smartwatches and smartphones. Our experiment revealed that users did not gener­ally perceive apps and the information they provide as more credible, timely, or of higher quality on smartwatches than on smartphones. Instead, the study identified app-device fit as the key factor that influences users’ perceptions. For apps that fit particularly well with smartwatches, such as body-related apps for health and sleep tracking, users rated app credibility, timeliness of data, infor­mation quality, and their overall attitude towards using the app higher on the specialized device (i.e., smartwatch) than on smartphones. However, no significant differences were found for sports-related domains, such as hiking and surfing. To optimize user experience, app developers should carefully consider the fit between the app and the device.

Asking Your Phone or a Frontline Employee?: The Influence of In-store Information Source on Choice Overload, Responsibility, and Confidence Among Young Consumers
Abstract:
Consumers frequently use mobile phones in a store to search for external information as an alternative to consulting with frontline employees. Mobile phone usage is especially prevalent among young consumers. Drawing on qualitative study results and existing literature, we conceptualize the effects of different in-store information sources on choice overload, responsibility, and confidence among young consumers, as well as the moderating role of product category knowledge. A field experiment suggests that when knowledge is low, consulting with frontline employees (vs. mobile phone) leads to lower choice overload and, consequently, increases choice confidence. When knowledge is high, these beneficial effects are attenuated. At the same time, young consumers perceive greater choice responsibility when their phone is the information source; however, this does not influence choice confidence. This work contributes to extant literature by extending the knowledge of customer experience at the point of sale, the role of technology usage in in-store retailing, and the role of frontline employees as an information source. It also provides managerial implications for retailers by highlighting the importance of providing an opportunity for an in-person frontline employee interaction especially when customers have low product category knowledge.

Bias in Social Media Content Management: What Do Human Rights Have to Do with It?
Abstract:
In a global context where political campaigning, social movements, and public discourse increasingly take place online, questions regarding the regulation of speech by social media platforms become ever more relevant. Companies like Facebook moderate content posted by users on their platforms through a mixture of automated decision making and human moderators. In this content moderation process, human rights play an ambiguous role: those who struggle with marginalization may find a space for expression and empowerment, or face exacerbation of pre-existing bias. Focusing on the role of human rights in Meta's content management, this essay explores how the protection of speech on social media platforms disadvantages the cultural, social, and economic rights of marginalized communities. This is not to say that speech on social media platforms is devoid of emancipatory potential, but that this potential is not uniformly or equally accessible. We see the incorporation of human rights considerations into decision-making processes as an avenue for alleviating this challenge. This approach faces obstacles from the platforms’ business models, which decenters human rights concerns, and from the limitations of liberal accounts of human rights. From within and against these constraints, human rights can be mobilized as emancipatory power in an effort to decrease marginalization.

Climate Risks and State-level Stock Market Realized Volatility
Abstract:
We analyze the predictive value of climate risks for state-level realized stock market volatility, computed, along with other realized moments, based on high-frequency intra-day U.S. data (September, 2011 to October, 2021). A model-based bagging algorithm recovers that climate risks have predictive value for realized volatility at intermediate and long (one and two months) forecast horizons. This finding also holds for upside (“good”) and downside (“bad”) realized volatility. The benefits of using climate risks for predicting state-level realized stock market volatility depend on the shape and (as-)symmetry of a forecaster’s loss function.

Compensation Shifting from Salary to Dividends
Abstract:
This paper examines whether owner-managers of small firms use their compensation strategically to change reported earnings. We identify an institutional setting, Denmark, in which the owner-manager has the discretion to shift compensation from salary to dividends and hence increase reported earnings at almost no direct cost due to approximate tax neutrality between the two income streams. Three findings emerge. First, owner-managers are twice as likely to decrease their salary when doing so can result in meeting or beating the zero earnings benchmark. Second, those decreasing their salaries to beat the benchmark are 45% more likely to increase dividends simultaneously than those who can beat the benchmark but do not. This indicates that reporting incentives shape compensation shifting. Third, owner-managed firms enjoy about 6% (EUR 1070) lower interest rates (interest expenses), than firms reporting losses, when they beat the benchmark by simultaneously decreasing salaries and increasing dividends. Our results highlight that owner-managers can manage reported earnings by altering their own compensation, which has economic consequences for the firm. This has implications for users of owner-managed firms’ financial reports because reported earnings would seem a poor contracting signal for these firms.

Conceptualizing Business Model Piloting: An Experiential Learning Process for Autonomous Solutions
Abstract:
Business model innovation supports manufacturers in the pursuit of new opportunities. However, successfully innovating a new business model presents a significant learning challenge, especially for highly advanced offerings, such as autonomous solutions. Experiential learning approaches, such as business model piloting, are crucial for fine tuning and scaling new business models, yet the current literature fails to adequately examine business model innovation in the context of advanced industrial offerings. In endeavoring to advance current research, we apply a business model piloting lens to advance understanding of how manufacturers engage in business model piloting for autonomous solutions. Our research builds on a multiple case study of piloting initiatives at two manufacturers, involving 32 interviews with senior managers responsible for autonomous-solution business model pilots. This study proposes a business model piloting framework to support manufacturers in overcoming business model innovation challenges. The framework consists of three phases: business model design, business model validation, and business model institutionalization. Each phase includes key business model piloting activities. We also identify three principles that support experiential learning in business model piloting. We contribute to the business model innovation literature by highlighting the strategic and multi-dimensional nature of business model piloting. This process requires simultaneous configuration of novel technologies for value creation and the design of suitable value delivery and capture mechanisms.

Consumer Segmentation based on Three Dimensions of Sustainable Food Consumption: A Simultaneous Analysis of Meat, Organic Food, and Sweet Snack Purchases based on Household Panel Data in Germany
Abstract:
The literature on sustainable food consumption laments two major gaps: First, the majority of previous studies analyzed consumer behavior based on survey data on consumers’ self-reported behaviors and attitudes. Second, most existing studies focused on one dimension of sustainable food choices. This paper identifies and analyzes consumer segments based on the actual purchases of 8,400 households recorded in the GfK household panel data from Germany. We used three indicators of sustainable food consumption behavior: (1) the purchase of organic products as a proxy for the environmental impact of diets, (2) the purchase of meat as a proxy for the climate impact of diets, and (3) the purchase of sweet snacks as a proxy for the healthiness of a diet. The analysis yielded two larger segments with high expenditure shares for one type of unsustainable food (meat/sweet snacks, respectively), two small segments with above average (medium/high) expenditure shares for organic food, and a large ‘mainstream’ segment. The five consumer segments were further analyzed regarding the observed attitude-behavior gap, and the actual prices paid in different product categories. Clear gaps between stated and actual behavior were revealed with interesting differences between the five segments and the three sustainability characteristics. The analysis is a vital starting point for designing a holistic policy instrument mix to close the gaps and to reach a sustainable transformation of the food system.

Debt Dynamics and Credit Risk
Abstract:
We investigate how the dynamics of corporate debt policy affect the pricing of corporate bonds. We find empirically that debt issuance has a significant stochastic component that is imperfectly correlated with shocks to asset value. As a consequence, the volatility of leverage is significantly higher than asset volatility over short horizons. At long horizons, the relation between leverage and asset volatility is reversed due to mean reversion in leverage. We incorporate these stochastic debt dynamics into structural models of credit risk, both standard diffusion models as well as newer models with stochastic volatility and jumps. Including stochastic debt gives more accurate predictions of credit spreads in both the cross-section and the time series.

Desenvolvendo capacidade dinâmica em estratégias sociais
Abstract:
This paper aims to understand how firms develop a dynamic capability to implement social strategies and manage pressures from local and global stakeholders. A multiple case study was conducted with four Brazilian multinationals in the pulp and paper industry. These firms develop dynamic capabilities to adapt to a changing environment by monitoring it and learning from their stakeholders, nurturing mutually beneficial relationships and partnerships with other organizations, and constantly adopting or influencing social strategies. This paper’s findings extend the literature that converges social strategies and dynamic capabilities by presenting evidence that these firms are developing and deploying a dynamic capability to implement social strategies. The findings also show that firms can develop complex and dynamic capabilities to manage stakeholder demands at local and global levels. Finally, this paper contributes to the dynamic capability and social strategy literature by demonstrating that such capability is critical in managing multiple stakeholders.

Digital Media Revitalising Colonial Heritage: The George Floyd Video Translocalized in Denmark
Abstract:
In this paper, we analyse how the colonial spectrality of the George Floyd video translocalises from the United States to Denmark to form heritage assemblages of solidarity, removal and repression that re-vitalize the colonial past and anti-racist protests in contemporary contexts. Through our analysis, we unfold the affective capacities of the Floyd video and its memetic mutations that mobilize publics against asymmetries inherited from colonialism and invent new forms of activism. We show that while protester tactics following Floyd demonstrate a reflexive distribution of subjectivities and positionalities, minority voices and efforts to remove symbols of colonialism are condemned and suppressed in Denmark. Our main contribution is to include digital media into heritage assemblages as an affective device. A second contribution is presenting digital epidemiography as an affective methodology to remotely study transient and unpredictable global events, through an analysis of digital traces found on the internet. A third contribution is the knowledge of how post-Floyd heritage assemblages in Denmark position this Scandinavian country as a former colonizer in the decolonial turn.

Does Gradeless Learning Affect Students’ Academic Performance? A Study of Effects Over Time
Abstract:
Many have suggested that performance grading may be a factor in the increasing number of students reporting having mental health issues, including feelings of stress. Gradeless learning has been shown to ease the pressure on students because it encourages a focus on learning rather than performance. Indeed, gradeless learning has been documented to benefit well-being, stress reduction, motivation, and learning approach, but its influence on academic performance requires more investigation. Drawing on a quantitative analysis, we empirically examine the effect of gradeless learning on a broad set of outcomes including well-being and stress, but focus specifically on students’ later academic performance as measured by grades. Our findings reveal that gradeless learning can increase motivation and reduce surface learning but has no significant effect on students’ later academic achievements. The study concludes that gradeless learning can provide a relevant alternative to grades if carefully designed.

Drivers of R&D Greenfield Investment Projects in the Communications, Software and IT Service Industries in Developing Countries
Abstract:
Globalization has led to the decentralization of research and development (R&D) activities by multinational enterprises (MNEs). Investment in these activities is affected by both the host-country environment and the investment strategies of the entrant MNEs. Using data on greenfield R&D investment projects for a sample of digital MNEs in the communications, software and IT service industries during the period 2003–2019, we investigate the importance of host-country characteristics on MNEs’ R&D investment and examine the moderating role of the host country’s innovation capabilities as well as two strategies – exploitation versus exploration – on the part of MNEs. We find that the size of investment projects is larger in developing countries than in developed ones, especially when host countries have stronger innovation capabilities and when MNEs pursue strategies of exploitation rather than exploration. Our findings contribute to the extant research in this area and furnish related policy implications for developing countries.

Ecological Community Logics, Identifiable Business Ownership, and Green Innovation as a Company Response
Abstract:
We investigate which companies are more inclined to respond with green innovation to ecological community logics. We propose that the noneconomic utility of doing so – in the form of personal reputation gains for business owners – is greater when owner identifiability is higher, and that owner identifiability therefore intensifies the effect of normative ecological community pressures on firm-level green innovation. Our hypotheses are tested on a sample of over 2800 German firms using instrumental variable regression analyses and we find empirical support for our ideas. This study advances the institutional sustainability literature by explaining how community- and firm-level attributes interact to account for heterogeneity in firms' green innovation activities.

Exploring Causes and Potential Solutions for Food Waste among Young Consumers
Abstract:
Young consumers are often described as innovative and concerned about the environment. However, their practices sometimes are not strong enough, which are described as the attitude–behavior gap and are seen in significant amounts of food waste. The objective of this study is to focus on food waste among young consumers in high-income countries and to outline the main determinants of food waste generation. Qualitative data gathered from nine focus groups in Lithuania, Finland and Denmark (2021–2022) contribute to formulating potential intervention to decrease food waste behavior within this segment. The article provides a substantial literature review on food waste and discusses recommendations for possible interventions and further research to solve the attitude–behavior gap. The findings show four specific fields for potential solutions, related to (1) special occasions, (2) assessing food quality, (3) kitchen habits, and (4) shopping habits. Our contribution is discussed at the end of the article.

Gender Gaps from Labor Market Shocks
Abstract:
Job loss leads to persistent adverse labor market outcomes, but assessments of gender differences in labor market recovery are lacking. We utilize plant closures in Denmark to estimate gender gaps in labor market outcomes and document that women face an increased risk of unemployment and lose a larger share of their earnings in the two years following job displacement. The majority of the gender gap in unemployment remains after accounting for observable differences in human capital across men and women. In a standard decomposition framework, we document that child care imposes an important barrier to women’s labor market recovery regardless of individual characteristics.

Guest Editors' Introduction: New Challenges to the Enlightenment: How Twenty-First-Century Sociotechnological Systems Facilitate Organized Immaturity and How to Counteract It
Abstract:
Organized immaturity, the reduction of individual capacities for public use of reason constrained by sociotechnological systems, constitutes a significant pushback against the project of Enlightenment. Forms of immaturity have long been a concern for philosophers and social theorists, such as Kant, Arendt, Fromm, Marcuse, and Foucault. Recently, Zuboff’s concept of “surveillance capitalism” describes how advancements in digital technologies lead to new, increasingly sophisticated forms of organized immaturity in democratic societies. We discuss how sociotechnological systems initially designed to meet human needs can inhibit the multidimensional development of individuals as mature citizens. To counteract these trends, we suggest two mechanisms: disorganizing immaturity as a way to safeguard individuals’ and collectives’ negative freedoms (freedoms from), and organizing maturity as a way to strengthen positive freedoms (freedoms to). Finally, we provide an outlook on the five further articles that constitute the Business Ethics Quarterly Special Issue “Sociotechnological Conditions of Organized Immaturity in the Twenty-First Century.”

Gør dit forarbejde og bliv mere tilfreds med virksomhedens næste investering
Abstract:
Virksomheder foretager hvert år betydelige investeringer med henblik på at udvikle driften. Set fra virksomhedens og dens ejeres synsvinkel er investeringerne interessante, da de på den ene side involverer en risikotagning, hvor worst case er tab af hele investeringen og på den anden side mulige positive konsekvenser i form af større aktivitet og indtjening. Det er fair at konkludere, at der typisk er noget på spil for virksomheder, når de foretager investeringer

Imagining Futures: Cognitive Processes of Desirable or Undesirable Project Prospections
Abstract:
The identification of plausible desirable and undesirable future events is fundamentally a cognitive process of prospecting possible futures. Yet, organizational practices designed for the identification and management of these uncertain futures, specifically project risk management, heed little attention to the role of cognition in these processes. Building on the theory of ‘pragmatic prospection’, we address this gap and examine the cognitive processes involved in prospection of desirable vs. undesirable project futures while identifying opportunities vs. risks. Empirically, we analyse the information search behaviour and post-hoc search verbalization in an experimental project risk and opportunity identification task. We find that risk identification relies often on simpler approaches with lower cognitive load, while opportunities triggered more explicit information search strategies and were more prone to evoke agency within the imagined futures. These findings challenge the assumption – widely held in risk management practice – that risks and opportunities can be approached by the same processes. We conclude with an outlook on how a better understanding of the involved cognitive processes can support foresight activities in project planning and beyond.

Introducing Behavioral Wedges and Nudging Into the Production Process to Reduce CO2: Frontløberne and the First Attempt to Create a CO2 Neutral Production in Denmark
Abstract:
In January 2020, two actors in Denmark started an association, Bæredygtig Scenekunst NU (BS NU), dedicated to making theatre environmentally sustainable. Six weeks later, the country closed down due to COVID-19, and theatres closed. A few weeks later, Jacob Teglgaard from BS NU and Anne Gry Henningsen, Artistic Director of Mærkværk agreed that the play Frontløberne would be BS NU’s pilot project and proof of concept to test the policies and procedures BS NU hoped to eventually institute throughout the performing arts industry in Denmark. BS NU introduced behavioral wedges in the forms of an Environmental Policy, an Environmental Action Plan, and monitoring into the production process with the goal of nudging behavior to reduce emissions. In light of these behavioral wedges, this article will examine BS NU and Mærkværk’s journey of sustainability, the steps taken to create a sustainable production, elaborate the successes and failures of the process, and, most importantly, create a baseline CO2 figure for the production. Furthermore, it will discuss whether the behavioral wedges and nudging have led to shifting mindsets and long term behavioral changes that reduce CO2 emissions in theatrical production processes at Mærkværk.

Is the Information on Green Hotel Websites Aligned with the Drivers Affecting Customers’ Intention to Visit Green Hotels? A Mixed-methods Approach
Abstract:
Understanding enablers and barriers influencing customers’ intention to use green hotels can help managers formulate better online green marketing strategies. However, existing studies fail to capture these aspects. The present multi-method-based multi-study explored customer perspectives from different sources (qualitative interviews of 20 participants and quantitative surveys of 311 respondents) to explore the enablers/barriers and compared it with the website content of 27 green hotels from India (user-generated content). The participants/respondents were mainly Indian tourists who have either stayed in green hotels or have knowledge about green hotels. Study 1 and Study 2 found enablers “value-for-nature” (“environmental preservation”), “voluntary reduction-in-tourist eco-behavior” (“contributes-to-environment”), “emotional values” (“closer-to-nature”), and barriers “traditional” (“operational difficulties”) and “risk” (“expectations-vs-reality”) affecting customers’ intention to use green hotels. However, the website content of green hotels (in Study 3) failed to capture what all green initiatives are implemented and how it will not compromise with the luxury.

Is There a Replication Crisis in Finance?
Abstract:
Several papers argue that financial economics faces a replication crisis because the majority of studies cannot be replicated or are the result of multiple testing of too many factors. We develop and estimate a Bayesian model of factor replication that leads to different conclusions. The majority of asset pricing factors (i) can be replicated; (ii) can be clustered into 13 themes, the majority of which are significant parts of the tangency portfolio; (iii) work out-of-sample in a new large data set covering 93 countries; and (iv) have evidence that is strengthened (not weakened) by the large number of observed factors.

Karriereaspirationer hos unge revisorer: Hvad sætter unge revisorer pris på i deres arbejde i revisorbranchen?
Abstract: 
(2012) om FSRs daværende arbejde vedrørende revisorers ambitioner, ønsker, forventninger og krav til en fremtidig karriere i revisorbranchen. Undersøgelsen pegede på faktorer der påvirkede den danske revisorprofession, herunder imageudfordringer af professionen, ledelsesudfordringer ved at udvikle og fastholde medarbejdere, samt et ønske om at tiltrække flere kvinder til professionen. Denne artikel begynder med at beskrive unge revisorers karrieambitioner og kaster efterfølgende lys over faktorer, som er væsentlige for hvordan unge revisorer i Danmark forholder sig til deres fremtid indenfor revisorprofessionen. De beskrevne indsigter er baseret på data fra 94 unge revisorer i Danmark med en gennemsnitlig arbejdserfaring af 2,8 år i revisorprofessionen. Deltagerne i undersøgelsen er i gennemsnit 26 år gamle. 52,13 % af vores deltager arbejder i store revisionsfirmaer og 42,55 % er kvinder.

Layers of Love: Exploring the Interactive Layers of Brand Love in the Social Media Setting
Abstract:
Purpose: This study aims to add to the understanding of the interactive nature of brand love by using a multilayer perspective that incorporates individual, group and societal contexts.

Design/methodology/approach: The qualitative empirical study uses abductive reasoning. Its theories and conclusions are grounded in naturally occurring data from an online brand community. The approach revealed new interactive processes of brand love.

Findings: This study extends our understanding of the interactive nature of brand love by adopting a layered perspective incorporating micro- (individual), meso- (in-group), macro- (in-group vs out-group) and mega-layer (societal) social dynamics that complements the predominant focus on individual psychological processes. It challenges the linear, monodirectional trajectory approach to brand love, suggesting that brand love is in constant flux as individuals move across the layers in their identification with the brand.

Research limitations/implications: This study provides data from one destination brand in Finland. Future studies could consider other types of brands and contexts in other countries and cultures.

Practical implications: This study shows brand managers that brand lovers can be divided into subgroups with distinct drivers of their love to which brand managers should attend.

Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to describe the interactive nature of brand love through interactions between and within four layers of brand love. Furthermore, this study enhances our understanding of the contradictory aspects of brand love.

Lobbyists into Government
Abstract: 

Lobbying firms seek access to policymaking by hiring individuals with connections to government officials and with previous experience as government employees. This paper examines a different avenue for access: the transition of a firm's lobbyists into government roles. We find firms frequently forge connections to government in this manner and their business benefits as a result. Using panel data from 2001 to 2020 of U.S. federal bureaucrats and congressional staff matched to lobbying records, we quantify the value to lobbying firms when their employees enter government service. We find lobbying firms that gain government connections through the departure of one of their lobbyists experience a 36% revenue increase, or roughly $320,000 per year. In examining what drives this increase in revenue, we find firms present connections as a premium service to existing clients and that connections to congressional offices are more valuable than those gained to executive branch agencies. These results shed light onto the business model of lobbying firms and the political economy of the lobbying industry

Managing Geopolitical Risks: The Global Oil and Gas Industry Plays a Winning Game
Abstract:
Purpose
Geopolitical risks associated with the return of great power politics and growing nationalism have generated new challenges for foreign investors across industries. Oil and gas companies are well acquainted with such risks and have developed strategies to manage them. This paper reviews five of these strategies: divorcing ownership control from operating control in designing collaborative ventures; proactively managing stakeholder relationships; ensuring transparency and communication; diversifying risks while proactively positioning for emerging opportunities; and deliberately planning for exit should such an eventuality arise. Firms outside of oil and gas can draw on these strategies as they navigate the emerging geopolitical context.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper reviews five strategies that oil and gas companies can use to manage geopolitical risk: divorcing ownership control from operating control in designing collaborative ventures; proactively managing stakeholder relationships; ensuring transparency and communication; diversifying risks while proactively positioning for emerging opportunities; and deliberately planning for exit should such an eventuality arise.

Findings
This study identifies several strategies that oil and gas companies have used to manage geopolitical risks. These tools will be increasingly important in the shifting global political landscape.

Originality/value
Drawing on the experiences of oil and gas companies, this study has identified several strategies that companies can use to shield themselves from the risks that are currently emanating from geopolitics. While these best practices originate in the experiences of oil and gas firms, the ability to deftly manage geopolitical risks is becoming an important prerequisite for companies across industries.

Multiple-principal Demands and CEO Compliance in Emerging Market State-owned Enterprises
Abstract: 

This study addresses multiple-principal–agent power dynamics in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in emerging markets. We investigate under what conditions agents (CEOs) accede to demands of government-linked principals. Our qualitative study in Indonesia advances agency theory by disaggregating and categorizing government-linked principals. We also examine three types of principals’ demands (commercial, social, and private) and five types of mechanisms influence agent responses with principals’ private demands (collusion among principals, career-ending threats by principals, plausible deniability through CSR, political ties as enabler, political ties as buffer). Based on our findings and on insights from the public administration literature, we develop a conceptual framework that advances multiple agency theory

New Entrants, Incumbents, and the Search for Knowledge: The Role of Job Title Ambiguity in the US Information and Communication Technology Industry, 2004–2014
Abstract: 

New entrants and incumbent firms rely on new knowledge to innovate and compete in the market. One way to acquire new knowledge is through the recruitment of new employees from competitors, a phenomenon popularly known as “poaching.” Digital labor platforms are widely used by firms for this aim. We argue that job titles represent the first and most visible public source of information about knowledge workers and thus play a key role in navigating the vast spectrum of competencies available in digital platforms. Our analyses of the career trajectories of 11,644 knowledge workers in the United States between 2004 and 2014 suggest that increases in the ambiguity of a job title claimed by an employee are negatively associated with the likelihood of the employee being hired by a new employer. This finding appears stronger in the case of transitions to incumbent firms rather than new entrants. In the concluding section of the paper, we take stock of the various analyses presented and reflect on the potential role of job titles in the strategic management of human capital

On A Strategic Management Approach to the New EU Risk-Based Compliance Regulations
Abstract: 

CEOs cite the rise of disruptive digital technologies at the top of the list of trends that have had the greatest impact on how they are now leading their organisations. Companies require advanced data analytics, better artificial intelligence-driven processes, and reliable cybersecurity to meet ever-changing threats. To remain competitive and compliant, it is essential that the top management team and the board understand the strategic implications of new and proposed EU regulations calling for risk-based compliance. Although many law firms are creating new compliance departments eager to step in to serve as their clients’ compliance team, compliance is too important a function to outsource. In-house counsel may seek outside advice to better understand how the regulations apply to aspects of their firm's business. But we submit that this sea change requires in-house counsel to work with management to develop a core managerial competency we call strategic compliance management. It may also require in-house counsel to work with national regulators to develop the rules of the road. For example, companies must proactively address demands for increased user rights, including transparency about how personal data are used, and become more skilled at managing the costs of compliance

Optimal Retirement Savings Over the Life Cycle: A Deterministic Analysis in Closed Form
Abstract: 

In this paper, we explore the life cycle consumption-savings problem in a stylized model with a risk-free investment opportunity, a tax-deferred retirement account, and deterministic labor income. Our closed form solutions show that liquidity constraints can be severely binding; in particular in situations with a high growth rate of labor income, in which retirement saving is optimally postponed. With a tax-deferred account, it is always optimal to save in this (illiquid) account first before saving in the (liquid) taxable account in order to satisfy the needs for consumption smoothing. The optimal retirement savings pattern is far from the widespread practice of contributing a fixed fraction of current labor income over the working life to a tax-deferred environment

Organizational Resilience and Digital Resources: Evidence from Responding to Exogenous Shock by Going Virtual
Abstract: 

Recent events have renewed attention to how organizations rely on digital resources in response to exogenous shock. Though the literature on organizational resilience indicates that this is best understood as a process through which organizational actors respond to a specific shock, most IS research attends to resilience as an outcome. Against that backdrop, we present a case study of how a university shifted to virtual teaching in response to a government-imposed lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. Adopting a digital resourcing perspective allowed us to reveal the organizational resilience process and the way digital resources shaped it. We found that the resilience process unfolded in stages as educators, assisted by students, managers, and IT personnel pivoted, adapted, and normalized into teaching virtually. Across these stages, digital resources took on specific roles as the resilience process progressed from the organization’s pre-shock accumulation of digital resources into its continued digitalization efforts. Based on these findings, we contribute to existing literature by advancing and empirically substantiating a process view of the role of digital resources in organizational resilience

Organizations as Digital Enactment Systems: A Theory of Replacement of Humans by Digital Technologies in Organizational Scanning, Interpretation, and Learning
Abstract:

Digital transformation has become a dominant phenomenon of interest among information systems scholars. To account for the phenomenon, it is imperative to develop a theoretical understanding of its processes and objects. We adapt a seminal organizational theory that conceptualizes organizations as interpretation systems to a possible future of organizations. We theorize digital transformation as a progressive replacement of humans by digital technologies in performing an organization’s fundamental activities underpinning the processes of scanning, interpretation, and learning that encompass an organization’s interaction with its environment. As a result, organizations cease to be human interpretation systems, and instead turn into digital enactment systems where digital technologies, instead of humans, nearly autonomously create and act upon information. We illustrate this digital transformation theory using the example of high-frequency trading. This transformation redefines the relationship among organizations, information, and environment, changing the role of humans, and reshaping strategic decision-making. Thus conceived digital transformation offers a concrete way of theorizing and accounts for deep implications on the nature of organizations and organizing in the digital age

Power and Inequality in Global Value Chains: Advancing the Research Agenda
Abstract:

Power is a central, but largely undertheorized, concept for scholars of global value chains (GVCs). In this introduction to a special issue on power and inequality in GVCs, the authors summarize the key insights from the articles gathered here and explain how the collection advances our understanding of the types and forms of power operating in GVCs and their effect on different dimensions of inequality

Protection of Textiles and Crafts in the EU through Geographical Indications: An Evaluation of the New Legislative Proposal
Abstract:

The article evaluates the new legislative proposal, the Regulation on geographical indication protection for craft and industrial products. It traces the development of geographical indications in Europe and analyses the key points of the legislative proposal and its potential impact on the EU handicraft and textiles sector

Protégés of Power: Patrimonialism in Mobility Narratives of the Danish Power Elite
Abstract: 

Career narratives among the Danish power elite often include the facilitating presence of an elite superior. We explore the role patrons play in the mobility narratives of the Danish power elite. Drawing from a highly select group identified in the core of elite networks, we interviewed 37 individuals selected for maximal variation in career paths, networks and positions within the power elite. We referenced the concept of patrimonialism to understand the relations between patrons and protégés in building an elite career and develop a typology identifying three kinds of patrimonial relations described by elites, intra-organizational relations to mentors and patriarchs and inter-organizational relations to sponsors. We then empirically explore the three types of patrimonial relations. Finally, we argue that each of these patrimonial relations reinforce elite cohesion, even in the supposedly critical case of good governance in Denmark. Hence, patrimonial relations present a crucial perspective for understanding contemporary power structures

Strategy, Intentionality and Success: Four Logics for Explaining Strategic Action
Abstract:

Strategic success is usually associated with having deliberate intentions, prior stated goals and a comprehensively formulated plan for effective execution. This way of thinking is driven by a means–ends logic and underpinned by the cognitivist assumption that conscious thought and consequential reasoning drive effective action: such privileging of thought over action is endemic in strategic theorizing. Our purpose in this paper is to demonstrate the plausibility of other, pre-cognitive logics of strategic action and ‘intention’ as alternative explanatory bases for strategic success. We identify three such logics and their associated forms of intentionality. A ‘logic of practices’ views collectively shared habitus rather than conscious cognition/deliberate intention as the basis of effective strategic action. A ‘logic of situation’ emphasizes how situational momentum, tendencies and affordances themselves contain pre-cognitive ‘in-tensional’ impulses that actively elicit appropriate strategic responses. Finally, a ‘logic of potential’ associated with what Friedrich Nietzsche termed ‘will to power’. It is with this fourth logic, we suggest, that strategic intention becomes most effective. In will to power, strategy entails the relentless expanding of degrees of freedom from environmental constraints without presuming cognitive separation from it

The Digitalization Phenomenon and Digital Strategies in Emerging Countries: A Semi-systematic Review
Abstract:
Purpose:
Through a review of the literature on digitalization in emerging countries, we analyzed how companies operating in these regions develop and implement strategies to navigate the digital era.

Originality/value:
The emergence of new technologies has reconfigured businesses’ survival and competitiveness worldwide, however, little is known about the digital strategies employed by companies in emerging markets. By reviewing the literature, scarce in this context, we contributed by presenting examples of digital strategies that businesses have implemented. In line with our findings, we propose a research agenda to guide future studies.

Design/methodology/approach:
We performed a semi-systematic review of business and management journals, comprising a total sample of 30 articles from different fields of knowledge. We present our findings in three thematic categories and other subcategories.

Findings:
Our findings suggest the institutional voids that limit firms’ innovation (e.g., lack of clear regulations, skilled workforce, access to data, and financial resources) are the main challenges keeping them from digitalizing themselves. Nevertheless, firms develop capabilities to scout opportunities, despite the challenges, and implement digital strategies that support their digitalization process.

The Effect of Preserving Job Matches During a Crisis
Abstract: 

It is generally difficult to measure the importance of preserving worker-firm relationships, particularly for low-wage jobs that involve general skills. The COVID-19 pandemic led to the sudden and seemingly temporary disruption of millions of otherwise productive employment relationships around the world. Using novel administrative and survey data from Denmark, we study a policy where firms paid up to 25% of wages to furlough instead of firing workers. We find that aid-taking firms furloughed about 24pp more workers, a large share of whom would have otherwise been laid off, and this had a positive impact on subsequent firm survival, employment growth and sales. Further, we find firms derive value from maintaining ties to low-wage and blue collar workers and that preserving those matches is beneficial to firms, suggesting policies that preserve job matches may help speed-up recovery

The EU Solidarity Contribution and a More Proportional Alternative: A Study Under EU and International Investment Law
Abstract: 

This paper reviews the EU Solidarity Contribution that was recently introduced by the Council Regulation on Emergency Intervention to Address High Energy Prices and proposes a more proportional alternative. It is argued that the legitimacy of the EU Solidarity Contribution might be disputed. The role that Member States have played in driving up energy prices by filling their natural gas storages much more than the EU’s filling trajectory prescribes raises questions as to whether the EU Solidarity Contribution could be in conflict with the proportionality principle and whether all formal requirements of Article 122(1) Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) have been fulfilled. Furthermore, it is argued that the EU Solidarity Contribution may compromise protection of investments under international investment agreements (IIAs) as the current design might entail elements that violate fair and equitable treatment (FET). As an alternative to the EU Solidarity Contribution, the article proposes the following. First, a legal commitment should be introduced for fossil fuel companies to invest 100% of their realized excess profit for decarbonizing the economy under the threat of taxing away those excess profits in their entirety should it become apparent that the investments are not actually realized. Second, in lieu of the EU Solidarity Contribution, the incidental financial support measures for vulnerable households could be financed with the excess (windfall) revenue collected from Value Added Tax (VAT) and excise due to the high inflation in the EU in 2022

The Impact of Indigenous Culture and Business Group Affiliation on Corporate Governance of African Firms
Abstract:
Research Question/Issue
This is a study of the relationship between business group ownership and constituent firms' adoption of Anglo-American shareholder value governance in African firms at the undertaking of an initial public offering (IPO).

Research Findings/Insights
We find business group ownership to be associated with lower Anglo-American corporate governance adoption by constituent firms. However, this association is reversed in the institutional context of higher tribalism, while correspondingly being exacerbated in the context of lower tribalism.

Theoretical/Academic Implications
We theorize that the influence of business group ownership on firms' adoption of Anglo-American corporate governance is better understood when considering the institutional context. We highlight how informal cultural institutions are heterogeneous and thus shape the indigenous political economy and impact business groups. Specifically, we argue institutional contexts with higher tribalism are associated with more in-group favoritism and nepotism. This association makes it critical for business group constituent firms to escape the constraints of the political economy of tribalism when attracting outside funding, leading to a higher inclination to adopt Anglo-American governance. Contrastingly, in lower tribalism contexts, there is more universal trust across societies and an increased availability of domestic funding.

Practitioner/Policy Implications
Given the proliferation of business group ownership within economies worldwide, the study provides a useful framework with which to gauge the influence of business group ownership on a constituent firm's adoption of Anglo-American governance best practice. In particular, the study emphasizes that the interdependence of formal institutional architecture and tribalism—both fundamentally associated with the demographic shape and with the incentive structures embedded within the underlying national political economy—calls for careful considerations when making national corporate governance recommendations.

The Impact of Perceived Threat and Perceived Coping Efficacy on Individual Actions toward Biodiversity Conservation: A Registered Report
Abstract:

Biodiversity has decreased drastically over the last decades, posing an existential threat to all life on earth. Addressing this threat requires urgent actions to conserve biodiversity including changing the behavior of in-dividuals to reduce their impacts on biodiversity. In the present research, we applied an emotion-based persuasion appeal model to biodiversity conservation, based on the Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM), to examine how behavioral change can be best communicated and promoted. We tested the predictions of the EPPM that perceived threat (and related increases in fear) as well as coping efficacy (and related increases in optimism) interactively contribute to fostering behavioral change towards biodiversity conservation. To that end, we conducted an online experiment (N = 510) where participants read a text on the threatened status of bumblebees, a concrete example of the broader challenge of protecting ecosystems and wildlife, and subse-quently performed a task where they could earn money to spend for the Bumblebee Conservation Trust. Results revealed no evidence for the assumptions of the EPPM, as neither manipulating perceived threat nor coping efficacy appraisal nor their interaction impacted consequential conservation behavior or self-reported conser-vation intention

The Impact of Social Media Activities on Theater Demand
Abstract: 

A well-known factor in the consumption of cultural goods is that demand is subject to the ‘nobody knows’ principle and therefore difficult to predict. Other sectors have successfully analyzed social media data to predict real-world outcomes; the cultural field has applied this type of data analysis in the context of movies. This paper is the first study to consider the impact of electronic word of mouth (eWOM) generated via social media in the context of performing arts. Compared to conventional word-of-mouth mechanisms, social media sites may further reduce the uncertainty caused by the ‘nobody knows’ principle by propagating an enormous amount of enduring and real-time information and opinions. This paper aims to test the potentiality of social media in understanding theater demand by combining booking data for the period 2010–2016 from the sales system of the Royal Danish Theater with volumetric data extracted from the theater’s official Facebook Page. In particular, we take into account the different possible relationships between the feedback provided by social media (in terms of ‘likes’ and comments) and the purchase of tickets by consumers: (1) eWOM influences tickets sale; (2) no causal relationship between eWOM and tickets sale as both reflect unobserved characteristics of the theater production; (3) tickets sale influences eWOM activities; (4) ticket sale influences eWOM which in turn influences ticket sale and so on. The results suggest that only the number of likes, rather than the Facebook comments, is related to the decision to purchase a ticket. In particular, there is a mutual interaction between the number of likes given to posts specifically dedicated to a given production and the number of tickets sold concerning that specific production: eWOM activity (in terms of “like”) influences the tickets sale, which in turn generates eWOM activity. With this study, we aim to show how social media data can constitute a new and effective tool for understanding theater demand

The Influence of NGOs on Danish Migration Policy in the 1930s: The Role of Moral and Pragmatic Legitimacy
Abstract: 

This article contributes to a debate initiated in this journal in 2019 on the influence of ngos on migration policies in twentieth-century Western Europe. The study further develops previous studies by examining how ngos in 1930s Denmark managed and used different types of legitimacy to gain political influence. The claims of this article can be useful in seeing the influence of ngos as a process in which moral and pragmatic legitimacy are decisive factors in different phases of this process. The study finds that moral legitimacy is crucial for ngos in the initial phase of gaining access to negotiations with policymakers: the so-called ‘insider strategies’. Pragmatic legitimacy proves to be important for ngos when access to insider strategies is achieved. The ngos used their pragmatic legitimacy – for instance, their ability to reduce costs for the state – when negotiating with policymakers

The Messy Practice of Decolonising a Concept: Everyday Humanitarianism in Tanzania
Abstract:

This article1 explores the messy practice of decolonising a concept through collaborative work between scholars researching together the meaning of everyday humanitarianism in Tanzania. Humanitarianism is typically understood as the state-centric, formal, Northern-driven helping of distant others in crisis. Using the concept of everyday humanitarianism, our article challenges these assumptions in three ways. First, it explores the everyday humanitarian actions of ordinary citizens in times of crisis. Second, it explores these responses in a Southern context. Third, it focuses explicitly on the givers and not only the receivers of humanitarian help. Our work grounds decolonisation in the actual practices of research aimed at theory building as an iterative back-and-forth exchange with particular attention to power, rather than as a transplant of Northern theory on the South, or its opposite. Our first argument is that the objective of collaborative research to capture the local politics of giving and then use these practices to interrogate the theoretical concept of everyday humanitarianism can be decolonising. Second, we argue that the practices of the academic labour that produces knowledge or inductive theory can also be decolonising. Understanding both the challenges and the possibilities of decolonising ‘humanitarianism’ will provide an opportunity to document and thus legitimate the complexity that is inherent in decolonising a discipline

Transnational Market Navigation: Living and Consuming across Borders
Abstract: 

Prior research has investigated global mobility through the lenses of consumer acculturation, identity, and possessions with a focus on consumers’ socialization and identity management in the host consumer culture. It has neglected, however, the ways that globally mobile consumers simultaneously navigate the multiple, cross-border markets in which they are embedded. We adopt the social network perspective to investigate the transnational consumer lifestyles of people who live and consume simultaneously in two or more countries and sustain multiple relationships of a diverse nature (e.g., market, social, financial, professional) across borders. Through a qualitative study, we dimensionalize the transnational social space inhabited by transnational consumers and demonstrate how it shapes their consumption. We introduce the concept of transnational market navigation, defined as the process of strategically and pragmatically selecting and leveraging social networks to engage simultaneously with multiple cross-border markets. We identify three transnational market navigation strategies: clustering consumption, embracing commercial lock-ins, and developing cluster-based competency. By mobilizing a network perspective to examine consumption in global mobility, we show that globally mobile consumers are also motivated by ways of being (the actual social and commercial relationships and consumption practices with which consumers engage), in addition to the identities associated with their consumption

Uncertainties in Estimating Production Costs of Future Nuclear Technologies: A Model-based Analysis of Small Modular Reactors
Abstract: 

Predicting future costs of technologies not yet developed is a complex exercise that includes many uncertain parameters and functional forms. In that context, small modular reactor (SMR) concepts that are in a rather early development stage claim to have cost advantages through learning effects, standardized design, modularization, co-siting economies, and other factors, such as better time-to-market even though they exhibit negative economies of scale in their construction costs due to their lower power output compared to conventional nuclear reactors. In this paper, we compare two different approaches from production theory and show that they have a theoretically equal structure. In the second step, we apply these approaches to estimate a range of potential construction costs for 15 SMR projects for which sufficient data is available. These include water cooled, high temperature, and fast neutron spectrum reactors. We then apply the Monte Carlo method to benchmark the cost projections assumed by the manufacturers by varying the investment costs, the weighted average cost of capital, the capacity factor, and the wholesale electricity price in simulations of the net present value (NPV) and the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE). We also test whether the differences between the manufacturer estimates and ours differ between technology families of SMR concepts and apply a sensitivity analysis. Here we contribute to an intensifying debate in the literature on the economics and finance of SMR concepts. The Monte Carlo analysis suggests a broad range of NPVs and LCOEs: Surprisingly, the lowest LCOE is calculated for a helium-cooled high-temperature reactor, whereas all of the light water reactors feature higher LCOEs. None of the tested concepts is able to compete economically with existing renewable technologies, not even when taking their variability and necessary system integration costs into account. The numerical results also confirm the importance of the choice of production theory and parameters. We conclude that any technology foresight has to take as much of the case specifics into account, including technological and institutional specifics; this also holds for SMR concepts

Understanding the Role of Gender and Project Characteristics in Research Funding Evaluations
Abstract: 

Research shows that women are less successful than men in obtaining external funding for research projects. However, other research points to advantages of female leadership and suggests that women are capable of breaking glass ceilings in competitive contexts (e.g., promotions). We bridge these ideas by arguing that although women are disadvantaged in the funding process (e.g., as principal investigators or PIs), there may be advantages of female representation in research projects that compete for funding. We analyze a unique panel dataset based on all call texts and all applications to the “Cooperation” part of the EU FP7, a 2007–2013 EUR 53.2 billion program. Using fixed-effects regressions, we find that projects with high female representation (or with female PIs) receive less favorable evaluations. However, this effect weakens as the relevant projects become more heterogeneous and radical. These findings are robust to a number of alternative specifications

Unintended Consequences of Outcome Based Compensation: How CEO Bonuses, Stocks and Stock Options Affect Their Firms' Patent Litigation
Abstract:

Enforcing a firm's patents is crucial for defending its competitive advantage. CEOs are central for making these strategic decisions but we know little about how their individual incentives shape their decision-making. We integrate theory from outcome-based CEO compensation designs into models explaining firms' decisions to become plaintiffs in patent litigation. Based on how compensation shapes time horizons and risk-taking of CEOs, we predict that CEO compensation tied to stock increases the firm's likelihood to enforce patents, while bonuses and stock options reduce it. Further, we reason that the tenacity of patent disputes in an industry creates a boundary condition for the effects of CEO compensation because they curtail the degree of agency that CEOs have for incorporating their personal incentives when making litigation decisions for the firm. We test these hypotheses for 2302 US firms with 4420 different CEOs and 3451 patent litigation cases between 1997 and 2015 and find support for all hypotheses with the exception of the boundary condition for stocks as CEO compensation. These findings advance existing theory on firms' decision-making on patent litigation by explicating how firm and CEO incentives can diverge with direct consequences for the likelihood of litigation to occur

What is the Point of Method Sections?
Abstract: 

There are plenty of books and articles on research methods, but few discuss the nature and purpose of method sections in academic journals. Based on interviews with critical and interpretivist researchers, this short paper examines the nature and purpose of method sections in management and organization studies. We show how researchers make sense of, and struggle with, positivist expectations about the form and content of method sections. Ultimately, we call for greater openness about what method sections might look like and ask whether all academic articles need method sections