Spotlight on new research publications in January
01/01/2020
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Are you a journalist, researcher or simply interested in academic articles on business and culture?
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The following is a rough list. If you need more information, please contact the researcher.
The academic articles have been peer-reviewed, which means they have been judged by other researchers within the same area.
This month, the publications are about how we can improve the quality of life for people with asthma by improving the dialogue about treatment between patients and healthcare professionals.
You can also read about how university students perceive artworks by e.g. Pablo Picasso in relation to terms such as “beauty” and “creativity”.
THE FOLLOWING IS THIS MONTH’S PEER-REVIEWED RESEARCH – ENJOY YOUR READING:
Find the abstracts under each heading.
Working for Better Asthma Control: How Can We Improve the Dialogue Between Patients and Healthcare Professionals?
ABSTRACT: Asthma is a chronic disease affecting more than 300 million people globally. Poor asthma control that leads to unnecessary symptoms is estimated to affect nearly half of people with asthma. A critical way to address poor control is for healthcare professionals (HCPs) and patients to enter a shared dialogue on treatment and asthma management. This article explores the views of both patient and HCP to better understand how to achieve asthma control. From the patient’s perspective, being a person with asthma has ramifications to one’s sense of identity, and thus one’s ability and willingness to actively manage their asthma. Furthermore, lack of education and concerns about the effectiveness of treatment can also ultimately lead to poor control, a term that can be understood differently by patients and HCPs. One goal is to help to normalise life for people with asthma. For this, HCPs need to align on what this means for each individual and then work together to produce a plan that can be applied to the patient’s daily life. Training for HCPs on good communication skills and empowering patients to be involved in their asthma management are both critical to ensure effective shared decision-making and, ultimately, improved quality of life for people with asthma.
ABSTRACT: Asthma is a chronic disease affecting more than 300 million people globally. Poor asthma control that leads to unnecessary symptoms is estimated to affect nearly half of people with asthma. A critical way to address poor control is for healthcare professionals (HCPs) and patients to enter a shared dialogue on treatment and asthma management. This article explores the views of both patient and HCP to better understand how to achieve asthma control. From the patient’s perspective, being a person with asthma has ramifications to one’s sense of identity, and thus one’s ability and willingness to actively manage their asthma. Furthermore, lack of education and concerns about the effectiveness of treatment can also ultimately lead to poor control, a term that can be understood differently by patients and HCPs. One goal is to help to normalise life for people with asthma. For this, HCPs need to align on what this means for each individual and then work together to produce a plan that can be applied to the patient’s daily life. Training for HCPs on good communication skills and empowering patients to be involved in their asthma management are both critical to ensure effective shared decision-making and, ultimately, improved quality of life for people with asthma.
Journal: Advances in Therapy
Published: October 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Kjeld S. Hansen
Perceptual Fluency Effects in Judgments of Creativity and Beauty: Creative Objects Are Perceived Fluently Yet They Are Visually Complex
ABSTRACT: Perceptual fluency typically has a positive influence on aesthetic evaluations of beauty, but few studies have examined its influence on creativity evaluations. Creativity has two facets, originality and quality. If creativity judgments involve estimating product originality, such judgments may be associated with perceptual disfluency, while product quality may be associated with perceptual fluency. We examined the relationship between perceptual fluency and judgments of creativity and beauty across seven experiments. Creativity judgments were affected by most perceptual fluencysources. We observed a highly-fluent-is-beautiful-and-creative relation when testing repeated exposure and figure-ground contrast. Prototypicality displayed a high-fluency–is-beautiful relation, with creativity judgments unaffected. Visual complexity displayed a consistent disfluent-is-creative effect, with mixed results for beauty. For creativity (but not beauty) evaluations, increased saliency of visual complexity led to discounting fluent-is-creative effects, supporting the hypothesis that there are at least two fluency pathways to creativity judgments that take both originality and quality into account.
ABSTRACT: Perceptual fluency typically has a positive influence on aesthetic evaluations of beauty, but few studies have examined its influence on creativity evaluations. Creativity has two facets, originality and quality. If creativity judgments involve estimating product originality, such judgments may be associated with perceptual disfluency, while product quality may be associated with perceptual fluency. We examined the relationship between perceptual fluency and judgments of creativity and beauty across seven experiments. Creativity judgments were affected by most perceptual fluencysources. We observed a highly-fluent-is-beautiful-and-creative relation when testing repeated exposure and figure-ground contrast. Prototypicality displayed a high-fluency–is-beautiful relation, with creativity judgments unaffected. Visual complexity displayed a consistent disfluent-is-creative effect, with mixed results for beauty. For creativity (but not beauty) evaluations, increased saliency of visual complexity led to discounting fluent-is-creative effects, supporting the hypothesis that there are at least two fluency pathways to creativity judgments that take both originality and quality into account.
Journal: Journal of Cognitive Psychology
Published: November 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Bo Christensen
If Truth Was a Woman: Leaky Infrastructures and the Gender Politics of Truth-telling
ABSTRACT: The parrhesiastic spaces brought about by networked technologies have transformed what counts as truth-telling today. While the notion of truth has been thoroughly scrutinized within organization theory as well in studies on the ethics of whistle-blowing, less attention has been devoted to how new and emerging practices of truth-telling are related to socio-technological imaginaries – that is, the way social structures such as gender, sexuality and race affect and are affected by technological assemblages, especially infrastructures of information. This article argues that networked forms of truth-telling are enmeshed in technological imaginaries where gender and sexuality are symbolically and materially encoded. Prompted by recent cases of information disclosure, the article theorizes how technological infrastructures, gendered imaginaries and economic regimes come together to shape, complicate and ultimately define who counts as a truth-teller within parrhesiastic networked spaces. Drawing on feminist infrastructure and media theories, the article discusses normative distinctions between whistle-blowers, leakers and hackers to explore how their infrastructural imaginaries map onto contemporary communication networks, the gender politics of organizing information, and the conditions of what counts as truth. The article argues that attending to infrastructural imaginaries and their intersections with gendered imaginaries can not only help us to make sense of how the gendering of truth-telling operates in highly networked spaces, but can also aid us in devising improved conditions for truths to be told in organizational spaces. Ultimately, infrastructures matter because they fundamentally determine whose knowledge and labour are socially valued, and whose voices come to count in public life.
Journal: Ephemera: Theory & politics in organization
Published: November 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Nanna Bonde Thylstrup
Care-ful Work: An Ethics of Care Approach to Contingent Labour in the Creative Industries
ABSTRACT: Studies of creative industries typically contend that creative work is profoundly precarious, taking place on a freelance basis in highly competitive, individualized and contingent labour markets. Such studies depict creative workers as correspondingly self-enterprising, self-reliant, self-interested and calculative agents who valorise care-free independence. In contrast, we adopt the ‘ethics of care’ approach to explore, recognize and appreciate the communitarian, relational and moral considerations as well as interpersonal connectedness and interdependencies that underpin creative work. Drawing on in-depth interviews with creative workers in a range of marginal socio-cultural contexts, we argue that creative workers cultivate and sustain a diverse array of practices of care arising from an affective concern with the well-being of others. Far from being merely individualistic and crudely competitive actors, creative workers enact practical ethical responsibilities and affectivities towards a range of human and non-human others, including families, local communities and neighbourhoods, colleagues, artistic scenes and their adjacent genres, and surrounding national and linguistic cultures. In emphasizing the fundamental and structuring role of care in contingent labour markets our approach accords with recent trends in the social sciences that ‘affirmatively’—as opposed to ‘negatively’ and ‘suspiciously’—recognize that mutuality, solidarity and affectivity are powerful drivers of action on a par with or even exceeding market-driven self-centredness.
ABSTRACT: Studies of creative industries typically contend that creative work is profoundly precarious, taking place on a freelance basis in highly competitive, individualized and contingent labour markets. Such studies depict creative workers as correspondingly self-enterprising, self-reliant, self-interested and calculative agents who valorise care-free independence. In contrast, we adopt the ‘ethics of care’ approach to explore, recognize and appreciate the communitarian, relational and moral considerations as well as interpersonal connectedness and interdependencies that underpin creative work. Drawing on in-depth interviews with creative workers in a range of marginal socio-cultural contexts, we argue that creative workers cultivate and sustain a diverse array of practices of care arising from an affective concern with the well-being of others. Far from being merely individualistic and crudely competitive actors, creative workers enact practical ethical responsibilities and affectivities towards a range of human and non-human others, including families, local communities and neighbourhoods, colleagues, artistic scenes and their adjacent genres, and surrounding national and linguistic cultures. In emphasizing the fundamental and structuring role of care in contingent labour markets our approach accords with recent trends in the social sciences that ‘affirmatively’—as opposed to ‘negatively’ and ‘suspiciously’—recognize that mutuality, solidarity and affectivity are powerful drivers of action on a par with or even exceeding market-driven self-centredness.
Journal: Journal of Business Ethics
Published: October 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Ana Alacovska
Rethinking Public Value through the Lens of Sustainability
ABSTRACT: This Viewpoint outlines the context within which papers published in this and recent issues of Local Economy were initially presented, developed and then submitted. We suggest in the commentary below that from the outset (at an initial workshop), we were seeking to model an iterative and collaborative process. The policy context is described in more detail but the impetus came from looking at ways in which a policy and practice alliance focussed on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals could be mobilized to promote original thinking in the way in which municipal authorities could work with and learn from NGOs in the development of an alternative approach to sustainable development from that which currently shaped local social and economic policy in Copenhagen. This Viewpoint provides a summary of the papers published in Local Economy over two issues. It concludes by proposing that the approach adopted is in line with current initiatives in the USA and the UK.
ABSTRACT: This Viewpoint outlines the context within which papers published in this and recent issues of Local Economy were initially presented, developed and then submitted. We suggest in the commentary below that from the outset (at an initial workshop), we were seeking to model an iterative and collaborative process. The policy context is described in more detail but the impetus came from looking at ways in which a policy and practice alliance focussed on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals could be mobilized to promote original thinking in the way in which municipal authorities could work with and learn from NGOs in the development of an alternative approach to sustainable development from that which currently shaped local social and economic policy in Copenhagen. This Viewpoint provides a summary of the papers published in Local Economy over two issues. It concludes by proposing that the approach adopted is in line with current initiatives in the USA and the UK.
Journal: Local Economy
Published: September 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Christa Breum Amhøj and Flemming Olsen
Uncertainty Avoidance and Intrapreneurship: A Four-Level Investigation
ABSTRACT: Although uncertainty avoidance is identified as an important concept for understanding intrapreneurial intentions, empirical findings have not been consistent in portraying a broader picture of how uncertainty avoidance shapes intrapreneurial intentions. This study bridges this gap through a four-level conceptual model of the role of uncertainty avoidance in the formation of employees’ intrapreneurial intentions, differentiating among unit- and country-level uncertainty avoidance. Using the established relationship between behavioral control and intentions, we consider how employee creativity and self-efficacy influence intrapreneurial intentions. Following the person-environment fit paradigm and the resulting fit traditions of complementarity and supplementarity, we narrow in on how these processes operate within specific (stimulating or inhibiting) cultural settings in terms of uncertainty avoidance at both the unit and country levels. Using data from 787 employees on the first level nested into 73 units on the second level, 19 organizations on the third level, and eight countries on the fourth level, study shows evidence for a beneficial interplay between unit-level uncertainty avoidance and creativity or self-efficacy when there is a supplementary or complementarity fit. The interplay between behavioral and contextual factors is negative, however, when neither type of fit applies. Finally, country-level uncertainty avoidance seems to be irrelevant to intrapreneurial intentions.
ABSTRACT: Although uncertainty avoidance is identified as an important concept for understanding intrapreneurial intentions, empirical findings have not been consistent in portraying a broader picture of how uncertainty avoidance shapes intrapreneurial intentions. This study bridges this gap through a four-level conceptual model of the role of uncertainty avoidance in the formation of employees’ intrapreneurial intentions, differentiating among unit- and country-level uncertainty avoidance. Using the established relationship between behavioral control and intentions, we consider how employee creativity and self-efficacy influence intrapreneurial intentions. Following the person-environment fit paradigm and the resulting fit traditions of complementarity and supplementarity, we narrow in on how these processes operate within specific (stimulating or inhibiting) cultural settings in terms of uncertainty avoidance at both the unit and country levels. Using data from 787 employees on the first level nested into 73 units on the second level, 19 organizations on the third level, and eight countries on the fourth level, study shows evidence for a beneficial interplay between unit-level uncertainty avoidance and creativity or self-efficacy when there is a supplementary or complementarity fit. The interplay between behavioral and contextual factors is negative, however, when neither type of fit applies. Finally, country-level uncertainty avoidance seems to be irrelevant to intrapreneurial intentions.
Journal: Journal of Macromarketing
Published: December 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Selma Kadic-Maglajlic
Advancing an Understanding of Design Cognition and Design Metacognition: Progress and Prospects
ABSTRACT: In this article we review progress that has been made in advancing a theoretical understanding of design cognition and design metacognition. We identify a high level of consistency in empirical findings, including good evidence for core design strategies such as conjecture-based problem formulation, problem–solution co-evolution, analogical reasoning, mental simulation and fixated solution generation. A further consistent theme to emerge in our review concerns the central role played by metacognitive monitoring and control processes in ensuring the effective deployment of design strategies in response to designers' fluctuating feelings of uncertainty. We argue that a metacognitive perspective on design cognition is critical for developing a comprehensive understanding of strategic processing in design, additionally engendering many new avenues for important future research.
ABSTRACT: In this article we review progress that has been made in advancing a theoretical understanding of design cognition and design metacognition. We identify a high level of consistency in empirical findings, including good evidence for core design strategies such as conjecture-based problem formulation, problem–solution co-evolution, analogical reasoning, mental simulation and fixated solution generation. A further consistent theme to emerge in our review concerns the central role played by metacognitive monitoring and control processes in ensuring the effective deployment of design strategies in response to designers' fluctuating feelings of uncertainty. We argue that a metacognitive perspective on design cognition is critical for developing a comprehensive understanding of strategic processing in design, additionally engendering many new avenues for important future research.
Journal: Design Studies
Published: November 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Bo Christensen
Direktørlønninger og betydningen af korrekt benchmarking
ABSTRACT: Artiklen viser vigtigheden af, at benchmarking af direktørlønninger foretages under hensyntagen til især virksomhedens størrelse og type. Betydningen illustreres ved at analysere to ofte fremførte påstande om, at direktørlønningerne i danske virksomheder er steget kraftigt de seneste år og om, at direktørlønningerne i danske virksomheder er lavere end i vores nabolande. Udover at sætte spørgsmålstegn ved disse påstande, så er resultaterne relevante i forhold til at sikre en mere kvalificeret og nuanceret forståelse af niveau og sammensætning af direktørlønninger i danske virksomheder.
ABSTRACT: Artiklen viser vigtigheden af, at benchmarking af direktørlønninger foretages under hensyntagen til især virksomhedens størrelse og type. Betydningen illustreres ved at analysere to ofte fremførte påstande om, at direktørlønningerne i danske virksomheder er steget kraftigt de seneste år og om, at direktørlønningerne i danske virksomheder er lavere end i vores nabolande. Udover at sætte spørgsmålstegn ved disse påstande, så er resultaterne relevante i forhold til at sikre en mere kvalificeret og nuanceret forståelse af niveau og sammensætning af direktørlønninger i danske virksomheder.
Journal: Finans/Invest
Published: December 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Ken L. Bechmann
Novel Thought: Towards a Literary Study of Organization
ABSTRACT: Novels espouse an epistemological freedom that is beyond even experimental forms of scholarly research and writing. Precisely this freedom makes novels so conducive to thought. Their enduring presence in organization studies demonstrates literary fiction’s power of conveying how things are, might be, or can be thought of; of inventing new ways of seeing; of enabling different vocabularies as well as staging and transmitting specific affects. In this paper, we trace the mutual ‘contamination’ between the novel and organization studies as well as discuss different modes of engaging prose fiction, drawing on Rancière’s ethical, representative and aesthetic regimes of art. With a special nod to Kafka’s novels and stories and also McCarthy’s Satin Island, we outline the contours of a literary study of organization and introduce the special themed section on ‘The Novel and Organization Studies’.
ABSTRACT: Novels espouse an epistemological freedom that is beyond even experimental forms of scholarly research and writing. Precisely this freedom makes novels so conducive to thought. Their enduring presence in organization studies demonstrates literary fiction’s power of conveying how things are, might be, or can be thought of; of inventing new ways of seeing; of enabling different vocabularies as well as staging and transmitting specific affects. In this paper, we trace the mutual ‘contamination’ between the novel and organization studies as well as discuss different modes of engaging prose fiction, drawing on Rancière’s ethical, representative and aesthetic regimes of art. With a special nod to Kafka’s novels and stories and also McCarthy’s Satin Island, we outline the contours of a literary study of organization and introduce the special themed section on ‘The Novel and Organization Studies’.
Journal: Organization Studies
Published: December 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Timon Beyes
Vertical Structure and the Risk of Rent Extraction in the Electricity Industry
ABSTRACT: This paper studies how competition and vertical structure jointly determine generating capacities, retail prices, and welfare in the electricity industry. Analyzing a model in which demand is uncertain and retailers must commit to retail prices before they buy electricity in the wholesale market, we show that welfare is highest if competition in generation and retailing is combined with vertical separation. Vertically integrated generators choose excessively high retail prices and capacities to avoid rent extraction in the wholesale market when their retail demand exceeds their capacity. Vertical separation eliminates the risk of rent extraction and yields lower retail prices.
ABSTRACT: This paper studies how competition and vertical structure jointly determine generating capacities, retail prices, and welfare in the electricity industry. Analyzing a model in which demand is uncertain and retailers must commit to retail prices before they buy electricity in the wholesale market, we show that welfare is highest if competition in generation and retailing is combined with vertical separation. Vertically integrated generators choose excessively high retail prices and capacities to avoid rent extraction in the wholesale market when their retail demand exceeds their capacity. Vertical separation eliminates the risk of rent extraction and yields lower retail prices.
Journal: Journal of Economics & Management Strategy
Published: 2018
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Contact CBS researcher: Anette Boom
Wells Fargo and Company: Shareholder Derivative Action Should the Case Succeed in Federal Court for the Board of Directors?
ABSTRACT:A shareholder derivative suit is an action allowed by the courts available for shareholders who believe that they have been harmed by actions of the board of directors and management. In most instances, particularly in the US state of Delaware, the actions are not allowed to proceed. The rationale being that the business judgment rule applies and as a consequence boards of directors are not held responsible for bad decisions and as a result, the business judgment is held to be supreme. Thus they are presumed to act with diligence, without self-interest and in the best interests of the corporation. In the case of the action against Wells Fargo and Company, Judge Tigar of the Northern District of California, has allowed the action to go ahead, on the basis that the directors had been negligent on multiple actions with respect to several proceedings by Federal Agencies against the bank and furthermore that the directors failed to hold senior management to account when concerns were raised from several sources about malfeasance occurring in the bank. The paper suggests the arguments both for the plaintiffs and the defendants in the case.
ABSTRACT:A shareholder derivative suit is an action allowed by the courts available for shareholders who believe that they have been harmed by actions of the board of directors and management. In most instances, particularly in the US state of Delaware, the actions are not allowed to proceed. The rationale being that the business judgment rule applies and as a consequence boards of directors are not held responsible for bad decisions and as a result, the business judgment is held to be supreme. Thus they are presumed to act with diligence, without self-interest and in the best interests of the corporation. In the case of the action against Wells Fargo and Company, Judge Tigar of the Northern District of California, has allowed the action to go ahead, on the basis that the directors had been negligent on multiple actions with respect to several proceedings by Federal Agencies against the bank and furthermore that the directors failed to hold senior management to account when concerns were raised from several sources about malfeasance occurring in the bank. The paper suggests the arguments both for the plaintiffs and the defendants in the case.
Journal: International Journal of Critical Accounting
Published: November 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Olaf Sigurjonsson
Community and Compensation: Director Remuneration in Thailand
ABSTRACT: We propose a new theoretical perspective based on mimesis (peer group imitation) to explain non-executive director pay. Arguing that peer group effects may be reinforced by Thai business culture, we test and support our hypothesis on a sample of 523 listed Thai companies from 2010 to 2015. We find that peer group pay is by far the most important and robust determinant of director pay in our sample. Simple peer effects explain almost half of the variation in director pay, and director pay converges to the peer group level over time. A discontinuity regression – a jump in director pay observed when companies are admitted to the SET50 stock market index – indicates a causal effect from peer group pay to director pay.
ABSTRACT: We propose a new theoretical perspective based on mimesis (peer group imitation) to explain non-executive director pay. Arguing that peer group effects may be reinforced by Thai business culture, we test and support our hypothesis on a sample of 523 listed Thai companies from 2010 to 2015. We find that peer group pay is by far the most important and robust determinant of director pay in our sample. Simple peer effects explain almost half of the variation in director pay, and director pay converges to the peer group level over time. A discontinuity regression – a jump in director pay observed when companies are admitted to the SET50 stock market index – indicates a causal effect from peer group pay to director pay.
Journal: Research in International Business and Finance
Published: April 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Steen Thomsen
A Systematic Review of Algorithm Aversion in Augmented Decision Making
ABSTRACT: Despite abundant literature theorizing societal implications of algorithmic decision making, relatively little is known about the conditions that lead to the acceptance or rejection of algorithmically generated insights by individual users of decision aids. More specifically, recent findings of algorithm aversion—the reluctance of human forecasters to use superior but imperfect algorithms—raise questions about whether joint human-algorithm decision making is feasible in practice. In this paper, we systematically review the topic of algorithm aversion as it appears in 61 peer-reviewed articles between 1950 and 2018 and follow its conceptual trail across disciplines. We categorize and report on the proposed causes and solutions of algorithm aversion in five themes: expectations and expertise, decision autonomy, incentivization, cognitive compatibility, and divergent rationalities. Although each of the presented themes addresses distinct features of an algorithmic decision aid, human users of the decision aid, and/or the decision making environment, apparent interdependencies are highlighted. We conclude that resolving algorithm aversion requires an updated research program with an emphasis on theory integration. We provide a number of empirical questions that can be immediately carried forth by the behavioral decision making community.
ABSTRACT: Despite abundant literature theorizing societal implications of algorithmic decision making, relatively little is known about the conditions that lead to the acceptance or rejection of algorithmically generated insights by individual users of decision aids. More specifically, recent findings of algorithm aversion—the reluctance of human forecasters to use superior but imperfect algorithms—raise questions about whether joint human-algorithm decision making is feasible in practice. In this paper, we systematically review the topic of algorithm aversion as it appears in 61 peer-reviewed articles between 1950 and 2018 and follow its conceptual trail across disciplines. We categorize and report on the proposed causes and solutions of algorithm aversion in five themes: expectations and expertise, decision autonomy, incentivization, cognitive compatibility, and divergent rationalities. Although each of the presented themes addresses distinct features of an algorithmic decision aid, human users of the decision aid, and/or the decision making environment, apparent interdependencies are highlighted. We conclude that resolving algorithm aversion requires an updated research program with an emphasis on theory integration. We provide a number of empirical questions that can be immediately carried forth by the behavioral decision making community.
Journal: Journal of Behavioral Decision Making
Published: October 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Tina Blegind Jensen and Mari-klara Stein
Building a Discipline: Indicators of Expansion, Integration and Consolidation in Design Research across Four Decades
ABSTRACT: Sparked by concerns with increased domain fragmentation in design research, we explored indicators of expansion, integration and consolidation in this area of enquiry through the lens of publications in Design Studies across the 40-years since the journal's inception. We examined several key indicators, including authors' disciplinary affiliations, levels of cross-disciplinary co-authorships, the increasing centrality of the term ‘design’ in stated university affiliations, the nature of citation patterns, the consolidation of core domain concepts over time and the role of esteemed authors as central ‘curators’ of design knowledge. We conclude that the Design Studies community has historically proven to be eminently capable of expanding its reach to new sub-disciplines through conceptual integration, whilst simultaneously consolidating the core foundation of design research.
ABSTRACT: Sparked by concerns with increased domain fragmentation in design research, we explored indicators of expansion, integration and consolidation in this area of enquiry through the lens of publications in Design Studies across the 40-years since the journal's inception. We examined several key indicators, including authors' disciplinary affiliations, levels of cross-disciplinary co-authorships, the increasing centrality of the term ‘design’ in stated university affiliations, the nature of citation patterns, the consolidation of core domain concepts over time and the role of esteemed authors as central ‘curators’ of design knowledge. We conclude that the Design Studies community has historically proven to be eminently capable of expanding its reach to new sub-disciplines through conceptual integration, whilst simultaneously consolidating the core foundation of design research.
Journal: Design Studies
Published: November 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Bo Christensen
Talk-action Dynamics: Modalities of Aspirational Talk
ABSTRACT: This paper investigates talk-action dynamics in the context of organizations, focusing in particular on situations where the talk concerns complex organizational aspirations, that is, situations where the implied action takes considerable effort to unfold and therefore extends into an unknown future. Using corporate social responsibility (CSR) as recurrent exemplar, we address talk-action dynamics in four different modalities of aspirational CSR talk: exploration, formulation, implementation and evaluation. By conceptualizing the precarious relationship between talk and action in each of these modalities, the paper disentangles talk and action, all the while acknowledging that the two are mutually intertwined. Hereby, the paper extends theories of communicative performativity, recovering the perlocutionary dimension and focusing on uptake beyond the moment in which the speech act is uttered.
ABSTRACT: This paper investigates talk-action dynamics in the context of organizations, focusing in particular on situations where the talk concerns complex organizational aspirations, that is, situations where the implied action takes considerable effort to unfold and therefore extends into an unknown future. Using corporate social responsibility (CSR) as recurrent exemplar, we address talk-action dynamics in four different modalities of aspirational CSR talk: exploration, formulation, implementation and evaluation. By conceptualizing the precarious relationship between talk and action in each of these modalities, the paper disentangles talk and action, all the while acknowledging that the two are mutually intertwined. Hereby, the paper extends theories of communicative performativity, recovering the perlocutionary dimension and focusing on uptake beyond the moment in which the speech act is uttered.
Journal: Organization Studies
Published: December 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Lars Thøger Christensen, Mette Morsing and Ole Thyssen
Volunteer Engagement: Conceptual Extensions and Value-in-Context Outcomes
ABSTRACT: Purpose: The ability to attract and retain volunteers is crucial for not-for-profit organizations, and consequently, the need to understand and manage volunteers’ engagement is paramount. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of five volunteer engagement dimensions (cognitive, affective, behavioral, social and spiritual engagement) on perceived value-in-context, and its subsequent role for volunteer retention. Thus, providing for the first time an understanding of how unique types of value are determined through different facets of volunteer engagement.
Design/methodology/approach: To establish the nature and consequences of volunteer engagement, the authors collaborated with an Australian not-for-profit service organization. Using a survey method, the authors studied the organization’s volunteer workforce resulting in 464 usable responses. To capture volunteers’ degree of spiritual engagement, this paper introduces a rigorously developed unidimensional measure.
Findings: The results demonstrate the importance of the five engagement dimensions on volunteers’ perceived value-in-context, while highlighting significant effect differences including some counterintuitive consequences. The authors also establish the role of spiritual engagement and demonstrate the impact of value-in-context for volunteer retention.
Originality/value: This research explores the volunteer engagement-retention chain, by empirically studying the role of value-in-context. The authors provide first evidence for the relationship between volunteer engagement and value-in-context, examining the independent yet relative effects of various facets of volunteer engagement. In doing so, the authors offer new insight into the dimensionality of the volunteer engagement construct, broadening its conceptualization to include spiritual engagement as a core constituent. The authors further demonstrate the impact of value-in-context on volunteer retention, helping organizations to better make sense of meaningful volunteer experiences with long-lasting impacts and mutual benefits.
ABSTRACT: Purpose: The ability to attract and retain volunteers is crucial for not-for-profit organizations, and consequently, the need to understand and manage volunteers’ engagement is paramount. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of five volunteer engagement dimensions (cognitive, affective, behavioral, social and spiritual engagement) on perceived value-in-context, and its subsequent role for volunteer retention. Thus, providing for the first time an understanding of how unique types of value are determined through different facets of volunteer engagement.
Design/methodology/approach: To establish the nature and consequences of volunteer engagement, the authors collaborated with an Australian not-for-profit service organization. Using a survey method, the authors studied the organization’s volunteer workforce resulting in 464 usable responses. To capture volunteers’ degree of spiritual engagement, this paper introduces a rigorously developed unidimensional measure.
Findings: The results demonstrate the importance of the five engagement dimensions on volunteers’ perceived value-in-context, while highlighting significant effect differences including some counterintuitive consequences. The authors also establish the role of spiritual engagement and demonstrate the impact of value-in-context for volunteer retention.
Originality/value: This research explores the volunteer engagement-retention chain, by empirically studying the role of value-in-context. The authors provide first evidence for the relationship between volunteer engagement and value-in-context, examining the independent yet relative effects of various facets of volunteer engagement. In doing so, the authors offer new insight into the dimensionality of the volunteer engagement construct, broadening its conceptualization to include spiritual engagement as a core constituent. The authors further demonstrate the impact of value-in-context on volunteer retention, helping organizations to better make sense of meaningful volunteer experiences with long-lasting impacts and mutual benefits.
Journal: Journal of Service Theory and Practice
Published: 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Ingo Oswald Karpen
Dynamic Capabilities for Hire – How Former Host-country Entrepreneurs as MNC Subsidiary Managers Affect Performance
ABSTRACT: MNC subsidiaries benefit from managers with entrepreneurial skills for finding superior combinations of MNC and host-country resources. However, such management skills are scarce. We reason that subsidiaries can improve their performance by hiring host-country entrepreneurs as managers since they develop similar skills in start-ups. Our theoretical model integrates mechanisms from entrepreneurial experience into theory on the microfoundations of dynamic capabilities. We test and support our prediction using longitudinal employer–employee data for 5587 foreign MNC subsidiaries in Portugal. Further, we show that performance effects are weaker when a subsidiary’s management is internationally diverse and stronger in dynamic host-country environments.
ABSTRACT: MNC subsidiaries benefit from managers with entrepreneurial skills for finding superior combinations of MNC and host-country resources. However, such management skills are scarce. We reason that subsidiaries can improve their performance by hiring host-country entrepreneurs as managers since they develop similar skills in start-ups. Our theoretical model integrates mechanisms from entrepreneurial experience into theory on the microfoundations of dynamic capabilities. We test and support our prediction using longitudinal employer–employee data for 5587 foreign MNC subsidiaries in Portugal. Further, we show that performance effects are weaker when a subsidiary’s management is internationally diverse and stronger in dynamic host-country environments.
Journal: Journal of International Business Studies
Published: November 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Wolfgang Sofka
Access and Openness in Biotechnology Research Collaborations between Universities and Industry
ABSTRACT: An empirical study of publicly funded collaborative research projects in biotechnology identifies contractual provisions that govern the extent of access to and openness of research results.
ABSTRACT: An empirical study of publicly funded collaborative research projects in biotechnology identifies contractual provisions that govern the extent of access to and openness of research results.
Journal: Nature Biotechnology
Published: 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Christoph Grimpe
Admissions Constraints and the Decision to Delay University
ABSTRACT: We investigate whether delaying entrance into university is affected by restrictions on admissions into competitive programs. Using Danish administrative data, we estimate a dynamic discrete choice model, in which students choose, if admitted, whether to enter one of 30 programs or delay. We use the model to examine delaying choices under different simulated admissions policies. Our experiments suggest that only 28% of students who delay do so because of admissions restrictions. Furthermore, although students respond to admissions incentives, our results imply that such policies are unlikely to substantially change the overall distribution of delay.
ABSTRACT: We investigate whether delaying entrance into university is affected by restrictions on admissions into competitive programs. Using Danish administrative data, we estimate a dynamic discrete choice model, in which students choose, if admitted, whether to enter one of 30 programs or delay. We use the model to examine delaying choices under different simulated admissions policies. Our experiments suggest that only 28% of students who delay do so because of admissions restrictions. Furthermore, although students respond to admissions incentives, our results imply that such policies are unlikely to substantially change the overall distribution of delay.
Journal: The Scandinavian Journal of Economics
Published: December 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Fane Naja Groes
The Role of Procedural Justice for Global Strategy and Subsidiary Initiatives
ABSTRACT: Research Summary: The global strategy literature highlights the role of headquarters (HQ) in realizing global integration benefits while enabling independent subsidiary strategic initiatives. We construct a game‐theoretic model of the interaction between HQ and subsidiaries, and, building on procedural justice theory, we analyze the motivational costs that can result from the anticipation or realization of HQ intervention in subsidiary initiatives. We also analyze the implications for MNC‐level value creation when HQ managers, fearing subsidiary managers’ emotion‐based reactions, refrain from intervening. We derive a number of counter‐intuitive results, for example, that good HQ behavior may involve forgoing opportunities for value creation, and that procedural justice systems may sometimes be counterproductive.
Managerial Summary: Headquarters (HQ) in multinational corporations are required to balance global integration and local autonomy within the organization. This balancing act sometimes requires HQ to intervene in subsidiary matters and to overrule the subunits’ decisions. While an intervention might create integration advantages, it may also have a negative impact on the motivation of subsidiary managers, who might feel that their effort and their decisions are overruled. We focus on such motivational issues and investigate how fair decision‐making processes applied by the HQ influence subsidiaries’ entrepreneurial behavior and their reactions to the overruling. Our findings show that, under specific conditions, HQ need to forgo value‐creating interventions, and that a strong focus on a procedural justice culture within the firm can be detrimental.
ABSTRACT: Research Summary: The global strategy literature highlights the role of headquarters (HQ) in realizing global integration benefits while enabling independent subsidiary strategic initiatives. We construct a game‐theoretic model of the interaction between HQ and subsidiaries, and, building on procedural justice theory, we analyze the motivational costs that can result from the anticipation or realization of HQ intervention in subsidiary initiatives. We also analyze the implications for MNC‐level value creation when HQ managers, fearing subsidiary managers’ emotion‐based reactions, refrain from intervening. We derive a number of counter‐intuitive results, for example, that good HQ behavior may involve forgoing opportunities for value creation, and that procedural justice systems may sometimes be counterproductive.
Managerial Summary: Headquarters (HQ) in multinational corporations are required to balance global integration and local autonomy within the organization. This balancing act sometimes requires HQ to intervene in subsidiary matters and to overrule the subunits’ decisions. While an intervention might create integration advantages, it may also have a negative impact on the motivation of subsidiary managers, who might feel that their effort and their decisions are overruled. We focus on such motivational issues and investigate how fair decision‐making processes applied by the HQ influence subsidiaries’ entrepreneurial behavior and their reactions to the overruling. Our findings show that, under specific conditions, HQ need to forgo value‐creating interventions, and that a strong focus on a procedural justice culture within the firm can be detrimental.
Journal: Global Strategy Journal
Published: 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Christian Geisler Asmussen, Nicolai J. Foss and Phillip C. Nell
Managing Legitimacy in Business‐driven Social Change: The Role of Relational Work
ABSTRACT: This paper examines how companies manage their legitimacy in driving social change, drawing attention to how companies proactively negotiate their involvement with nonmarket actors. Building on the legitimacy‐as‐process perspective, I argue that companies construct the legitimacy of their involvement by engaging in relational work, i.e. by investing efforts in shaping their relations with others and thereby redefining roles and responsibilities. To explore the role of relational work in business‐driven social change, I present an inductive, interpretive study of a pharmaceutical company's efforts to build a market for its products by improving diabetes care in Indonesia. Grounded in the empirical study, I develop a process model to explain how legitimacy is redefined from the bottom‐up, i.e. how a company's involvement is re‐negotiated in situ and crafted to attain the social approval of a wider audience. Advancing the micro‐foundations of nonmarket strategy, my model offers new insights into how companies can organize with nonmarket actors and how they can effectively publicize their involvement as socially responsible. I also discuss the model's implications for a more critical research agenda on the political responsibilities of companies in social change.
ABSTRACT: This paper examines how companies manage their legitimacy in driving social change, drawing attention to how companies proactively negotiate their involvement with nonmarket actors. Building on the legitimacy‐as‐process perspective, I argue that companies construct the legitimacy of their involvement by engaging in relational work, i.e. by investing efforts in shaping their relations with others and thereby redefining roles and responsibilities. To explore the role of relational work in business‐driven social change, I present an inductive, interpretive study of a pharmaceutical company's efforts to build a market for its products by improving diabetes care in Indonesia. Grounded in the empirical study, I develop a process model to explain how legitimacy is redefined from the bottom‐up, i.e. how a company's involvement is re‐negotiated in situ and crafted to attain the social approval of a wider audience. Advancing the micro‐foundations of nonmarket strategy, my model offers new insights into how companies can organize with nonmarket actors and how they can effectively publicize their involvement as socially responsible. I also discuss the model's implications for a more critical research agenda on the political responsibilities of companies in social change.
Journal: Journal of Management Studies
Published: December 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Verena Girschik
The Human Impact on the Emergence of Firm Supply Chain Agility: A Multilevel Framework
ABSTRACT: Purpose: The human element, especially its multilevel manifestation, has been overlooked in research investigating the antecedents of firm supply chain agility (FSCA). The purpose of this paper is to explore how a firm’s entrepreneurial orientation and market orientation affect FSCA through individual capabilities and actions within the boundary conditions of individual identification with the firm and organizational work climate.
Design/methodology/approach: Following a multilevel approach and drawing on a cross-disciplinary reading of the literature, the authors analyze drivers and enablers of FSCA and advance a framework explaining the emergence of FSCA within the boundary conditions of transformational leadership, individual identification and organizational work climate.
Findings: The authors advance that relevant individual capabilities and intraorganizational actions underlie FSCA in the firms’ pursuit of realizing their strategic orientations as increased agile capacities. The effectiveness of individual capabilities and actions for the emergence of FSCA is contingent upon the extent to which managers identify themselves with their firm, transformational leadership and the nature of organizational work climate.
Originality/value: The original contribution of the paper is to explain the interplay between the multilayered attitudinal, behavioral and structural enablers of FSCA and incorporate the human element into the research on the antecedents of FSCA.
ABSTRACT: Purpose: The human element, especially its multilevel manifestation, has been overlooked in research investigating the antecedents of firm supply chain agility (FSCA). The purpose of this paper is to explore how a firm’s entrepreneurial orientation and market orientation affect FSCA through individual capabilities and actions within the boundary conditions of individual identification with the firm and organizational work climate.
Design/methodology/approach: Following a multilevel approach and drawing on a cross-disciplinary reading of the literature, the authors analyze drivers and enablers of FSCA and advance a framework explaining the emergence of FSCA within the boundary conditions of transformational leadership, individual identification and organizational work climate.
Findings: The authors advance that relevant individual capabilities and intraorganizational actions underlie FSCA in the firms’ pursuit of realizing their strategic orientations as increased agile capacities. The effectiveness of individual capabilities and actions for the emergence of FSCA is contingent upon the extent to which managers identify themselves with their firm, transformational leadership and the nature of organizational work climate.
Originality/value: The original contribution of the paper is to explain the interplay between the multilayered attitudinal, behavioral and structural enablers of FSCA and incorporate the human element into the research on the antecedents of FSCA.
Journal: Personnel Review
Published: November 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Abderaouf Bouguerra
Gifts, Reciprocity and Ethically Sound Ethnographic Research: A Reflexive Framework
ABSTRACT:Purpose: Within organizational ethnography, getting access to relevant field sites often requires us to draw on personal and professional networks. Likewise, externally funded research is no longer a rarity. The question is what such financial and social ties mean for our research practices as organizational ethnographers and for our interactions with and descriptions of the field. The purpose of this paper is to address this question and to develop our understanding and practice of organizational ethnography by expanding the methodological literature on research ethics as well as our tools to evaluate research quality.
Design/methodology/approach: Based on ethnographic fieldwork in a multinational pharmaceutical corporation, and building on previous literature on ethics and quality in qualitative research, this paper introduces a reflexive framework for understanding our personal and financial entanglements in the field and the possible impact of such entanglements on our research findings and representation of informants and events.
Findings: Drawing on anthropological theory of reciprocity and gift-giving, the paper argues that social and financial entanglements with the field will urge the ethnographer to reciprocate; e.g. by thinking twice about unflattering representations and criticism of those with whom we are entangled. However, the paper further argues that such reflections are an important part of conducting ethically sound ethnographic research.
Originality/value: Rather than subscribing to an illusion of independent research, this paper demonstrates how we as organizational ethnographers get entangled with the fields that we study and what implications this might have for our practices and representations of these fields.
ABSTRACT:Purpose: Within organizational ethnography, getting access to relevant field sites often requires us to draw on personal and professional networks. Likewise, externally funded research is no longer a rarity. The question is what such financial and social ties mean for our research practices as organizational ethnographers and for our interactions with and descriptions of the field. The purpose of this paper is to address this question and to develop our understanding and practice of organizational ethnography by expanding the methodological literature on research ethics as well as our tools to evaluate research quality.
Design/methodology/approach: Based on ethnographic fieldwork in a multinational pharmaceutical corporation, and building on previous literature on ethics and quality in qualitative research, this paper introduces a reflexive framework for understanding our personal and financial entanglements in the field and the possible impact of such entanglements on our research findings and representation of informants and events.
Findings: Drawing on anthropological theory of reciprocity and gift-giving, the paper argues that social and financial entanglements with the field will urge the ethnographer to reciprocate; e.g. by thinking twice about unflattering representations and criticism of those with whom we are entangled. However, the paper further argues that such reflections are an important part of conducting ethically sound ethnographic research.
Originality/value: Rather than subscribing to an illusion of independent research, this paper demonstrates how we as organizational ethnographers get entangled with the fields that we study and what implications this might have for our practices and representations of these fields.
Journal: Journal of Organizational Ethnography
Published: October 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Anna Kirkebæk Gosovic
Trade-induced Skill Polarization
ABSTRACT: We study how the skill distribution in an economy responds to changes in wage gaps induced by trade integration. Using administrative data for Denmark (1993-2012), we conduct a two-step empirical analysis. In the first step, we predict changes in wage gaps that are triggered by exogenous trade shocks. In the second step, we estimate the impact of such changes on the skill distribution. The main results for Denmark show that both the average and the standard deviation of skills increase as a result of trade integration. We then extend our analysis to Portugal, using its administrative data (1993-2012), to shed light on the potential role the labor market and education policy may play in establishing the feedback effect of trade on the skill distribution. Finally, we provide a theoretical intuition to rationalize both sets of results.
ABSTRACT: We study how the skill distribution in an economy responds to changes in wage gaps induced by trade integration. Using administrative data for Denmark (1993-2012), we conduct a two-step empirical analysis. In the first step, we predict changes in wage gaps that are triggered by exogenous trade shocks. In the second step, we estimate the impact of such changes on the skill distribution. The main results for Denmark show that both the average and the standard deviation of skills increase as a result of trade integration. We then extend our analysis to Portugal, using its administrative data (1993-2012), to shed light on the potential role the labor market and education policy may play in establishing the feedback effect of trade on the skill distribution. Finally, we provide a theoretical intuition to rationalize both sets of results.
Journal: Economic Inquiry
Published: 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Dario Pozzoli and Vera Rocha
Estimating the Monetary Policy Interest-rate-to-performance Sensitivity of the European Banking Sector at the Zero Lower Bound
ABSTRACT: Using an event-study design, we investigate monetary policy interest-rate-to-performance sensitivity of the European banking sector over the 07/2012–06/2017 period when interest rates were (close to) zero. We apply the Wordscores approach to introductory statements of ECB's Governing Council press conferences to estimate a ‘shadow prime rate’. Based on short-run intraday event windows, we find shadow prime rate changes positively affect changes in the EURO-STOXX-Banks Future. Our findings add to the recent evidence documenting that banks benefit from increasing interest rate levels in a low-interest-rate environment.
ABSTRACT: Using an event-study design, we investigate monetary policy interest-rate-to-performance sensitivity of the European banking sector over the 07/2012–06/2017 period when interest rates were (close to) zero. We apply the Wordscores approach to introductory statements of ECB's Governing Council press conferences to estimate a ‘shadow prime rate’. Based on short-run intraday event windows, we find shadow prime rate changes positively affect changes in the EURO-STOXX-Banks Future. Our findings add to the recent evidence documenting that banks benefit from increasing interest rate levels in a low-interest-rate environment.
Journal: Finance Research Letter
Published: December 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Department of Accounting
Demonstrability, Difficulty and Persuasion: An Experimental Study of Advice Taking
ABSTRACT: Self-interested paid advisors should try to sell their solutions no matter how they came about. However, we present evidence that advisor persuasiveness depends on two dimensions of their prior problem solving: solution difficulty and demonstrability. We report a laboratory experiment with repeated advisor-client interactions where both these dimensions are independently varied. Persuasion rises in solution demonstrability and falls in difficulty. The reason is non-optimising behaviour: Advisors lacking in confidence fail to conceal difficult problem solving and those receiving their advice baulk when the proposed solution lacks objective success criteria irrespective of its promise. Our findings suggest differential prospects for persuasion and selling of different kinds of products, services and ideas.
ABSTRACT: Self-interested paid advisors should try to sell their solutions no matter how they came about. However, we present evidence that advisor persuasiveness depends on two dimensions of their prior problem solving: solution difficulty and demonstrability. We report a laboratory experiment with repeated advisor-client interactions where both these dimensions are independently varied. Persuasion rises in solution demonstrability and falls in difficulty. The reason is non-optimising behaviour: Advisors lacking in confidence fail to conceal difficult problem solving and those receiving their advice baulk when the proposed solution lacks objective success criteria irrespective of its promise. Our findings suggest differential prospects for persuasion and selling of different kinds of products, services and ideas.
Journal: Journal of Economic Psychology
Published: January 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Florian Kock
From Institutionalized Othering to Disruptive Collaboration: A Postcolonial Analysis of the Police Force in Greenland
ABSTRACT: Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the construction and everyday maintenance of racialized psychological borders in the Greenlandic Police Force reproduce a postcolonial hierarchy of knowledge, where Danish knowledge and perceptions of professionalism are constructed as superior to Greenlandic knowledge and perceptions of professionalism.
Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on an ethnographic study comprising 5 days of observation of a training course for Danish police officers going to Greenland on summer assistance, 13 days of observation of police work in Greenland, 2 days of participatory observation of a leadership development seminar in Greenland, 26 interviews conducted in Denmark and Greenland with both Danish and Greenlandic officers and interventions in Denmark and Greenland.
Findings: The racialized borders create strong perceptions of “us” and “them”, which are maintained and reinforced through everyday work practices. The borders have damaging effects on the way police officers collaborate in Greenland and as the borders are maintained through (often implicit) everyday micro-processes, management has difficulty dealing with it. However, the way the racialized borders became visible through this research project created an awareness of – and sparked conversation about – the colonial stereotypes that have constructed and reinforce the borders. This awareness opens up possibilities of collaborative disruption of those borders.
Research limitations/implications: The paper shows how racialized borders limit the way professionalism is understood in the Greenlandic Police Force. But it also shows that, because these borders are socially constructed, they can be contested. Making the implicit everyday discrimination explicit through vignettes, for example, offers the chance to contest and disrupt the colonial hierarchy otherwise deeply embedded in the work practices of the police force.
Originality/value: Thanks to unique access to Greenland’s police force, this paper offers exclusive in-depth insights into current processes of racialization and colonialization in a contemporary colonial relationship.
ABSTRACT: Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the construction and everyday maintenance of racialized psychological borders in the Greenlandic Police Force reproduce a postcolonial hierarchy of knowledge, where Danish knowledge and perceptions of professionalism are constructed as superior to Greenlandic knowledge and perceptions of professionalism.
Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on an ethnographic study comprising 5 days of observation of a training course for Danish police officers going to Greenland on summer assistance, 13 days of observation of police work in Greenland, 2 days of participatory observation of a leadership development seminar in Greenland, 26 interviews conducted in Denmark and Greenland with both Danish and Greenlandic officers and interventions in Denmark and Greenland.
Findings: The racialized borders create strong perceptions of “us” and “them”, which are maintained and reinforced through everyday work practices. The borders have damaging effects on the way police officers collaborate in Greenland and as the borders are maintained through (often implicit) everyday micro-processes, management has difficulty dealing with it. However, the way the racialized borders became visible through this research project created an awareness of – and sparked conversation about – the colonial stereotypes that have constructed and reinforce the borders. This awareness opens up possibilities of collaborative disruption of those borders.
Research limitations/implications: The paper shows how racialized borders limit the way professionalism is understood in the Greenlandic Police Force. But it also shows that, because these borders are socially constructed, they can be contested. Making the implicit everyday discrimination explicit through vignettes, for example, offers the chance to contest and disrupt the colonial hierarchy otherwise deeply embedded in the work practices of the police force.
Originality/value: Thanks to unique access to Greenland’s police force, this paper offers exclusive in-depth insights into current processes of racialization and colonialization in a contemporary colonial relationship.
Journal: Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
Published: October 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Lotte Holck and Sara Louise Muhr
The Interactive Effect of Competition Intensity and Customer Service Competition on Customer Accounting Sophistication: Evidence of Positive and Negative Associations
ABSTRACT: Recent research implies that the association between competition intensity and management accounting system (MAS) design varies with the type of competition involved, depending on the purpose of the MAS in focus. This study finds that competition intensity can be positively or negatively associated with customer accounting (CA) sophistication depending on the extent to which firms tailor their activities and offerings to meet individual customer needs (engage in a particular type of competition labelled ‘customer service competition’). When customer service competition is high we predict there will be a positive relationship between competition intensity and CA sophistication, whereas when customer service competition is low this relationship is negative. Drawing on archival data and survey responses collected from 209 firms, we obtained results that support this hypothesis. The study provides the first empirical evidence of a crossover interaction effect between competition intensity and competition type on MAS design. Moreover, the study extends earlier work on CA by developing and finding empirical evidence supporting a model which provides a more nuanced understanding that explains why certain firms implement sophisticated CA practices while others are content with simpler CA.
ABSTRACT: Recent research implies that the association between competition intensity and management accounting system (MAS) design varies with the type of competition involved, depending on the purpose of the MAS in focus. This study finds that competition intensity can be positively or negatively associated with customer accounting (CA) sophistication depending on the extent to which firms tailor their activities and offerings to meet individual customer needs (engage in a particular type of competition labelled ‘customer service competition’). When customer service competition is high we predict there will be a positive relationship between competition intensity and CA sophistication, whereas when customer service competition is low this relationship is negative. Drawing on archival data and survey responses collected from 209 firms, we obtained results that support this hypothesis. The study provides the first empirical evidence of a crossover interaction effect between competition intensity and competition type on MAS design. Moreover, the study extends earlier work on CA by developing and finding empirical evidence supporting a model which provides a more nuanced understanding that explains why certain firms implement sophisticated CA practices while others are content with simpler CA.
Journal: Mangement Accounting Research
Published: August 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Morten Holm
The Northeast Atlantic Mackerel Crisis
ABSTRACT: From 2010 and onwards, a crisis has occurred over the distribution of a yearly total allowable catch (TAC) for the mackerel fishery in the Northeast Atlantic Sea. The European Union (the EU), Norway (NO), Iceland (IC) and the Faroe Islands (the FI) are players in this “mackerel crisis”. In the present study, we use game theory in an attempt to rationalize the actual behaviour of these players during the mackerel crisis. We identify the profit of each possible coalition structure (the coalitional values) by using a fisheries economic model, and quantify the coalitional values empirically by statistical estimation of the relevant functional relationships. Based on the statistical estimations, we define a benchmark scenario and conduct a number of sensitivity analyses. To try to rationalize the outcome during the mackerel crisis, we require that a relevant coalition must be internally stable in the sense that no structure has an incentive to split up. By using the notion of internal stability, we are partly able to rationalize the actual coalition formation during the mackerel crisis.
ABSTRACT: From 2010 and onwards, a crisis has occurred over the distribution of a yearly total allowable catch (TAC) for the mackerel fishery in the Northeast Atlantic Sea. The European Union (the EU), Norway (NO), Iceland (IC) and the Faroe Islands (the FI) are players in this “mackerel crisis”. In the present study, we use game theory in an attempt to rationalize the actual behaviour of these players during the mackerel crisis. We identify the profit of each possible coalition structure (the coalitional values) by using a fisheries economic model, and quantify the coalitional values empirically by statistical estimation of the relevant functional relationships. Based on the statistical estimations, we define a benchmark scenario and conduct a number of sensitivity analyses. To try to rationalize the outcome during the mackerel crisis, we require that a relevant coalition must be internally stable in the sense that no structure has an incentive to split up. By using the notion of internal stability, we are partly able to rationalize the actual coalition formation during the mackerel crisis.
Journal: Strategic Behavior and the Environment
Published: 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Aleksandrs Smilgins
History Matters: The Role of History in Corporate Brand Strategy
ABSTRACT: This article explores how an organization can use its history to define and deliver its corporate brand strategy. We specifically look at Adidas, which, having rejected its history at one stage, rediscovered and used the philosophy and ideas of its founder to provide direction for the future, legitimate strategic choices, and enrich the corporate brand. Through analysis of material evidence and interviews with senior and long-serving employees, we conceptualize the way Adidas developed a systematic approach to the use of history in its corporate brand strategy by creating the means to uncover, remember, curate, and then embed it. Combining the lessons of the Adidas case with evidence from other cases in which history was used to refocus and revitalize corporate brands, we deliver key recommendations for managers.
ABSTRACT: This article explores how an organization can use its history to define and deliver its corporate brand strategy. We specifically look at Adidas, which, having rejected its history at one stage, rediscovered and used the philosophy and ideas of its founder to provide direction for the future, legitimate strategic choices, and enrich the corporate brand. Through analysis of material evidence and interviews with senior and long-serving employees, we conceptualize the way Adidas developed a systematic approach to the use of history in its corporate brand strategy by creating the means to uncover, remember, curate, and then embed it. Combining the lessons of the Adidas case with evidence from other cases in which history was used to refocus and revitalize corporate brands, we deliver key recommendations for managers.
Journal: Business Horizons
Published: October 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Majken Schultz
How TradeLens Delivers Business Value With Blockchain Technology
ABSTRACT: Despite the growing interest in blockchain technology, there are few examples of business value being delivered by live solutions. One exception is TradeLens, a blockchain- enabled platform for tracking shipping containers and related documentation in global supply chains. This article describes the TradeLens journey from initial prototypes and pilots to its live deployment. Although TradeLens still has a long way to go, its vision to substantially improve global supply chains has kept participants engaged and committed to adopting and growing the ecosystem.
ABSTRACT: Despite the growing interest in blockchain technology, there are few examples of business value being delivered by live solutions. One exception is TradeLens, a blockchain- enabled platform for tracking shipping containers and related documentation in global supply chains. This article describes the TradeLens journey from initial prototypes and pilots to its live deployment. Although TradeLens still has a long way to go, its vision to substantially improve global supply chains has kept participants engaged and committed to adopting and growing the ecosystem.
Journal: MIS Quarterly Executive
Published: December 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Thomas Jensen, Jonas Hedman and Stefan Henningsson
Followership in an Open-source Software Project and Its Significance in Code Reuse
ABSTRACT: Code reuse is fundamental to the development of open-source software (OSS). Therefore, understanding how and why it occurs is important. To date, researchers have examined code reuse in OSS largely from the perspective of leaders. We show why followers must be considered as well. “Followers” are people who have had previous contacts with an individual from another project and who continue to associate with him or her. We consider two types of followers: developers (those directly involved in software development) and observers (those indirectly involved in it). We conduct a series of empirical investigations by using a longitudinal dataset of OSS projects hosted in GitHub, along with a survey and qualitative data. We find that followership can affect code reuse, but the effect depends on the nature of the follower (developer or observer). Overall, our study suggests that followership is important for code reuse in OSS because it enables participants to learn, and learning promotes code reuse.
ABSTRACT: Code reuse is fundamental to the development of open-source software (OSS). Therefore, understanding how and why it occurs is important. To date, researchers have examined code reuse in OSS largely from the perspective of leaders. We show why followers must be considered as well. “Followers” are people who have had previous contacts with an individual from another project and who continue to associate with him or her. We consider two types of followers: developers (those directly involved in software development) and observers (those indirectly involved in it). We conduct a series of empirical investigations by using a longitudinal dataset of OSS projects hosted in GitHub, along with a survey and qualitative data. We find that followership can affect code reuse, but the effect depends on the nature of the follower (developer or observer). Overall, our study suggests that followership is important for code reuse in OSS because it enables participants to learn, and learning promotes code reuse.
Journal: MIS Quarterly
Published: 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Qiqi Jiang
Employee Involvement, Financial Participation and Firm Performance: Evidence for the Emerging Market Economy of Estonia
ABSTRACT: Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether performance is enhanced if firms use employee involvement (EI) in decision-making and financial participation (FP) in an emerging market economy.
Design/methodology/approach: The authors use representative data for Estonian firms. The authors estimate diverse forms of production functions. Some are restricted to individual forms of EI (including membership on boards by nonmanagerial employees) or individual forms of FP (such as employee ownership and profit sharing). To investigate the complementarity hypothesis findings, the authors construct systems of EI and FP and estimate diverse specifications.
Findings: For individual forms of EI, cross-sectional estimates indicate that alone, typically such mechanisms have little impact. However, panel estimates do provide support for some forms of FP such as employee ownership and profit sharing increasing business performance. Tests of the complementarity hypothesis provide only weak evidence in support of the synergies between EI and FP.
Research limitations/implications: Together with the results from related studies, the findings support the more general finding that FP practices have positive effects on productivity; the limited impact of EI alone and weak evidence for complementarities suggest an important role for the institutional context in accounting for the effectiveness of the mechanisms underlying EI and thus to the differences in the impact of EI and FP across institutional contexts; reinforce findings from other studies of emerging market economies of inertia in EI and FP practices during early transition.
Originality/value: This is the first study for a former transition economy/emerging market economy that uses detailed information on EI and FP to investigate individual and complementary effects.
ABSTRACT: Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether performance is enhanced if firms use employee involvement (EI) in decision-making and financial participation (FP) in an emerging market economy.
Design/methodology/approach: The authors use representative data for Estonian firms. The authors estimate diverse forms of production functions. Some are restricted to individual forms of EI (including membership on boards by nonmanagerial employees) or individual forms of FP (such as employee ownership and profit sharing). To investigate the complementarity hypothesis findings, the authors construct systems of EI and FP and estimate diverse specifications.
Findings: For individual forms of EI, cross-sectional estimates indicate that alone, typically such mechanisms have little impact. However, panel estimates do provide support for some forms of FP such as employee ownership and profit sharing increasing business performance. Tests of the complementarity hypothesis provide only weak evidence in support of the synergies between EI and FP.
Research limitations/implications: Together with the results from related studies, the findings support the more general finding that FP practices have positive effects on productivity; the limited impact of EI alone and weak evidence for complementarities suggest an important role for the institutional context in accounting for the effectiveness of the mechanisms underlying EI and thus to the differences in the impact of EI and FP across institutional contexts; reinforce findings from other studies of emerging market economies of inertia in EI and FP practices during early transition.
Originality/value: This is the first study for a former transition economy/emerging market economy that uses detailed information on EI and FP to investigate individual and complementary effects.
Journal: Journal of Participation and Employee Ownership
Published: 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Niels Mygind
Testing a Model of Destination Image Formation: Application of Bayesian Relational Modelling and fsQCA
ABSTRACT: Individuals’ destination images are constantly updated through their exposure to various stimuli sent from diverse information sources1 widely accessible in the modern society. Such dynamics of destination image formation2 is better explained with the iterative process of a concept learning framework integrated into the destination image models. DDIF implies that individuals having been exposed to similar stimuli in the iterative image formation process have a higher likelihood of developing a similar mental representation3. Accordingly, this study employs an innovative methodological framework to extract patterns of MR of destinations held by groups of individuals (segments) and to compare segment-specific patterns of MR with their relations to willingness to visit4 and to ISs. The results demonstrate that what segments associate with a destination relates to their W2V, and segments having rich and positive associations with a destination accessed a wider range of ISs to learn about the destination.
ABSTRACT: Individuals’ destination images are constantly updated through their exposure to various stimuli sent from diverse information sources1 widely accessible in the modern society. Such dynamics of destination image formation2 is better explained with the iterative process of a concept learning framework integrated into the destination image models. DDIF implies that individuals having been exposed to similar stimuli in the iterative image formation process have a higher likelihood of developing a similar mental representation3. Accordingly, this study employs an innovative methodological framework to extract patterns of MR of destinations held by groups of individuals (segments) and to compare segment-specific patterns of MR with their relations to willingness to visit4 and to ISs. The results demonstrate that what segments associate with a destination relates to their W2V, and segments having rich and positive associations with a destination accessed a wider range of ISs to learn about the destination.
Journal: Journal of Business Research
Published: November 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Fumiko Kano Glückstad
The Network ROI: Concept, Metrics, and Measurement of Social Media Returns (a Facebook Experiment)
ABSTRACT: Purpose: Leveraging social action theory, social network theory and the notion of network externality, the purpose of this paper is to model two different return on investment (ROI) measures: the networked ROI which captures the network effect originating from a social media investment, and the discrete ROI which focuses social media discrete returns from individual users.
Design/methodology/approach: A field experiment was set up over a period of three months to test the effects of two variants of an advertisement campaign (a social vs a discrete ad) on the modeled networked and discrete ROIs.
Findings: The authors find that emphasizing discrete user actions leads to lower network gains, but higher monetary returns while the social action emphasis produces higher network gains, but lower monetary returns. The study further suggests that social action focus is preferable for brand promotion and engagement, whereas the discrete action focus is suitable for boosting sales and website traffic.
Practical implications: Several potential implications for social media researchers and marketers are also discussed.
Originality/value: The authors for the first time showed that that the social media returns are derived not only from individual actions taken by the user (e.g. likes and shares) but also from users’ social interdependencies and the additional exposure that results from network effects.
ABSTRACT: Purpose: Leveraging social action theory, social network theory and the notion of network externality, the purpose of this paper is to model two different return on investment (ROI) measures: the networked ROI which captures the network effect originating from a social media investment, and the discrete ROI which focuses social media discrete returns from individual users.
Design/methodology/approach: A field experiment was set up over a period of three months to test the effects of two variants of an advertisement campaign (a social vs a discrete ad) on the modeled networked and discrete ROIs.
Findings: The authors find that emphasizing discrete user actions leads to lower network gains, but higher monetary returns while the social action emphasis produces higher network gains, but lower monetary returns. The study further suggests that social action focus is preferable for brand promotion and engagement, whereas the discrete action focus is suitable for boosting sales and website traffic.
Practical implications: Several potential implications for social media researchers and marketers are also discussed.
Originality/value: The authors for the first time showed that that the social media returns are derived not only from individual actions taken by the user (e.g. likes and shares) but also from users’ social interdependencies and the additional exposure that results from network effects.
Journal: Internet Journal
Published: November 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Matthias Trier
Urban Nature as Transformed Practice: A Case of Multi-dimensional Processing to Increase Public Value in Copenhagen
ABSTRACT:Expanding participatory and network-centred engagement in urban nature, aiming at collective action and long-term benefits is a complex balance act. This article discusses a case in Copenhagen, Denmark, where the aim has been: (a) build active collaboration of actors engaging in improving urban nature (NaTur i Byen); (b) strengthen dialogue among land owners, public bodies, research, and entrepreneurship to pave the road for collaborative actions; and (c) develop new models for ecological and economic benefits in the long run. An analysis of the first phase of the project is carried out, using a multi-dimensional model. It shows that relations were developing, but a stronger set of aesthetic and knowledge sharing tools giving primacy to place could strengthen impact towards practical actions. The article discusses how such primacy of place and aesthetics could lead to an impact on urban nature, more focus on biodiversity, green spaces, and other climate change-related benefits for urban sustainability. A process model is suggested for improved public value and creation and governance of urban nature-based solutions.
ABSTRACT:Expanding participatory and network-centred engagement in urban nature, aiming at collective action and long-term benefits is a complex balance act. This article discusses a case in Copenhagen, Denmark, where the aim has been: (a) build active collaboration of actors engaging in improving urban nature (NaTur i Byen); (b) strengthen dialogue among land owners, public bodies, research, and entrepreneurship to pave the road for collaborative actions; and (c) develop new models for ecological and economic benefits in the long run. An analysis of the first phase of the project is carried out, using a multi-dimensional model. It shows that relations were developing, but a stronger set of aesthetic and knowledge sharing tools giving primacy to place could strengthen impact towards practical actions. The article discusses how such primacy of place and aesthetics could lead to an impact on urban nature, more focus on biodiversity, green spaces, and other climate change-related benefits for urban sustainability. A process model is suggested for improved public value and creation and governance of urban nature-based solutions.
Journal: Local Economy
Published: 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Oleg Koefoed
Entrepreneurs: Intuitive or Contemplative Decision Makers?
ABSTRACT: In a large survey (n = 1928), we examine whether entrepreneurs differ in their decision-making style from managers and employees. Besides two self-reported measures taken from psychology, we build on Rubinstein (Quarterly Journal of Economics 131: 859–890, 2016) by including two behavioral measures derived from response times and the nature of the strategic choices made. Supporting conventional wisdom, entrepreneurs report a stronger Faith in Intuition than others. Their actual choices are partly in line with this: entrepreneurs make indeed more intuitive choices than managers, but are equally intuitive as employees. At the same time, entrepreneurs have response times and a self-reported Need for Cognition that exceeds those of employees. Together, these findings tentatively suggest that entrepreneurs start from a stronger predisposition to choose the intuitive action, but share with managers that they take more time to think things over and thereby are more inclined to move away from their instant intuitive choice.
ABSTRACT: In a large survey (n = 1928), we examine whether entrepreneurs differ in their decision-making style from managers and employees. Besides two self-reported measures taken from psychology, we build on Rubinstein (Quarterly Journal of Economics 131: 859–890, 2016) by including two behavioral measures derived from response times and the nature of the strategic choices made. Supporting conventional wisdom, entrepreneurs report a stronger Faith in Intuition than others. Their actual choices are partly in line with this: entrepreneurs make indeed more intuitive choices than managers, but are equally intuitive as employees. At the same time, entrepreneurs have response times and a self-reported Need for Cognition that exceeds those of employees. Together, these findings tentatively suggest that entrepreneurs start from a stronger predisposition to choose the intuitive action, but share with managers that they take more time to think things over and thereby are more inclined to move away from their instant intuitive choice.
Journal: Small Business Economics
Published: December 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Mirjam Van Praag
From Universalizing Transparency to the Interplay of Transparency Matrices: Critical Insights from the Emerging Social Credit System in China
ABSTRACT: Building on research on organizational transparency and surveillance, mediated visibility and Foucauldian dispositional analytics, we develop the concept of transparency matrices for studying the interplay of mediating technologies and normative arrangements in the formation of transparency as a heterogeneous regime of visibility. Using the emerging and controversial social credit system in China as a critical case, we make two contributions. First, we enrich the conceptual vocabulary for the study of transparency as a dynamic multiplicity with varying power effects in different contexts, challenging in this way universalizing and otherwise reductive notions of transparency. Second, by emphasizing the operation of several coexisting matrices we provide a novel way of approaching the ‘post panoptic’ condition which can account not only for the power effects of different modalities of transparency, but also for the instabilities and potential openings that are generated by their interplay. Transparency is heterogeneous, irreducible to a single reality and open to future becoming.
ABSTRACT: Building on research on organizational transparency and surveillance, mediated visibility and Foucauldian dispositional analytics, we develop the concept of transparency matrices for studying the interplay of mediating technologies and normative arrangements in the formation of transparency as a heterogeneous regime of visibility. Using the emerging and controversial social credit system in China as a critical case, we make two contributions. First, we enrich the conceptual vocabulary for the study of transparency as a dynamic multiplicity with varying power effects in different contexts, challenging in this way universalizing and otherwise reductive notions of transparency. Second, by emphasizing the operation of several coexisting matrices we provide a novel way of approaching the ‘post panoptic’ condition which can account not only for the power effects of different modalities of transparency, but also for the instabilities and potential openings that are generated by their interplay. Transparency is heterogeneous, irreducible to a single reality and open to future becoming.
Journal: Organization Studies
Published: October 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Hans Krause Hansen
Navigating Input and Output Legitimacy in Multi-stakeholder Initiatives: Institutional Stewards at Work
ABSTRACT: Multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) are a form of private governance sometimes used to manage the social and environmental impacts of supply chains. We argue that there is a potential tension between input and output legitimacy in MSIs. Input legitimacy requires facilitating representation from a wide range of organizations with heterogeneous interests. This work, however, faces collective action problems that could lead to limited ambitions, lowering output legitimacy. We find that, under the right conditions a relatively small group of motivated actors, who we call institutional stewards, may be willing to undertake the cost and labor of building and maintaining the MSI. This can help reconcile the tension between input and output legitimacy in a formal sense, though it also results in inequalities in power. We test this claim using a case study of organizations’ activities in the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). We find that a small group of founding members—and other members of long tenure—account for a disproportionate level of activity in the organization.
ABSTRACT: Multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) are a form of private governance sometimes used to manage the social and environmental impacts of supply chains. We argue that there is a potential tension between input and output legitimacy in MSIs. Input legitimacy requires facilitating representation from a wide range of organizations with heterogeneous interests. This work, however, faces collective action problems that could lead to limited ambitions, lowering output legitimacy. We find that, under the right conditions a relatively small group of motivated actors, who we call institutional stewards, may be willing to undertake the cost and labor of building and maintaining the MSI. This can help reconcile the tension between input and output legitimacy in a formal sense, though it also results in inequalities in power. We test this claim using a case study of organizations’ activities in the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). We find that a small group of founding members—and other members of long tenure—account for a disproportionate level of activity in the organization.
Journal: Sustainability
Published: 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Kristjan Jespersen
‘It’s the Organization that Is Wrong’: Exploring Disengagement from Organizations through Leadership Development.
ABSTRACT: This research explores the relationship between participation in leadership development programmes and disengagement from the employing organization. Based on repeated interviews with 10 managers participating in an open leadership development programme, our analysis shows that half of the participants reflected a sense of distancing themselves from how their organizations practiced leadership, and for some, an emotional disengagement with their home organization which we see as analogous to changes in social identity. We problematize the role of management and leadership development programmes with regard to the relationship between organizations and employees. A series of paradoxes are reflected in our critique of this relationship. The most prominent in terms of implications is that a successful management and leadership development programme – recognized by employees and employers – can generate dissatisfaction with the home organization as a consequence of the purpose of the programme: to increase confidence and enhanced agency. This paradox has significant implication to the leadership development industry and we explore these implications.
ABSTRACT: This research explores the relationship between participation in leadership development programmes and disengagement from the employing organization. Based on repeated interviews with 10 managers participating in an open leadership development programme, our analysis shows that half of the participants reflected a sense of distancing themselves from how their organizations practiced leadership, and for some, an emotional disengagement with their home organization which we see as analogous to changes in social identity. We problematize the role of management and leadership development programmes with regard to the relationship between organizations and employees. A series of paradoxes are reflected in our critique of this relationship. The most prominent in terms of implications is that a successful management and leadership development programme – recognized by employees and employers – can generate dissatisfaction with the home organization as a consequence of the purpose of the programme: to increase confidence and enhanced agency. This paradox has significant implication to the leadership development industry and we explore these implications.
Journal: Leadership
Published: September 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Magnus Larsson
Disentangling Utilitarian and Hedonic Consumption Behavior in Online Shopping: An Expectation Disconfirmation Perspective
ABSTRACT:Increasingly, researchers have come to acknowledge that consumption activities entail both utilitarian and hedonic components. Whereas utilitarian consumption accentuates the achievement of predetermined outcomes typical of cognitive consumer behavior, its hedonic counterpart relates to affective consumer behavior in dealing with the emotive and multisensory aspects of the shopping experience. Consequently, while utilitarian consumption activities appeal to the rationality of customers in inducing their intellectual buy-in of the shopping experience, customers’ corresponding emotional buy-in can only be attained through the presence of hedonic consumption activities. The same can be said for online shopping. Because the online shopping environment is characterized by the existence of an IT-enabled web interface that acts as the focal point of contact between customers and vendors, its design should embed utilitarian and hedonic elements to create a holistic shopping experience. Building on Expectation Disconfirmation Theory (EDT), this study advances a research model that not only delineates between customers’ utilitarian and hedonic expectations for online shopping but also highlights how these expectations can be best served through functional and esthetic performance, respectively. Furthermore, we introduce online shopping experience (i.e., transactional frequency) as a moderator affecting not only how customers form utilitarian and hedonic expectations but also how they evaluate the functional and esthetic performances of e-commerce sites. The model is then empirically validated via an online survey questionnaire administered on a sample of 303 respondents. Theoretical contributions and pragmatic implications to be gleaned from our research model and its subsequent empirical validation are discussed.
ABSTRACT:Increasingly, researchers have come to acknowledge that consumption activities entail both utilitarian and hedonic components. Whereas utilitarian consumption accentuates the achievement of predetermined outcomes typical of cognitive consumer behavior, its hedonic counterpart relates to affective consumer behavior in dealing with the emotive and multisensory aspects of the shopping experience. Consequently, while utilitarian consumption activities appeal to the rationality of customers in inducing their intellectual buy-in of the shopping experience, customers’ corresponding emotional buy-in can only be attained through the presence of hedonic consumption activities. The same can be said for online shopping. Because the online shopping environment is characterized by the existence of an IT-enabled web interface that acts as the focal point of contact between customers and vendors, its design should embed utilitarian and hedonic elements to create a holistic shopping experience. Building on Expectation Disconfirmation Theory (EDT), this study advances a research model that not only delineates between customers’ utilitarian and hedonic expectations for online shopping but also highlights how these expectations can be best served through functional and esthetic performance, respectively. Furthermore, we introduce online shopping experience (i.e., transactional frequency) as a moderator affecting not only how customers form utilitarian and hedonic expectations but also how they evaluate the functional and esthetic performances of e-commerce sites. The model is then empirically validated via an online survey questionnaire administered on a sample of 303 respondents. Theoretical contributions and pragmatic implications to be gleaned from our research model and its subsequent empirical validation are discussed.
Journal: Information and management
Published: August 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Chee-Wee Tan
Are leaders born or made? In this study of contemporary leadership development programmes, we find that leaders are not only made but Making up Leaders: Reconfiguring the Executive Student through Profiling, Texts and Conversations in a Leadership Development Programmehow we approach agency and context in this realm.
ABSTRACT: Are leaders born or made? In this study of contemporary leadership development programmes, we find that leaders are not only made but also – in Ian Hacking’s sense – made up. Such programmes increasingly employ practices like personality profiling, appraisals, feedback and coaching aimed at creating knowledge about individual leaders in order for them to develop. The effects of these practices on participants have been theorized in terms of identity regulation and resistance, yet in our view the situated accomplishments of authority and identity remain inadequately theorized. This study follows a number of such practices as texts and conversations, and shows how a programme participant’s leader identity becomes authorized and acknowledged as participants and instructors ventriloquize texts in conversations. We theorize this as identity reconfiguration, as it entails the continual staging and authorizing of diverse figures. Our findings have implications for the relation between governmentality studies and studies of texts and conversations in leadership development programmes as well as for how we approach agency and context in this realm.
ABSTRACT: Are leaders born or made? In this study of contemporary leadership development programmes, we find that leaders are not only made but also – in Ian Hacking’s sense – made up. Such programmes increasingly employ practices like personality profiling, appraisals, feedback and coaching aimed at creating knowledge about individual leaders in order for them to develop. The effects of these practices on participants have been theorized in terms of identity regulation and resistance, yet in our view the situated accomplishments of authority and identity remain inadequately theorized. This study follows a number of such practices as texts and conversations, and shows how a programme participant’s leader identity becomes authorized and acknowledged as participants and instructors ventriloquize texts in conversations. We theorize this as identity reconfiguration, as it entails the continual staging and authorizing of diverse figures. Our findings have implications for the relation between governmentality studies and studies of texts and conversations in leadership development programmes as well as for how we approach agency and context in this realm.
Journal: Human Relations
Published: September 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Frank Meier
Ledelsens aktieinvesteringer: Er det godt med hånden på kogepladen – og skal det være frivilligt?
ABSTRACT: I denne artikel ses på ledelsernes investeringer i de børsnoterede selskaber, herunder om det er godt for aktionærerne at påvirke ledelsernes aktieinvesteringer. Der argumenteres for, at ledelser i C25-selskaber overinvesterer i de selskaber, de er i ledelsen for, at ledelser ikke bør opmuntres eller presses til at investere i de selskaber, de er tilknyttet, og at det måske endda bør frarådes. Det påpeges endvidere, at der er en konflikt mellem incitamentsovervejelser og informationsovervejelser i forbindelse med sådanne investeringer.
ABSTRACT: I denne artikel ses på ledelsernes investeringer i de børsnoterede selskaber, herunder om det er godt for aktionærerne at påvirke ledelsernes aktieinvesteringer. Der argumenteres for, at ledelser i C25-selskaber overinvesterer i de selskaber, de er i ledelsen for, at ledelser ikke bør opmuntres eller presses til at investere i de selskaber, de er tilknyttet, og at det måske endda bør frarådes. Det påpeges endvidere, at der er en konflikt mellem incitamentsovervejelser og informationsovervejelser i forbindelse med sådanne investeringer.
Journal: Finans/invest
Published: December 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Michael Møller and Niels Christian Nielsen
Examining the Relationship between Trait Self-control and Stress: Evidence on Generalizability and Outcome Variability
ABSTRACT: Trait self-control has in several studies been found negatively linked to stress. These studies have, however, mostly relied on student and/or one-country samples. Study 1 investigated the generalizability of the relationship between trait self-control and stress through a four-country survey (N = 4097). The results showed consistently strong and negative relationships between trait self-control and stress across the four countries. Study 2 investigated the relationship between trait self-control and daily stress through a two-week diary study (N = 594; nobs = 7880), showing that trait self-control was negatively related to daily stress and stress variability. Together, the two studies show that trait self-control’s negative link to stress generalizes beyond students and the United States.
ABSTRACT: Trait self-control has in several studies been found negatively linked to stress. These studies have, however, mostly relied on student and/or one-country samples. Study 1 investigated the generalizability of the relationship between trait self-control and stress through a four-country survey (N = 4097). The results showed consistently strong and negative relationships between trait self-control and stress across the four countries. Study 2 investigated the relationship between trait self-control and daily stress through a two-week diary study (N = 594; nobs = 7880), showing that trait self-control was negatively related to daily stress and stress variability. Together, the two studies show that trait self-control’s negative link to stress generalizes beyond students and the United States.
Journal: Journal of research in Personality
Published: February 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Jan Michael Bauer
Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction: The Moderating Effects of Hotel Star Rating
ABSTRACT: This research contributes to customer satisfaction knowledge with regard to accommodation in South Africa whose star grading differs. A multi-group analysis and an importance-performance map analysis by means of
PLS-SEM allow us to differentiate between service quality performance scores and their influences on customer satisfaction across accommodation with a different star grading. The two most important predictors of satisfaction
with one-star and two-star category accommodation are the accommodation infrastructure and the employee expertise. Both predictors were found to have relatively low levels of performance. Safety and security and room quality are two significant determinants of satisfaction with three-star establishments, although they under-perform with regard to safety and security. In respect of four-star and five-star accommodation, waiting time and customer interaction, both of which have above average performance scores, influence customer satisfaction.
We provide specific guidelines for managerial interventions to improve service quality and guests’ satisfaction for each grading category.
ABSTRACT: This research contributes to customer satisfaction knowledge with regard to accommodation in South Africa whose star grading differs. A multi-group analysis and an importance-performance map analysis by means of
PLS-SEM allow us to differentiate between service quality performance scores and their influences on customer satisfaction across accommodation with a different star grading. The two most important predictors of satisfaction
with one-star and two-star category accommodation are the accommodation infrastructure and the employee expertise. Both predictors were found to have relatively low levels of performance. Safety and security and room quality are two significant determinants of satisfaction with three-star establishments, although they under-perform with regard to safety and security. In respect of four-star and five-star accommodation, waiting time and customer interaction, both of which have above average performance scores, influence customer satisfaction.
We provide specific guidelines for managerial interventions to improve service quality and guests’ satisfaction for each grading category.
Journal: International Journal of Hospitality Management
Published: November 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Robin Nunkoo
The Novel as Affective Site: Uncertain Work as Impasse in Wait Until Spring Bandini
ABSTRACT: In this paper we propose that reading and writing with novels contributes to the emerging field of researching affect in organization studies. Situating our argument in current research on work-related uncertainty, we take John Fante’s novel Wait Until Spring, Bandini as a ‘sensuous site’ of research to engage with the experience of feeling stuck – addressed as impasse, limbo or permanent temporariness – as a condition of contemporary work lives. While affect theoretical approaches often emphasize precognitive intensities and their transformative potential, the novel foregrounds how affective intensities stay and stick as they are entangled with powerful socio-political conventions, such as investments in the American Dream or the idea of stable employment. Such affective attachments take shape in antithetic dynamics of the not-so-static state of feeling stuck.
ABSTRACT: In this paper we propose that reading and writing with novels contributes to the emerging field of researching affect in organization studies. Situating our argument in current research on work-related uncertainty, we take John Fante’s novel Wait Until Spring, Bandini as a ‘sensuous site’ of research to engage with the experience of feeling stuck – addressed as impasse, limbo or permanent temporariness – as a condition of contemporary work lives. While affect theoretical approaches often emphasize precognitive intensities and their transformative potential, the novel foregrounds how affective intensities stay and stick as they are entangled with powerful socio-political conventions, such as investments in the American Dream or the idea of stable employment. Such affective attachments take shape in antithetic dynamics of the not-so-static state of feeling stuck.
Journal: Organizational Studies
Published: December 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Birke Otto
TJohn Dewey on Public Office and Representative Democracy
ABSTRACT: Recent decades have seen rising interest in John Dewey’s political philosophy, often in discussions of the presumed crisis of democracy, rising populism in Western political systems, or the triumph of neoliberalism. This paper presents a rare reading of Dewey as a theorist of office and political representation, where it is only meaningful to approach ‘the public’ in terms of public offices organised through the state. In Dewey’s understanding of democracy, public office is extended to the citizen, who must be educated to participate in public engagement and who has a duty to vote not as a private person but as a representative of the public interest. From this perspective, a democracy must be judged by the extent to which it is able to secure both its traditional public officers’ and its citizens’ representative functions, character, and conduct rather than by its ideas, for instance, of freedom of speech or public will.
ABSTRACT: Recent decades have seen rising interest in John Dewey’s political philosophy, often in discussions of the presumed crisis of democracy, rising populism in Western political systems, or the triumph of neoliberalism. This paper presents a rare reading of Dewey as a theorist of office and political representation, where it is only meaningful to approach ‘the public’ in terms of public offices organised through the state. In Dewey’s understanding of democracy, public office is extended to the citizen, who must be educated to participate in public engagement and who has a duty to vote not as a private person but as a representative of the public interest. From this perspective, a democracy must be judged by the extent to which it is able to secure both its traditional public officers’ and its citizens’ representative functions, character, and conduct rather than by its ideas, for instance, of freedom of speech or public will.
Journal: European Journal of Culture and Political Sociology
Published: November 2019
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Contact CBS researcher:Kirstine Zinck Pedersen
Languages in Public Policy, and Constraints in Academia
ABSTRACT: The article explores evidence of public policy ignoring scholarly recommendations, and describes instances of this in the field of language policy at both supranational and national levels. One significant contemporary influence is that university autonomy and academic freedom are being constrained by neoliberal pressures. Evidence of this in the United Kingdom and Denmark is described. These trends are connected to the wider context of the transition from the practices and ideology of terra nullius to legitimate colonisation and global Europeanisation, and the concomitant dispossession of the territories of others, to global Americanisation processes, the universalization of a cultura nullius in commerce, the media, academia, and domestic life. This dovetails with the promotion and establishment of English as a lingua nullius, a language that should be learned by all worldwide, as if it serves the interests of all inhabitants of the globe, and is disconnected from the causal factors behind the expansion of the language. One speech by Winston Churchill argues for the maintenance of university autonomy and historical awareness. Another pleads for Anglo-American global dominance, including the promotion of English as a 'world' language. These competing pleas have had different outcomes: academic freedom and traditions are currently at risk, whereas US dominance and the promotion and expansion of English have thrived. The governments of the five Nordic countries have acted to ensure the maintenance of national languages as well as competence in 'international languages'. This is exemplified by a description of how universities should assure parallel competence and thereby a healthy balance between English and national languages. Soft power is never far from economic, political, and military power, all of which entail language use. China and Chinese are well launched on a comparable trajectory to the expansion of English.
ABSTRACT: The article explores evidence of public policy ignoring scholarly recommendations, and describes instances of this in the field of language policy at both supranational and national levels. One significant contemporary influence is that university autonomy and academic freedom are being constrained by neoliberal pressures. Evidence of this in the United Kingdom and Denmark is described. These trends are connected to the wider context of the transition from the practices and ideology of terra nullius to legitimate colonisation and global Europeanisation, and the concomitant dispossession of the territories of others, to global Americanisation processes, the universalization of a cultura nullius in commerce, the media, academia, and domestic life. This dovetails with the promotion and establishment of English as a lingua nullius, a language that should be learned by all worldwide, as if it serves the interests of all inhabitants of the globe, and is disconnected from the causal factors behind the expansion of the language. One speech by Winston Churchill argues for the maintenance of university autonomy and historical awareness. Another pleads for Anglo-American global dominance, including the promotion of English as a 'world' language. These competing pleas have had different outcomes: academic freedom and traditions are currently at risk, whereas US dominance and the promotion and expansion of English have thrived. The governments of the five Nordic countries have acted to ensure the maintenance of national languages as well as competence in 'international languages'. This is exemplified by a description of how universities should assure parallel competence and thereby a healthy balance between English and national languages. Soft power is never far from economic, political, and military power, all of which entail language use. China and Chinese are well launched on a comparable trajectory to the expansion of English.
Journal: Language Problems and Language Planning
Published: 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Robert Phillipson
Life Events and Donor Lapse among Blood Donors in Denmark.
ABSTRACT: Background and objectives: The likelihood of donating blood changes over the life course, with life events shown to influence entry to and exit from the donor population. While these previous findings provide valuable insights for donor management, blood collection agencies need to be cautious about generalizing findings to other countries as blood donor behaviour is context-specific. To examine cross-country variations in donor behaviour, the repeatability of a previous Dutch study on life events and blood donor lapse is examined by using a sample of Danish donors.
Materials and methods: Register data from Statistics Denmark was linked to the Scandinavian Donations and Transfusions database (n = 152 887). Logistic regressions were conducted to examine the association between life events in 2009–2012 and blood donor lapse in 2013–2014.
Results: Of the total sample, 69 079 (45·2%) donors lapsed. Childbirth and losing a job increased the lapsing risk by 11% and 16%, respectively, while health-related events in the family (i.e. blood transfusion, disease and death) decreased the lapsing risk by 5%, 7% and 9%, respectively.
Conclusion: Life events are associated with donor lapse of Danish donors. These results are comparable to previous findings from the Netherlands (i.e. childbirth and labour market transitions increased lapsing risk; health-related events decreased lapsing risk), with two thirds of the associations being in the same direction. Differences between study results were mainly related to effect sizes and demographic compositions of the donor pools. We argue contextual factors to be of importance in blood donor studies.
ABSTRACT: Background and objectives: The likelihood of donating blood changes over the life course, with life events shown to influence entry to and exit from the donor population. While these previous findings provide valuable insights for donor management, blood collection agencies need to be cautious about generalizing findings to other countries as blood donor behaviour is context-specific. To examine cross-country variations in donor behaviour, the repeatability of a previous Dutch study on life events and blood donor lapse is examined by using a sample of Danish donors.
Materials and methods: Register data from Statistics Denmark was linked to the Scandinavian Donations and Transfusions database (n = 152 887). Logistic regressions were conducted to examine the association between life events in 2009–2012 and blood donor lapse in 2013–2014.
Results: Of the total sample, 69 079 (45·2%) donors lapsed. Childbirth and losing a job increased the lapsing risk by 11% and 16%, respectively, while health-related events in the family (i.e. blood transfusion, disease and death) decreased the lapsing risk by 5%, 7% and 9%, respectively.
Conclusion: Life events are associated with donor lapse of Danish donors. These results are comparable to previous findings from the Netherlands (i.e. childbirth and labour market transitions increased lapsing risk; health-related events decreased lapsing risk), with two thirds of the associations being in the same direction. Differences between study results were mainly related to effect sizes and demographic compositions of the donor pools. We argue contextual factors to be of importance in blood donor studies.
Journal: Vox Sanguinis
Published: Nobember 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Steffen Andersen
Green Capital Accumulation: Business and Sustainability Management in a World of Global Value Chains
ABSTRACT: Tackling climate change and other environmental crises entails a critical reflection on processes and outcomes that are behind sustainability management by business. Sustainability has become a commodity itself, to be traded, bought, sold and managed like all others. How lead firms in global value chains (GVCs) address sustainability issues has become a key competitive element and a source of value creation and capture–facilitating a process of ‘green capital accumulation’. Sustainability management is emerging as a fourth key capitalist dynamic in addition to cost minimisation, flexibility and speed (Coe and Yeung 2015)–leading corporations to devise new spatial, organisational and technological ‘fixes’ to ensure continued capital accumulation. Public actors and civil society groups can address this situation, but their strategies need to be informed by the daily practices, power relations and governance structures of GVCs. Sustainability orchestration by these actors is more likely to succeed when: it employs appropriate combinations of directive and facilitative instruments that reinforce each other; improves issue visibility; provides incentives that facilitate the alignment of private and public sector interests; and leverages specific pressure points at key nodes of GVCs.
ABSTRACT: Tackling climate change and other environmental crises entails a critical reflection on processes and outcomes that are behind sustainability management by business. Sustainability has become a commodity itself, to be traded, bought, sold and managed like all others. How lead firms in global value chains (GVCs) address sustainability issues has become a key competitive element and a source of value creation and capture–facilitating a process of ‘green capital accumulation’. Sustainability management is emerging as a fourth key capitalist dynamic in addition to cost minimisation, flexibility and speed (Coe and Yeung 2015)–leading corporations to devise new spatial, organisational and technological ‘fixes’ to ensure continued capital accumulation. Public actors and civil society groups can address this situation, but their strategies need to be informed by the daily practices, power relations and governance structures of GVCs. Sustainability orchestration by these actors is more likely to succeed when: it employs appropriate combinations of directive and facilitative instruments that reinforce each other; improves issue visibility; provides incentives that facilitate the alignment of private and public sector interests; and leverages specific pressure points at key nodes of GVCs.
Journal: New Political Economy
Published: January 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Stefano Ponte
ATP's udfordringer
ABSTRACT: Denne artikel opsummerer ATP’s udfordringer og den debat, der de seneste måneder har fundet. Uden ændringer i ATP ordningens struktur og med et fortsat nul-rente miljø er der en betydelig risiko for, at ATP-ordningen mister sin relevans og derved sin rolle som en væsentlig byggesten i det danske pensionssystem. Artiklen gennemgår årsagerne, konsekvenserne og muligheder for at imødekomme udfordringerne.
ABSTRACT: Denne artikel opsummerer ATP’s udfordringer og den debat, der de seneste måneder har fundet. Uden ændringer i ATP ordningens struktur og med et fortsat nul-rente miljø er der en betydelig risiko for, at ATP-ordningen mister sin relevans og derved sin rolle som en væsentlig byggesten i det danske pensionssystem. Artiklen gennemgår årsagerne, konsekvenserne og muligheder for at imødekomme udfordringerne.
Journal: Finans/Invest
Published: December 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Henrik Ramlau-Hansen
The Problem of Regulating the Easy Way Out: EU Money Laundering Regulation
ABSTRACT: Purpose: Current research within law and economics focus on money laundering as an externality problem caused by financial institutions. Thus, when existing research and legislation place the responsibility on financial institutions, it creates a void where it is neglected that clients of financial institutions may, in fact, play a vital role in the problem of externality. However, based on the definition of money laundering, this paper aims to examine and analyze the need to focus on the clients as part of the externality problem with regard to money laundering.
Design/methodology/approach: This paper examines how a lack of regulatory focus on the clients of financial institutions lead to inefficient anti-money laundering regulation. Through a functional approach of law and economics, it analyzes the externality problem of money laundering based on both the legal definition and the economic conditions of the problem.
Findings: Based on the fourth anti-money laundering directive, the paper argues that present regulation has a tendency to focus on financial institutions, thereby not considering the entire scope of the externality problem in money laundering. For regulation to efficiently combat money laundering, it is necessary to place some responsibility on the clients of financial institutions and not solely on the financial institutions. Nevertheless, the inclusion of client responsibility might lead to some legal or economic complications, which need to be subject to further research.
Originality/value: The paper identifies the need for a fundamental change in the perception of the externality problem of money laundering, and thus, presents the required approach to reach an efficient solution.
ABSTRACT: Purpose: Current research within law and economics focus on money laundering as an externality problem caused by financial institutions. Thus, when existing research and legislation place the responsibility on financial institutions, it creates a void where it is neglected that clients of financial institutions may, in fact, play a vital role in the problem of externality. However, based on the definition of money laundering, this paper aims to examine and analyze the need to focus on the clients as part of the externality problem with regard to money laundering.
Design/methodology/approach: This paper examines how a lack of regulatory focus on the clients of financial institutions lead to inefficient anti-money laundering regulation. Through a functional approach of law and economics, it analyzes the externality problem of money laundering based on both the legal definition and the economic conditions of the problem.
Findings: Based on the fourth anti-money laundering directive, the paper argues that present regulation has a tendency to focus on financial institutions, thereby not considering the entire scope of the externality problem in money laundering. For regulation to efficiently combat money laundering, it is necessary to place some responsibility on the clients of financial institutions and not solely on the financial institutions. Nevertheless, the inclusion of client responsibility might lead to some legal or economic complications, which need to be subject to further research.
Originality/value: The paper identifies the need for a fundamental change in the perception of the externality problem of money laundering, and thus, presents the required approach to reach an efficient solution.
Journal: Journal of Money Laundering Control
Published: 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Kalle Johannes Rose
Tax Governance: The Balance between Tax Regulatory Requirements and Societal Expectations
ABSTRACT: In October 2012, Starbucks UK branch became the subject of massive public criticism over alleged tax avoidance. Despite Starbucks arguing that its transfer pricing practices were in full compliance with regulation, public pressure led Starbucks to overpay its UK taxes on international transfer pricing beyond the regulatory requirements. This behaviour contradicts the current literature in which international transfer pricing is portrayed as a tool for aggressive tax management or an exercise of regulatory compliance. It is further argued that boards and top management of multinational enterprises (MNEs) can no longer approach tax governance as a purely technical, regulation-driven discipline to be addressed only by accounting staff and tax consultants. Instead, its pivotal role in the social contract between an MNE and its stakeholders needs to be recognised.
ABSTRACT: In October 2012, Starbucks UK branch became the subject of massive public criticism over alleged tax avoidance. Despite Starbucks arguing that its transfer pricing practices were in full compliance with regulation, public pressure led Starbucks to overpay its UK taxes on international transfer pricing beyond the regulatory requirements. This behaviour contradicts the current literature in which international transfer pricing is portrayed as a tool for aggressive tax management or an exercise of regulatory compliance. It is further argued that boards and top management of multinational enterprises (MNEs) can no longer approach tax governance as a purely technical, regulation-driven discipline to be addressed only by accounting staff and tax consultants. Instead, its pivotal role in the social contract between an MNE and its stakeholders needs to be recognised.
Journal: International Journal of Corporate Governance
Published: October 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Thomas Riise Johansen
Making Professional Decisions Account-able
ABSTRACT: Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze how accounts of costs and accounts of needs are shaped, connected and made durable in the day-to-day practices of welfare professionals. Design/methodology/approach: Throughout a year, the author traced the work of connecting costs and needs across and beyond the organizational boundaries of the accounting and child protection departments in a Danish local government. Over the course of the study, accountants realized that the budget was overspent and this, accordingly, gave insights into what was done to make accounts more durable. Findings: This paper shows that multiple accountabilities are made possible through the ongoing and practical work of shaping, connecting and making accounts durable. This fragile process fails when connections between separate aspects of organizational work are not made visible. Research limitations/implications: This paper attempts to convey the potentials of a symmetrical approach for organizational ethnography. In this way, it does not, for instance, address prevailing budget limits or regimes of cost control. Originality/value: Insights into how accounts are shaped into meeting multiple and diverging demands for accountability are rare in both the fields of management accounting as a practice and research on social work practice.
ABSTRACT: Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze how accounts of costs and accounts of needs are shaped, connected and made durable in the day-to-day practices of welfare professionals. Design/methodology/approach: Throughout a year, the author traced the work of connecting costs and needs across and beyond the organizational boundaries of the accounting and child protection departments in a Danish local government. Over the course of the study, accountants realized that the budget was overspent and this, accordingly, gave insights into what was done to make accounts more durable. Findings: This paper shows that multiple accountabilities are made possible through the ongoing and practical work of shaping, connecting and making accounts durable. This fragile process fails when connections between separate aspects of organizational work are not made visible. Research limitations/implications: This paper attempts to convey the potentials of a symmetrical approach for organizational ethnography. In this way, it does not, for instance, address prevailing budget limits or regimes of cost control. Originality/value: Insights into how accounts are shaped into meeting multiple and diverging demands for accountability are rare in both the fields of management accounting as a practice and research on social work practice.
Journal: Journal of Organizational Ethnography
Published: August 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Ida Schrøder
The Birth of Critical Consumer Research: Contesting and Affirming Consumer Supremacy in Interwar America
ABSTRACT: This article argues that the origins of critical consumer research can be found in the Middletown Studies, written by social researchers Robert and Helen Merrell Lynd during the 1920s and ‘30s. In these studies, we find the first consistent attempt to study the long-term impact of consumer choices for the well-being of both the choosing individuals as well as for the well-being of the social communities that these individuals are related to through their choices. By tracing the historical origins of research into the socio-economic consequences of consumer culture to the first decades of the twentieth century, this article shows that critical consumer research never limited itself to the mere theoretical contestation of consumer supremacy. Instead, the Lynd’s also aimed at practically re-affirming alternative versions of this supremacy which focused much more on improving the frameworks within which consumers made their choices. The case of the Middletown Studies testifies to a radically different genealogy of market and consumer research than the one we have become accustomed to.
ABSTRACT: This article argues that the origins of critical consumer research can be found in the Middletown Studies, written by social researchers Robert and Helen Merrell Lynd during the 1920s and ‘30s. In these studies, we find the first consistent attempt to study the long-term impact of consumer choices for the well-being of both the choosing individuals as well as for the well-being of the social communities that these individuals are related to through their choices. By tracing the historical origins of research into the socio-economic consequences of consumer culture to the first decades of the twentieth century, this article shows that critical consumer research never limited itself to the mere theoretical contestation of consumer supremacy. Instead, the Lynd’s also aimed at practically re-affirming alternative versions of this supremacy which focused much more on improving the frameworks within which consumers made their choices. The case of the Middletown Studies testifies to a radically different genealogy of market and consumer research than the one we have become accustomed to.
Journal: Les Études Sociales
Published: 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Stefan Schwarzkopf
Politics of Meaning in Categorizing Innovation: How Chefs Advanced Molecular Gastronomy by Resisting the Label
ABSTRACT: This study examines innovators’ efforts to conceptualize and communicate their novel work through categorization. Specifically, we view category formation as a controversial process of meaning making, which we theorize through the concept of “politics of meaning” and operationalize through a social semiotics approach. By analyzing the labeling controversies underlying a new culinary style publicized as “molecular gastronomy”, we find that innovators’ efforts at categorization unfold along four consecutive stages: experimenting with a new style, communicating the new style, contesting the dominant label, and legitimating the category meaning. Our study suggests that a new category’s dominant label can substantially deviate from the innovators’ intended denotations, yet nonetheless bring that category forward by triggering public negotiations around its meaning, which lead to categorical deepening and legitimation. By putting forward a “politics of meaning” view on categorizing innovation, this work advances our understanding of the connection between labeling and category formation in the context of innovation.
ABSTRACT: This study examines innovators’ efforts to conceptualize and communicate their novel work through categorization. Specifically, we view category formation as a controversial process of meaning making, which we theorize through the concept of “politics of meaning” and operationalize through a social semiotics approach. By analyzing the labeling controversies underlying a new culinary style publicized as “molecular gastronomy”, we find that innovators’ efforts at categorization unfold along four consecutive stages: experimenting with a new style, communicating the new style, contesting the dominant label, and legitimating the category meaning. Our study suggests that a new category’s dominant label can substantially deviate from the innovators’ intended denotations, yet nonetheless bring that category forward by triggering public negotiations around its meaning, which lead to categorical deepening and legitimation. By putting forward a “politics of meaning” view on categorizing innovation, this work advances our understanding of the connection between labeling and category formation in the context of innovation.
Journal: Organization Studies
Published: April 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Silviya Svejenova Velikova
Information Availability in Acquisition Decisions: The Role of Prior Relations and Rival Bidders
ABSTRACT: This study uses detailed survey data from key decision makers in acquiring firms to test the impact of information availability in corporate acquisitions on pre-acquisition valuation and post-acquisition performance. Our results provide support for the hypothesis that information constraints at the time of target valuation are associated with greater overpayment and weaker post-acquisition performance. Prior ties between firms are found to reduce information constraints to acquiring managers, and thereby reduce overpayment and increase post-acquisition performance. Bids by other potential acquirers are found to signal their private information about the target, providing a substitute for lacking information. This effect holds particularly for non-financial data, which are harder to obtain. These findings suggest that overpayment and underperformance can be prevented not only when an acquirer possesses more information, but also when in the absence of needed information, the presence of rival bidders signals their private information about the value of the target.
ABSTRACT: This study uses detailed survey data from key decision makers in acquiring firms to test the impact of information availability in corporate acquisitions on pre-acquisition valuation and post-acquisition performance. Our results provide support for the hypothesis that information constraints at the time of target valuation are associated with greater overpayment and weaker post-acquisition performance. Prior ties between firms are found to reduce information constraints to acquiring managers, and thereby reduce overpayment and increase post-acquisition performance. Bids by other potential acquirers are found to signal their private information about the target, providing a substitute for lacking information. This effect holds particularly for non-financial data, which are harder to obtain. These findings suggest that overpayment and underperformance can be prevented not only when an acquirer possesses more information, but also when in the absence of needed information, the presence of rival bidders signals their private information about the value of the target.
Journal: Journal of Management Accounting Research
Published: 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Henri Dekker
The Distribution of Ignorance on Financial Markets
ABSTRACT: In the economists’ old conception of a market, perfection would arrive when all participants had complete knowledge. However, economists and psychologists have lately realized that ignorance and bias more accurately describe the state of
human knowledge even around those hallowed moments of transactional decision making. In these new academic stories, these models of irrationality and bias often take the form of basic cognitive features or evolutionary mal-adaptations. However, it’s just, as is often the case, that there is also a historically specific story about local culture to be told about ignorance. This paper will report back from field-work conducted with contemporary, computerized stock traders, develop a typology of the things they say they don’t know, and then suggest what this has to do with some of the more durable features and behaviours of contemporary financial markets.
ABSTRACT: In the economists’ old conception of a market, perfection would arrive when all participants had complete knowledge. However, economists and psychologists have lately realized that ignorance and bias more accurately describe the state of
human knowledge even around those hallowed moments of transactional decision making. In these new academic stories, these models of irrationality and bias often take the form of basic cognitive features or evolutionary mal-adaptations. However, it’s just, as is often the case, that there is also a historically specific story about local culture to be told about ignorance. This paper will report back from field-work conducted with contemporary, computerized stock traders, develop a typology of the things they say they don’t know, and then suggest what this has to do with some of the more durable features and behaviours of contemporary financial markets.
Journal: Economy and Society
Published: 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Daniel Souleles
Paradoxes of "Creativity": Examining the Creative Process Through an Antenarrative Lens
ABSTRACT: Accounts of the creative process tend to be retrospective and implicitly ground the creative act within the person, the mind, the moment, the idea; in doing so, they often miss the larger sociomaterial qualities that can provide us with important insights about the social relationality and playfulness of the creative process. In this article, we examine the creative process through an antenarrative lens that we consider very useful for theorizing the creative process from a cultural and sociomaterial perspective. More specifically, we argue that ‘having an idea’ is a contextualized and embodied process that can be regarded as an antenarrative of the overall creative process. We also discuss how the paradoxical relation between the formative and sudden manifestations of the creative act can be understood through the notion of play.
ABSTRACT: Accounts of the creative process tend to be retrospective and implicitly ground the creative act within the person, the mind, the moment, the idea; in doing so, they often miss the larger sociomaterial qualities that can provide us with important insights about the social relationality and playfulness of the creative process. In this article, we examine the creative process through an antenarrative lens that we consider very useful for theorizing the creative process from a cultural and sociomaterial perspective. More specifically, we argue that ‘having an idea’ is a contextualized and embodied process that can be regarded as an antenarrative of the overall creative process. We also discuss how the paradoxical relation between the formative and sudden manifestations of the creative act can be understood through the notion of play.
Journal: The Journal of Creative Behavior
Published: June 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Miriam Feuls
The Gift Economy and the Development of Sustainability
ABSTRACT: This article contends that a new perspective on the economy – a gift economy – would be beneficial to the development of sustainability. The principles and practices of the gift economy (giving, receiving and reciprocating) are exemplified by a case study of the Danish island of Samsø, which has used it to achieve environmental sustainability, improve its economic situation and generate social value. In order to illustrate the values and principles that underpin the gift economy, the article shows the underlying exchange mechanisms used in this modern version of ‘gift-giving’ and contrasts them to using money as the medium of exchange. One of the mainstays of the gift economy is the willingness and obligation to reciprocate, and the case study highlights some of the original ways of organising that have emerged from the gift economy on Samsø and how significantly they differ from organising and managing by budgets. As such, the article attempts to reframe the understanding of the economy and, in particular, to qualify and illustrate the potential of the organising principles behind the gift economy and encourage readers to conduct further research and engage in initiatives that will make a positive contribution to the development of sustainability.
ABSTRACT: This article contends that a new perspective on the economy – a gift economy – would be beneficial to the development of sustainability. The principles and practices of the gift economy (giving, receiving and reciprocating) are exemplified by a case study of the Danish island of Samsø, which has used it to achieve environmental sustainability, improve its economic situation and generate social value. In order to illustrate the values and principles that underpin the gift economy, the article shows the underlying exchange mechanisms used in this modern version of ‘gift-giving’ and contrasts them to using money as the medium of exchange. One of the mainstays of the gift economy is the willingness and obligation to reciprocate, and the case study highlights some of the original ways of organising that have emerged from the gift economy on Samsø and how significantly they differ from organising and managing by budgets. As such, the article attempts to reframe the understanding of the economy and, in particular, to qualify and illustrate the potential of the organising principles behind the gift economy and encourage readers to conduct further research and engage in initiatives that will make a positive contribution to the development of sustainability.
Journal: Local Economy
Published: September 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Niels Thyge Thygesen
Mapping Corporate Climate Change Ethics: Responses among Three Danish Energy Firms
ABSTRACT: This article develops a mapping tool for how corporations can approach the ethical aspects of climate change based on a literature survey. Literature on this topic tends to focus on the instrumental drivers for businesses, leaving the ethical issues aside. We seek to compensate for this lacuna by suggesting a spectrum of approaches that business corporations adopt in response to climate change, making the ethical orientations explicit. The critical issue of the climate agenda is whether business communities can sufficiently contribute to absolute targets for climate mitigation. In order to avoid charges of greenwashing, business corporations need to be engaged with absolute targets, such as the 1.5 °C target of the Paris Agreement. Moreover, they need to be politically engaged as corporate citizens in order to mitigate climate change in partnership with state and civil society organisations. To provide a test of the proposed mapping tool, we present a case study based on interviews and a survey of sustainability reports (2007–2017) conducted at three Danish energy firms. We conclude that the case study confirms a wide range of corporate responses to climate change, spanning instrumental approaches like the natural-resource-based view, to also include more normative aspirational approaches such as corporate citizenship and political CSR. Furthermore, the mapping tool suggests also including green conservatism and systemic-critical views. Finally, the article discusses how sustainability managers handle the ethical dilemmas of responding to climate change, as well as the limits of the research design, and future prospects and issues raised by the study.
ABSTRACT: This article develops a mapping tool for how corporations can approach the ethical aspects of climate change based on a literature survey. Literature on this topic tends to focus on the instrumental drivers for businesses, leaving the ethical issues aside. We seek to compensate for this lacuna by suggesting a spectrum of approaches that business corporations adopt in response to climate change, making the ethical orientations explicit. The critical issue of the climate agenda is whether business communities can sufficiently contribute to absolute targets for climate mitigation. In order to avoid charges of greenwashing, business corporations need to be engaged with absolute targets, such as the 1.5 °C target of the Paris Agreement. Moreover, they need to be politically engaged as corporate citizens in order to mitigate climate change in partnership with state and civil society organisations. To provide a test of the proposed mapping tool, we present a case study based on interviews and a survey of sustainability reports (2007–2017) conducted at three Danish energy firms. We conclude that the case study confirms a wide range of corporate responses to climate change, spanning instrumental approaches like the natural-resource-based view, to also include more normative aspirational approaches such as corporate citizenship and political CSR. Furthermore, the mapping tool suggests also including green conservatism and systemic-critical views. Finally, the article discusses how sustainability managers handle the ethical dilemmas of responding to climate change, as well as the limits of the research design, and future prospects and issues raised by the study.
Journal: Energy Research and Social Science
Published: January 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Kristian Toft
Collective Mindfulness in a Regenerating Organization: Ethnographic Evidence from Roskilde festival
ABSTRACT: Collective mindfulness has mainly been empirically studied in large, well-established organizations while few researchers have looked at collective mindfulness in non-permanent organizations. We addressed that gap by conducting an ethnographic study of the regeneration of the Crowd Safety Organization at Roskilde Festival, an annual outdoor music festival. Our findings show that the Crowd Safety Organization regenerated a mindful organization consisting mainly of volunteers by establishing clear roles across four hierarchical layers of the organization and clearly communicating and enforcing role expectations. Furthermore, we found that Weick and Sutcliffe's (2015) five subprocesses of collective mindfulness were unequally distributed across the four hierarchical layers of the Crowd Safety Organization. In particular, at the bottom of the organization we found no evidence of mindfulness in three of the five subprocesses, including reluctance to simplify interpretations, commitment to resilience and deference to expertise. Collective mindfulness is often conceptualized as a stable phenomenon but scholars have suggested that collective mindfulness varies over time and space. By studying collective mindfulness in a non-permanent organization, we cast further light on how organizations manage variations in collective mindfulness.
ABSTRACT: Collective mindfulness has mainly been empirically studied in large, well-established organizations while few researchers have looked at collective mindfulness in non-permanent organizations. We addressed that gap by conducting an ethnographic study of the regeneration of the Crowd Safety Organization at Roskilde Festival, an annual outdoor music festival. Our findings show that the Crowd Safety Organization regenerated a mindful organization consisting mainly of volunteers by establishing clear roles across four hierarchical layers of the organization and clearly communicating and enforcing role expectations. Furthermore, we found that Weick and Sutcliffe's (2015) five subprocesses of collective mindfulness were unequally distributed across the four hierarchical layers of the Crowd Safety Organization. In particular, at the bottom of the organization we found no evidence of mindfulness in three of the five subprocesses, including reluctance to simplify interpretations, commitment to resilience and deference to expertise. Collective mindfulness is often conceptualized as a stable phenomenon but scholars have suggested that collective mindfulness varies over time and space. By studying collective mindfulness in a non-permanent organization, we cast further light on how organizations manage variations in collective mindfulness.
Journal: Safety Science
Published: March 2020
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Contact CBS researcher: Morten Vendelø
‘The Dispositive’: Foucault’s Concept for Organizational Analysis?
ABSTRACT: Foucault’s notion ‘the dispositive’ has been introduced in organization studies as a highly promising concept. However, its analytical and empirical potentials remain to be fully explored. This article develops dispositional analytics which conceives of organizations as pervaded by multiple dispositives that interact, reinforce or contradict one another. In this reconstruction, particular emphasis is given to the visibility produced by dispositives, through which subjects and object emerge in a particular prescriptive light. Furthermore, analytical privilege is given to relations over substance. This means foregrounding the interrelations between dispositives as well as the dispositive’s ‘internal relationality’, that is, the relations established by each dispositive out of which organizational problems arise and transform. The framework’s potentials are explored in a study of care workers’ responses to a management reform that disciplined and depersonalized care-giving. The difficulties that care workers faced in straddling legal demands, service standardization and care ethics are understood as a situation of heterogeneous dispositions. In this context, care workers and their managers tactically reconstructed their subjectivities, relating to the dispositives in diverse and unexpected ways
ABSTRACT: Foucault’s notion ‘the dispositive’ has been introduced in organization studies as a highly promising concept. However, its analytical and empirical potentials remain to be fully explored. This article develops dispositional analytics which conceives of organizations as pervaded by multiple dispositives that interact, reinforce or contradict one another. In this reconstruction, particular emphasis is given to the visibility produced by dispositives, through which subjects and object emerge in a particular prescriptive light. Furthermore, analytical privilege is given to relations over substance. This means foregrounding the interrelations between dispositives as well as the dispositive’s ‘internal relationality’, that is, the relations established by each dispositive out of which organizational problems arise and transform. The framework’s potentials are explored in a study of care workers’ responses to a management reform that disciplined and depersonalized care-giving. The difficulties that care workers faced in straddling legal demands, service standardization and care ethics are understood as a situation of heterogeneous dispositions. In this context, care workers and their managers tactically reconstructed their subjectivities, relating to the dispositives in diverse and unexpected ways
Journal: Organization Studies
Published: December 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Kaspar Villadsen
How Do Professionals Perceive the Governance of Public–private Partnerships? Evidence from Canada, the Netherlands and Denmark
ABSTRACT: In public–private partnerships (PPPs), the collaboration between public and private actors can be complicated. With partners coming from different institutional backgrounds and with different interests, governing these partnerships is important to ensure the projects' progress. There is, however, little knowledge about the perceptions of professionals regarding the governance of PPPs. This study aims to exlore professionals' viewpoints about governing PPPs, and to explain potential differences using four theoretical governance paradigms. Using Q methodology, the preferences of 119 public and private professionals in Canada, the Netherlands and Denmark are explored. Results show four different viewpoints regarding the governance of PPPs. Experience, country and the public–private distinction seem to influence these viewpoints. Knowledge of these differences can inform efforts to govern PPPs and contribute to more successful partnerships.
ABSTRACT: In public–private partnerships (PPPs), the collaboration between public and private actors can be complicated. With partners coming from different institutional backgrounds and with different interests, governing these partnerships is important to ensure the projects' progress. There is, however, little knowledge about the perceptions of professionals regarding the governance of PPPs. This study aims to exlore professionals' viewpoints about governing PPPs, and to explain potential differences using four theoretical governance paradigms. Using Q methodology, the preferences of 119 public and private professionals in Canada, the Netherlands and Denmark are explored. Results show four different viewpoints regarding the governance of PPPs. Experience, country and the public–private distinction seem to influence these viewpoints. Knowledge of these differences can inform efforts to govern PPPs and contribute to more successful partnerships.
Journal: Public Administration
Published: October 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Carsten Greve
Overcoming Blind Spots in Global Sourcing Research: Exploiting the Cross-sections Between Supply Chain Management and International Business.
ABSTRACT: This article reviews existing work on global sourcing and suggests a number of new theoretical directions for research in this area. We discuss how international business (IB) and supply chain management (SCM) research can benefit from increased cross-fertilization of themes and perspectives. We begin by introducing a taxonomy of global sourcing research, building on relevant insights from SCM research. We then generate recommendations for potential future research on global sourcing, particularly highlighting antecedents, processes, performance and contextual variables. SCM research employs the entire supply chain as the primary unit of analysis (rather than the individual firm), while IB research focuses primarily on international aspects, adapting to institutional contexts in a globalized world. Building on this complementarity, several specific empirical directions are proposed for future research directions.
ABSTRACT: This article reviews existing work on global sourcing and suggests a number of new theoretical directions for research in this area. We discuss how international business (IB) and supply chain management (SCM) research can benefit from increased cross-fertilization of themes and perspectives. We begin by introducing a taxonomy of global sourcing research, building on relevant insights from SCM research. We then generate recommendations for potential future research on global sourcing, particularly highlighting antecedents, processes, performance and contextual variables. SCM research employs the entire supply chain as the primary unit of analysis (rather than the individual firm), while IB research focuses primarily on international aspects, adapting to institutional contexts in a globalized world. Building on this complementarity, several specific empirical directions are proposed for future research directions.
Journal: Journal of International Management
Published: November 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Andreas Wieland, Lydia Bals and Michael J. Mol
From Reagan to Trump: The Origins of US Neoliberal Protectionism.
ABSTRACT: Donald Trump is often seen as a radical departure from the neoliberalism that has shaped recent American history and, at first glance, nowhere does this seem truer than on trade. Trump’s support for protectionism certainly seems to depart from neoliberalism, which we are used to thinking of as involving unqualified support for free trade. But should this really be seen as a departure? This paper argues that, instead, Trump’s trade policy should be seen a kind of ‘neoliberal protectionism’, which seeks to use the coercive power of the state to force other nations to conform to a market‐based economic logic. The origins of this neoliberal protectionism can be traced back to the 1980s when debates about foreign industrial policies first caused the United States to adopt a more aggressive approach to trade. From this perspective, Trump’s trade policy represents not a rejection of neoliberalism but an extreme articulation of it.
ABSTRACT: Donald Trump is often seen as a radical departure from the neoliberalism that has shaped recent American history and, at first glance, nowhere does this seem truer than on trade. Trump’s support for protectionism certainly seems to depart from neoliberalism, which we are used to thinking of as involving unqualified support for free trade. But should this really be seen as a departure? This paper argues that, instead, Trump’s trade policy should be seen a kind of ‘neoliberal protectionism’, which seeks to use the coercive power of the state to force other nations to conform to a market‐based economic logic. The origins of this neoliberal protectionism can be traced back to the 1980s when debates about foreign industrial policies first caused the United States to adopt a more aggressive approach to trade. From this perspective, Trump’s trade policy represents not a rejection of neoliberalism but an extreme articulation of it.
Journal: Political Quarterly
Published: October 2019
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Contact CBS researcher: Tom Wraight
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