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This paper offers a novel theoretical account of why and when top management team (TMT) gender diversity lends strategic advantage. Building on social role theory, we develop a moderated-mediation model showing: (a) TMT psychological safety mediates the effect of TMT gender diversity on firm ambidextrous strategic orientation (ASO) (why), and (b) firm slack moderates this mediated effect (when). We tested our model in the context of Chinese high-tech small- and medium-sized enterprises. After confirming gender differences in social role-based proclivities at the TMT level, a multi wave survey study of 373 members from 120 TMTs showed that TMT gender diversity positively affects ASO via TMT psychological safety, and this mediated effect is stronger when firms lack is lower than higher. We further inter viewed 23 top managers to supplement key quantitative results. Our study advances upper echelons research on TMT gender diversity in two ways. First, ithighlightsthegender-specificinterpersonalbenefitofTMTgenderdiversity, which is markedly distinct from the cognitive-variety argument associated generically with TMT demographic diversity. Second, it considers both men and women in TMTs in amore balanced manner, thereby offering an alternative account to the female-focused theorization of the positive strategic implications of TMT gender diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We integrate political psychology and upper echelons research to introduce an alternative conceptualization of executive political ideology by separating the two distinct ideologies: social and economic. We theorize and test how the two ideologies exert distinct effects on a critical strategic outcome: corporate entrepreneurship. We examine this contention in Iran, a political context that sharply deviates from the exclusively studied U.S. context. We find that social and economic conservatism exert opposing effects on corporate entrepreneurship through distinct strategic decision-making processes; CEO social conservatism positively affects corporate entrepreneurship by promoting intuitive strategic decision-making, whereas CEO economic conservatism negatively affects corporate entrepreneurship by impairing cooperative strategic decision-making. These results highlight the need to separate social and economic ideologies, especially in non-U.S. contexts, and inform the underlying strategic decision-making processes through which executive ideology shapes strategic behaviors. The promising results also underscore the importance of examining the strategic implications of executive political ideology in diverse political contexts that differ from the U.S. context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics concerning big data including key questions such as: What does big data encompass? Does big data mean the end of theory? In what ways does big data research differ from conventional scientific methods of inquiry in management research? What does it take to publish a big data study in management journals?

Research has focused predominantly on the influence of the language firms use in their announcements on the reactions of constituents such as shareholders and the media. We extend this research by examining a new form of linguistic construction––temporal framing—in the context of competitive interactions. Building on intertemporal choice theory, we theorized and tested how a focal firm's temporal framing of its competitive action announcements affects rivals' response speed. We examined three dimensions of temporal framing: temporal vagueness (lack of clarity and completeness regarding timelines), temporal distance (length of the action timeline: proximal versus distal), and frequency (repetition of vagueness and distance cues). Based on analysis of 2,130 competitive action press releases of 28 duopoly firms from 14 industries, we found that the temporal framing dimensions, both individually and interactively, were related to the response speed of rivals. Specifically, temporally vague and distally framed timelines in action announcements delayed rivals' response speed, and increased frequency of vagueness and distance cues strengthened these effects. This study explicates the linguistic underpinnings of competitive interactions and highlights the importance of temporal framing in the competitive context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the guest editors discuss the themes of the issue, radical theorizing and scientific progress; inductive theory generation, and theoretical integration approach.

We argue that the collective assumptions of firms drive their actions and practices, and create the conditions of industry velocity. In our view, cognitive construction by firms is the primary [...]

How CEOs think and feel about time may have a big influence on their firms' strategies. We examine how two distinct CEO temporal dispositions--time urgency (the feeling of being chronically hurried) and pacing style (one's pattern of effort over time in working toward deadlines)--each influence corporate entrepreneurship, a key strategic behavior. We propose that CEOs' temporal leadership--how they manage the temporal aspects of top management teams' activities--mediates the relationships between their temporal dispositions and corporate entrepreneurship--firms' innovation, corporate venturing, and strategic renewal activities. Using a sample of 129 small and medium-sized Chinese firms, we find that CEOs' time urgency is positively related to their temporal leadership, which in turn is positively related to corporate entrepreneurship. We also examine the effects of three distinct pacing styles: earlyaction, meaning the CEO exerts the most effort early in the task process and relaxes as the deadline nears; steady-action, meaning the CEO spreads out effort evenly across the time allotted; and deadline-action, meaning the CEO is most active as the deadline nears. We find that the deadline-action style inhibits CEOs' temporal leadership, but the steady-action and early-action styles have similar effects on their temporal leadership. This study explicates the dispositional basis of executives' subjective views of time, demonstrating how CEOs' temporal dispositions shape firms' behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a different perspective on multiplex developmental relationships encompassing both career and psychosocial functions by highlighting the unique contradictions and coping mechanisms underlying these relationships. The in‐depth qualitative comparative case study analyses of 73 developmental relationships of 20 nascent technology entrepreneurs yielded four tensions: disclosure‐privacy, dependence‐independence, criticism‐confirmation and formality‐informality. Entrepreneurs and their developers addressed these tensions through four coping strategies: selection, moderation, reframing and separation. The exploratory analysis suggests that tensions are inherent features of developmental relationships. Co‐existence of nurturing and enriching aspects together with the dilemmas posed by the tensions seems to provide the impetus for developers and developees to mutually calibrate ways to cope with these tensions and enhance their developmental relationships. The implications of these nuanced findings are discussed for understanding developmental relationships constituting both career and psychosocial support functions needed for career advancement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Despite the rapid growth of organizational research on subjective time, the extant literature is fragmented due to a lack of conceptual clarification and integration of temporal constructs. To address this fragmentation, we synthesize temporal research from both organizational behavior and adjacent disciplines (i.e., strategy, entrepreneurship, and organizational theory) and introduce a framework that allocates temporal constructs according to their basic conceptual nature (trait–state) and level of analysis (individual–collective). We employed the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count text analysis to determine the trait–state property of the constructs and a coding method to determine their level of analysis. This framework categorizes four generic types of subjective time: individual temporal disposition, individual temporal state, collective temporal state, and collective temporal disposition. We clarify the conceptualizations of the temporal constructs belonging to each of the four archetypes of subjective time and review their key findings in the organizational literature. Based on this integrative framework, we identify critical knowledge gaps in the current state of research and chart a future agenda with specific suggestions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much attention has been given to the explosion in business process outsourcing (BPO) operations in India. Little concern, however, has been paid to the performance of Indian service workers in these fast-paced and sometimes turbulent environments. Using a sample of 160 service workers from a privately held BPO firm in India, we examine the relationship between Indian service workers' hope and their performance outcomes. Regression and structural equation model analyses indicated a significant positive relationship between Indian service workers' levels of hope and their performance. These promising results highlight the importance of measuring and managing employee hope to maximize employee productivity and performance. By effectively developing and managing levels of employee hope, Indian BPO firms can effectively combat employee problems such as attrition, stress, and burnout that have plagued the BPO industry. Hope may also help mitigate the influence of aspects of Indian culture on human resource management practices in Indian BPOs. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research describing Bayesian causal maps is presented. Such maps are graphical structures for the representation and analysis of experts domain knowledge and are illustrated in the context of product development decisions.

Despite the growing pressures of internationalization, failures in international efforts are becoming increasingly widespread. Previous literature has developed external environmental and internal firm-specific explanations of international success, but has ignored the role of mindsets in understanding international failures. This gap is especially important because recent studies contend that the mindsets or the way top managers make sense of their global environment is central to international decision making and outcomes. We propose that mindsets are important in explaining international success. We compare the mindsets of two matched firms in the British retail grocery industry—one successful (Tesco) and another unsuccessful (Sainsbury)—from 1988 to 2003. Our results suggest systematic differences between the successful (Tesco) and the unsuccessful (Sainsbury) firm in two specific facets of mindsets—complexity and reactivity. These results, although exploratory, do highlight the importance of mindsets in the process of internationalization and raise interesting questions for future empirical examination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, text-based causal maps (TBCMs) have generated enthusiasm as a methodological tool because they provide a way of accessing large, untapped sources of data generated by organizations. Although TBCMs have been used extensively in organizational behavior and strategic management research, studies assessing the psychometric p rope flies of TBCM measures are vinually nonexistent. With the intention offacilitating large-sample substantive research using TBCMs, the authors examine the construct validity of two most frequently employed structural p rope flies of TBCMs: complexity and centrality. In assessing construct validity, they examine the internal consistency, dimensionality, and predictive validity of the structural prope flies. The results suggest that complexity is not a general cognitive attribute. Rather, it is indicative of domain knowledge. On the other hand, centrality, which reflects the degree of hierarchy characterizing the TB CM, is related to cognitive ability and may reflect general information processing. Moreover complexity and centrality, but not cognitive ability, predicted student performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]