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Purpose: The study explores the extent to which business analytics can address business problems using the task-technology fit theory. Design/methodology/approach: The qualitative research approach of pattern matching was adopted for data analysis and 12 semi-structured interviews were conducted. Four propositions derived from the literature on task-technology fit are compared to emerging core themes from the empirical data. Findings: The study establishes the relationships between various forms of fit, arguing that the iterative application of business analytics improves problem understanding and solutions, and contends that both under-fit and over-fit can be acceptable due to the increasing costs of achieving ideal fit and potential unaffected outcomes, respectively. The study demonstrates that managers should appreciate that there may be a distinction between those who create business analytics solutions and those who apply business analytics solutions to solve problems. Originality/value: Extant studies on business analytics have not focused on how the match between business analytics and tasks affects the level to which problems can be addressed that determines business value. This study enriches the literature on business analytics by linking business analytics and business value through problem resolution demonstrated by task-technology fit. To the authors' knowledge, this study might be the first to apply pattern matching to study the fit between technology and tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecosystems of actors that need to interact to create value for end users are becoming an integral part of firms' strategic realities as they reach new markets. However, the phenomenon of ecosystem internationalisation has not been explored in comparison to its practical prevalence. We conceptualise this phenomenon as agent-led structuration on new markets. We build on the structural ecosystem literature and literature on internationalisation challenges to create our recursive process model of ecosystem creation on foreign markets. Creating ecosystems on foreign markets necessitates new ecosystem structures that are adjusted to value propositions by orchestrators through interaction with foreign market actors. The model explains how ecosystem orchestrators drive the international expansion of ecosystems through blueprinting and aligning mechanisms and how these mechanisms help manage liabilities of foreignness. The model accounts for the agency of involved actors, and with the help of the bottleneck concept bridges international business and ecosystem literatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractHow do labor and environmental provisions (also known as non-trade issues) that are increasingly part of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) affect investment patterns within global value chains (GVCs)? In this article, we explore how the design of these provisions and the local regulatory environments of trading partners influence the geography of production. By employing a difference-in-difference analysis of quantitative data on the design of non-trade issues in 478 PTAs and mergers and acquisitions between 1948 and 2018, we assess the influence of labor and environmental provisions in PTAs on GVCs. Building on the legal and business studies literatures, we expect and empirically find that when countries join PTAs, enforceable non-trade clauses interact with domestic regulatory environments and induce changes in GVCs, especially in Global North hosts. Our findings provide nuance to our current understanding of the interconnections across trade agreement design, domestic regulations, and vertically integrated multinational production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media platforms (SMP) are technologically mediated social action spaces that profit from collecting and selling user data. Users, not platforms, create content that attracts audiences and advertisers. While they are free to interact, they must do so in ways programmed to add value to the platform. Thus, if users are driven toward achieving organizational goals, all phenomena on these platforms have an organizational substrate. Even though business and management studies have consistently produced literature on gig work intermediation platforms, SMP are not included among digital labor platforms. By combining business literature, social sciences, platform studies, and critical algorithm studies, this theoretical essay proposes a conceptual framework that presents SMP as an organizational form of production, management, and work. This framework is then confronted with research findings on content creators, revealing that the three self-governance strategies of SMP effectively manage creators by instilling hope of visibility and fear of invisibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In recent decades, emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs) have predominantly adopted a big step internationalization strategy to expand their business overseas. This study aims to examine the effect of big step internationalization on the speed of subsequent foreign direct investment (FDI) expansion for EMNEs. The authors also investigate the potential boundary conditions. Design/methodology/approach: The authors use the random effects generalized least squares (GLS) regression following a hierarchical approach to analyze the panel data set conducted by a sample of publicly listed Chinese firms from 2001 to 2012. Findings: The findings indicate that implementing big step internationalization in the initial stages accelerates the speed of subsequent FDI expansion. Notably, the authors find that this effect is more pronounced for firms that opt for acquisitions as the entry mode in their first big step internationalization and possess a board of directors with strong political connections to their home country's government. In contrast, the board of director's international experience negatively moderates this effect. Practical implications: This study provides insights into our scholarly and practical understanding of EMNEs' big step internationalization and subsequent FDI expansion speed, which offers important implications for firms' decision-makers and policymakers. Originality/value: This study extends the internationalization theory, broadens the international business literature on the consequences of big step internationalization and deepens the theoretical and practical understanding of foreign expansion strategies in EMNEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Modern slavery in global value chains is an emerging topic of interest across various fields, including in international business, but is often fragmented in its approach. This study aims to provide a practical framework for studying relationships between participants in global value chains by exploring the nexus of three concepts – vulnerability, resilience and empowerment (VRE) – in the context of modern slavery. Design/methodology/approach: This article offers a deductive thematic analysis of 51 empirical and conceptual business research studies on modern slavery in global value chains published until mid-2021 according to the three categories of interest at the micro (within individuals and organisations), meso (between individuals and organisations) and macro (structural) levels. Findings: The findings have informed the development of three themes, each of which is an opportunity for future research with clear policy implications: a reductionist approach to vulnerability obscures its complexity; externalising the empowerment process and locating it outside of the agency of workers serves to further disempower them; and focusing exclusively on organisational resilience conceals the essentiality of resilience within individuals, communities and societies. Originality/value: This article is among the first to extend the focus of business literature on modern slavery in global value chains beyond its current largely facile engagement with VRE, offering an original descriptive VRE typology to engage with the nexus between these three concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Family governance as a research field has recently attracted scholarly attention. The article aims to contribute to family business literature by consolidating the extant research on family governance. Our systematic literature review comprises 52 articles on family governance in 24 peer-reviewed journals between 1993 and 2023. The findings reveal family complexity as one of the preeminent reasons to adopt family governance structures. The study further identifies that the adoption of family governance structures by family businesses results in family and business-related transformation and leads to various economic and non-economic benefits. Finally, we suggest potential avenues for conducting future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of theoretical and empirical literature on Industry 4.0 research has seen tremendous growth over the past few years. We seek to identify and classify the popular research topics published on Industry 4.0 in business and economics literature using a novel approach. First, we performed a co-occurrence analysis and found Industry 4.0 to have the strongest connection with innovation, implying the indispensability of innovation for the fourth industrial revolution. Further, we employed LDA-based topic modelling to identify the most frequent terms and labelled eight different topics based on the quantitative value of each term. Finally, we reviewed the relevant literature for each topic identified through the topic modelling process. Our literature review reveals that the concentration of existing literature is model-focussed. This study provides quantitative evidence of frequent occurrences of popular terms. We conclude that future studies should focus more on empirical measurement of the benefits of transiting towards the fourth industrial revolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis study tests the hypothesis that generative AI is impacting the volume of academic publications in the business subject disciplines. The author performed a t-test using the average growth rates of articles published in the database ProQuest ABI/INFORM Global containing keywords or phrases purported to be commonly used in content generated by AI during the years before and after common generative AI availability. Results show evidence that publication rates after generative AI availability experienced an improbably high deviation from the norm. This indicates the potential of AI impacting the scholarly output of academic literature in the business subject discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates how the recognition and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities influence small business performance via interactions with firm-level innovation capability and learning orientation. We frame the study within the maritime-sector context and seek to contribute to the understanding of how the interplay between opportunity recognition, exploitation, innovation capability and learning orientation affects the entrepreneurial performance of local businesses when there is a technological policy change. The study further frames its arguments from a dynamic capability perspective and tests its arguments with data from 284 local businesses operating in the Port of Tema. Findings reveal that opportunity exploitation and learning orientation as well as their interplay have a positive and significant effect on entrepreneurial performance. The study consequently presents local micro-entrepreneurial reactions to macro-level policy changes within the maritime sector – an issue that has largely remained uninvestigated in the African business literature due to maritime blindness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Family firms not only play an important role in economic growth but should also be held partly responsible for environmental degradation. Employing normative stakeholder theory and analyzing unique Chinese survey data via stepwise regression models, our findings indicate that second‐generation successors did not significantly impact family firms' environmental investment. However, among second‐generation successors, we find that successors with international experience positively impacted environmental investment. The propensity score matching (PSM) and two‐stage least squares estimation (2SLS) approaches confirm our results. As an interdisciplinary study, our research is of great value to the environmental responsibility and family business literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competitive Intelligence (CI) is an important element in a company's strategic decision-making in the midst of increasingly fierce business competition. In business literature, CI has been recognized as a vital tool for understanding a company's external environment and analyzing competitors' strategies. However, there is still debate regarding the role and effectiveness of CI in strategic decision-making. This study aims to explore the role of CI in strategic decision-making through a comprehensive literature review. The research method used is a qualitative method by analyzing various articles and journals related to CI and strategic decision making. The discussion in this study includes the importance of CI in providing relevant information, the methods used in CI implementation, and its impact on the company's strategic decisions. The results show that a deeper understanding of the role of CI in the context of strategic decision making, as well as providing recommendations to improve the effectiveness of CI in supporting corporate strategic decisions. The implication of this research is to provide valuable insights for business practitioners and researchers in understanding the contribution of CI to the strategic decision-making process. This research is also expected to be a reference for companies in optimizing CI implementation to strengthen competitive advantage in the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a result of growing concerns by stakeholder groups in different parts of the world for the economic, social, and environmental value created by multinational enterprises (MNEs), research has explored MNEs' corporate social responsibility (CSR). This article extends existing knowledge by steering through extant research on MNE's CSR activities embedded in MNEs' international competitive behavior. The paper reviews 208 empirical studies conducted on this subject during the period 1997–2022 and offers a systematized analysis along aspects pertaining to theoretical perspectives, research design, scope, method, and thematic emphasis. It synthesizes existing knowledge in an integrative conceptual framework incorporating the key thematic priorities and the relations between them. It also provides an evaluation of the key managerial implications extracted from these studies by 114 managers of MNEs having their headquarters in the U.S.A., Germany, and China. Finally, it offers fruitful directions for future research based on the findings of a survey among 42 international business scholars with expertise in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of introducing a new sustainable development paradigm to safeguard the entire planet is now undisputed. One of the tools aiming to respond to this need consists of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) contained within the 2030 Agenda. Businesses play a crucial role in achieving these objectives and must prove themselves to be active actors in promoting sustainable practices. However, the integration of these objectives within their business models turns out to be a complex operation, which requires numerous skills and resources. This paper consists of a systematic literature review on the topic of research on the SDGs in the areas of business, management and accounting with the aim of identifying the barriers facing communities and tools to support companies in this process, as well as possible areas for improvement. Furthermore, it allows us to identify gaps on which future research should focus. To achieve this aim, papers related to the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs published in journals indexed in the Scopus database between January 2015 and June 2024 were analysed. The results demonstrated a great heterogeneity within the research area and the emergence of some important concepts, such as the circular economy, artificial intelligence and Industry 4.0, and some recurring themes, such as the role of stakeholders in achieving the SDGs and the financial and non-financial benefits of SDG strategies and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the backdrop of a rising China and the Fourth Industrial Revolution, there has been increasing interest in the governance models and strategies of ethnic Chinese businesses. Taking this growing literature a step further and seeking to transcend dominant paradigms of businesses and entrepreneurship derived mostly from the Western experiences, this article critically re-evaluates the role of ethnicity and culture in the governance models, behaviour, and networks of transnational Chinese businesses based in Singapore, with operations in Southeast Asia and China. We argue that while ethnicity and culture remain as a significant factor in shaping transnational Chinese business, Chinese companies in Southeast Asia have adopted new corporate governing models and strategies in their engagement with China markets at the time of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This article adds nuance to the international business and management literature by arguing that the corporate governance, management, and strategies of Chinese companies should not be perceived via a binary perspective, either converging towards or diverging from Western models of businesses and relying solely on ethnicity and culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The continuous challenges to which family firms are subjected have led research in this field to focus on various aspects, thus generating a large and heterogeneous body of literature. This paper describes the evolution, status, and trends in family business literature over the decade 2012–2022 and also identifies gaps that may require further investigation. In that regard, new opportunities for additional analyses are also determined. To this end, a bibliometric study has been carried out based on a collection of articles from the Business Source Premier, Web of Science, and Scopus databases, yielding a total of 4064 articles. We analyze the main indicators of activity in family business research over the aforementioned period. The most productive authors and institutions, leading journals, and main research topics of these publications are reflected in this analysis. Likewise, the relationships between the most frequent co-authorships within the field are mapped, as well as the connections between co-words in published articles. In addition, the 10 most influential works published during those 10 years and changes in trends related to the most popular topics, in contrast to previous years, are also highlighted. Plain English Summary: Trends in the field of family business research have changed over the last decade, with "entrepreneurship and innovation" becoming the most researched topic. Our work updates knowledge on how family business studies have evolved and highlights the current lack of micro-research on this subject. Thus, by recognizing the importance of micro-level variables and underexplored areas, this paper paves the way for further scholarly inquiry in this discipline. As they conduct their own investigations and contribute to the growing body of knowledge in this area, researchers and scholars in this field will benefit from the insights provided in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of AI-driven or AI-assisted systems in corporate compliance is a novel topic in the business and management literature, only marginally considered by legal academia. While some scholarly pieces have explored the use of artificial intelligence (AI) systems to support compliance in the financial sector (eg, for anti-money laundering purposes), the legal implications of deploying AI systems to fulfil corporate compliance tasks has not yet received the attention it deserves. This article approaches the use of AI in corporate compliance and governance through the eyes of a regulator. Its aim is to present how the use of AI compliance systems within corporations can be leveraged by the entities tasked with ensuring the good governance of firms. Concretely, it explores a not-too-distant future, where some of the regulation of corporations can be driven by a mandate to systematically deploy Automated Compliance Management Systems (ACMS) within corporations as a way to enforce and monitor good governance. The article suggests that several of the limitations that regulators are currently facing to ensure the prevention of fraud, corruption or other forms of corporate non-compliance, could be addressed if regulators offered firms the possibility of being continuously monitored by an automated AI-driven system which systematically tracks the corporation’s data footprint. We then explore what is required for such a regulatory approach to be feasible and effective. In our view, regulators must first establish the standards of reliability for those systems (ie, the legal meaning of ‘red flags’ issued by the system of potential violations) and, second, actively supervise how companies react to the outputs of those systems (ie, what companies do when a red flag is raised by the system). In the final part of the article, we offer a more concrete example to the reader. We suggest it could be possible to test such an approach in Australia through regulatory sandboxes for the mining sector, concretely, to monitor compliance with antibribery obligations overseas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high performance of micro-firms in tourism destinations is strongly associated with the quality of tourist experience and regional tourism development. Thus, improving micro-firms' performance is an important research issue for promoting the competitiveness of tourism destinations. Existing business and management literature in hospitality and tourism focuses on managers' personal characteristics, strategic management perspectives, and business environment to understand the performance determinants of micro-firms. Taking a sociological perspective and considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study highlights the role of family support on micro-firms' performance. It investigates not only the direct influence of family support on performance but also the mediation effect of managerial self-efficacy in the relationship. Based on survey data from 205 micro-firms in Jeongseon-gun County in South Korea, this study performed a partial least squares structural equation modeling to analyze the hypotheses. This study showed that both instrumental and emotional family support has a positive effect on perceived performance. Furthermore, to elucidate the crucial path by which family support leads to performance, this study also shows that managerial self-efficacy mediates the relationships between different family supports and business performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically examines the constructs of spiritual capital and spiritual entrepreneurship/entrepreneur. These concepts have recently become widespread in the social sciences and the psychology of the New Age, or the new spiritualities, and they are also increasingly present in business literature, organizational management, and personal improvement in managerial terms. From a critical social psychology position, the paper will consider the usefulness of these concepts in revealing how the field of spirituality currently seems to be a favoured space of governmentality and subjectivation for neoliberalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineered products are often optimized based on engineering requirements, user requirements, cost, and performance. This strategy is well suited for most applications, but products designed specifically to improve the lives of users and communities would benefit from an approach that helps engineers optimize a product based also on its social impacts. This paper introduces several optimization problem formulations adapted from multi-stakeholder strategies in the economics and business management literature. Each optimization problem formulation optimizes a product's social impact according to the ideology and principles inherent to the adapted multi-stakeholder strategy. A case study is presented for a cassava peeling machine that is being developed for farmers in the Brazilian Amazon. Finally, the resulting peeler design configurations and social impacts are discussed to illustrate the advantages and disadvantages of each strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why do voters shun some business tycoons yet elect others into power? As structural conditions facilitate the entry of super-wealthy actors into politics, the differential electoral support across business elites suggests a puzzle. We conceptualize four mechanisms behind the popular support for "tycoon candidates": competence signaling, framing, fame, and clientelism. To test their relative efficacy, we leverage an experiment embedded in a nationally representative survey in South Africa, an important developing democracy where certain tycoons are successfully running for office. We find that, across distinct electoral appeals by tycoon candidates, clientelism is particularly effective, especially for mobilizing support from the less affluent voters. Racial framing significantly decreases support among white voters. Meanwhile, tycoons' competence signaling or fame do not help them at the ballot box. By identifying the micro-level underpinnings of voter support across tycoon candidates, our study contributes to the literatures on business and politics, voting behavior, and clientelism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding how hybrid organizations resist mission drift and sustain the joint pursuit of their plural goals over time remains a central theoretical and practical concern in the business and society literature. In this article, we mobilize an organizational politics approach to elucidate how hybrid organizations react to mission drift and strive to rebalance the relationship between their conflicting missions. Drawing on an in-depth longitudinal analysis of a project developed within a multinational worker co-op to reverse mission drift, we elaborate a process model showing how shifting patterns in the mobilization of episodic and systemic forms of power provoke critical changes in the way that plural missions are construed and enacted within hybrid organizations. This study also contributes to the field of co-operative organization and management studies by revealing that the transfer of organizational practices within multinational co-ops is more critically shaped by power relations and conflicting interests rather than, as much of the previous literature has argued, by host country institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the antecedents of uncaptured sustainable value and strategies to generate opportunities to capture it in the circular supply chain of post-consumer used clothing. Design/methodology/approach: This study is based on an inductive analysis of 21 semi-structured interviews conducted with various stakeholders in the circular clothing supply chain (for-profit and not-for-profit) using the value mapping approach, as previously applied in the literature on sustainable business models. Findings: Fifteen antecedents of uncaptured sustainable value, and thirteen value opportunity strategies were revealed that hinder or generate multi-dimensional value types. Economic value is impacted the most, while there is lack of explicit understanding of the impact of these antecedents and strategies on environmental and social value capture. From a multi-stakeholder perspective, the ecosystem is emerging as new for-profit actors are developing novel process technologies, while not-for-profit actors are consolidating their positions by offering new service options. There is also an emerging "coopetition" between the different stakeholders. Research limitations/implications: More granularity in the different types of uncaptured value could be considered, and external supply chain stakeholders, such as the government, could be included, leading to more detailed value mapping. Practical implications: This research provides practitioners with a value-mapping tool in circular clothing supply chains, thus providing a structured approach to explore, analyse and understand uncaptured value and value opportunities. Originality/value: This extended value perspective draws upon the value-mapping approach from the sustainable business model literature and applies it in the context of the circular clothing supply chain. In doing so, this research illustrates circular clothing supply chains in a new way that facilitates an improved understanding of multi-dimensional and multi-stakeholder value for embedded actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PurposeDesign/methodology/approachFindingsOriginality/valueBy collaborating with public research institutions, the paper seeks to understand how firms can leverage strategic intent and co-created value to gain strategic opportunities in new product development.This study employed Eisenhardt’s case approach (1998) to develop a theory. Data was gathered through a semi-structured questionnaire administered to 40 personnel from public research institutions. The key informant, who possessed extensive experience in new product development and a deep understanding of partner firms’ motivations to collaborate, was also consulted. This primary data was supplemented with secondary data, including published information and field notes, to ensure a comprehensive research approach.The results offer four propositions that can be explored further. First, the higher the strategic intent among PRI stakeholders, the higher the likelihood of strategic opportunities leading to new products. Second, the higher the co-created value in the NPD process, the higher the likelihood of strategic opportunities. Third, the higher the strategic intent and co-created value, the higher the strategic opportunities. Fourth, the higher the strategic intent and co-created value, the higher the likelihood of strategic opportunities. Such strategic opportunities may not have immediate desired commercial outcomes, but their cumulative knowledge could provide additional strategic opportunities for future NPD.This research contributes to the business marketing literature by deepening our understanding of the potential strategic opportunities that can arise from firms Collaborating with public research institutions. It highlights the benefits of these institutions being more knowledge (as compared to profit) focused and how these collaborations can, directly and indirectly, lead to new product developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a review and synthesis of literature on Hybrid Business Models (HBMs) and the sharing economy (SE), this study advances a conceptual framework for HBMs in the context of the SE. The study sheds light on key research themes within the domain of HBMs, encompassing value proposition, governance and coordination, resource allocation, sustainability, reputation building, communication channels, and key sharing ecosystem partners. These models integrate elements such as access, platform, and the community-based economy, which are crucial for SE dynamics. This integration represents the best of both approaches, creating a balanced strategy and strengthening overall business operations The managerial implications, including the need for managers to leverage information technology for developments, are identified and outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Businesses and academia as two stakeholders of the sustainable development goals are important to under-stand the recent status quo of research. This paper examines 851 papers in the field of business dealing with the sustainable development goals. For bibliometric analysis, concept-based search, manual coding and biblio-metrix was used. The results showed that the research in the marketing area is lagging behind. Accounting and finance, management and organization and production management have almost the same ratio. Most re-search have been done in line with the 9th, 12th and 8th goal. The fewest research has been done in line with the 3rd,4th, 10th, 14th,15th and 17th goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although academic debates since the 1990s have focused on the outcomes of community forest management interventions these debates have not been widespread within the African context. Literature on a hybrid business model to enable socio-economic security for communities has generally been inadequate. This study examined the socio-economic benefits derived from the Okongo and Uukolonkadhi community forests in Namibia to better understand the local communities' perceptions of forest management beneficiation. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with residents of these community forests and key government and civil society informants involved with forest management programmes. Although there is an enabling framework in place for benefit sharing, these are unequal, and most residents are unaware of the benefit distribution plans. The government also lacks sufficient economic and technical resources to support communities in developing inclusive hybrid business models. Scholarship must consider the divergent southern geographic contextual challenges to better understand forest beneficiation outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 pandemic, a consensus crisis that has had a profound effect on societies and economies globally, compelled family businesses to respond strategically in order to remain afloat. We examine the role of their owner-managers' emotions in the strategic response to the COVID-19 pandemic, drawing on 38 in-depth interviews with owner-managers of small family businesses in Cyprus. Our findings reveal that owner-managers have experienced mainly negative emotions during the pandemic, including higher levels of stress, insecurity, fear, and doubt. By reflecting on these emotions, owner-managers can activate affective mechanisms and apply a stewardship logic to respond strategically. We contribute to the family business literature by conceptualizing key processes at the intersection between owner-manager emotions and strategic responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. By focusing on individual (that is, owner-manager) emotional processes and stewardship attitudes, our study provides a microfoundational explanation of strategic responses during external crises and offers both theoretical and practical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the determinants affecting the emergence of the "pervaded banking system" (PBS) – a mixed system encompassing traditional banks and continuously entering fintech companies – in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. Drawing on a sample of 604 fintech companies and 802 banks, we compile an unbalanced panel dataset between 2015 and 2019 and employ a fixed-effects negative binomial model to analyze tie formation processes between fintech companies and banks using three analytical perspectives: (i) geographical colocation, (ii) network embeddedness, and (iii) combined effects. Our empirical results demonstrate that geographical factors, network-related drivers, and combined effects positively impact the formation of ties between banks and fintech companies. This study contributes to the debate in small business literature by illuminating how small firms affect system emergence. We make recommendations for bank and fintech managers, as well as political decision-makers, who need a profound systemic understanding to adapt strategies and set the institutional framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on the existing literature on business power that has evolved against the background of a liberal economic world order, this article develops a novel analytical framework to capture business strategies in an altered, geoeconomic context. It addresses the research question whether and how business power has been affected by the more recent turn of European policy‐makers to adopt geoeconomic measures in response to external geopoliticising pressures. The relevance of these categories for analysis is illustrated by discussing recent cases of business lobbying on the EU's geoeconomic agenda, as well as business responses to the sanctions imposed on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. These illustrative examples show that whilst most business actors have adapted their strategies, there are also cases where business actors adhere to and defend the status quo. The article prepares the ground for further research on the understudied consequences of the geoeconomic turn for business power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Chinese firms are winning market share from foreign multinational enterprises in domestic markets. The international business literature suggests that this is happening because these firms are developing non-traditional firm-specific advantages (FSAs). Strategic factor market (SFM) theory provides a good basis for explaining how this is happening. However, it is underdeveloped in terms of analysing unique resources and unique access to those resources by Chinese firms in their domestic markets. This paper aims to develop a framework to understand how Chinese firms have developed non-traditional FSAs. Design/methodology/approach: The case study method is adopted to explore how Chinese firms develop non-traditional FSAs. Specifically, the authors compare paired case studies of a Chinese firm and a foreign multinational in each of two industries. Findings: The authors find that Chinese firms have developed non-traditional FSAs because of more relevant experience, better adapted strategies and privileged relationships. This has enabled Chinese firms to develop non-traditional FSAs. Originality/value: The authors propose a framework that conceptualises non-traditional FSA development in Chinese firms as a product of superior access to unique and valuable resources in their domestic SFMs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The period between the two world wars was a time of development and growth for department store libraries in the United States. While scholars have explored corporate libraries, those at department stores remain understudied. This investigation finds that these libraries, like those at other corporations, served to educate employees but also sought to improve them. Exploring the Schuster & Co. library in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, this article employs the company's archival records, contemporary periodicals, and business literature to illustrate how the library facilitated the store's business mission and identifies three distinct periods of the library's work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper utilises a systematic review of 110 Polish corporate histories to explore the question of how the genre of corporate history has evolved over time in a country that has undergone multiple transitions. The corporate histories subjected to review were published in three different historical periods: prior to World War II, during the socialist period and following the transition to capitalism. The analysis is focussed on both formal and thematic features of Polish corporate history as a genre. This paper contributes to the business history literature in three ways. First, it showcases some unique features of relatively unknown corporate histories in the Polish context. Second, it provides an empirical illustration of the process of genre evolution by analysing continuity and change in corporate histories published over three different historical periods. Third, it offers methodological insight into the analysis of the corporate history genre in countries where it is not recognised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on family owner–nonfamily CEO relational practices and what these relational practices constrain and potentiate in family firm CEO succession. Our main contribution is developing a constructionist relational practice perspective and approach as an alternative to the entitative view that dominates the family business literature. We illustrate the relational practice perspective through our dialogically structured inquiries with family owners and nonfamily CEOs. We co-develop practical wisdom on how family owner–nonfamily CEO relational practices can construct stuckness in organizing or, conversely, open up new possibilities to go on depending on (i) the way the family owner and nonfamily CEO "handle" equivocality and tension they continuously (re)produce through their relational practices and (ii) the way they enact "relational balancing" to equilibrate their relation in the making in terms of value/self-worth maintenance by involving other actors, such as board members, management team members, or a coach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prosperity of Po River Valley's quality agri-food system depends on the efficiency of its field crops, which are recently facing a crisis evidenced by cultivated areas decreasing and yields stagnating. Several factors, including EU policies and climate variability, impose an improvement in the use of production factors and adapted business models: literature shows how digitalization and Agriculture 4.0 can contribute to addressing these challenges. This paper aims to explore drivers and barriers in the adoption of digitalization among Po River Valley field crop farms, in a dynamic view. Using a case study approach to guarantee adequate consideration of context and conditions, three farms were studied. As one of the main outcomes, several drivers (digital skills, data management practices, and interoperability) that should be at the heart of policies were identified as demands to farmers in exchange for financial contributions, or as "innovation space" offered by EU institutions. Policies should not only focus on supporting mechanical/digital equipment acquisition but also on promoting the evolution of farmers' human capital. The framework developed paves the way for future research on the degree of farm digitalization in the same/similar territorial contexts: identified drivers of digital transition can be used as a basis for survey questionnaires, as well as tested in their validity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing research on global business regulation has examined the interaction of hard and soft regulation. However, less is known about how the development, existence, and evolvement of hard and soft regulation reinforce each other. We argue that the pursuit of legitimacy for both hard and soft regulation can lead to a dynamic interplay between, and reinforcement of, the two regulatory forms. Legitimacy is about the right to exist. The objective of the present article is to provide theoretical insights into the mutual reinforcement of hard and soft regulation from a legitimacy perspective. We discuss four mutually reinforcing effects that impact the respective legitimacy of hard and soft regulation. Our article contributes to the literature on global business regulation, particularly as it pertains to the discussion on whether voluntary or mandatory forms of regulation should be pursued. In addition, it yields implications for global business regulation, for organizational policies on and engagement in soft regulation, as well as for policy-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous literature on business performance in the insurance market tends to focus only on efficiency or profitability. However, the relationship between both has yet to be addressed in the Spanish insurance market. This paper examines the relationship between efficiency scores obtained through a two-stage DEA and the values of the classical financial ratios (ROE, ROA, Technical Ratio, Combined Ratio and Loss Ratio). We use a sample of 111 firms from the non-life Spanish insurance market from 2008- 2017. We find a positive relationship between efficiency and profitability, which shows decreasing returns, with the positive effect of efficiency on profit ratios being lower for the most efficient companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this research is to analyze the factors that influence the profitability of Micro and Small Enterprises in Peru, in the face of the problems derived from Covid-19, with the purpose of contributing to the literature on the study of business behavior during crises, from the perspective of the contingency theory. In order to carry out the research, a quantitative study was carried out with a sample of 291 companies in the commercial and service sector in Lima, Peru. The results of the logistic regression analysis show that only two groups of variables were significant: environment and size, while the group of variables that influence technology was not significant in generating the profitability of the company. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Definition: The concept of nature positive has recently emerged from the widespread recognition of the global scale at which nature is being lost and the threat this poses to the collective survival of the human race. Much of the interest in nature positive reflects the initial commitment to it by conservation organisations and by a number of international political initiatives. However, the pursuit of nature positive approaches by businesses has received little attention in the business and management literature. Building upon an analysis of secondary sources, this entry paper first examines how three international organisations suggest a nature positive strategy could be pursued. This paper then focuses on two multinational companies and how they plan to pursue a nature positive approach to their business activities. This article identifies a number of critical factors in developing a nature positive strategy: incorporating suppliers in this strategy, assessing corporate dependencies and impacts on nature, and reporting on nature positive initiatives and outcomes. At the same time, this article raises concerns that nature positive approaches could be driven more by business imperatives rather than fundamental corporate concerns about biodiversity and that many business commitments to nature positive could be seen as mainly aspirational. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shares new insights on the dynamics of entrepreneurship in the artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector, focusing on the case of sub-Saharan Africa. Despite being the region's most important rural nonfarm activity, and generating finance that sustains a sizable portion of its subsistence/smallholder agricultural economy, ASM has barely featured in the business and management literature. It has rather been scholars from other disciplines who have shared opinions on the individuals who pursue work in this sector and why. They are in broad agreement that in sub-Saharan Africa, ASM sites attract, at the one extreme, people who are desperate for income (the "poverty-driven" category) and, at the other extreme, individuals motivated by the possibility of becoming wealthy (the "get-rich-quick" category). These two narratives map, virtually wholesale, on to the necessity-based-opportunity-based typology of entrepreneurship that business and management scholars have interrogated for decades. This paper fuses these narratives with the typology, with the goal of showcasing ASM within an evolving body of literature on entrepreneurship in sub-Saharan Africa. It then draws on a case study of Kéniéba District (Mali), the location of one of the region's more dynamic gold-panning industries, to articulate more clearly the sector's different entrepreneurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Kumars of Salmora village in the south-eastern part of Majuli, Assam, India, are an example of a family managed business of handcrafting river clay pots. Salmora became the Kumhar village as a result of clay, which became the primary reason for the settlement of potters in the area. The hand-beaten pottery is a cottage industry of Majuli and has been passed down through generations. Currently, the policy restrictions and the dying art form have made people think about how to sustain the handicraft, their livelihoods woven around this art form, and continue their passion/skill in the given challenging situation. This makes it interesting to adopt the case research method to examine the struggle of small businesses to sustain their livelihoods, on the one hand, and the limited alternative sources of livelihood, on the other hand, thus making the survival and sustenance of the family business a challenge, where pottery was their family business for generations. The case discussion revolves around the problems, concerns and causes for the deterioration of the art forms and highlights the issues and challenges. It contributes to the resources in the emerging family business management literature and also the family businesses to strategise in similar contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: While, supply chain resilience (SCRES) continues to be a dominant topic in both academic and business literature and has gained more attention recently, there is limited knowledge on SCRES capabilities specific to business functions. The purpose of this paper is to identify and investigate capabilities shared between supply, operations and logistics that are most important for SCRES. Design/methodology/approach: To address this gap, the authors followed a multi-method research approach. First, the authors used the grounded theory method to generate a theoretical framework based on interviews with 51 managers from five companies in automotive SCs. Next, the authors empirically validated the framework using a survey of 340 SC professionals from the manufacturing industry. Findings: Five significant capabilities emerged from the qualitative study; all were significant in empirical validation. This research advances the knowledge of SCRES as it informs managerial decision-making by identifying capabilities common to supply, logistics and operations that impact SCRES. Originality/value: This research advances the knowledge of SCRES as it informs managerial decision-making by identifying capabilities common to supply, logistics and operations that impact SCRES. In addition, the findings of this research help managers better allocate resources among significant capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we tackle the lack of clarity in the conceptualization and substantive use of time in business sustainability research. We do so by means of an integrative review that synthesizes 172 papers published over the last 20 years across seven subject areas within business and management research. From our review, we developed a typology that highlights three primary categories that differentiate various conceptualizations and uses of time in business sustainability literature: (a) temporal resourcing, (b) temporal structuring, and (c) temporal prospecting for sustainability. The typology organizes a body of literature that remains scattered, provides conceptual clarity, and opens avenues for future empirical research and theorization in the space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: With shorter product cycles and a growing number of knowledge-intensive business processes, time consumption is a highly relevant target factor in measuring the performance of contemporary business processes. This research aims to extend prior research on the effects of knowledge transfer velocity at the individual level by considering the effect of complexity, stickiness, competencies, and further demographic factors on knowledge-intensive business processes at the conversion-specific levels. Design/methodology/approach: We empirically assess the impact of situation-dependent knowledge transfer velocities on time consumption in teams and individuals. Further, we issue the demographic effect on this relationship. We study a sample of 178 experiments of project teams and individuals applying ordinary least squares (OLS) for regression analysis-based modeling. Findings: The authors find that time consumed at knowledge transfers is negatively associated with the complexity of tasks. Moreover, competence among team members has a complementary effect on this relationship and stickiness retards knowledge transfers. Thus, while demographic factors urgently need to be considered for effective and speedy knowledge transfers, these influencing factors should be addressed on a conversion-specific basis so that some tasks are realized in teams best while others are not. Guidelines and interventions are derived to identify best task realization variants, so that process performance is improved by a new kind of process improvement method. Research limitations/implications: This study establishes empirically the importance of conversion-specific influence factors and demographic factors as drivers of high knowledge transfer velocities in teams and among individuals. The contribution connects the field of knowledge management to important streams in the wider business literature: process improvement, management of knowledge resources, design of information systems, etc. Whereas the model is highly bound to the experiment tasks, it has high explanatory power and high generalizability to other contexts. Practical implications: Team managers should take care to allow the optimal knowledge transfer situation within the team. This is particularly important when knowledge sharing is central, e.g. in product development and consulting processes. If this is not possible, interventions should be applied to the individual knowledge transfer situation to improve knowledge transfers among team members. Social implications: Faster and more effective knowledge transfers improve the performance of both commercial and non-commercial organizations. As nowadays, the individual is faced with time pressure to finalize tasks, the deliberated increase of knowledge transfer velocity is a core capability to realize this goal. Quantitative knowledge transfer models result in more reliable predictions about the duration of knowledge transfers. These allow the target-oriented modification of knowledge transfer situations so that processes speed up, private firms are more competitive and public services are faster to citizens. Originality/value: Time consumption is an increasingly relevant factor in contemporary business but so far not been explored in experiments at all. This study extends current knowledge by considering quantitative effects on knowledge velocity and improved knowledge transfers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Research Summary: Building on business model research and the social entrepreneurship literature, we conceptually develop a set of business model choices for social ventures. These choices specify the scope of venture beneficiaries, the extent that customers and beneficiaries overlap, and how social meaning is attached to the venture's value proposition. Concurrent configurations of these choices give rise to four types of social business models: (1) Social Stimulators, (2) Social Providers, (3) Social Producers, and (4) Social Intermediaries. We illustrate this typology using data from seven social ventures and formulate propositions about the implications these business model choices have for a venture's value creation and value capture potential. We then discuss contributions to the literature on social ventures and social entrepreneurship, and the literature on business models. Managerial Summary: In this article, we propose a framework outlining key business model choices for social ventures. These choices include the scope of target beneficiaries of the venture, the degree of overlap between customers and beneficiaries, and how the venture communicates its social mission through its value proposition. By combining these choices in different ways, we identify four distinct types of social business models which we call Social Stimulators, Social Providers, Social Producers, and Social Intermediaries. To bring this framework to life, we have examined data from seven real‐world social ventures, offering concrete examples to illustrate each type. For each of these four types of social business models, we have also formulated propositions about how the business model choices impact a venture's value creation and value capture potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Management & Organization Review is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose: With the aid of libraries, the research paper aims to assist businesses in swiftly and accurately acquiring knowledge and insights from scholarly literature to guide their inventive and decision-making processes. The foundation for achieving the goal is Connected Papers technology. Design/methodology/approach: The author's professional expertise in performing literature reviews using connected papers technology as well as using other ways, and corresponding with entrepreneurs and librarians impacted the article's research methodology. Findings: The use of Connected Papers technology in the library context for helping entrepreneurs is discussed. Libraries and entrepreneurs could benefit from using Connected Papers technology to quickly compile pertinent data from scholarly literature to solve business challenges. According to the paper, adopting this technology can speed up information gathering and drastically reduce the time needed for business owners to search through bibliographic data-bases. Using this technology can help entrepreneurs at various phases of their entrepreneurial journeys and give libraries a productive way to assist business owners with their information needs. Originality/value: This paper's novelty comes from its examination of the usage of connectedpapers.com technology to compile data from scholarly literature to assist entrepreneurs in solving their business problems. The useful piece of advice this paper offers entrepreneurs and librarians is what makes it valuable. By using connectedpapers.com technology, businesses may be able to get critical information from scholarly literature to foster a series of experimentation quickly and effectively. Also, librarians can help their patrons with systematic re-views and other research services by using this application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we developed an approach for the empirical testing of the relationship between the financing choices of companies and the abnormal returns obtained by their shareholders. We innovate by incorporating controls on how this relationship is affected by the capabilities of each funding source, at different levels of returns, through quantile regression. The estimation of the model for a sample of Brazilian companies indicates the inexistence of a significant relationship between abnormal returns and debt issuance. The same occurs between abnormal returns and equity issuance, with one exception: when there is a deficit of internal financing that extrapolates the available safe debt and the abnormal returns are, at least, median, this relationship becomes significant and positive. Considered as a whole, the results suggest an indifference to the sources of funds used by the company. Among the contributions, we highlight the incorporation of the aforementioned controls, which bridges the gap identified in the literature relating business financial flows and stock returns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Virtual Universidad Católica del Norte is the property of Revista Virtual Universidad Catolica del Norte and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)