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The increased levels of foreign direct investment have been matched with increasing international assignments initiated by multinational enterprises (MNEs). The academic literature acknowledges the significance of the expatriation process, but the studies on the final phase of this process, repatriation, remain fragmented. This paper systematically reviews and analyses 129 articles published in peer-reviewed journals. It explores the issues and procedures associated with the repatriation phase and examines significant individual and organizational outcomes. The study identifies key themes in the repatriation literature, including repatriates’ readjustment and expectations upon return, coping strategies and identity change, knowledge management, organizational support, and repatriates’ career goals. Finally, the paper highlights the emerging issues in the repatriation literature and practice and provides an agenda for future research.

Organizational members are likely to harbor different allegiances, values, and identifications that can affect how they respond to their organization’s stigmatization. Drawing on the empirical case of a public broadcaster in South Korea initially stigmatized for its association with an authoritarian government, we focus on the responses of different intra-organizational groups to stigma and their interactions with each other and with external audiences. We find that faced with stigma, groups in the organization were divided about how to respond, with those defying the stigma and advocating a close relationship with the government competing with those who shared the values of stigmatizing audiences. Both groups sought control over journalism work, the organizational attribute for which the broadcaster was stigmatized, allying with external audiences that shared their respective visions. The dominance of the group that defied the stigma led to increased stigmatization of the organization by existing audiences and additionally prompted the participation of initially passive audiences in its denigration, eventually leading to organizational decline. We contribute to the literature on stigma by promoting an understanding of heterogeneity among members in stigmatized organizations and its implications for the consequences of stigma. We also contribute to theorizing stigmatization as a relational process by demonstrating how the heterogeneity of organizational members’ experience of stigma interacted with audience heterogeneity and highlighting the relative roles played by active and passive audiences in bringing about the decline of a stigmatized organization.

It is necessary to analyse the technological innovation and market from the global level. We pay attention to the biopharmaceutical industry to study the relationship between them. We find all the technological innovation, market size, and market competitions are developing in increasing tendencies generally. But the tendencies change strongly when encountering major events. Market size is more effective than market competition when either one affects technological innovation. Market competition can only bring about slight innovations, but the market size can affect all kinds of innovations. Therefore, the best choice to develop technology is to expand its market, rather than to increase or decrease competition. However, the topic novelty and death still can only be resulted by global major events. At that time, the 'chance' should be seized, and cooperation should be emphasised on, since the urgent practical needs will accelerate the development of technology.

Problem structuring methods imply the involvement of stakeholders and aim to create a shared understanding of the problem and commitment among them. The process and outcomes of such interventions entirely depend on the stakeholder’s level of engagement and willingness to contribute to the discussion. Gamification, in its turn, has been extensively used to increase engagement in an activity and nudge certain behaviors. Several gamification frameworks exist for stakeholder engagement; however, none fully considers the context of the modeling workshops with stakeholders. In this paper, we focus on a specific method for problem structuring, called Participatory Modeling (PM), and aim to explore the essential components and steps to gamify the PM process. We look at the literature on gamification, stakeholder engagement, problem structuring methods and, specifically, PM. Based on this analysis, we propose a gamification framework for PM, which includes the steps commonly mentioned in other existing frameworks and more nuanced features within each step that are specific to the PM context. Emphasis is given to analyzing the context of the gamified activity, including such aspects as participants, group interaction, and modeling. In addition, consideration of ethical points and potential risks of gamification is suggested as a necessary step to prevent undesired side effects during the gamified PM process. The gamification framework for PM leads to a variety of ways in which gamified intervention can be designed and incorporated into the process. Further research on the appropriateness of gamification use, practical applications, their evaluation, and risks associated with gamified interventions can contribute to the extension and clarification of the proposed framework.

The physical distancing recommendations issued by the World Health Organization (WHO), and the emergency laws and policies issued by the Jordanian government; have created the necessity of using information technology (IT) to provide contactless environment distance including e-payment, e-government, and distance learning. Therefore, the current research aims at identifying the factors affecting students' continued usage intention for e-learning including COVID-19 perceived risk, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating condition. The data was collected using an online survey from 441 respondents; however, 376 responses were valid for the statistical analysis. The valid data was analysed using SPSS and the findings revealed that all the independent constructs had a significant positive effect on students' continued usage intention for Microsoft Teams as an e-learning platform. The major contribution of this study is investigating the effect of COVID-19 perceived risk and confirming its positive relationship with continued usage intention.

Participatory modeling (PM) is a craft that is often learned by training ‘on the job’ and mastered through years of practice. There is little explicit knowledge available on identifying and documenting the skills needed to perform PM. In the modeling literature, existing attempts to identify relevant competencies have focused on the specific technical skills required for specific technical model development. The other skills required to organize and conduct the stakeholder process seem to be more vaguely and poorly defined in this context. The situation is complicated by PM being an essentially transdisciplinary craft, with no single discipline or skill set to borrow ideas and recommendations from. In this paper, we aim to set the foundation for both the practice and capacity-building efforts for PM by identifying the relevant core competencies. Our inquiry into this topic starts with reviewing and compiling literature on competencies in problem-solving research areas related to PM (e.g., systems thinking, facilitated model building, operations research, and so forth). We augment our inquiry with results from a PM practitioners’ survey to learn how they perceive the importance of different competencies and how the scope of these competencies may vary across the various roles that participatory modellers play. As a result, we identified five core competency areas essential for PM: systems thinking, modeling, group facilitation, project management and leadership, and, more recently, designing and running virtual workshops and events.

Research Summary: By integrating performance feedback theory and ownership management literature, we examine how parent multinational companies (MNCs) evaluate their foreign subsidiaries' poor performance against various aspirations and make multifaceted ownership change decisions. Our results show that social aspirations matter more than historical aspirations in ownership change decisions. When a focal subsidiary is underperforming relative to industry peers or overseas subsidiary peers, its parent MNC tends to change its ownership of foreign subsidiaries and by a high degree. However, regarding the direction of ownership change, a foreign subsidiary with performance below industry peers tends to experience an ownership decrease, whereas the opposite is true when a subsidiary's performance is below overseas subsidiary peers. Overall, we extend existing theories that downplay the role of aspirations in ownership changes. Managerial Summary: Effective ownership management in foreign subsidiaries is key to sustaining the global operations of MNCs. An important task for parent managers is to make sense of the poor performance of their foreign subsidiaries against various aspirations and respond in terms of ownership change decisions. We find that managers are more sensitive when their foreign subsidiary's performance is below its social peers than below its past performance. Specifically, parent managers tend to change ownership to a large extent when their foreign subsidiary is poorly performed compared with its industry peers as an external benchmark or overseas subsidiary peers as an internal benchmark. Moreover, parent managers tend to reduce ownership when the subsidiary's performance is below industry peers, while are more likely to increase ownership when the performance is below its overseas subsidiary peers.

This study investigates the relationship between start-up ecosystems (SE) and start-up performance (SP) in two distinct environments. It analyses SE as a critical antecedent of SP by considering the underlying effects of network learning capability (NLC). We test the hypothesized relationships by a study of 221 start-ups in Colombia and 203 start-ups in Australia and validate the theoretical model using survey information. We apply a structural equation modelling PLS-SEM and multigroup approaches. The results verify the positive influence of SE on SP independently of NLC development. Nevertheless, network learning as a capability acts as a moderator by establishing the impact of the SE on SP. The moderating is determined by a strong NLC linking the SE's government, financial and organisational support. The findings contribute to the literature on entrepreneurship and innovation with relevant management implications by providing new evidence regarding the benefits of SE in terms of SP effectiveness.

This paper presents a study of requirements management practices on rail transport projects, focusing on the planning and acquisition stages. Linear rail networks are comprised of connected cyber-physical systems. As the transport sector embraces digital twinning in support of more strategic approaches to asset lifecycle management, requirements management functions must also handle a complex of asset information requirements. High levels of integration in complex project environments present significant challenges for requirements management. Using literature and interview surveys, challenges to requirements management practices are investigated. Findings highlight deficiencies in enterprise-wide requirements management methods and tools, with challenges compounded by deficiencies in consistent requirements modelling, common data models, and interoperable toolchains to support continuous, integrated model-based requirements management workflows. Findings identify opportunities to integrate systems and digital engineering functions through alignment of data and processes, and increase systems engineering expertise to improve requirements traceability and change management across system review activities.

This Perspectives article reviews research on organizational ethics presented in a select group of articles from Organization Studies, each of which draws inspiration, directly or indirectly, from the ethical philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas. This work is commended for how it has wrestled the locus of ethicality away from organizational authority and instead examined ethics in relation to the actions and interactions of those subject to that authority. Collectively, these articles articulate organizational ethics as an affective, relational and embodied response to the needs of others. Such ethics motivates political engagement in resistance to oppression and domination meted out by organizational authority. Acknowledging the significance of this contribution, the present article examines how the research reviewed is remiss for its latent humanism and the attendant risk of assuming that the actions of individual ethical subjects are morally superior to organized forms of ethics. The source of this ethical privileging of individual subjects comes from a failure to distinguish between the practice of ethics in organizations and the originary ethics of ethics. Following Levinas, the latter is understood as the passive and pre-subjective call to responsibility for the other with whom one is organized and that precedes any concrete proposal for an organizational ethics. By acknowledging the ethics of ethics, we see that affective, interpersonal ethics and more formally organized ethics can both be translations of the ethics of ethics, each being necessarily imperfect. The tension between authoritative and interpersonal forms of ethics in organizations is not a problem for ethics, but rather a condition of the possibility of organizational ethics itself.

To the surprise of many in the West, the fall of the USSR in 1991 did not lead to the adoption of liberal democratic government around the world and the much anticipated “end of history.” In fact, authoritarianism has made a comeback, and liberal democracy has been on the retreat for at least the last 15 years culminating in the unthinkable: the invasion of a democratic European country by an authoritarian regime. But why does authoritarianism continue to spread, not only as an alternative to liberal democracy, but also within many liberal democracies where authoritarian leaders continue to gain strength and popularity? In this curated piece, contributors discuss some of the potential contributions of management scholarship to understanding authoritarianism, as well as highlight a number of directions for management research in this area.

This paper investigates the ecosystem dynamics of the Open-source [COVID-19] Medical Supplies network that arose to fill the institutional void revealed by state and private sector failures to stockpile and supply enough personal protective equipment. Theoretically, the paper adds correctives to extant institutional theory accounts of entrepreneurship filling institutional voids, showing that these can be filled rapidly and normatively by digital entrepreneurial ecosystems allied with peer production networks. These were able to transform the boundary conditions of a routinized system, refixing its autopoiesis innovatively. The COVID-19 epidemic galvanized hundreds of thousands of volunteer “makers” around the world to cooperate to meet urgent demand for medical supplies. A digital entrepreneurial ecosystem arose in response to the problem of critical equipment shortages, connecting global, expert-curated know-how with local production equipment. We contribute to the theory of institutional voids by documenting and analyzing how the formation and emergent processes that created and sustained a Digital Peer Production Ecosystem based on self-organization, expert curation and scalability, successfully catalyzed local initiatives worldwide. Institutional voids are not just barriers to entrepreneurship; they are also opportunities.

Visualization (i.e., the use of figures and images to represent findings and conceptual models) is central to theorizing. Yet, by focusing solely on the textual content of papers, analysis has inadvertently marginalized the graphic representations of key ideas. We review the paradox literature not just in terms of what authors have written but also how they have visualized models concisely. An analysis of figures in paradox articles captures the essential role that visuals play in our understanding of competing tensions, leveraging the power of imagery. We explore paradox visually, searching for the figurative materialization of paradox; more particularly, we seek visual signs that render abstract ideas more saliently and concretely. We contribute to paradox theory in three ways. First, we show how visuals constitute the lynchpin between convergent and divergent forces, allowing scholars to simultaneously reinforce and challenge current understanding. Second, we offer a tool for scholars to theorize competing demands based on three key antinomies, or dualities, that define the terrain of research in our field. Third, we reveal the performative effect of figures by identifying the ongoing dominance of certain classes of paradox visuals, which allows us to point to uncharted territories for paradox research.

We introduce a themed collection of articles examining how the public sector has responded to, and been impacted by, the COVID-19 crisis. Although the pandemic has affected the roles, functions, economies, governance and structures of public sectors, this themed collection focuses on public sector employment relations. Authors examine significant areas which have been subject to accelerated change stemming from the pandemic. Building on decades of public sector reform, these changes impact public sector enterprise bargaining, terms and conditions of employment, working arrangements and practices, and the relationship between public servants and their employer. The articles in this collection provide important insights into the longer-term influences of the COVID-19 pandemic for public sector workforces. The collection also raises questions around whether the positive lessons from this crisis can be sustained to help manage serious crises in the future, or whether the public sector will slip back into a state of unpreparedness.

Despite widespread agreement among practitioners and academicians that organizational insiders are a significant threat to organizational information systems security, insider computer abuse (ICA)—unauthorized and deliberate misuse of organizational information resources by organizational insiders—remains a serious issue. Recent studies have shown that most employees are willing to share confidential or regulated information under certain circumstances and nearly a third to half of major security breaches are tied to insiders. These trends indicate that organizational security efforts, which generally focus on deterrence and sanctions, have yet to effectively address ICA. Therefore, leading security researchers and practitioners have called for a more nuanced understanding of insiders in respect to deterrence efforts. We answer these calls by proposing a middle-range theory of ICA that focuses on understanding the inherent tensions between insider motivations and organizational controls. Our careful review distinguishes two categories of personal motives for ICA: (1) instrumental (i.e., financial benefits) (2) and expressive (i.e., psychological contract violations) motives. Our novel theory of ICA also includes the influence of two classes of controls for ICA: (1) intrinsic (i.e., self-control) and (2) extrinsic (i.e., organizational deterrence) controls. We developed and empirically examined a research model based on our middle-range theory that explains a substantial portion of the variance in ICA (R2 = 0.462). Specifically, our results indicate that both instrumental and expressive motives were positively related to ICA. Moreover, intrinsic self-control exerted significant direct and moderating influences in our research model, whereas extrinsic organizational deterrence failed to exhibit a direct effect on ICA and significantly moderated instrumental motives’ relationship with ICA only. Not only do our results show that self-control exerted a stronger effect on

We offer a set of conceptual distinctions between servant and paternalistic leadership, which we support with a new model that further extends the notion of paradoxical dynamic equilibrium. We used an in-depth case study of narratives on servant and paternalistic leadership from the Kingdom of Bhutan’s transition to democratic leadership. These narratives are rich in paradoxical tensions from which we extrapolate our findings. From our inductive documentary analysis, we establish that servant and benevolent paternalistic leadership perform genuine concern for the wellbeing of followers. However, while servant leaders seemingly promote centrifugal forces of change, humility and broader inclusion of others as followers, paternalistic leaders (both benevolent and exploitative), focus on the centripetal forces of stability, unquestioned authority and exclusion of those that do not follow and thus are outside their direct protection. As outlined in our circular model of paradoxical intent, distinguishing servant leadership and paternalistic leadership can be understood through distinct splitting and integration processes between the poles of main and utilitarian intent. MAD statement The concept of servant leadership seems to be increasingly adopted by organizations. This is a welcoming development given its potential contribution to address today's social and environmental challenges, as expressed in the UN Sustainable Development Goals. However, there is a risk that leaders carelessly appropriate the term without sufficiently understanding its unique characteristics and implications. Servant leadership can, for instance, be easily confused with paternalistic leadership. This article aims to clarify the distinctions between these two models and contribute to a more conscious adoption and development of servant leadership in organizations.

During times of suffering such as that inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic, compassion expressed by leaders helps to ease distress. Doing so, those in a position to provide resources that might facilitate coping and recovery are attentive to the situations of distress. Despite an abundance of leadership theorizing and models, there still is little academic literature on compassionate leadership. To address this limitation, we present an exploratory case study of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, someone widely recognized for her compassionate leadership and frequently described in paradoxical terms (e.g. ‘kind and strong’; embodying ‘steel and compassion’). We address her compassionate leadership through the lenses of paradox theory, legitimacy theory and conservation of resources theory. We contribute a heuristic framework that sees various types of legitimacy leveraged synergistically to build resources and alleviate suffering – providing further legitimacy in an upward spiral of compassionate leadership.

The influence of family on expatriates and their families' international assignments experience have been long discussed in various disciplines. We undertake a systematic review of 151 articles on expatriates' families published between 2006 and 2020 in peer-reviewed academic journals in Business and Management, Medicine, Psychology, and Decision Sciences. Adopting a step-wise approach to conduct the review and using Leximancer, we analyze the literature and categorize it into five major themes: family's influence on expatriates; expatriation's influence on expatriate families; family and individual adjustment in the expatriation process; organizational practices concerning family issues in expatriation; and expatriate families' social interaction. This mapping, thematizing and systematic organizing of the literature allows us to identify research areas that have been overpopulated and others that have not received sufficient scholarly attention. By doing so, this study contributes to the literature by providing a multidisciplinary perspective on the issue of expatriates' families. We also present a research agenda to advance knowledge in the field and make recommendations for practice.

Purpose: While studies have established the important role of change agents throughout organizational change programs and emphasized the change agents’ impact on outcomes of change efforts, it could be argued that the decision-making procedure for the selection of change agents may also influence the success of organizational change programs in several ways. This research aims to explore and compare the potential influence of a traditional change agent selection procedure with a more systematic and objective approach. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative case study has been conducted, before and after testing a group decision support system for the selection of change agents in an organization that was on the verge of a major rebranding. Findings: The main findings suggest the importance of objectivity, transparency and attention to competency in the selection procedure for the role, while providing evidence for using a systematic participative decision-support process for the selection of change agents, leading to several desirable organizational outcomes, including improvements in perception of objectivity, trust, transparency, fairness and competency related to the selection process. Originality/value: Drawing from the previous studies and the presented findings, this study offers evidence on the importance of paying attention to the selection procedure for the change agent role as it could potentially have an influence on the employees across organizations and, consequently, the success of change programs.

Paradoxical inertia is an organization condition that has received far less attention than organizational change. We investigate, ethnographically, an Australian Intellectual Property service firm, whose Board members proved to be unable to respond strategically to a rapidly changing environment that threatened their organization’s survival. In the face of discontinuous change, this failure to address the management of paradoxes threatening embedded routines reinforced a paralysing inertia. Extant research has emphasized how managers handle paradox; we discuss how they fail to do so. The inertia is derived from the finessing of tensions as non-issues. Constituted as non-issues there were non-decisions about these tensions that maintained internal stability and harmony; they did so, however, in world of change increasingly disrespectful of internal concerns for ongoing professional stability and harmony. The inability to become collectively and critically aware of the specific forms of inertia undermined recursive learning and thus the transformation of the sensemaking practices of the Board.

Business & Society’s 60th anniversary affords an opportunity to reflect on the journal’s achievements in the context of the wider field. We analyze editorial commentaries to map the evolving mission of the journal, assess the achievement of the journal’s mission through a thematic analysis of published articles, and examine Business & Society’s distinctiveness relative to peer journals using a machine learning approach. Our analysis highlights subtle shifts in Business & Society’s mission and content over time, reflecting variation in the relative emphasis on scholarly quality versus policy/practice relevance, and building the journal and its academic community versus addressing issues of concern to wider society. While Business & Society’s intended missions have been substantially and sequentially achieved, an increased emphasis on the society-business nexus and a critical approach to interdisciplinarity could further enhance Business & Society’s leading role within business and society research and attract new generations of contributors and readers.

Purpose: This paper aims to examine the state of research on environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance in the context of multinational business research. This paper discusses research progress as well as various issues and complexities associated with using ESG ratings in cross-country studies and for assessing the performance of multinational enterprises (MNE) and emerging market multinationals (EMNEs). Design/methodology/approach: The paper identifies emerging literature that focuses on tracking the development and uptake of ESG ratings in the international context. It discusses three emerging research streams: Research examining the ESG-financial performance relationship in emerging markets, research tracking the ESG performance of multinationals in the various countries and regions they are operating, and frameworks for assessing ESG-related risks on a country level. Findings: While the emerging body of work adds an important dimension to the identification and awareness of ESG issues globally, numerous unresolved issues become evident. ESG frameworks have been built to assess corporate sustainability as it relates to firms in their “home” countries (typically with a focus on developed countries), with limited applicability and transferability to emerging markets. International firm activities are often not captured in detail and not comprehensively mapped across firm subsidiaries and a firm’s corporate supply chain where ESG issues are prone to happen, and ESG scores do not comprehensively integrate views and voices from various local stakeholders that are impacted by firm activities, particularly indigenous communities. Research limitations/implications: Research on ESG ratings in the context of multinational business research is generally sparse and fragmented, thus creating opportunities for future research to expand on existing and emerging findings. Practical implications: The paper creates awareness of issues to consider when using ESG rating

Accompanied with globalisation, companies are confronted with new competitors and price competitions. In order to meet these challenges manufactures strive to increase their efficiency throughout the value stream. Especially special machine manufactures assembling in fixed position assembly islands show a high non-value adding share, since their assembly and logistical processes are characterised by a low degree of standardisation and maturity. This leads to a high spread of throughput times and increases the risk of delivery delays. To improve this weakness, this paper presents an approach to increase the degree of standardisation and to lower and stabilise the throughput time. The new approach bases on heuristics for packing problems and applies them to the material supply. By that, the allocation of the supplied components is optimised, as a result of which search times and path lengths for walking and transporting are shortened and the value adding time share is increased.

The literature on how a start-up ecosystem has an impact on a start-up’s performance has significantly grown and contributed to the management field. Nevertheless, these theoretical developments have been scattered, inconsistent, lacking in theoretical depth. Therefore, in this review, we use three perspectives to organise the knowledge field, refine concepts and generate a prospectus for future studies. The perspectives reviewed are the Resource-Based View, Open Innovation and Social Capital Theory. The results have generally shown that the network-based start-up ecosystem contributes resources, capabilities, learning, collaboration, relationship, knowledge shared and social capital to new ventures. The influence of these benefits for new venture performance is uncertain. Conceptual development in start-up ecosystem research will gain value from management perspectives that address these benefits. We propose a plan for future studies on network-based start-ups that is oriented towards a more robust framework with which to consider the role and influence of a start-up ecosystem that goes beyond general descriptions of the positive effect of start-ups network-ecosystem on performance.

Purpose: The discussion on co-innovation inhibitors usually focuses on external actors’ opportunism, related to the loss of intellectual property. However, from the organizational Machiavellianism perspective, inhibitors are not external as the company itself is a source of constraints. Unfortunately, there is a lack of research studies examining the possible negative impact of organizational Machiavellian behavior such as amorality or distrust and desire for control, which could destroy external partners’ trust and commitment. This paper aims to analyze the effect of organizational Machiavellianism on the relationship between co-innovation and innovation performance (product and process innovation). Design/methodology/approach: Structural equations were used to test the research model using survey data from a sample of companies located in an emerging country with a high risk of corruption. Findings: Surprisingly, distrust and desire for control do not moderate the relationship between co-innovation and innovation performance, but do have a positive and direct effect on innovation performance. Conversely, amorality has a negative moderating effect on this relationship. Originality/value: The study reveals that amorality is an evident constraint of the positive impact of co-innovation, as it diminishes the amount and quality of external actors’ contributions in terms of new ideas and knowledge. In contrast, distrust and desire for control alert the firm about opportunistic behavior by external partners such as technology providers, who may induce the firm to adopt an inadequate technological standard in line with their commercial interests.

To achieve effective stakeholder governance in the context of international social accountability certification (SA8000) requires constructing a network of agreement. In a case study of a small-to-medium-sized enterprise (SME), we examine managers’ attempts at enrolling participants in the supply chain to investigate how they strive to engage these stakeholders. We adopt actor-network theory (ANT) and sensemaking theory to develop a novel approach to understanding social accountability (SA) standards’ certification in stakeholder networks. We argue that the design and operation of any SA standard across a network requires not only attempts at enrolling other participants in the supply chain but management contextualizing and problematizing the terms of their involvement.

The paper contributes to literatures on settlements and institutional maintenance work. It does so by unpacking post-settlement legitimation efforts required to maintain contentious institutions between previously conflicting actors. Settlements often necessitate the maintenance of institutions from the past whose legitimacy is dubious for the new regime. We study the role played by South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission in re-legitimating and maintaining the institution of the armed forces in the transition from apartheid to democracy. Maintaining this legitimacy required collaboration between the incoming government as well as the apartheid era armed forces. We term these unexpected collaborative efforts ‘reluctant accommodation work’. Our findings show that the lines of allegiance may be more fluid than currently depicted in the literature. Actors that previously conflicted need to find an interest in collaborating in their efforts to shape central institutions. Second, we show that for settlements to shape the field, they need to agree on the terms of collaboration, what we term ‘passage points’, as well as engage in public ceremonies to broadly legitimate the settlement and the institution it seeks to preserve.

This study examines how the timing of the adoption of e-commerce capabilities affects the performance of online retailers. By applying a resource-based view and innovation diffusion theory, we examine capability adoption by the top 500 US online retailers over seven years period. We present how e-commerce capabilities differentially contribute to performance outcomes. Capabilities vary in the durability of benefit, with some providing earlier adopter benefits and others showing benefits later in their life cycles. We find that some capabilities reward later adopters, contrary to prior research. These results support that adoption timing is key to the understanding of the contribution of e-commerce capabilities to online retailer performance.

Companies in platform-based business markets have widely embraced freemium business models where profit primarily depends on a minority of paying customers. However, the key challenge of these models is transitioning participants from free users to paying consumers. To encourage paid consumption, companies often rely on product differentiation such as providing consumers who pay for products or services with enhanced features. However, limited research has addressed how such product differentiation may convert consumers from “free” to “fee.” Our research examines multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games as a compelling example of freemium platform-based business models. We contribute to the freemium literature by introducing three new MOBA-specific differentiations—character competency, character variety, and character-appearance differentiation. We also extend consumption values theory (CVT) into a dual-path model to unveil the underlying mechanisms through which product differentiation influences in-game purchase. We empirically validate our dual-path model using data from a two-wave longitudinal experiment and three cross-sectional experiments. Our findings support opposing mediating paths for product differentiation in character competency and variety and indicate that these two types of differentiation can indeed undermine perceived game fairness. Conversely, character-appearance differentiation exerts only a positive influence on players’ purchasing of in-game items. Consequently, the findings of this study have important potential implications for platform-based companies leveraging freemium business models that seek to increase their share of paying customers.