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Purpose This study aims to consider the effect of managerial capital (psychological, intellectual and social) on business strategy and growth. Per upper echelon theory, managerial capital enables high-level managers to drive firm performance in uniquely personal ways. The authors test the effects of managerial capital on a manager’s dominant regulatory focus (promotion and prevention balance) and whether having an explorative strategy mediates the relationship between dominant regulatory focus and the percentage of business unit growth expected from new lines of business. Design/methodology/approach Survey data from a sample of 211 Chinese executives were used to assess measurement and test hypotheses by means of structural equation modeling. Findings Results indicate that the direction of business strategy is influenced by the balance between promotion and prevention focus, which is shaped by managers’ risk propensity, product-market familiarity and bonding tie diversity. Explorative strategy, in turn, mediates the relationship between dominant regulatory focus and expectations of innovative growth. Originality/value Examining the effects of managerial capital on innovative firm strategy reveals the role of psychosocial traits of decision-makers.

This paper examines psychological and behavioral mechanisms that underlie business growth expectations by examining how managerial optimism and self-regulatory focus influence learning behaviors. To empirically examine these relationships, the study situates in a resource-constrained business context by studying managers in two Pacific Island economies. Results indicate that a positive view toward gains encourages exploratory learning in unknown situations; whereas, a less optimistic disposition and avoidance are related to exploitative learning. This finding is consequential as managerial learning that leans toward development of new insights and possibilities is associated with greater business growth expectations versus learning that adheres to familiar and proven ideas and alternatives. The study results have implications for both practice and theory.

To provide a naturalistic, empirical analysis of entrepreneurial decision-making through textual analysis, DICTION is used to analyse student journal entries made in conjunction with an entrepreneurship simulation used widely in teaching entrepreneurship. Concrete terms are used as a proxy for action orientation and cognition-related words as a proxy for analytical orientation. Being disposed toward cognitive activity instead of concrete action detracts from performance. To the degree that one’s use of language reflects underlying thought patterns, thinking concretely is a desirable trait for entrepreneurs. This article contributes to research conducted in a naturalistic environment and allows for a closer examination of cognitive processes by analysing the kinds of words used. The article also introduces CATA as a viable methodological tool for the entrepreneurship domain.

A new venture's strategy—and thus its performance—is based upon the knowledge the firm has about its market, its opportunity in that market, and its appropriate conduct to take advantage of that op...

Research has demonstrated that employee reactions to monitoring systems depend on both the characteristics of the monitoring system and how it is implemented. However, little is known about the role individual differences may play in this process. This study proposes that individuals have generalized attitudes toward organizational control and monitoring activities. We examined this argument by assessing the relationship between employees’ baseline attitudes toward a set of monitoring and control techniques that span the employment relationship. We further explore the effects of employees’ generalized attitudes toward monitoring and their individual ethical orientations on their attitudinal reactions to an Internet monitoring system implemented in their workplace. Results of a longitudinal study indicate that as expected, prior beliefs and ethical orientation interact to affect employees’ reactions to monitoring systems. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

In recent years, the practices of work organizations have raised increasing concerns regarding individual privacy at work. It is clear that people expect and value privacy in their personal lives. However, the extent to which privacy perceptions influence individuals’ work attitudes is less clear. Research has explored the extent to which employee perceptions of privacy derive from characteristics of the programs themselves. However, there is a paucity of research that examines how the characteristics of the individual employee may influence perceptions of these programs. In this study we seek to shed light on this issue, as we examine how the individual ethical orientation of employees influences perceptions of a variety of human resource programs that have the potential to be perceived as invasive. Results indicate that ethical orientation exerts direct effects on perceived invasiveness of programs and exerts both direct and indirect effects on perceived appropriateness of programs. Implications for research and for managers adopting privacy-related programs are discussed.

Little is currently known about the cognitive processes entrepreneurs engage in as they develop and implement strategies. A computer simulation was used to investigate this question. Repeated measures regression analysis indicated that participants using a learning goal were able to keep their simulated firms running longer than those using a performance outcome goal. Strategy mediated the relationship between task-specific self-efficacy and performance. Conversely, task-specific self-efficacy mediated the relationship between strategy use and performance. General self-efficacy added explanatory power to firm survival, even after controlling for the effects of specific self-efficacy. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed.

The Internet is a fast growing mechanism for providing workplace monitoring. We examined how its implementation affects employees' trust in the organization. We hypothesized that giving employees advance notice of monitoring and providing them a justification for it would enhance their trust. We investigated how employees' perceptions of organizational support prior to monitoring moderated these relationships by conducting a longitudinal field experiment. We found that advance notice and perceived organizational support exerted significant main and interactive effects on post-implementation trust. In turn, trust significantly affected employees' job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intentions.

Considerable discussion stresses the importance of implementing employee monitoring systems in ways that enhance perceived fairness. Less attention focuses on the organizational context in which such systems are implemented. A longitudinal field experiment examined the effects of advance notice, justification, and trust on employee reactions to Internet monitoring. Results indicate that formal characteristics of monitoring implementation were less important than organizational climate in determining employee reactions. Neither advance notice nor justification significantly affected perceptions of monitoring fairness. In contrast, trust significantly influenced these perceptions, which in turn positively affected employees' job attitudes.

This article describes an experience I had as a new professor the first year after receiving my Ph.D. An experiment with an innovative teaching method quickly deteriorated into a disaster. This article describes the emotional toll exacted on me, why my experiment failed, and how it prompted me to develop a personal philosophy of principle-based teaching.

issues. The implications of these results for both organizational justice and ethics are discussed. Organizational justice and normative ethics both address the general organizational question, What is right? Work in the field of organizational justice has centered around how people feel about either the distribution of outcomes (distributive justice) or the process by which these outcome allocation decisions are made (procedural justice). Ethics research has often considered a similar distinction people draw between processes and outcomes as they attempt to determine what is ethical. One such approach distinguishes between utilitarian (outcome-based) decisions and formalist (rules- or process-based) decisions. These similar distinctions between processes and outcomes in organizational justice and ethics are notable, and in this research note we attempt to integrate the two areas.

Although theories of affect-behavior relationships have emerged as prevalent explanations for individuals’ level of task effort, there continues to be several possible relationships between affective states and effort as explained by prior literature. In the present study we utilize samples of individuals engaged in student business start-ups to add to the literature on affect-behavior relationships. Specifically, we use a two-study design to investigate the relationship between task-related affect and task persistence. Findings across the two studies suggest that task-related positive affect is positively associated with task persistence. In addition, results from Study 1 indicate a moderating effect of self-set goals on the affect-persistence relationship. A moderated (trait-arousal) mediation (task-related cognition) model of the affect-persistence relationship is tested and supported in Study 2. Implications of the findings are discussed.