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Always on par?
(2024)
This article explores how entrepreneurial small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) manage coopetition strategies to innovate with large firms. While coopetition offers opportunities for innovation and growth, asymmetries between SMEs and large firms can provoke unilateral actions, opportunistic tactics, and knowledge theft which can undermine SME innovation power and jeopardise coopetition success. Based on a qualitative multiple-case study of 25 coopetitive innovation projects, each involving an SME and a large firm, we find that SMEs manage these risks by pursuing a synergistic mix of three distinct coopetition strategies: (1) Co-distribution, (2) Technology licensing, and (3) R&D co-development. In each strategy, SMEs navigate different coopetition intensities by dynamically combining the principles of separation, integration, co-management and co-ownership to achieve specific innovation outcomes. Our findings suggest that SMEs shift between cooperation- and competition-dominant strategies and employ a mix of management principles to offset asymmetrical risks and maximise their innovation benefits from coopetition with large firms.
In response to escalating environmental concerns and the imperative for sustainable development, corporations have turned to eco-innovation (EI) to enhance competitiveness and reduce ecological footprints. This study scrutinizes 17 European Commission EI-awarded companies from 1990 to 2021, uncovering pivotal dimensions and archetypes that drive successful EI implementation. Internal drivers, including management commitment and agile work structures, are paramount for “Believers” who champion sustainability as a core value. “Sellers” strategically respond to market demands, while “Beneficiaries” follow regulatory mandates. The academic implications are profound, providing a robust foundation for future research. This typology contributes to the discourse surrounding EI development and diffusion while offering corporate managers tangible guidance for tailored EI strategies. It illuminates how distinct motives lead to nuanced combinations of internal and external drivers. This empirical study fills a critical research gap, providing best-practice insights for companies seeking to integrate EI effectively.
Bibliometric analysis has recently become a popular and rigorous technique used for exploring and analyzing the literature in business and management. Prior studies principally focused on ‘how to do bibliometric analysis’, presenting an overview of the bibliometric methodology along with various techniques and step-by-step guidelines that can be relied on to rigorously conduct bibliometric analysis. However, the current body of evidence is limited in its ability to provide practical knowledge that can enhance the design and performance of bibliometric research. This claim is supported even by the fact that relevant studies refer to their work as ‘bibliometric analysis’ rather than ‘bibliometric research’. Accordingly, we endeavor to offer a more functional framework for researchers who wish to design/conduct bibliometric research on any field of research, especially business and management. To do this, we followed a twofold way. We first outlined the main stages and steps of typical bibliometric research. Then, we proposed a comprehensive framework for specifying how to design/conduct the research and under what headings the relevant stages (step-by-step) will be used and/or presented. Thus, the current paper is expected to be a useful source to gain insights into the available techniques and guide researchers in designing/conducting bibliometric research.
Creating value in football
(2024)
A new group of football investors has emerged to focus on direct financial returns, but little is known about their business activities and the strategies they employ for generating value. This paper aims to better understand these activities and unveil distinct value-creation strategies. Through 16 self-conducted and six publicly available interviews and documents, we analyzed 61 transactions involving 37 investors using the grounded theory methodology. Football investors follow four parallel micro-processes: horizoning, focusing, synchronizing, and creating value. Through these four microprocesses and their properties, they develop five distinctive strategies for value creation: Phoenix Strategy, (Cash) Cow Strategy, Gazelle Strategy, Ants Colony Strategy, and Eagle's Nest Strategy. The findings of this study contribute to conventional investment theory and help stakeholders guide their actions in light of the increasing presence of football investors who focus on direct financial returns.
Purpose
Small businesses are facing evolving environments, with a resulting need to shift their traditional approaches toward new business models (BMs). Many face difficulties within this transition process due to their specific resource constraints. Based on this, incremental changes to the BM – business model transition (BMT) – are proposed as comprising a suitable framework for entrepreneurial small businesses.
Design/methodology/approach
This study conducts a systematic literature review (SLR) to cover a broad range of relevant literature within a final sample of 89 articles. The SLR method was chosen to integrate research in a systematic, transparent and reproducible way. For qualitative analysis and framework derivation, the study draws on a thematic ontological analysis.
Findings
The broad search criteria, focusing on BM, incremental BM changes and small businesses, pave the way for a comprehensive overview of multiple research streams of BM concepts (e.g. digital and sustainable BM). The main contribution of this work is the resulting holistic BMT framework, comprising the main parts BM innovation, external antecedents (transition of environment, entrepreneurial ecosystem), internal antecedents (dynamic capabilities, entrepreneurial orientation, resilience, strategy) and output (firm performance).
Practical implications
The framework provides guidance for entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial managers to implement and complete BMT in small businesses. Furthermore, the presented paper sets a future research agenda focusing on small businesses structured according to the derived framework.
Originality/value
This study provides the first SLR of existing BM concepts with a small-business specific perspective on BMI and a focus on various incremental BM changes.
Purpose
Since the beginning of the 2000s, investors have more frequently invested into professional football clubs, thereby radically changing the industry landscape. This review's purpose is to analyze and synthesize the state of research to understand motives, roles and implications of football club investors, and to provide recommendations for further research.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper presents an integrative literature review by identifying relevant English articles based on the search terms investor, owner, investment, ownership, shareholder and stakeholder in combination with soccer or football. Around 2,431 articles were reviewed. A total of 129 relevant articles was analyzed and synthesized within eight subject areas.
Findings
Investors in professional club football is a young research stream with a clear European focus. Investor motives and roles are diverse and implications are multidimensional. Investors mostly aim for indirect returns rather than pure profit- or win-maximization.
Research limitations/implications
Football clubs comprise an own investment class for which the identified, unique specifics must be considered to develop a financially successful investment model. Thorough academic research of investors' inherent characteristics, investor-club pairings and the pillars of long-term strategies for successful investor-club liaisons are avenues of future research. Furthermore, the results illustrate the need for research outside of Europe.
Originality/value
The paper is the first systematic, integrative review of existing literature in the domain of equity investments into professional club football. The findings genuinely show that, depending on the investor type and ownership structure, investors have a wide impact in professional club football.
Power and organizations
(2024)
In the last two decades, the call for fewer hierarchies and flat structures has increased tremendously as shown by the numbers of recent papers. Academics and practitioners continually discuss the perfect organizational type. Nevertheless, this discussion is nothing new; already in mid last century, researchers were analyzing softened hierarchies in organizations. Due to the long-standing and recently reignited debates and influences from various perspectives, the body of research is vast, highly fragmented, and distributed among different disciplines. By reviewing the field systematically, we have analyzed in depth the current state of research and thereby interrelate the power relationships between manager and employee with the organization type they work in. With the aid of this newly developed framework, we can show that most companies act in a hierarchical organization not a flat one. Additionally, we show that even in organizations typified by flat structures, hierarchies do nevertheless appear. This revelation supports earlier findings that where formal hierarchies decrease, informal hierarchies increase, but this is contrary to much of current business understanding. Our research contributes to academia by providing a long-needed, integrated framework for power relationships in different types of organizations on the basis of which future scholars can undertake further research.
The purpose of this review is integrating and contextualizing relevant literature on the factors influencing the adoption of AI in the healthcare industry into a comprehensive framework. Health systems are considered fundamental to creating societal value. However, global health systems are challenged by the increasing number of patients due to population aging and the growing prevalence of chronic diseases and cancer. Meanwhile, the United Nations calls for equal access to healthcare, tackling costs, and addressing resource constraints to foster the sustainable development of societies. In this context, artificial intelligence (AI) is gaining attention as it constitutes a promising technology to address these burgeoning challenges. Despite opportunities, the literature specifically on the adoption of AI in the healthcare industry is fragmented across various research fields, lacking a comprehensive overview. It lacks theoretically grounded research integrating, for example, the factors that influence the adoption of AI in healthcare institutions.
Derived from a multi-disciplinary systematic literature review, building on 130 studies, we propose the Adoption of AI in the Healthcare Industry Model. This model encompasses five dimensions influencing the adoption of AI in the healthcare industry and contextualizes them. We propose that macro-economic, regulatory, and technological readiness serve as external antecedents whereas organizational and individual readiness constitute internal antecedents influencing adoption of AI in healthcare institutions.
Our review has implications for research on technology acceptance related to AI in healthcare. Further, we provide hands-on guidance for AI providers, health institutions, and official bodies such as governments to foster the adoption of AI to leverage value.
Recent literature found positive effects of digital household budget feedback when used over longer timespans. This current study, in turn, investigates whether digital budget feedback also influences consumer behavior in single online purchase decisions. The related research question states: Do transparent technology-mediated household budgets influence consumers' willingness to pay and payment pain in single, individual online purchase decision processes? The underlying study used a quantitative-, mixed-design approach and simulated online purchases for one hedonic and one utilitarian product. Three hundred fourteen study subjects were assigned to either a control group or one of three treatment groups manipulated with specific budget statuses to examine differences in consumer reactions. Critical measures of willingness to pay and payment pain have been taken to analyze potential significant effects. Results found significant differences in consumer willingness to pay and payment pain between and within groups concerning both products. The study could, however, not confirm differences to occur between utilitarian and hedonic purchases. The findings extend existing literature by demonstrating that consumers adjust their online spending based on individual household budget feedback. Consumers that wish to align spending with their current budget status might thus rely on app-mediated budget updates. At the same time, marketers could offer individualized pricing offers to consumers based on situational budget status information.
Enacting disruption
(2023)
Purpose
Entrepreneurial ventures aspiring to disrupt existing market incumbents often use business-model innovation to increase the attractiveness of their offerings. A value proposition is the central element of a business model, and is critical for this purpose. However, how entrepreneurial ventures modify their value propositions to increase the attractiveness of their comparatively inferior offerings is not well understood. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the value proposition innovation (VPI) of aspiring disruptors.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used a flexible pattern matching approach to ground the inductive findings in extant theory. The authors conducted 21 semi-structured interviews with managers from startups in the global electric vehicle industry.
Findings
The authors developed a framework, showing two factors, determinants and tactics, that play a key role in VPI connected by a continuous feedback loop. Directed by the determinants of cognitive antecedents, development drivers and realization capabilities, aspiring disruptors determine the scope, focus and priorities of various configuration and support tactics to enable and secure the success of their value proposition.
Originality/value
The authors contribute to theory by showing how cognitive antecedents, development drivers and capabilities determine VPI tactics to disrupt existing market incumbents, furthering the understanding of configuration tactics. The results have important implications for disruptive innovation theory, and entrepreneurship research and practice, as they offer an explanatory framework to analyze strategies of aspiring disruptors who increase the attractiveness of sustainable technologies, thereby accelerating their diffusion.
Purpose
The paper aims to provide companies with a better understanding of the needs of institutional investors to improve the disclosure of sustainability information by companies. The study investigates the changed information needs of institutional investors resulting from the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR).
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses an internet-based survey instrument amongst institutional investors to gain insights into their needs regarding sustainability information. The authors received 155 responses in total and use descriptive statistics and t-tests to analyse the survey data.
Findings
The results demonstrate that the implementation of the SFDR challenges institutional investors, as it affects their decision process. Additionally, the findings still indicate a lack of available corporate sustainability information, making it even more challenging for institutional investors to make appropriate investment decisions. Respondents suggest that information on climate-related risks is more important than the European Union (EU) Taxonomy metrics for meeting the SFDR requirements.
Research limitations/implications
The findings are mainly restricted to the opinion of European investors. However, the evidence contributes to the existing literature by investigating institutional investors' information needs in the new regulatory landscape.
Practical implications
As the study provides insights into institutional investors' needs, reporting companies recognise the relevance of transparently providing sustainability information to be further considered in the investment process of institutional investors despite the regulation. The findings can help regulators develop uniform and global sustainability reporting standards.
Originality/value
This paper is the first to provide evidence on sustainability information requested on the institutional investors' side. The survey gathers primary data from professional investment members unavailable in databases or reports.
Although firms rely on employees’ innovative work behaviour and effective leadership to achieve service innovation performance, these relations remain underexplored, especially regarding digital leadership. We conceptualise a digital leader’s capabilities and explore influences on innovative work behaviour and service innovation performance, using the dynamic capabilities view as a theoretical lens. Applying a multi-method exploratory research design, our qualitative results, based on 34 expert interviews, deliver a taxonomy of digital leadership capabilities along three dimensions. With 249 survey participants, we quantitatively tested dimensional influences individually (multidimensional view) and collectively (unidimensional view) using structural equation modelling. In line with our mediation results, both views are significantly positively related to innovative work behaviour; still, only the unidimensional view significantly influences service innovation performance. Our results underpin the comprehensive character of digital leadership capabilities contributing to innovation research with a new “antecedal” perspective. We also provide practical relevance by revealing innovation-effective leadership capabilities.
Characteristics of platform providers in collaborative consumption: a derivation of archetypes
(2023)
This study aims to investigate different types of platform providers (PPs) to gain a deeper understanding of the characteristics and underlying logic of this group within collaborative consumption (CC). As CC occurs with three groups of actors (PP, peer service provider and customer) and is predominantly viewed from the customer perspective, this study offers insights from the under-researched PP perspective.
Europe's energy crisis:
(2023)
This paper provides first empirical evidence on the effect of geopolitical risks in fossil fuel supplier countries on renewable energy diffusion in fossil fuel importing countries and the mediating roles of rising electricity prices and high import dependence. For this end, aggregate measures of geopolitical risk that countries are exposed to through fossil fuel imports are determined. This is done by combining detailed data on bilateral trade patterns for coal, oil, and natural gas of 37 countries in Europe with that on geopolitical risks in supplier countries. Using an instrumental variable approach, the study reveals that geopolitical risks in supplier countries tended to foster renewable energy diffusion in Europe during the period 1991–2021. The effects are especially pronounced for geopolitical risks related to coal and natural gas imports, while the importance of risks related to particular fossil fuels differed for the build-up of the individual renewable energies, i.e. wind, solar, and biomass. Rising electricity prices and high import dependence, particularly for coal, partially amplified the effects on renewable energy diffusion. Despite the high import dependence, natural gas appears to have played in part a role as a bridging technology for energy transition.
In recent years, research on corporate sustainability integration strategies has witnessed a significant growth in interest. However, contributions remain disjointed and fragmented, preventing the emergence of a cohesive understanding of the current research state. This study uses a systematic review of 126 articles from Web of Science (WoS) and Ebsco to extract a seven-dimensional integrated view of corporate sustainability integration strategies. Our review's contributions are threefold: (1) we enrich the corporate sustainability strategies literature by identifying the focuses and themes of recent publications; (2) we address the research's fragmentation issue by presenting the sustainability implementation strategies in an integrated view with the essential interdependencies shown at different hierarchical levels and across organizational dimensions simultaneously, (3) we present the theoretical and managerial implications and discuss in detail the crucial interdependencies of sustainability integration strategies. The study finishes with a conclusion highlighting potential avenues for future research.
There is a plethora of research on organisational design elements of corporate venture capital (CVC) programs. However, the fragmented nature of this vein of corporate venturing research has led to an inconsistent picture regarding the organisational design of CVC programs. The goal of this study is to provide a holistic picture for both scholars and practitioners by integrating empirical research on the design of CVC programs. Therefore, the study employs a systematic literature review approach including a sample of 41 studies published from 1987 to 2023. For a systematic assessment of design elements of CVC programs, an inductive concept development approach is used to illustrate four main design dimensions–personnel, corporate relationship management, investment operating model and portfolio relationship management–which reflect 69 descriptive design elements. While previous studies have mainly looked at individual design dimensions of CVC programs from a strategic perspective, this paper presents comprehensive view on organisational structures of CVC programs by identifying building blocks of CVC design according to chosen objectives and available typologies. By specifying and allocating design dimensions to structural types and objectives of CVC programs, this study may also serve as a foundation for further research on the concepts which prevent high rates of early abandonment of CVCs.
This study explores the concept of massive and rapid business scaling (MRBS) in the context of digital start-ups by identifying 20 factors clustered into seven core drivers. Through inductive qualitative research, the study builds on 53 semi-structured interviews with founders, executives, and advisors, leading to the development of a framework that uncovers seven core drivers of MRBS contributing to the scaling process. These core drivers are as follows: 1) scanning the environment and recognizing opportunities, 2) iteratively adjusting the business model with an asset-light structure, 3) achieving operational excellence through digitization, 4) building an efficient and entrepreneurial workforce combined with leadership and vision, 5) leveraging internal resources to strengthen positioning and expand the market, 6) attracting capital to facilitate growth realization, and 7) cultivating organizational agility and a transformation culture. While core drivers one to five imply a processual nature, the sixth and seventh core drivers serve as a foundation for MRBS. Moreover, this study outlines several areas of tension within the process of MRBS. Therefore, the study provides valuable insights for scholars and practitioners.
Introduction: In this qualitative study, we examine digital leadership (DL) capabilities and their positive influence on the management of technology-driven change by leveraging service innovations. The context of digital transformation (DT) has triggered a new leadership paradigm, among others referred to as digital leadership (DL). However, despite its practical relevance, leadership research has yet paid little attention to conceptualise DL as an approach to digitally transform organisations.
Methods: Drawing on mid- and top-level mangers’ experiences with service innovation projects, and based on Grounded Theory, we develop a taxonomy of DL-related capabilities and a conceptual framework which exemplifies their influences on dynamic service innovation capabilities (DSICs). DSICs build on the dynamic capabilities view (DCV) and represent the “organisational muscle” to repeatedly deliver service innovations indicating an effective management of technology-driven change.
Results and Discussion: Taxonomy results show that aggregated dimensions in terms of a digital leader’s personal, social, and organisational capital serve as underpinnings (DL-related capabilities) to drive strategic change in DT contexts. The conceptual framework further reveals that especially the personal and organisational capital of a digital leader owns several strong and moderate influences on DSICs which demonstrates DL’s “long arm” on the management of technology-driven change. Our findings contribute to leadership research by advancing the conceptualisation of DL and by adding a novel micro-foundational perspective towards the DCV discourse. As organisations struggle to realise the full benefits of DT initiatives, our results also provide a valuable contribution for practitioners by supporting them to strategically prepare for the human-related challenges of DT.
This paper seeks to explore innovation in new work practices in the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic and identify which indicators of same lead to workplace attractiveness. From a socio-demographic perspective, service industry employees constituted the focus of this study. The study employed a two-step mixed-methods approach. First, the qualitative component deduced a data structure of innovative new work practices by conducting 21 semi-structured interviews with top- and middle-level managers. Second, hypotheses were formulated based on the qualitative data, and a quantitative survey with 155 employees was used to test the effectiveness and attractiveness of innovative new work practices using psychological empowerment as a mediator. The data structure was conceptualised according to three dimensions: (i) innovating approaches to new work, (ii) innovating leadership attitudes, and (iii) innovating organisational culture. The results of the quantitative study suggest that the innovation in leadership attitude and in organisational culture have a strong influence on psychological empowerment, thereby positively influencing workplace attractiveness. This article contributes to a uniform understanding of innovative work practices in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through empirical testing, the article highlights specific indicators of innovation in work that lead to increased workplace attractiveness. Service organisations during such crises as pandemics can concentrate on the three dimensions and the specific indicators to implement innovative work measures while increasing workplace attractiveness for their employees.
Quo vadis?
(2023)
This Special Issue emerged from the ‘Next Generation Forum’ at the 2018 Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Accounting (IPA) Conference in Edinburgh, UK, and its sequel at the 2019 Asia-Pacific Interdisciplinary Research in Accounting (APIRA) Conference in Auckland, New Zealand. These fora were set up because many emerging and a number of senior scholars in the field felt interdisciplinary accounting research (IAR) at risk of losing its momentum, and many of them continue to be concerned today (Alawattage et al., 2021). We start by defining what we mean by IAR and then discuss the most important criticisms that IAR is currently facing. Subsequently, we summarize the contributions of the articles that appear in this Special Issue. We conclude by offering our own, necessarily subjective and personal, vision of a desirable future for IAR.