Responsible Tourism and Hospitality: The Intersection of Altruistic Values, Human Emotions, and Corporate Social Responsibility

The burgeoning tourism and hospitality industry is plagued by numerous challenges that pose significant hurdles to its long-term success and sustainability. These challenges encompass a range of factors, including fierce competitive convergence, rapid obsolescence of innovative strategies, and the relentless pursuit of ever-greater competitiveness in the marketplace. In such a service-oriented industry, where customer satisfaction is the sine qua non of success, the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in shaping consumer attitudes and behavior cannot be overstated. Despite this, the empirical evidence on the impact of CSR on brand advocacy behavior among hospitality consumers (BADB) remains somewhat underdeveloped and incomplete. In light of this knowledge gap, the basic objective of our study is to examine the complex interplay between CSR and BADB in the context of a developing country’s hospitality sector. The authors place a particular emphasis on the mediating role of consumer emotions and the moderating influence of altruistic values (ALVS) in shaping this relationship. Through rigorous empirical analysis, the authors demonstrate that CSR positively and significantly impacts BADB, with consumer engagement (CENG) serving as a crucial mediating variable that facilitates this relationship. These findings have significant theoretical and practical implications for the tourism and hospitality industry. Specifically, the authors show that the judicious deployment of CSR initiatives in a hospitality context can foster a positive behavioral psychology among consumers and, in turn, enhance their advocacy intentions towards the brand. This underscores the importance of carefully crafted CSR strategies to secure a competitive advantage in this dynamic and rapidly evolving sector.

Do investors’ personalities predict market winners? Experimental setting and machine learning analysis

This study uses experiments and surveys from 146 participants who participated in equity trading to explore the predictive power of the Big-five personality traits, social behaviours, along with self-attribution and demographic characteristics on trading performance. Interestingly, we found that investors who are more open and neurotic gain higher returns compared to the market benchmark. We also found that other social traits are associated with the effectiveness of stock trading, such as awareness of social and ethical virtues (fairness and politeness). Moreover, instead of using separate characteristics, this study employs machine learning to cluster these personal features to understand the interconnection between socioeconomic determinants and financial decisions. This study contributes new evidence to the existing literature that personalities could explain trading performance.

Dissecting the tension of open science standards implementation in management and organization journals

Growing concerns about the credibility of scientific findings have sparked a debate on new transparency and openness standards in research. Management and organization studies scholars generally support the new standards, while emphasizing the unique challenges associated with their implementation in this paradigmatically diverse discipline. In this study, I analyze the costs to authors and journals associated with the implementation of new transparency and openness standards, and provide a progress report on the implementation level thus far. Drawing on an analysis of the submission guidelines of 60 empirical management journals, I find that the call for greater transparency was received, but resulted in implementations that were limited in scope and depth. Even standards that could have been easily adopted were left unimplemented, producing a paradoxical situation in which research designs that need transparency standards the most are not exposed to any, likely because the standards are irrelevant to other research designs.

Female leaders' social network structures and managerial performance: The moderating effects of promotional orientation and climate for inclusion

Leaders' managerial performance is influenced not only by their attributes and leadership styles but also by their social network structures. This study examines the effect of female leaders' in-degree centrality on their managerial performance and how the relationship is moderated by leaders' regulatory focus and workplace climate for inclusion. Hereby, we used survey data of 340 female leaders working in multinational organizations and managerial performance ratings by their supervisors. Results showed that the leaders' in-degree centrality positively related to their managerial performance and that a high climate for inclusion increases this relationship, whereas female leaders' promotional orientation did not. However, when the climate for inclusion was high, female leaders' promotional orientation positively related to managerial performance. This study reveals that female leaders' feeling of inclusion at a workplace complements their promotional orientation and augments the effect of network structures on managerial performance. Our findings provide new prospects for future studies to examine a leader's managerial performance by incorporating social, relational, and structural contexts. This study contributes to women's leadership and social network literature by explaining the boundary conditions that enhance female leaders' managerial performance.

Does US full vaccination against COVID-19 immunize correspondingly S&P500 index: Evidence from the NARDL approach

This study analyzes the impact of COVID-19 full vaccination shocks on the US stock market in the period January 14, 2021- August 20, 2021. Using the Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lag model, we find that the positive and negative COVID-19 full vaccination growth shocks have a positive and symmetrical impact on the US stock market over the long run. Additionally, the short-run findings provide that the US stock market reacts negatively with delay to the positive and negative COVID-19 full vaccination growth shocks. The study findings provide good insights that COVID-19 full vaccination immunizes accordingly to the S&P 500 index in the long run. The study results indicate that the impact of positive and negative COVID-19 full vaccination growth shocks on the stock market in the short run differs from that in the long run. This research bears important implications: governments should implement preventive measures with vaccination to recover the stock market. Policy makers ought to urge adopting policy measures to reduce panic and boost investor confidence during economic and health crises.

Green bonds issuance, innovation performance, and corporate value: Empirical evidence from China

This study investigates the impact of green bond issuance on corporate performance and further checks the intermediate effect of corporate innovation performance on the primary relationship. This study uses the quarterly panel data of Chinese non-financial listed companies in 11 subdivided industry categories from January 1, 2016, to September 30, 2020. Using the difference-in-difference (DID) model and the parallel trend test, it is found that companies' issuance of green bonds has a significant positive effect on improving corporate innovation performance and corporate value. Furthermore, the improvement of innovation performance assists in enhancing the promotion effect of green bond issuance on corporate value. Despite data limitations, this study's findings can be very helpful for all relevant stakeholders, especially regulators, to introduce conducive policies to support the issuance of green bonds in Chinese. Our findings can be useful for other emerging markets that are dealing with the same green bond-based growth-sustainability conundrum.

Artificial intelligence applied to potential assessment and talent identification in an organisational context

Our study provides valuable insights into the relationship between artificial intelligence (AI) and Human Resource Management (HRM). We have minimised bias and ensured reliable findings by employing a systematic literature review and the PRISMA statement. Our comprehensive synthesis of the studies included in this research, along with a bibliometric analysis of articles, journals, indexes, authors' affiliations, citations, keyword co-occurrences, and co-authorship analysis, has produced robust results. The discussion of our findings focuses on critical areas of interest, such as AI and Talent, AI Bias, Ethics and Law, and their impact on Human Resource (HR) management. Our research highlights the recognition by organisations of the importance of talent management in achieving a competitive advantage as higher-level skills become increasingly necessary. Although some HR managers have adopted AI technology for talent acquisition, our study reveals that there is still room for improvement. Our study is in line with previous research that acknowledges the potential for AI to revolutionise HR management and the future of work. Our findings emphasise the need for HR managers to be proactive in embracing technology and bridging the technological, human, societal, and governmental gaps. Our study contributes to the growing body of AI and HR management knowledge, providing essential insights and recommendations for future research. The importance of our study lies in its focus on the role of HR in promoting the benefits of AI-based applications, thereby creating a larger body of knowledge from an organisational perspective.

A phenomenological perspective on AI ethical failures: The case of facial recognition technology

As more and more companies adopt artificial intelligence to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their products and services, they expose themselves to ethical crises and potentially damaging public controversy associated with its use. Despite the prevalence of AI ethical problems, most companies are strategically unprepared to respond effectively to the public. This paper aims to advance our empirical understanding of company responses to AI ethical crises by focusing on the rise and fall of facial recognition technology. Specifically, through a comparative case study of how four big technology companies responded to public outcry over their facial recognition programs, we not only demonstrated the unfolding and consequences of public controversies over this new technology, but also identified and described four major types of company responses—Deflection, Improvement, Validation, and Pre-emption. These findings pave the way for future research on the management of controversial technology and the ethics of AI.

Earnings management in socially responsible firms around seasoned equity offerings: Evidence from France, Germany, Italy and Spain

Earnings manipulation (EM) has been a matter of interest to researchers for decades. How this is measured or the motivations of managers to engage in such actions have been studied in detail. Some studies find that managers have incentives to manipulate the earnings that accompany financing activities such as seasoned equity offerings (SEO). Under the corporate social responsibility (CSR) approach, profit manipulation actions have been shown to be mitigated in socially responsible companies. To the best of our knowledge, there are no studies that analyse whether CSR mitigate EM actions in a SEO context. Our work contributes to filling this gap. We investigate whether socially responsible companies exhibit EM in periods prior to SEO. This study uses a panel data model of listed non-financial firms from countries with the same currency and similar accounting rules (France, Germany, Italy and Spain) between 2012 and 2020. Our results show that in all the countries analysed, except Spain, there is a manipulation of operating cash flows in the year prior to capital increases, and only in French companies is there a decrease in the management of this variable in companies with higher development of corporate social responsibility.

Exploring the Process of Policy Overreaction: The COVID-19 Lockdown Decisions

Policy overreaction is a common phenomenon, especially in complex and emergency situations where politicians are led to make decisions fast. In these emergency decisions, emotions run generally high and cognitive processes are often impaired. The conditions of policy overreaction are in place as emotions overwhelm decision makers' rational processes. Drawing on the response patterns of three countries to the COVID-19 pandemic, we develop a process model of policy overreaction which describes the effects of negative emotions and institutional isomorphism on policy decision-making. Our model highlights four critical stages: negative emotions buildup, propagation of fear, isomorphic decision-making, and leading to an intractable crisis. This article shows precisely how the cascading effect of negative emotions, particularly fear, is contagious and spreads to generate crowd effects, which bend considerably policy makers' ability to make rational decisions. Our theory provides a better understanding of the process by which policy overreaction takes place.

Pursuing innovation in academic medical centers: Models, activities, and influential factors

BACKGROUND

Academic medical centers (AMCs) are well recognized for their innovations that enhance frontline care, but there is little study of their innovation management processes, which is key for advancing theory regarding the effectiveness of innovation efforts to improve care.

PURPOSE

We aimed to identify organizational models used for frontline innovation by AMCs in the United States, core activities within models, and factors that influence innovation success.

METHODS

We conducted a qualitative study of 12 AMCs using data from semistructured interviews with centers' innovation leaders. Inclusion required satisfying two of three criteria in 2021 (only met by 35 AMCs nationally): listed in the professional association of innovation leaders (Council of 33), Becker's review of most innovative hospitals, and/or top 20 U.S. News and World Report best hospitals honor roll. We analyzed the interview data using the constant comparative method.

RESULTS

Innovative AMCs pursue innovation through innovation centers (using a centralized or multicenter model) or within clinical departments (department-level model). All three models emphasize seven activities, although performed differently: sourcing ideas, developing ideas, implementing innovations, fundraising, managing partnerships, measuring success, and managing mindset. Several factors influenced success: role performance, operational challenges, technology, public policy, customer clarity, stakeholder buy-in, diversity of input, and focus. The centralized model struggled less with standardization and coordination issues.

CONCLUSION

AMCs have options for structuring their innovation efforts. However, there are consistent activities for successful innovation management and factors that they must manage.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

AMCs can select among innovation models to fit their circumstances but likely need to perform seven activities well for success.

Organizational ambidexterity: The role of technological capacity and dynamic capabilities in the face of environmental dynamism

Organizational ambidexterity has been widely established as necessary for economic sustainability in the financial services sector. Organizational ambidexterity is an organization's ability to be aligned and efficient in management to meet business needs while simultaneously adapting to environmental changes. To meet the challenges of the new digital economy, banking organizations require substantial technological changes and must also recognize that the banking business itself is one of technology. Organizational ambidexterity is essential for financial sector businesses, but their relationship and relative merits are unclear. This research focuses on the role of technological capacity and dynamic capability of the banking sector in Indonesia in an effort to achieve organizational ambidexterity in the face of a dynamic environment. This research uses quantitative methods by surveying leaders from Indonesian commercial banks and analyzed using the SMART PLS program. Our investigation found that technological capacity influences organizational Ambidexterity, with the link becoming stronger when mediated by an organization's dynamic capability. In the meantime, environmental dynamism has no impact on the organizational ambidexterity of the banking sector in Indonesia. Our findings also indicate that the associated security risk will increase if a bank improves its technological capacity in a highly dynamic environment. This paper is an empirical study of technological capacity and presents a method for creating organizational ambidexterity through dynamic capability, especially in the banking sector.

Impact of policy response on health protection and economic recovery in OECD and BRIICS countries during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic

OBJECTIVES

During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, the full reopening of the economy typically accelerated viral transmission. This study aims to determine whether policy response could contribute to the dual objective of both reducing the spread of the epidemic and revitalising economic activities.

STUDY DESIGN

This is a longitudinal study of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Brazil, Russia, India, Indonesia, China, and South Africa (BRIICS) from the first quarter (Q1) of 2020 to the same period of 2021.

METHODS

From a health-economic perspective, this study established a framework to illustrate the following outcomes: suppression-prosperity, outbreak-stagnancy, outbreak-prosperity and suppression-stagnancy scenarios. Multinomial logistic models were used to analyse the associations between policy response with both the pandemic and the economy. The study further examined two subtypes of policy response, stringency/health measures and economic support measures, separately. The probabilities of the different scenarios were estimated.

RESULTS

Economic prosperity and epidemic suppression were significantly associated with policy response. The effects of policy response on health-economic scenarios took the form of inverse U-shapes with the increase in intensity. 'Leptokurtic', 'bimodal' and 'long-tailed' curves demonstrated the estimated possibilities of suppression-prosperity, outbreak-prosperity and suppression-stagnancy scenarios, respectively. In addition, stringency/health policies followed the inverted U-shaped pattern, whereas economic support policies showed a linear pattern.

CONCLUSIONS

It was possible to achieve the dual objective of economic growth and epidemic control simultaneously, and the effects of policy response were shaped like an inverse U. These findings provide a new perspective for balancing the economy with public health during the early stages of the pandemic.

Informational justice and employee knowledge hiding behaviours: Mediation of organizational identification and moderation of justice sensitivity

Purpose

- This study examines the effects of information justice on employee knowledge hiding via the mediation of organizational identification, and further investigates how justice sensitivity moderates these effects.Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected through a questionnaire survey with 250 working individuals in China. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to test the validity and reliability of the construct measurement. Regression analyses were then used for hypothesis tests.

Findings

Informational justice is negatively associated with evasive hiding and playing dumb behaviours but positively associated with rationalized hiding behaviour through the mediation of organizational identification. In addition, justice sensitivity moderates the relationship between informational justice and organizational identification.

Practical implications

Managers should deliver informational justice in their workplace interactions with subordinates in counteracting workplace knowledge hiding, and pay special attention to employees with higher justice sensitivity who possess critical knowledge to the organization.

Originality/value

This study identified informational justice in the leader-follower exchange domain as a predictor of employee knowledge hiding, and examined specific mediation mechanism and boundary effects.

How life context affects entrepreneurs' passion and performance

This article examines the influence of the life context on entrepreneurial passion (EP) and performance. Drawing on the person–environment fit theory, we developed a model showing how the life context fit affects EP in the domains of founding, inventing, and developing and how this translates into performance. Using partial least squares structural equation modeling, we tested our hypotheses using a sample of 406 entrepreneurs from the cultural and creative industries. Due to the presence of unobserved heterogeneity in the overall sample, we conducted prediction-oriented segmentation, which revealed four segments in which life contexts exhibit not only positive but also adverse effects on EP. Our results showed that, in contrast to the extant literature, EP generates its overall effect on performance at the intersection of positively and negatively acting domains of founding, inventing, and developing. To explain the structural relations between the four segments, we conducted qualitative post hoc analyses to evaluate idiosyncratic data on passion and the life context and aligned our insights with the extant literature delineating four categories of entrepreneurs from the cultural and creative industries: artepreneurs, culturepreneurs, creative entrepreneurs, and lifestyle entrepreneurs. Our findings contribute to overcoming the dichotomy between passion as a personality trait and a dynamic construct and to understanding passion as an individual phenomenon with multiple sources that interacts with the proximal environment and that can impact entrepreneurial performance both positively and negatively. We extend the entrepreneurship and psychology literature, facilitating people's abilities to lead more entrepreneurial and passionate lives.

A dataset on corporate sustainability disclosure

Enterprises, as key emitters, play a vital role in promoting sustainable development. Corporate sustainability disclosure provides a key channel for stakeholders to gain insights into a company's sustainability progress. However, few studies have been conducted to measure sustainability disclosure at the firm level. In this study, we apply the machine learning techniques to listed companies' management discussion and analysis (MD&A) documents and construct a dataset on corporate sustainability disclosure, including the Corporate Sustainability Disclosure Index (CSDI), CSDI_Economic Dimension (CSDI_ECO), CSDI_Environmental Dimension (CSDI_ENV), and CSDI_Social Dimension (CSDI_SOCI). The dataset will be updated annually. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first sustainability disclosure dataset constructed at the firm level. Our dataset reflects corporate managements' sustainability attitudes and promotes the implementation of corporate sustainability strategies and subsequent sustainable economic and social outcomes.

Opening the Aperture: Explaining the Complementary Roles of Advice and Testing When Forming Entrepreneurial Strategy

Forming entrepreneurial strategy is difficult, as the future value of strategy alternatives is uncertain. To create and capture value, firms are advised to consider and test multiple alternative strategy elements. Yet, how firms generate and test alternatives remains understudied. As entrepreneurial firms lack resources for broad search, they often draw upon advisory resources from outside the firm. However, advice can be difficult to extract, absorb, and apply. Although scholars have examined static attributes of the entrepreneur or advisor to explain whether advice is used, a dynamic explanation of how advice is produced and informs strategy testing and formation is missing. In an 11-month field study, we observed 25 founders of 12 food and agriculture firms interacting with a common pool of 34 advisors in an entrepreneurship training program. Leveraging the program’s structured design, we observed 165 advice interactions over three phases. No firm took advice and applied it directly to firm strategy. When entrepreneurs engaged literally with advice, they later discounted it—distancing advice from strategy. In contrast, entrepreneurs that coproduced advice challenged advisors to craft novel advice relevant to their strategy, translated it to make it actionable, and tested it—integrating advice into strategy. Firms that distanced advice from strategy did not test strategy alternatives, whereas firms that integrated advice into strategy tested multiple alternatives, explored broader markets, and adapted their strategies. We contribute a grounded process model that explains how coproducing advice opens firms’ apertures to consider strategy alternatives, whereas testing informs the strategy elements chosen.

Funding: This research was funded in part by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation grant to Susan Cohen.

Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2023.1656 .

Bibliometric and visualised analysis on non-invasive cerebellar stimulation from 1995 to 2021

Background

The non-invasive cerebellar stimulation (NICS) is a neural modulation technique, which shows the therapeutic and diagnostic potentials for rehabilitating brain functions in neurological or psychiatric diseases. There is a rapid growth in the clinical research related to NICS in recent years. Hence, we applied a bibliometric approach to analyze the current status, the hot spots, and the trends of NICS visually and systematically.

Methods

We searched the NICS publications from the Web of Science (Wos) between 1995 and 2021. Both VOSviewer (1.6.18) and Citespace (Version 6.1.2) software were used to generate the co-occurrence or co-cited network maps about the authors, institutions, countries, journals, and keywords.

Results

A total of 710 articles were identified in accordance with our inclusion criteria. The linear regression analysis shows a statistical increase in the number of publications per year on NICS research over time (p < 0.001). The Italy and University College London ranked the first in this field with 182 and 33 publications, respectively. Koch, Giacomo was the most prolific author (36 papers). The journal of Cerebellum, Brain stimulation and Clinical neurophysiology were the most three productive journals to publish NICS-related articles.

Conclusion

Our findings provide the useful information regarding to the global trends and frontiers in NICS field. Hot topic was focused on the interaction between the transcranial direct current stimulation and functional connectivity in the brain. It could guide the future research and clinical application of NICS.

Factors influencing small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) resilience during the COVID-19 outbreak

Purpose

This research paper highlights the economic impact on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) due to Coronavirus outbreaks. It proposes factors that influence the strengthening and survival of SMEs.

Design/methodology/approach

In this research, resilience is reflected in the following aspects hope, problem resolution and persistence. This quantitative study analyses a purposive sample of 120 small and medium-sized firms in India. The study's primary data are the responses to questionnaires issued to respondents, analyzed and hypotheses formed and tested using the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique.

Findings

The study results show that all the variables significantly reduce the impact of COVID-19 on SMEs. The presented model is expected to help researchers, business modelers, analysts and real professionals with further studies in the SME context.

Originality/value

This new approach adds to the business resilience knowledge of SMEs and has practical implications for manufacturing organizations seeking to become robust during and after COVID-19.

Understanding social media users' information avoidance intention: a C-A-C perspective

Purpose

Based on the C-A-C framework, this article examined users' information avoidance intention in social media platforms.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted data analysis using a mixed method of the SEM and fsQCA.

Findings

The results indicated that information overload, functional overload and social overload influence fatigue and dissatisfaction, both of which further determine users' information avoidance intention. The results of the fsQCA identified two paths that trigger users' information avoidance intention.

Originality/value

Extant studies have examined the information avoidance in the contexts of healthcare, academics and e-commerce, but have seldom explored the mechanism underlying users' information avoidance in social media. To fill this gap, this article will empirically investigate users' information avoidance in social media platforms based on the C-A-C framework.

Does industry-university-research cooperation promote the environmental efficiency of China’s high-tech manufacturing?

As one of the important strategic measures to increase the international competitiveness of high-tech manufacturing (HTM), industry-university-research cooperation (IURC) has received increasing attention in China. However, there is little literature to explore the links between IURC and the environmental efficiency (EE) of HTM. To incorporate a variety of environmental pollution indicators into the efficiency analysis framework and reduce the adverse effects of random errors on the estimation results, this article combined the projection pursuit model with the stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) method and proposed a translog stochastic frontier model considering undesirable outputs to analyze the multiple impacts of IURC on the EE of HTM. The results show that IURC has both a significant negative direct effect and a significant positive indirect effect on HTM’s EE. Although IURC cannot directly promote EE, it has a positive impact on EE of HTM through its complementary effect with research and development (R&D) investment. The results also confirm that the average EE of the whole country is only 0.346, while that of the eastern area is 0.595, and that of the central and western areas are 0.199 and 0.171, respectively. Therefore, it is particularly urgent to improve the EE of China’s HTM industry through a variety of measures, such as promoting IURC and increasing R&D investment in environmental technology. This study not only provides an improved SFA method for measuring EE, but also deepens research on the mechanism of the impact of IURC on HTM’s EE.

The role of organisational factors and environmental conditions on the success of newly founded firms

This study examines the influence of founding conditions and decisions on new companies' performance, analysing how both environmental context and organisational dynamics interact to determine their success. It distinguishes between two different success indicators: survival and profitable growth. An empirical study conducted using a sample of 3,722 new agri-food companies in two different periods, one of economic stability and the other of recession, showed that founding conditions had long-lasting effects on post-entry performance. The economic context acted as a moderator of the relationship between individual factors and success. Adverse environmental conditions were also a determinant of success, making surviving firms more competitive and resilient. The results reflect the survival of the fitter principle by showing that early profitability reduced the risk of failure and made firms more likely to become profitable in the medium term. Internationalisation strategies developed organisational capabilities that created an imprint for adaptability and growth.

Toward a Multidimensional and Multilevel Approach to Studying Gender Diversity in Upper Echelons and Firm Innovation

Despite the rapidly increasing research on the nexus between gender diversity in upper echelons and firm innovation, the scholarly understanding of this topic is far from complete. Although the burgeoning literature has generated valuable insights summarized in our paper—most fundamentally uncovering gender diversity’s positive effect on firm innovation—our review of extant research indicates that it suffers from several limitations. One such key limitation is that scholarship has predominantly theorized and measured the surface-level gender diversity in leadership relying on either gender stereotypes or a notion of innate gender differences when explaining why the inclusion of women on executive boards might make a difference for firm innovation, neglecting the intersection between surface-level gender diversity and deep diversity in top management teams. We develop a multilevel theory that calls attention to investigating intersections between these two constructs, the multidimensionality of firm innovation and gender diversity, and discussing the rationales for why and when diversity is likely to get at the heart of firm innovation. We also map out some methodological suggestions for how scholars could test our propositions. We hope our efforts to describe these paths will encourage their pursuit.

The establishment mode of Chinese MNEs abroad and the Belt and Road Initiative: insights from a strategy tripod perspective

Purpose

Emerging-market multinational enterprises (MNEs) have pushed institutional factors to the cutting-edge of international business research. As for Chinese MNEs, the importance of institutions has been strengthened since the Chinese government launched the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which seeks to promote a comprehensive platform for cooperation among countries. This study aims to investigate the role played by the BRI as an institutional factor moderating the influence of other institution-, industry- and firm-specific factors on establishment mode choice by Chinese MNEs.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on the strategy tripod, a perspective claiming that a firm's strategies are the result of internal, industrial and institutional conditions, this study develops a number of hypotheses that are tested with data on 1,076 outward foreign direct investments (OFDIs) of Chinese MNEs between 2013 and 2021.

Findings

The results show that the BRI moderates the influence of both the firm's prior international acquisition experience and Chinese government's OFDI restrictions on the establishment by means of an acquisition. They also report that this moderating effect does not apply for acquisition experience in the host country nor institutional distance.

Originality/value

This study contributes to reinforce the importance of institutions as the third leg of a strategy tripod when explaining international behavior of Chinese MNEs. It also suggests that the BRI is a diplomatic tool that may act as a substitute for the firm's resources and may mitigate the negative influence of other external factors.

An integrated learning framework of corporate training system: a grounded theory approach

Purpose

Rooting in the literature on training and laying on Kirkpatrick model, this paper aims to explore key drivers of corporate training to identify how they can be combined into an integrated framework of learning for human capital development.

Design/methodology/approach

By adopting the constructivist grounded theory, this contribution analyzes the experience carried out in the last ten years by Virvelle, an Italian corporate training firm.

Findings

Results show the rise of five core categories, g1iving rise to an integrated model of Kirkpatrick. Their dynamic interplay led to a new orientation of Kirkpatrick model giving rise to a metalearning ecosystem.

Research limitations/implications

Managerial implications have identified key factors on which building and implementing appropriate corporate training programmes capable of triggering co-generative processes of value creation. Particularly, the essential role of learning quality culture, digital technology and personalization are detected in integrating not only hard but furthermore soft shades of learning. Concerning theoretical implications, the emergence of key structural and systems enabling dimensions for learning, and contextual mechanisms involved in reshaping training effectiveness and achieving integrated learning outcomes are detected. The main limitation of this study lies in the need to generalize results: the conceptualized framework needs to be empirically tested.

Originality/value

The value of this research is built along three main points. The first is the integration among the core categories that an integrated learning system can be built on, promoting learning quality culture through positive feedback loops. The second is represented by the chance to enhance an integrated mutual knowledge development among engaged actors, thereby shaping a more holistic and multidimensional learning model. The third is related to the transversal role that digital technology plays in all phases of the training process as it integrates and enriches them.

Moral Imagination, the Collective Desirable, and Strategic Purpose

In contrast to the prevalent outside-in perspectives on corporate purpose as a response to competing normative demands of stakeholders, we introduce an inside-out perspective on purpose as based in firm-specific, agentic commitments to specific values, ideals, and societal goals. Drawing on moral philosophy, we propose how strategists can develop a strategic purpose through moral imagination that involves developing shaping intentions based in values and ideals, empathetic relating, and imaginativeness in stakeholder contexts. These processes support the generation of an emergent theory of value, which we term “the collective desirable.” This theory of value—a creative synthesis of the shaping intentions of the firm, and the interests and perspectives of stakeholders—provides the foundation of purpose, which is strategic, dynamic, and generative for the firm and its stakeholders. Such a strategic purpose becomes an organizational logic of action enacted through designated processes for articulation, maintenance, and evolvability, and through blueprints for credible commitments and resource allocations. By theorizing the microfoundations of an agentic, inside-out view of purpose, our theoretical framework articulates a set of mechanisms through which strategists can develop a strategic purpose that is tightly linked to the firm’s future-oriented strategy and the exercise of moral leadership. Our conception of moral imagination as a form of prosocial prospective cognition contributes a novel perspective to the socio-cognitive and subjectivist perspectives on strategy and extends the microfoundations of strategy.