Experience shapes non-linearities between team behavioral interdependence, team collaboration, and performance in massively multiplayer online games

This paper examines quantitative predictors of team performance in Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) based on team management literature. Analyzing data from more than 140,000 squad-mode matches involving over 500,000 players, we replicate and extend existing research by confirming a curvilinear association between behavioral interdependence and team performance and introduce the moderating effect of experience. For less experienced teams, behavioral interdependence follows an inverted U-shaped pattern showing that excessive collaboration may be counterproductive. However, this is not the case for experienced teams, where the relationship is fairly linear. Additionally, we observe that riskier teams tend to perform worse. Moreover, our research also highlights the potential of e-sports data in advancing behavioral science and management research. The digital nature of e-sports datasets, characterized by size and granularity, mitigates concerns related to reproducibility, replicability, and generalizability in social science research, offering a cost-effective platform for scholars with diverse backgrounds.

What makes nurses flourish at work? How the perceived clinical work environment relates to nurse motivation and well-being: A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

Literature shows that the work environment is a main determinant of nurses' well-being and psychological strain; yet, the (psychological) mechanisms underlying this relationship remain understudied.

OBJECTIVE

This study explored the underlying (psychological) mechanisms (why) and boundary conditions (when) by which characteristics present in the clinical work environment influence nurses' well-being. We investigated the mediating role of intrinsic motivation in the relationship of job demands and job resources with burnout vs. work engagement. In addition, we examined if job resources strengthen the relationship of job demands with intrinsic motivation and burnout.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional survey study.

SETTING(S)

General acute care hospitals in Belgium (n = 14).

PARTICIPANTS

Direct care nurses (n = 1729).

METHODS

Data were collected by means of online questionnaires between October 2020 and July 2021. Study variables included burnout, work engagement, intrinsic motivation and a set of different job demands (workload, role conflicts, emotional demands, red tape) and job resources (performance feedback, autonomy, skill use, opportunity for growth, and value congruence). All variables were obtained using self-report measures. The central hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling.

RESULTS

Job resources appeared to be a crucial factor for nurses' health showing positive associations with work motivation (β = 0.513) and work engagement (β = 0.462) and negative associations with burnout (β = -0.216). Job demands remained an essential factor that harms psychological health and is associated with increased burnout (β = 0.489). Our results confirmed that intrinsic motivation mediated the relationship of job resources with work engagement (β = 0.170) and burnout (β = -0.135). In addition, job resources moderated the relationship of job demands with burnout (β = -0.039). Against our expectations, we found no associations between job demands and intrinsic motivation or a moderation effect of job resources on the respective relationship.

CONCLUSIONS

A highly demanding work environment can be a source of significant stress which may put nurses' health at severe risk. Nurses who perceive sufficient job resources such as feedback, autonomy and opportunities for growth and development, are likely to feel intrinsically motivated at work. In addition, it will foster their work engagement and prevent them from burning out, particularly when job demands are high.

REGISTRATION

The study described herein is funded under the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program from 2020 to 2023 (Grant Agreement 848031). The protocol of Magnet4Europe is registered in the ISRCTN registry (ISRCTN10196901).

TWEETABLE ABSTRACT

Providing nurses with sufficient resources will not only increase their motivation and engagement at work but also reduce their feelings of burnout.

Wearing the Same Jersey? The Impact of Players' Cultural Diversity and Shared Team Tenure on National Soccer Team Performance

In the present paper, we empirically analyze a dataset from national soccer teams between 2004 and 2019 to investigate the impact of team members' cultural diversity on final team outcomes. Further, we examine the role of shared team tenure as a proxy of tacit knowledge and within team communications in relation to the cultural diversity-team performance relationship. After addressing a potential endogeneity issue, results from multiple instrumental variable estimation methods implied a higher level of cultural diversity enhanced on-field performance. Meanwhile, increased level of shared team tenure further strengthened the effect associated with cultural diversity on team performance.

Too Tired and in Too Good of a Mood to Worry About Privacy: Explaining the Privacy Paradox Through the Lens of Effort Level in Information Processing

Policy-oriented Abstract

Data privacy is one of the most pressing issues today. The world is thirsty for novel, effective, and efficient policies to strike an appropriate balance between protecting individuals’ privacy and creating economic value from their personal information. Whereas governmental efforts, such as the enaction of General Data Protection Regulation, California Consumer Privacy Act, and other privacy regulations, have been pushing boundaries to strike this balance, the effects of these types of initiatives on individuals’ privacy awareness and behavior are uncertain, likely to be nuanced, and will take time to sort out. In this paper, we explain the privacy paradox, a phenomenon with important implications that apply to policymakers, industry professionals, and individuals. The privacy paradox refers to a mismatch between individuals’ stated privacy concerns and their actual disclosure behaviors. In three behavioral experiments, we show how the paradox is revealed when individuals are cognitively tired especially when they are in a good mood. These findings do not indicate that individuals do not care about privacy because they do when they are not cognitively tired especially when they are in a bad mood. By explaining the privacy paradox, we inform existing and future privacy policies to strike that balance we all strive for.

A review of eye tracking research on video-based learning

Eye tracking technology is increasingly used to understand individuals' non-conscious, moment-to-moment processes during video-based learning. This review evaluated 44 eye tracking studies on video-based learning conducted between 2010 and 2021. Specifically, the review sought to uncover how the utilisation of eye tracking technology has advanced understandings of the mechanisms underlying effective video-based learning and what type of caution should be exercised when interpreting the findings of these studies. Four important findings emerged from the analysis: (1) not all the studies explained the mechanisms underlying effective video-based learning through employing eye tracking technology, and few studies disentangled the complex relationship between eye tracking metrics and cognitive activities these metrics represent; (2) emotional factors potentially serve to explain the processes that facilitate video-based learning, but few studies captured learners' emotional processes or evaluated their affective gains; (3) ecological validity should be improved for eye tracking research on video-based learning through methods such as using eye tracking systems that have high tolerance for head movements, allowing learners to take control of the pacing of the video, and communicating the learning objectives of the video to participants; and (4) boundary conditions, including personal (e.g. age, prior knowledge) and environmental factors (e.g. the topic of videos, type of knowledge), must be considered when interpreting research findings. The findings of this review inspire a number of propositions for designing and interpreting eye tracking research on video-based learning.

Asymmetric investments in exchange relationships, perceived supplier shirking and cross-functional information sharing as a moderator

Purpose

With asymmetric investments in exchange (i.e. sourcing) relationships, both sourcing firms and suppliers invest but one party invests more than the other. This paper aims to examine the associations between asymmetric (i.e. unequal) investments in exchange relationships and the tendency of the strategic supplier base to shirk as perceived by the sourcing firm, as well as the moderation effects of cross-functional information sharing within a sourcing firm on these associations.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors analyzed survey data from 500 US middle-market manufacturers via ordinary least squares (OLS) estimation. Besides appropriate controls, the authors also employed the heteroskedasticity-based instrumental variable approach to ensure that analytical inferences are not influenced by endogeneity.

Findings

On average, when a sourcing firm invests more than its strategic supplier base into their exchange relationships, the perceived tendency of the strategic supplier base to shirk decreases. This negative association is more pronounced when a sourcing firm facilitates cross-functional information sharing. Conversely, when the strategic supplier base invests more than the sourcing firm into their exchange relationships, the perceived tendency of the strategic supply base to shirk is not detected unless the sourcing firm facilitates cross-functional information sharing.

Originality/value

Prior research reveals that investments by a sourcing firm or by suppliers influence supplier shirking. This paper provides new evidence as to how and why asymmetric investments in exchange relationships relate to the perceived tendency of the strategic supplier base to shirk and new evidence as to how and why cross-functional information sharing safeguards against this tendency when investments in exchange relationships are unequal.

Revisiting Cowgill's modernisation theory: perceived social status of older adults across 58 countries

Cowgill's modernisation theory stipulates that older people's social status is lower in societies with higher societal modernisation. The few existing studies reveal conflicting results showing either negative or positive associations. The current study follows up seminal cross-national research on the perceived social status of people in their seventies (PSS70) in a diverse set of countries. PSS70 was defined as the relative status of people in their seventies compared to people in their forties. Data were obtained by the World Values Survey (2010–2014) and included 78,904 respondents from 58 countries. Multilevel regressions showed that the level of modernisation had a strong and negative association with the PSS70 but mostly due to one component, namely the share of older people in society. The associations were more complex when considering cultural zones of which two stood out. Irrespective of level of modernisation, Muslim countries showed higher and post-communist countries showed lower levels of PSS70. In Muslim countries, modernisation had a near-zero association with PSS70, whereas it was strongly negatively associated with PSS70 in post-communist countries. This study generally supports Cowgill's theory in a large and diverse cross-sectional sample of countries, yet it also illustrates its cultural boundary conditions.

Team Performance: Nature and Antecedents of Nonnormal Distributions

Team research typically assumes that team performance is normally distributed: teams cluster around average performance, performance variability is not substantial, and few teams inhabit the upper range of the distribution. Ironically, although most team research and methodological practices rely on the normality assumption, many theories actually imply nonnormality (e.g., performance spirals, team composition, team learning, punctuated equilibrium). Accordingly, we investigated the nature and antecedents of team performance distributions by relying on 274 performance distributions including 200,825 teams (e.g., sports, politics, firefighters, information technology, customer service) and more than 500,000 workers. First, regarding their overall nature, only 11% of the distributions were normal, star teams are much more prevalent than predicted by normality, the power law with an exponential cutoff is the most dominant distribution among nonnormal distributions (i.e., 73%), and incremental differentiation (i.e., differential performance trajectories across teams) is the best explanation for the emergence of these distributions. Second, this conclusion remained unchanged after examining theory-based boundary conditions (i.e., tournament versus nontournament contexts, performance as aggregation of individual-level performance versus performance as a team-level construct, performance assessed with versus without a hard left-tail zero, and more versus less sample homogeneity). Third, we used the team learning curve literature as a conceptual framework to test hypotheses and found that authority differentiation and lower temporal stability are associated with distributions with larger performance variability (i.e., a greater proportion of star teams). We discuss implications for existing theory, future research directions, and methodological practices (e.g., need to check for nonnormality, Bayesian analysis, outlier management).

Moderated-mediation between ethical leadership and organizational citizenship behavior: the role of psychological empowerment and high performance managerial practices

Purpose

This study aims to examine moderated-mediation between ethical leadership (EL) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Specifically, a moderating effect of high performance managerial practices (HPMPs) on the indirect effect of EL on OCB through employees’ psychological empowerment (PE) was tested.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from 267 bank employees including subordinates and their supervisors. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used for data analysis.

Findings

The results indicate that PE mediates the relationship between EL and OCB, and HPMPs enhance OCB by increasing the effect of EL on employees’ PE.

Research limitations/implications

This study contributes to human resource management and leadership literature by explaining the moderated-mediation mechanisms between EL and OCB. The findings help to understand how HPMPs enhance employees’ OCB by strengthening the effect of EL on PE. Limitations are related to external validity and cross-sectional nature of data.

Practical implications

Organizations’ use of HPMPs makes ethical leaders more effective in enhancing employees’ PE and, subsequently, their OCB.

Originality/value

Previous research lacks evidence on the indirect effect of EL on employee OCB through PE. Moreover, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous study has examined the moderating effect of HPMPs on the abovementioned indirect relationship. This study has addressed the abovementioned research gap.

The Pursuit of Innovative Theory in the Digital Age

Grover & Lyytinen (2015) urged to reassess the Information System (IS) field’s exclusive dependence on reference theories and to engage more in blue-ocean theorizing. From its inception, such need has been latent in the field, because it deals with novel, fast changing, complex, and systemic phenomena that is hard to account with received theory. We note in this essay that the need for innovative theorizing is heightened given the unprecedented, pervasive digitalization of contemporary society, accelerated by ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In this essay, we scrutinize further the idea of blue-ocean theorizing and review the characteristics, impediments, and merits of developing innovative theory. We define endeavors toward such theory as collectively endorsed cognitive processes which increase variance and novelty of theoretical accounts of IS phenomena. These push to deviate from the field’s established theoretical (canonical) core by relaxing six assumptions that guide dominant, legitimate forms of the field’s theorizing. We identify and review institutional barriers that curb the development of innovative theory. In conclusion, we offer guidelines for how the field and its stakeholders can productively engage in developing and evaluating innovative theory.

An attention-based view of supply disruption risk management: balancing biased attentional processing for improved resilience in the COVID-19 context

Purpose

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study investigates a variety of approaches to supply disruption risk management for achieving effective responses for resilience at the supply management subunit level (e.g. category of items). Drawing on the attention-based view of the firm, the authors model the attentional antecedents of supply resilience as (1) attentional perspectives and (2) attentional selection. Attentional perspectives focus on either supply risk sources or supply network recoverability, and both are hypothesised to have a direct positive association with supply resilience. Attentional selection is top down or bottom up when it comes to disruption detection, and these are hypothesised to moderate the association between disruption risk management perspectives and resilience.

Design/methodology/approach

Conducted at the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study employs a hierarchical regression analysis on a multicountry survey of 190 procurement professionals, each responding from the perspective of their own subunit area of supply responsibility.

Findings

Both attentional disruption risk management perspectives are needed to achieve supply resilience, and neither is superior in terms of achieving supply resilience. Both the efficiency of the top down and exposure to the unexpected with the bottom up are needed – to a balanced degree – for improved supply resilience.

Practical implications

The results encourage firms to purposefully develop their supply risk management practices, first, to include both perspectives and, second, to avoid biases in attentional selection for disruption detection. Ensuring a more balanced approach may allow firms to improve their supply resilience.

Originality/value

The results contribute to the understanding of the microfoundations that underpin firms' operational capabilities for supply risk and disruption management and possible attentional biases.

Alliance Governance Mechanisms in the Face of Disruption

Existing academic literature has discussed contracts and relational governance as the key mechanisms that help alliance partners address problems of cooperation and coordination. However, when an alliance undergoes disruption, the nature and extent of such problems may change and therefore the value of these mechanisms may change. This study advances a dynamic perspective on alliance governance by examining the impact of disruption and subsequent adjustment on the value of alliance governance mechanisms. To this end, we longitudinally studied a revelatory case of a research and development alliance in the veterinary drug industry that experienced disruption triggered by an internal restructuring at one of the partner companies. We approached the evidence with a fine-grained typology that builds on two dimensions that underlie governance mechanisms: the means to enforce their ruling principles (contractual versus relational) and the level of codification of these principles (formal versus informal). Based on our findings, we (1) show the significance of this revised typology, which suggests that contractual governance is not necessarily formal and relational governance is not necessarily informal; (2) provide a more systematic discussion of the tradeoffs that the various mechanisms entail and how these are altered through disruption and adjustment dynamics; and (3) analyze how the interplay between different types of governance mechanisms evolves following disruption and adjustment. Overall, our study brings the concept of disruption to the dynamic perspective of alliance governance and highlights the contingent value of alliance governance mechanisms.

Research on Grand Challenges: Adopting an Abductive Experimentation Methodology

There has been a growing interest among management scholars in conducting research on grand challenges. Despite recognizing that studying such highly complex and uncertain phenomena likely requires more unconventional approaches, there has been very little methodological guidance provided to interested scholars. Drawing upon our own grand challenge projects undertaken over the past decade, we put forward a methodological approach we term ‘abductive experimentation’. Such an approach is an action-oriented process of inquiry that cycles between generating ‘doubt’ and generating ‘belief’. More specifically, abductive experimentation iterates between induction, abduction, and deduction to both generate and reconcile ‘surprising’ findings and causal mechanisms. While we submit abductive experimentation as a methodological approach particularly well suited to the study of grand challenges, we believe that the process depicted also provides a general roadmap for scholars seeking to dismantle the artificial dualism between theory and practice.

New Paradigms for the Old Question: Challenging the Expectation Rule Held by Risky Decision-Making Theories

In risky decision making, whether decision makers follow an expectation rule as hypothesised by mainstream theories is a compelling question. To tackle this question and enrich our knowledge of the underlying mechanism of risky decision making, we developed a series of new experimental paradigms that directly examined the computation processes to systematically investigate the process of risky decision making and explore the boundary condition of expectation rule over the course of a decade. In this article, we introduce these methods and review behavioural, eye-tracking, event-related potential, and functional magnetic resonance imaging studies that employed these methods. Results of these studies consistently showed that decision makers in the single-application condition did not perform the weighting and summing process assumed by the expectation rule. Moreover, decision makers were inclined to adopt a non-compensatory strategy, such as a heuristic one, in risky decision making. Furthermore, results indicated that the expectation rule was only applicable for conditions that involved decisions applied to numerous events (multiple applications) or to people (everyone). The findings indicated that using an index based on expected value to prescribe human risk preferences appears to be an artificial or false index of risk preference, and emphasised a new methodological direction for risky decision-making research.

Structuring the phenomenon of procurement digitalisation: contexts, interventions and mechanisms

Purpose

The study develops a structure for procurement digitalisation by identifying its context drivers, technology interventions and performance-inducing mechanisms and exploring the linkages between these variables.

Design/methodology/approach

The study draws on rich interview and workshop data on 48 digital intervention projects, as reflected by mental models of managers from 12 case organisations in manufacturing, retail and service sectors. Supported by an a priori structure, the study employs an abductive cross-case analysis approach.

Findings

Results suggest several categories within the elements of context, intervention and mechanism to structure procurement digitalisation and the linkages between them. Seven propositions that reflect digitalisation strategy options in procurement are developed regarding the linkages. Internal complexity dominantly drives procurement digitalisation, motivating communication support and process structuring interventions, which in turn aim at procurement coordination and control as well as process improvement. External coercive pressure and external dynamism also drive interventions for information processing and decision aiding, which appear to be linked with supply market knowledge, strategic alignment and supplier capability assessment. Therefore, an internal–external dichotomy is observed as the main thrust of procurement digitalisation.

Practical implications

The study supports decision makers in developing digitalisation strategy options for different procurement contexts. The results also raise awareness of a possible bias in existing strategies for procurement digitalisation.

Originality/value

A novel forward-looking approach is employed to enable the design and construction of systems that do not yet exist by focusing on the mental models of managers in a systematic way.

Trusted Decision-Making: Data Governance for Creating Trust in Data Science Decision Outcomes

Organizations are increasingly introducing data science initiatives to support decision-making. However, the decision outcomes of data science initiatives are not always used or adopted by decision-makers, often due to uncertainty about the quality of data input. It is, therefore, not surprising that organizations are increasingly turning to data governance as a means to improve the acceptance of data science decision outcomes. In this paper, propositions will be developed to understand the role of data governance in creating trust in data science decision outcomes. Two explanatory case studies in the asset management domain are analyzed to derive boundary conditions. The first case study is a data science project designed to improve the efficiency of road management through predictive maintenance, and the second case study is a data science project designed to detect fraudulent usage of electricity in medium and low voltage electrical grids without infringing privacy regulations. The duality of technology is used as our theoretical lens to understand the interactions between the organization, decision-makers, and technology. The results show that data science decision outcomes are more likely to be accepted if the organization has an established data governance capability. Data governance is also needed to ensure that organizational conditions of data science are met, and that incurred organizational changes are managed efficiently. These results imply that a mature data governance capability is required before sufficient trust can be placed in data science decision outcomes for decision-making.

An information management approach for supply chain disruption recovery

Purpose

To study how supply chain decision makers gather, process and use the available internal and external information when facing supply chain disruptions.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper reviews relevant supply chain literature to build an information management model for disruption management. Afterwards, three case studies in the vehicle assembly sector, namely cars, trucks and aircraft wings, bring the empirical insights to the information management model.

Findings

This research characterises the phases of disruption management and identifies the information companies use to recover from a variety of disruptive events. It presents an information management model to enhance supply chain visibility and support disruption management at the operational level. Moreover, it arrives at two design propositions to help companies in the redesign of their disruption discovery and recovery processes.

Originality/value

This research studies how companies manage operational disruptions. The proposed information management model allows to provide visibility to support the disruption management process. Also, based on the analysis of the disruptions occurring at the operational level we propose a conceptual model to support decision makers in the recovery from daily disruptive events.

How institutional theories explain and fail to explain organizations

Purpose

This essay raises a concern about the trajectory that new institutionalism has been following during the last decades, namely an emphasis on heterogeneity, change and agentic behavior instead of isomorphism and conformist behavior. This is a crucial issue from the perspective of the philosophy and methodology of science since a theory that admits both change and stability as a norm has less scientific weight then a theory that predicts a prevalence of passivity and isomorphism over change and strategic behavior. The former provides explanations and predictions while the latter does not.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper offers an analysis of the nature, characteristics, functions and boundaries of institutional theories in the spirit of philosophy and methodology of science literature.

Findings

The power of the former institutional theory developed by Meyer, Rowan, DiMaggio and Powell lies in its generalization, explanation and prediction of observable and unobservable phenomena: as a typical organizational theory that puts forward directional predictions, it explains and predicts the tendency for organizations to become more similar to each other over time and express less strategic and interest-driven behavior, conforming to ever-increasing institutional pressures. A theory of isomorphism makes scientific predictions while its modern advancements do not. Drawing on Popper's idea of the limit of domains of explanation and limited domains of theories we present two propositions that may direct our attention towards the strength or weakness of institutional theories with regard to their explanations of organizational processes and behavior.

Practical implications

The paper draws implications for further theory building in institutional analysis by suggesting the nature of institutional explanations and the place of institutional change in the theoretical apparatus. Once institutional theory explains the tendency of the system towards equilibrium, there is no need to explain the origins and causes of radical changeper se. Institutional isomorphism theory explains and predicts how even after radical changes organizational fields will move towards isomorphism, that is, institutional equilibrium. The task is, therefore, not to explain agency and change but to show that it is natural and inevitable processes that organizational field will return to isomorphic dynamics and move towards homogenization no matter how much radical change occurred in this field.

Originality/value

The paper discusses the practical problems with instrumental utility of institutional theories. In order to be useful any theory must clearly delineate its boundaries and offer explanations and predictions and it is only the former 1977/1983 institutional theory that satisfies these requirements while modern advancements merely offer ambiguous theoretical umbrellas that escape empirical tests. For researchers therefore it is important to recognize which theory can be applied in a given limited domain of research and which one has little or no value.

Supplier-initiating risk management behaviour and supply-side resilience: the effects of interpersonal relationships and dependence asymmetry in buyer-supplier relationships

Purpose

The aim of the study is to explore how two dimensions of interpersonal relationships (i.e. size and range of relationships) affect supplier-initiating risk management behaviours (SIRMB) and supply-side resilience. Further, the study aims to explore the moderating role of dependence asymmetry.

Design/methodology/approach

Nine hypotheses are tested based on a moderated mediation analysis of survey data from 247 manufacturing firms in China. The data are validated using a subset of 57 attentive secondary respondents and archival data.

Findings

SIRMB positively relates to supply-side resilience. Further, SIRMB mediates the positive relationship between range and supply-side resilience, and this relationship is stronger at lower levels of dependence asymmetry. Yet, although dependence asymmetry positively moderates the relationship between range and SIRMB, it negatively moderates the relationship between size and SIRMB. We did not, however, find evidence that size has a conditional indirect effect on supply-side resilience through SIRMB.

Practical implications

Managers in buying firms can incentivise SIRMB to enhance supply-side resilience by developing a diverse rather than a large set of interpersonal relationships with a supplier. This might include allocating particular employees with a wide range of contacts within a supplier to that relationship, while it may be necessary to adopt different networking strategies for different supplier relationships. Firms in a highly asymmetrical relationship may seek to raise supplier expectations about the necessity to initiate risk management behaviour or look to change the dynamic of the relationship by managing contracts for fairness.

Originality/value

New knowledge on SIRMB as a mediating variable underpinning the relationship between interpersonal relationships and supply-side resilience is provided; and empirical evidence on the opposing moderation effect of dependence asymmetry is presented.

Transformative service research, service design, and social entrepreneurship

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide an interdisciplinary framework bridging service design and social entrepreneurship with transformative service research (TSR) to create greater synergetic effects to advance wellbeing and drive social impact.

Design/methodology/approach

This research provides an interdisciplinary review and synthesis of literature to establish a basis for a conceptual framework advancing human wellbeing and driving social impact.

Findings

The overarching framework created incorporates various concepts, methods and tools across the three research domains. At the core of the framework is the ultimate goal of multilevel wellbeing and social impact. The core is subsequently supported by established social entrepreneurship concepts and strategies: prosocial motivation, hybrid identity, social bricolage, entrepreneurial thinking, community engagement, business model design and innovative delivery. The implementation of these concepts could benefit from the methods and tools used in service design, such as: design probes, service blueprints, appreciative inquiry, contextual interviews, actor maps, sustainable business model canvas and service prototyping.

Practical implications

The paper uses the refugee crisis as an illustrative example of how the proposed framework can be put into action by service organizations.

Originality/value

By bridging literature in TSR, service design and social entrepreneurship, this paper provides service managers with a framework to guide scalable systemic solutions for service organizations interested in advancing human wellbeing and driving social impact.

Social courage fosters both voice and silence in the workplace

Purpose

One of the strongest and most important outcomes of trait social courage is employee voice, but researchers have only studied this relationship with unidimensional conceptualizations of voice. The purpose of this paper is to apply Van Dyne et al.’s (2003) three-dimensional conceptualization of voice, which also distinguishes three dimensions of silence, to provide a nuanced understanding of the relationship of social courage with voice and silence. The authors also test for the moderating effect of three contextual influences: top management attitudes toward voice and silence, supervisor attitudes toward voice and silence, as well as communication opportunities.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted a four-timepoint survey with each measurement occasion separated by one week. A total of 134 participants completed all four timepoints.

Findings

The results support that social courage positively relates to prosocial voice and silence, whereas it negatively relates to defensive voice and silence as well as acquiescent voice and silence. In other words, social courage positively relates to beneficial voice and silence as well as negatively relates to detrimental voice and silence. The results also failed to support any moderating effects, suggesting that the relationships of social courage are very resilient to outside forces.

Practical implications

These findings both test prior results and discover new relationships of social courage, which can further stress the importance of courage. The authors also draw direct connections between the influence of social courage on the surrounding workplace environment – as well as the influences of the environment on social courage. While the current paper provides insights into social courage, it also directs future researchers toward new insights of their own.

Originality/value

Courage is an emergent research topic within organizations. While many authors have assumed that courage is important to work, the current paper is among the few to empirically support this notion.

Non-linear effects of relational capital on supply-side resilience

Purpose

Prior studies have largely overlooked the potentially negative consequences of a buyer’s relational capital (RC) with a supplier for supply-side resilience, assuming a positive linear relationship between the constructs. Meanwhile, the focus of research has been at an organisational level without incorporating the role of boundary spanning individuals at the interface between buyer and supplier. Drawing on social capital and boundary spanning theory, the purpose of this paper is to: re-examine the relationship between RC and supply-side resilience, challenging the linear assumption; and investigate how both the strength and diversity of a boundary spanner’s ties moderate this relationship.

Design/methodology/approach

Survey data are collected from 248 firms and validated using a subset of 57 attentive secondary respondents and archival data. The latent moderated structural equation method is applied to analyse the data.

Findings

An inverted U-shaped relationship between RC and supply-side resilience is identified. Tie strength in particular has a positive moderating effect on the relationship. More specifically, the downward RC–supply-side resilience relationship flips into an upward curvilinear relationship when boundary spanning individuals develop stronger ties with supplier personnel.

Research limitations/implications

A deeper insight into the RC–supply-side resilience relationship is provided. Findings are based on Chinese manufacturing firms and cross-sectional data meaning further research is needed to determine their generalisability.

Practical implications

In evaluating how to enhance supply-side resilience, buying firms must decide whether the associated collaborative benefits of developing RC outweigh the potential costs. Managers also need to be concerned with the impact of developing RC between organisations and enhancing the tie strength of individuals simultaneously.

Originality/value

The paper goes beyond the linear relationship between RC and supply-side resilience. Incorporating the moderating role of boundary spanners identifies a novel phenomenon whereby the RC–resilience relationship flips from an inverted to a U-shaped curve.

Bridging the data divide between practitioners and academics

Purpose

Organizations (data gatherers in the context) drown in data while at the same time seeking managerially relevant insights. Academics (data hunters) have to deal with decreasing respondent participation and escalating costs of data collection while at the same time seeking to increase the managerial relevance of their research. The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework on how, managers and academics can collaborate better to leverage each other’s resources.

Design/methodology/approach

This research synthesizes the academic and the managerial literature on the realities and priorities of practitioners and academics with regard to data. Based on the literature, reflections from the world’s leading service research centers, and the authors’ own experiences, the authors develop recommendations on how to collaborate in research.

Findings

Four dimensions of different data realities and priorities were identified: research problem, research resources, research process and research outcome. In total, 26 recommendations are presented that aim to equip academics to leverage the potential of corporate data for research purposes and to help managers to leverage research results for their business.

Research limitations/implications

This paper argues that both practitioners and academics have a lot to gain from collaborating by exchanging corporate data for scientific approaches and insights. However, the gap between different realities and priorities needs to be bridged when doing so. The paper first identifies data realities and priorities and then develops recommendations on how to best collaborate given these differences.

Practical implications

This research has the potential to contribute to managerial practice by informing academics on how to better collaborate with the managerial world and thereby facilitate collaboration and the dissemination of academic research for the benefit of both parties.

Originality/value

Whereas the previous literature has primarily examined practitioner–academic collaboration in general, this study is the first to focus specifically on the aspects related to sharing corporate data and to elaborate on academic and corporate objectives with regard to data and insights.