Contingency Perspective Research Articles

Three-way interaction effect of social media usage, perceived task interdependence and perceived participative leadership on employee creativity

PurposeDespite the growing use of social media in many organizations, managers face the challenges of how to effectively manage social media usage (SMU) in the workplace to ensure employee creativity. This study combined task-technology fit theory and the interactional perspective of employee creativity to understand the three-way interaction of SMU, perceived task interdependence, and perceived participative leadership on employee creativity.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire survey was designed to test our hypotheses. The sample consisted of employees who use social media in the workplace. A total of 402 valid questionnaires were used for the hierarchical regression analysis.FindingsSMU had the strongest positive relationship with creativity when perceived task interdependence and perceived participative leadership were high. However, we did not find two-way interaction effects of SMU and perceived task interdependence on employee creativity.Originality/valueOur findings are aligned with the emergent view that the benefits of SMU can be better realized when it coexists with a set of complementary team contextual factors. The current study helps extend the contingency perspective and related studies in social media literature and employee creativity research.

How do changes in human resource programs lead to innovation: an organizational entrainment perspective on the temporal mechanisms in HRM

PurposeThe current study aims to investigate the temporal mechanisms in HRM systems by focusing on how HRM systems evolve over time and how such changes affect organizational innovation.Design/methodology/approachThis paper draws on organizational entrainment theory to examine how pace of change in employee involvement programs (EIPs) influences innovation via data from an eight-year longitudinal survey collected by Statistics Canada. The final sample includes 15,679 workplace–year observations.FindingsThis research shows that the effects of HRM programs on performance are more than just the mean effect – the pace of change by which changes are implemented in HRM programs matters in the long run. The optimal level of change pace occurs when the EIPs are changing at a pace that entrains (or synchronizes) with organizational rhythm of strategic changes. Results suggest that change pace in EIPs has an inverted-U-shaped relationship with both pace and quality of innovation. The curvilinear effect is more pronounced for organizations with relatively lower mean level of EIPs.Research limitations/implicationsFirst, this study captures only key measures of the EIPs and may not be generalizable to other dimensions of the HR systems. Second, the results of this paper should be interpreted at the HR program level or bundles of HR practices – the findings may not be generalizable to lower levels of analysis. Third, as a result of annual measurement, this study cannot capture short-lived minor dynamic HR misfits where workplaces quickly adjust to regain alignment. Fourth, to attain meaningful and consistent measures of strategic HR change, this study only includes surviving workplaces with at least five years of observations.Practical implicationsThis paper provides insights to managers and business leaders on how to implement strategic changes in HRM systems effectively to attain sustained innovation outcomes in the long run. To achieve an optimal level of innovation, organizations need to consider not only what and how many EIPs should be used but also how to strategically change EIPs to meet dynamic internal and external changes.Originality/valueThe current research introduces organizational entrainment theory to explain and empirically test the conflicting predictions of the universalist and contingency perspectives on the effects of strategic changes in HRM.

No place like home: The effect of exporting to the country of origin on the financial performance of immigrant-owned SMEs

Immigrants and sustained international migration are transforming developed Western countries at an unprecedented pace and scale. Sustained international migration is also further accentuating the already-dominant presence of immigrant entrepreneurs in the international business landscape. These immigrant entrepreneurs often operate small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that primarily export to their country of origin. However, conflicting findings suggest theoretical ambiguity in how the level of country-of-origin export intensity influences the SMEs’ financial performance. Adopting a contingent perspective, we theorize how and when socially embedded immigrant owners derive superior performance from high country-of-origin export intensity. Based on a sample of 2584 immigrant-owned SMEs and 6391 firm-year observations, we find that SMEs led by immigrant owners with longer stays in their country of residence and whose country of origin is geographically proximate to their country of residence generate superior financial performance from high country-of-origin export intensity. These findings are consistent with the view that immigrant entrepreneurs’ international financial success is a function of network- and cognition-based advantages linked to their level of concurrent embeddedness in their countries of residence and origin. We also provide actionable insights for immigrant entrepreneurs and for policy-makers tasked to design suitable export promotion programs.

Extending the frontier of research on (strategic) human resource management in China: a review of David Lepak and colleagues’ influence and future research direction

This review study was conducted in memory of Professor David Lepak, the late Editor-in-Chief of The International Journal of Human Resource Management, for his contribution to the development of strategic human resource management (HRM) research and the influence of his work in strategic HRM research in the Chinese context. Drawing on 133 articles from 49 English journals, we show that Lepak and colleagues’ four major theoretical frameworks (universal and contingency perspectives of HRM, HR architecture, employee-oriented perspective of HRM and multiple dimensions of HR systems) have been the most instrumental in guiding strategic HRM research in China. We also assess the extent to which China-based studies have extended the conceptual arguments and analytical frameworks that Lepak and co-authors have put forward. By discussing some of the changes in the way businesses in China have (re)configured their business models, we draw attention to several avenues to make strategic HRM research more reflective of the societal context and relevant to practice.

Start-Up Competences and Early Stage Hiring: A Contingency Perspective

Early employment growth can be a stepping-stone for start-up scaling. Yet, we have little insights into the factors that can enable early stage hiring. Building on competence-based theory, we posit that initial competences, namely those assembled via founders’ start-up experience and external shareholders, can help start-ups overcome early staffing challenges. However, through a contingency perspective, we demonstrate that a start-up’s ability to leverage those initial competences and hire soon after entry is contingent on its strategic orientation towards innovation. Both internal and external competences are likely to be underutilized in less R&D intensive start-ups lacking innovation-based growth aspirations. We find general support for our hypotheses with a rich dataset of Italian innovative start-ups, and additionally show that early staff recruitment is largely characterized by (positive) assortative matching dynamics in the human capital attributes of the demand and supply sides.

Effectively Apologizing to Consumers After a Crisis: Psychological Distance and Abstractness/Concreteness of an Organization's Apology

Companies hit by a crisis of corporate misconduct typically need to issue a public apology to minimize reputational damage, negative word-of-mouth, and declining purchases. What such an apology should ideally convey, abstract or concrete information, remains up for debate. Working from construal-level theory, we test a contingency perspective on organizational apology effectiveness. According to construal-level theory, concretely formulated apologies are more effective when the apologizing company is psychologically near to (versus far away from) an apology-recipient. Second, abstractly formulated apologies are more effective when the apologizing company is psychologically far away from (versus near to) an apology-recipient. We found support for these hypotheses in three experiments (and provide a meta-analytic mean of both effects). In order to optimize effectiveness, apologies should be tailored to account for the psychological distance to the apology-recipient.

The Fit Between Social Media Use and Functions of Contracts: A Contingent Perspective

Recent studies suggest that the multiple dimensions of contract governance and its context moderators deserve more empirical scrutiny. By distinguishing between task and tie related interaction enabled by social media, this study explores the fit between the two distinctive interactions and multifunction of contracts, modeled as an interaction effect. Empirical results based on a sample of 504 Chinese manufacturers show that contract complexity negatively affects opportunism serving as safeguarding mechanisms, and positively affect collaborative activities serving as coordination mechanisms. More importantly, we find that compared with tie related interaction, task related interaction strengthens the positive effect of contract complexity in facilitating collaborative activities, suggesting task related interaction is more effective in promoting the coordination function; compared with task related interaction, tie related interaction increase gains of contract complexity in curbing opportunism, reflecting a salience fit between tie related interaction and the safeguarding function. By showing how social media enabled interaction promotes the relative effectiveness of contracts in inhibiting opportunity versus facilitating the performance, the study enriches the literature on the complex roles of contracts and social media use in governing inter-firm relationships.

China’s Bayh-Dole Act and University Patenting: A Contingency Perspective

Around the world, universities are playing an increasingly important role in the technological development of industries. Many counties emulate policies like the Bayh-Dole Act in the US by giving universities full property rights of government-funded research. Bayh-Dole-like laws have been empirically examined with mixed findings, but few studies have considered the institutional conditions and investigated the causal effect of the Bayh-Dole like policy in developing and transition economies like China. Based on the 2002 Bayh-Dole-like reform in China, we conduct the difference-in-differences (DiD) analysis at the university-IPC level and find that China’s 2002 Bayh-Dole Act increased university-owned patents significantly. In addition, universities with higher prestige (supported by Project 211) and located in areas with better market conditions benefit the most from the Act. These findings provide new insights and highlight the importance of considering complementary institutional mechanisms in fulfilling the intended effect of Bayh-Dole like laws. Our research has significant implications for policymakers, especially in developing and transition economies.

Skill Enhancing HR Investments, Contextual Endowments, and Innovation: A Four Country, Two-Wave Study

We theorize and test the combined effects of both firm level skill- enhancing human resource investments, designed to boost specific and general knowledge resources, and of national level human capital contextual endowments, on incremental and radical innovation rates in knowledge intensive firms. Drawing on the intellectual utility of both the resource based view and the configurational perspective, at the firm level we theorize the impact of three such skill-enhancing human resource investments, namely specific training, general training and the implementation of functional flexibility, along with various configurations of these investments, on both incremental and radical innovation. At country level, we mobilize contingency arguments to hypothesize the likely effects of contextual variations in national level human capital provisions on the firm level knowledge resources-innovation relationship. Then, using a unique two-wave dyadic data set assembled from 1,764 interviews conducted in 882 knowledge intensive firms in France, Finland, Sweden, and the UK we test our arguments. Our analysis finds broad support for both direct relationships and synergistic interactions between particular combinations of the firm level skill-enhancing human resource investments examined and the incremental and radical innovation gains secured. Our results also demonstrate that higher levels of national human capital provision moderate the firm-level relationship between the skill-enhancing human resource investments and the innovation outcomes. Our analysis adds to the body of knowledge on the explanatory power of the resource-based view as a lens for explicating the link between skill-enhancing human resource investments and both incremental and radical innovation. From a contingency perspective, it also suggests that the value of firm level investments in specific and general knowledge resources for incremental and radical innovation is enhanced where national human capital contextual endowments are higher. We discuss the theoretical and practice implications of our findings and we outline possible directions for future research.

The Double-Edged Sword Effect of Brand Adaptation Strategy on Performance

To improve our understanding of the bright side and the dark side of brand adaptation strategy and determine the processes linking brand adaptation strategy to brand performance, we investigate the underlying mechanism of adaptation brand strategy’ effects from the perspective of institutional theory and organizational learning theory. we posit that strengthened legitimacy and reduced synergy mediate the effect of brand adaptation on firm performance. In addition, to capture the nature of the relationship between brand adaptation strategy and firm performance, we adopt a contingency perspective in our examination of the moderating roles of cultural distance. Specifically, we suggest that cultural distance enhances the positive effect of brand adaptation strategy on firm legitimacy and synergy. Moreover, market uncertainty strengthens the positive effect of brand localization on legitimacy and synergies. We test our hypotheses using a survey with 202 respondents in China. In conclusion, our findings provide important insights into how brands effectively utilize brand adaptation strategy to improve their performance.

Positive Affective Climate Inhibits Employee Prohibitive Voice: A Hedonic Contingency Perspective

Past research demonstrated a positive relationship between the individual-level expression of positive affect and voice behaviors between employees. Our research proposes a fresh perspective suggesting that positive affect, when construed as an organizational level climate, may be detrimental for employee voice, specifically prohibitive voice. Based on the hedonic contingency theory and organizational error theory, we contend that employees in a high (vs. low) positive affective climate experience greater motivation and pressure to maintain the existing positive vibes. This gives rise to an error aversion climate that favors the censorship and cover-up of questionable practices or behaviors, thus suppressing prohibitive voice. In sum, we expect positive affective climate to negatively predict prohibitive voice, but not promotive voice, via error aversion climate. We also argue that the negative relationship between error aversion and prohibitive voice will be more pronounced for employees who have leaders with high (vs. low) humility. Humble leaders influence employees to look out for deficiencies in the work environment, which should heighten their sensitivity to factors that shape prohibitive voice. We collected two-wave, multi-source data from a sample of 399 full-time employees and their supervisors. The results supported the hypotheses. When considered in conjunction with past findings, our findings uncovered oft-overlooked multilevel complexities inherent in the affective processes underlying why and when employees might express different forms of voice, and the importance of leader humility as an enabler of prohibitive voice. We discuss the implications, limitations, and future directions of the results.

ENTREPRENEURIAL ALERTNESS AND PRODUCT INNOVATIVENESS: FIRM-LEVEL AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONTINGENCIES

Although scholars have recognised that alertness is critical in identifying and exploring opportunities, empirical studies exploring when alertness drives innovation are lacking. Drawing insights from the cognitive and contingency perspectives, this study addresses this gap by arguing that variations in firm product innovativeness are a function of the degree of entrepreneurial alertness and levels of internal firm capabilities and environmental conditions. Data were collected from 385 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana. This study used the hierarchical regression estimation technique to analyses the data and found a significant positive relationship between entrepreneurial alertness and firm product innovativeness. Moreover, the findings showed that entrepreneurial alertness is beneficial for firms to innovate when pressures from customers and competitors are intense. Finally, the results revealed that stronger market information sharing and technological opportunism also amplify the alertness-innovativeness relationship.

Task characteristics and knowledge management performance: model development and scale construction

ABSTRACT Knowledge management (KM) plays a critical role in management academia, yet relatively few articles endeavour to study the outcome of KM – knowledge management performance indicators (KMPI). After a thorough review, this study concludes five shortcomings from the prior literature. To overcome such shortcomings, this study employs the focus/breadth/content-process dimensions originating from Contingency Perspective to conduct an exploratory case study, develop a KMPI model, accordingly conduct an empirical survey, and employ statistical techniques to examine model reliability and validity. This study constructs the KMPI model with eight constructs: knowledge profundity, replication, dissemination, extension, diversity, expansion, convergence, and creation. The empirical evidence of the 30-item scale indicates that the scale presents good reliability, construct validity, and high criterion validity. The model and the scale provide new insights to the practical and academic efforts in KM performance issues.

When customer ethnography is good for you – A contingency perspective

Industrial corporations increasingly undertake customer ethnography studies to expose and understand their customers' and end users' latent needs better. However, the benefit of this practice is ambiguous and evidence for it is largely based on anecdotes and qualitative case studies. The aim of this study is to shed light on the relationship between customer ethnography and new product development (NPD) success. We explore internal and external factors that attenuate or strengthen this relationship by investigating the contingency influences of a team's innovative work behavior and the task's innovativeness. Data from a large international corporation show that customer ethnography is worth considering in terms of creating understanding for customers at the front-end of innovation. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, we demonstrate the relevance of customer ethnography by showing that ethnographic methods at the front end generally have a positive relationship with NPD success. Second, we deepen our understanding of this relationship by showing that customer ethnography is not beneficial for NPD in all circumstances, but depends on the team's innovative work behavior and the innovativeness of the context. The results suggest that product developers should invigorate ethnographic practices carefully and selectively.

A stakeholder‐centric paradigm bids well for the “business case” ‐ An investigation through moderated‐mediation model

AbstractThis study examines the effect of responsible governance on a firm's financial performance and corporate reputation using the lens of stakeholder theory and signaling theory. We believe that no single theory fully underpins all the hypothesized relationships. This study also investigates the indirect effect of responsible governance on a firm's financial performance and corporate reputation via corporate social responsibility (CSR). Further, drawing on contingency perspective and using the lens of upper echelon theory, we test the moderating effect of different orientations of responsible leadership on the relationship between responsible governance and CSR. After, adopting a multi‐wave research design and using a survey method, we find that responsible governance significantly improves a firm's financial performance and reputation. Further, we find that CSR mediates the relationship between responsible governance and firm‐level outcomes. Moreover, moderating results reveal that the orientation of a traditional economist and an opportunity seeker strengthen the relationship between responsible governance and CSR whereas the orientation of an integrator and an idealist weaken this relationship. The study concludes with its implications and directions for future research.

Foreign Investor’s Interest and Tax Avoidance: Contingency Perspectives Depended on Country’s Protection Level and Law Systems

This study investigates differences in firms’ tax avoidances between multinational and national. Furthermore, it investigates the differences between firms’ contingent behavior because of the country’s investor protection level and law systems. This research takes into account the firms’ tax avoidance phenomenon. Besides that, it proposes novelties as follows. First, this study highlights that multinational firms tend to avoid taxes higher than national ones. Second, it induces the dividend catering theory related to the country’s investor protection. The latest, it persuades that country’s investor protection, and law systems make firms contingent on their tax avoidance behaviors. This study finds that firms where they live in high investors’ protection countries and common law did higher tax avoidance than others. The findings imply that these firms could grow higher than others. It means that this study suggests economic consequences. The consequence is that a country should increase its investors’ protection level and somehow redefine its law systems. Therefore, it could enhance its capital market and subsequently improve the national welfares.

IT strategy and business strategy mediate the effect of managing IT on firm performance: empirical analysis

PurposeThe multifaceted effect of IT in organizations has been widely examined. However, the intervening role of IT strategy and business strategy on the effect of managing IT on firm performance remains less strong. This study examines how managing information technology (MIT) effects on firm performance by looking at the mediating role of IT strategy and business strategy.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on the resource-based view of IT and contingency perspective, theoretical insights for managing IT and the mediating effect of IT strategy and business strategy on firm performance are established. The model is empirically tested by using hierarchical regression and structural equation modeling for the data collected through the survey of 194 senior IT and business managers in China.FindingsThe significant and impactful relationship found in the model for the proposed idea. The results show that both IT strategy and business strategy partially mediate the effect of managing IT on firm performance.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings highlight that managing IT does not merely influence better firm performance; instead, the coherent amalgamation of IT strategy and business strategy can enrich firm performance. The theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.Originality/valueIn line with the call for rigorous research to integrate the managing IT and firm strategies, this study demonstrates the mediating role of business strategy and IT strategy between the managing IT and the firm performance relationship, hence contributing to the IS research literature.

Safety stressors, safety-specific trust, and safety citizenship behavior: A contingency perspective

Employee safety citizenship behavior (SCB) is critical for workplace safety in a high-risk work environment, but few studies have addressed how safety stressors affect SCB. This study investigates the different relationships between safety stressors (safety role ambiguity, safety role conflict, and interpersonal safety conflict) and two forms of SCB (proactive and prosocial). It also examines the moderating effect of safety-specific trust (cognition- and affect-based) within these relationships. An analysis of 332 multisource data from frontline workers and their safety supervisors in China reveals that safety role ambiguity and safety role conflict negatively affect proactive safety behaviors, while interpersonal safety conflict impedes prosocial safety behaviors. Additionally, cognition-based safety trust alleviates the effects of safety role ambiguity and safety role conflict on proactive safety behaviors, whereas affect-based safety trust effectively restricts the influence of interpersonal safety conflict on prosocial safety behaviors. These results suggest that managers need to instill SCB in their subordinates and combat stressful conditions through interventions that enhance safety-specific trust.

International management strategies and expatriate practices of Taiwanese multinational corporations: a contingency perspective

In this paper, we examine how the international management strategy (centralized, local, and global) of an MNC affects its expatriate practices, and whether there is a contingent framework between international management strategy and expatriate practices. Drawing on a sample of 126 large Taiwanese multinational corporations, we examine the effects of international management strategies on six expatriate practices—staffing policies, selection criteria, selection methods, training, performance evaluations, and spouse/family support. We find some support for our expectation that, at the headquarters level, the specific international management strategy that an MNC employs affects the choice of expatriate practices. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Competitive strategies and international new ventures’ performance: Exploring the moderating effects of internationalization duration and preparation

The purpose of this article is twofold: to bring back to discussion the importance of strategy as a key element for international new ventures (INVs) to achieve higher international performance and to assess the relevance of contingency perspective, particularly two organizational contingency factors (internationalization duration and internationalization preparation), in moderating the strategy–performance relationship. The framework developed addresses the effects of four competitive strategies (cost leadership and innovation-based, marketing-based, and quality- and service-based differentiation) as determinants of INVs’ international performance. In addition, internationalization duration and internationalization preparation are included as moderators of these relationships. The hypotheses were tested using a sample of 319 INVs. The findings show that marketing and quality and service differentiation strategies are associated with higher INVs’ international performance and that internationalization duration and internationalization preparation play relevant moderating effects.JEL CLASSIFICATION: M13; M16