Curvilinear Influence Research Articles

Take my word for it! The role of projected certainty signaling and certainty alignment in reward crowdfunding outcomes

Crowdfunding has emerged as a pivotal mechanism for entrepreneurs and innovators to source capital directly from a diverse audience of backers. Our study analyzes the nuanced impact of projected certainty signaling on the success of crowdfunding campaigns. We argue that the degree of certainty conveyed in project descriptions has a curvilinear influence on project success. We underscore the importance of the consensus on this projected certainty being shaped by interactions between founders and backers. Our study has several implications for founders, backers, and platforms by offering valuable insights for enhancing crowdfunding strategies and interactions toward positive outcomes.

Role of Corporate Governance to Restrict Tunneling Activities of Foreign Institutional Investors in the Pakistan Stock Market

ABSTRACT The research objective is to determine the curvilinear influence of trading of foreign institutional investors (FIIs) on the extent of tunneling, while corporate governance moderates this relationship. Data was gathered from 50 non-financial firms for 11 years (2009 to 2019) from the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan. The generalized method of moments (GMM) was applied and results supported the objectives of this study. Involvement of FIIs may contribute to the enhancement of market discipline but may also create problems. Thus, policymakers require protecting the rights of minor shareholders against adverse influence.

The curvilinear relationship between hindrance stressors and bootlegging: the moderate role of state ownership

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to provide insights into bootleg innovation by investigating whether perceived hindrance stressors play an important role in bootlegging and how different organizational ownership types (state-owned enterprises (SOEs) vs non-SOEs) affect this relationship.Design/methodology/approachThe study samples comprised 3,967 employees from 674 knowledge-intensive companies in southern China. Multilevel structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses.FindingsDrawing on the conservation of resources (COR) theory, the results show that hindrance stressors have a curvilinear (U-shaped) influence on bootleg innovation, and that the curve relationship between the hindrance stressors and bootlegging is more pronounced among employees in non-SOEs.Practical implicationsThe findings indicate that either a low or high level of hindrance stressors can activate a high level of bootlegging activities among employees. These results suggest that managers need to be vigilant in detecting the level of hindrance because different motivations predominate at different stressor levels.Originality/valueBased on the COR theory, the findings cast perceived hindrance stressors as an antecedent of bootlegging at the individual level. The inquiry into state ownership types further provides a comprehensive understanding of the non-linear relationship between hindrance stressors and bootlegging.

Curvilinear relationship between ambidextrous leadership and employee silence: mediating effects of role stress and relational energy

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore the U-shaped relationship between ambidextrous leadership and employee silence by examining power distance orientation as a boundary condition and role stress and relational energy as mediators.Design/methodology/approachThe authors tested the theoretical model with 212 matched samples collected across three-wave-data from 21 companies and branches in China.FindingsResults revealed that ambidextrous leadership showed a U-shaped relationship with employee silence through role stress and relational energy. Moreover, the authors found that the curvilinear relationship was more significant for employees higher in power distance orientation.Practical implicationsOrganizations should be aware of the negative side of ambidextrous leadership as well as its stimulation on employee silence. The leaders should pay more attention to subordinates and judge whether they are under too much stress, as well as treat employees more cautiously in both work and non-work situations.Originality/valueThis study provides a first step to the understanding of curvilinear influence of ambidextrous leadership through investigating the mediating effects of role stress and relational energy, and integrating the moderating role of power distance orientation in the process.

Can High Levels of Hindrance Demands Increase the Worker’s Intellectual Response?

Job demands are factors that are associated with a physical and psychological cost when it comes to coping with them, but which can also positively affect the motivational process. Demands such as overload, defined as an excessive workload, have not presented positive results in any of the studies that have related it to employee engagement. The present study aims to delve into the possible positive effect of this demand on the intellectual bonding of employees. It is hypothesized that: (a) Initially, the increase in the perception of work overload will show a negative influence on the intellectual engagement of the employees; but (b) high perceptions of overload will change this effect, producing an increase in the intellectual dimension of engagement. The sample is made up of 706 employees of a Spanish multinational company. The results support this asymmetric curvilinear influence. The level of intellectual engagement is significantly reduced when the role overload increases from the lower values of the scale. However, upon reaching high levels of role overload, the intellectual engagement response begins to grow. These results challenge the conceptualization of overload as only negative and opens the door to consider that the positive response to a demand can also occur at high levels of it.

Does geographic distance benefit or harm cooperative NPD creativity? A contingency model

Existing research widely assumes that geographic distance between partners exerts a negative influence on cooperative outcomes. However, empirical evidence yields contradictory results. To reconcile the current inconsistencies, this study builds on the relational view to develop a conceptual model proposing that geographic distance has a curvilinear relationship with NPD creativity, which is moderated by technical‐level and relational‐level governance mechanisms. The results of hierarchical regressions on a sample of 209 Chinese manufacturing firms show that geographic distance of a firm’s cooperative relationship has a U‐shaped influence on NPD creativity, which is moderated by high levels of IT usage, trust, and shared goals. These findings help to explain the conflicting views on the influence of geographic distance on NPD creativity by demonstrating a curvilinear influence of distance and providing a nuanced understanding of the contingent roles of technical and relational factors as collaborative governance mechanisms affecting the influence of distance. This study contributes to a better understanding of how and under what conditions distance between cooperating firms can confer specific benefits to innovation.

HRM’s financial value from obtaining more star performers

We assessed the financial value of human resource management (HRM) as a function of obtaining more star performers. Specifically, we implemented utility analysis procedures on 206 samples of individual performance (i.e. output) encompassing 824,924 workers. We found that HRM adds greater financial value by obtaining more stars. Our results also offer several specific contributions to HRM theory. First, regarding how HRM produces greater value by obtaining more stars, our evidence points to a nonlinear model of HRM’s value, where HRM generates significant yet diminishing returns by increasingly obtaining the most productive ones. Second, regarding when, our results show that diminishing returns from HRM are stronger when output differences among top stars are relatively small. Third, regarding why, our study explains that small output differences among top stars may create various costs which diminish the returns from obtaining the most productive stars. Our explanation of HRM’s nonlinear pattern contributes to the star literature by helping integrate a variety of specific explanations for stars’ curvilinear influence discussed in past research. Regarding HRM practices, we highlight the need to use utility analysis procedures that more fully consider the existence of stars. Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2021.1948890 .

Creating competitive advantages: Interactions between ambidextrous diversification strategy and contextual factors from a dynamic capability perspective

Is competitive advantage sustainable? We argue that firms can create temporary and consecutive competitive advantages by pursuing an ambidextrous strategy. This depends on the capability of firms to achieve simultaneous related and unrelated diversification during periods of turbulence. However, the manner by which firms exploit and develop resources and capabilities remain a major gap in the empirical literature on the diversification–competitive outcomes relationship. Adopting a dynamic capability perspective, we examine why and how the simultaneous pursuit of ambidextrous diversification creates temporary and consecutive competitive advantages. Employing longitudinal data for 2010–2015 to test our hypotheses, we find that an ambidextrous strategy has a curvilinear influence on advantages creation in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. These effects vary by interactions with R&D investments and firm-specific uncertainty. Finally, the impact of the three-way interactions among firm-specific uncertainty, ambidextrous diversification, and R&D investments on efficiency takes the form of a U-shaped curve.

Does Technostress Inhibit Employee Innovation? Examining the Linear and Curvilinear Influence of Technostress Creators

Despite the increasing quantum of research on technostress, three particularly noteworthy gaps remain. First, though prior studies have described “technostress creators” through the five dimensions techno-overload, techno-invasion, techno-complexity, techno-insecurity, and techno-uncertainty in an aggregated way, they have not adequately considered how these technostress creators individually influence job outcomes. Second, though past organizational research suggests a curvilinear relationship between job stress and job outcomes, research has yet to examine whether the stress-performance dynamics for the technostress context follows the organizational stress literature. Third, even though the literature emphasizes information and communication technology (ICT)-enabled innovation in firms, research has not explored what influence the technostress creators have on ICT-enabled innovation in-depth. Grounding our arguments in the control theory of occupational stress and conservation of resources (COR) theory, we first theorize the linear and curvilinear relationships for each of the five technostress creators with ICT-enabled employee innovation and then test the hypothesized relationships via conducting a survey on organizational employees who regularly used ICTs for professional tasks. The results offer a nuanced understanding about the nature of individual technostress creators and their relationships with ICT-enabled employee innovation. On the practical front, our research paves the way for more meaningful technostress-management strategies in organizations.

Is transformational leadership always good for employee task performance? Examining curvilinear and moderated relationships

Transformational leadership, generally considered as a desirable leadership style, has positive effects on various performance outcomes of employees; however, its productivity has been called into question because of a relative neglect of its negative aspects. Addressing this gap, an attempt at rethinking the relationship between transformational leadership and employee performance is important. The paradoxical perspective indicates that conflicting positive and negative effects of transformational leadership can coexist, which provides possibility and rationality for thorough consideration of employees’ task performance influenced by transformational leaders. Integrating the principle of diminishing marginal utility and the “Too-Much-of-a-Good-Thing (TMGT)” effect, this research explores an inverted U-shaped relationship between transformational leadership and employee task performance. Furthermore, applying social cognitive theory, we assume an employee’s proactive personality moderates the curvilinear influence of transformational leadership on employees’ task performance. As expected, results from a study of data from 209 supervisor-subordinate relationships from China showed that the inverted U-shaped relationship between transformational leadership and employees’ task performance was moderated by employees’ proactive personality. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The role of knowledge absorptive capacity on the relationship between cognitive social capital and entrepreneurial orientation

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to study the effect of cognitive social capital (CSC) on firms’ entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and how knowledge absorptive capacity moderates this relationship. The purpose is aimed at completing the gap in the literature regarding determinants of EO linked with knowledge.Design/methodology/approachThe empirical study was carried out on a sample of 292 Spanish firms in the agri-food industry. Partial least squares (SmartPLS software) was used to evaluate the measurement and structural models.FindingsCSC has a curvilinear influence (U-shaped) on EO. In addition, this relationship is accentuated with higher knowledge absorptive capacity.Practical implicationsManagers should promote cognitively close networks and reinforce shared goals and culture with their contacts to maintain a high EO. Furthermore, managers should strengthen their knowledge absorptive capacity to boost innovativeness, risk taking and proactiveness derived from cognitive proximity with their contacts.Originality/valueThis study adds value to social capital literature by pointing out a curvilinear relationship (U-shaped) between CSC and EO, in contrast to studies focussed on other dimensions of social capital, which have obtained divergent results. Furthermore, this study reinforces the key contingent role of knowledge absorptive capacity. The study provides a valuable theoretical framework of EO determinants connecting the cognitive perspective of social capital theory with a dynamic capability view.

New Product Creativity Antecedents and Consequences: Evidence from South Korea, Japan, and China

Creativity in new products is highly coveted by firms. However, businesses are faced with questions of how to inject creativity into new products, and whether it pays off in stronger product performance. To address these questions, a survey on key antecedents and consequences of creativity was conducted among new product managers. Based on gaps identified in the new product literature, this study examines several organizational culture (market orientation), leadership (top management involvement and risk‐taking encouragement), and national culture (secularism and survivalism) antecedents, along with new product performance consequences. Importantly, to uncover potentially complex nuances in creativity dynamics that may have been previously overlooked, the creativity construct is decomposed into novelty and meaningfulness dimensions, and the possibility of curvilinear relationships with antecedents and consequences are investigated. The study is also one of the first creativity studies based on a geography rather than a single country, specifically the cluster of South Korea, Japan, and China.In terms of antecedents, this study finds customer orientation, cross‐functional integration, top management involvement, and cultural secularism have positive linear effects on creativity's meaningfulness component, whereas top management risk taking and cultural survivalism have a negative effect. In contrast, cross‐functional integration and top management risk taking have a negative curvilinear influence on creativity's novelty component. Similar to meaningfulness, cultural secularism and survivalism have positive and negative impacts on novelty, respectively. Regarding consequences, meaningfulness has a positive linear influence on new product performance, while novelty's contribution reflects an inverted U‐shaped relationship. This finding is notable in light of previous studies that question whether novelty is helpful at all. These findings explain prior mixed results on creativity based on simple linear and aggregated effects, as well as discover new drivers and outcomes. The article concludes with theoretical and managerial implications about how firms can enhance and benefit from creativity.

Good Things Are Not Eternal: How Consideration Leadership and Initiating Structure Influence the Dynamic Nature of Organizational Justice and Extra-Role Behaviors at the Collective Level

The objective of this study was to test the linear and curvilinear influence of initiating structure (IS) and consideration leadership on the variability of extra-role behaviors over time, through the mediating effect of within-store level of distributive (DJ) and procedural justice (PJ). Data from 1,857 employees in 116 business units of a Canadian retailer collected over four waves were analyzed using random coefficient modeling. Our results show that IS and consideration have significant linear and curvilinear effects on within-unit PJ and DJ climates over time, and an indirect influence on the within-unit variability of extra-role behaviors through the mediating effect of DJ and PJ climates. Results underline the complexity of the effects of both leadership dimensions on PJ and DJ climates. While consideration is associated with an increase of both justice climates over time, low and high levels of IS are associated with a decrease in PJ climate over time, and a moderate level of IS was related to an increase of PJ climate. Moreover, the positive effects of leadership behaviors on extra-role behaviors shift completely after a certain time threshold. Surprisingly, while unit-level extra-role behaviors increased over time under high structure leadership, such behaviors decreased under high consideration. Finally, the results showed that the positive influence of PJ and DJ climates on unit-level extra-role behaviors decreases over time, and that low fairness units experience a more dramatic decrease of extra-role behaviors with time.

Choosing the Best House in a Bad Neighborhood: Location Strategies of Human Rights INGOs in the Non-Western World

What determines the location of those human rights international non-governmental organization (INGO) resources found outside of the highly developed Western democracies? We draw a distinction between the bottom-up mobilization processes driving the location of human rights organization (HRO) members from the top-down strategic concerns driving where HRO leaders place permanent offices. In particular, we find that, while political opportunity structures generally increase the likelihood that a state has HRO members, it has a curvilinear influence on the number of HRO secretariats, which typically locate in areas seen as having a higher need for organizational resources. Further, while there is no clear connection between human rights abuses and HRO memberships in a state, HROs' strategic concerns lead them to place offices with reference to both local and neighborhood “need”—in other words, levels of repression.

Empowering leadership, employee goal orientations and work performance

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the possible curvilinear relationship between empowering leadership and individual in-role and extra-role work performance and the potential moderating role of individual goal orientations.Design/methodology/approach– Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted based on data from 655 certified accountants. Leaders' empowering behavior was measured using Ahearneet al.'s scale. Mastery and performance goal orientations were measured using items from VandeWalle. In-role work performance was measured via a ten-item scale developed and used by Kuvaas and Dysvik. Organizational citizenship behavior was measured using items validated by Van Dyne and LePine.Findings– Too little empowerment might have a negative or limited impact – or none at all – on individual in-role and extra-role work performance. In addition, individual mastery orientation positively moderates these curvilinear relationships.Research limitations/implications– Empowering leadership-employee performance relationships are not necessarily linear. The present study provides an alternative explanation to the somewhat inconsistent findings in the current literature.Practical implications– Due to the curvilinear nature of empowering leadership, leaders should not just casually adopt this leadership style but ensure that they implement it at high levels with clear clarification of the goals and work roles.Originality/value– Even though empowering leadership is important to individual performance, scant research has explored whether and when empowering leadership could be detrimental. This study provides an additional view to empowerment research by examining the potential curvilinear influence of empowering leadership.

Examining the Drivers for Franchised Chains Performance through the Lens of the Dynamic Capabilities Approach

This paper draws on the dynamic capabilities approach to explain the performance of franchised chains. This approach is a useful lens to understand why some chains are more likely to drive superior performance than others. Hence, using this theoretical lens, we explore why and how several characteristics of franchised chains influence sales performance. This study includes 189 retail and service chains operating in the nited tates. Findings show that experience before franchising, length of training, chain age, franchising fees, and level of internationalization positively impact performance of franchised chains, whereas the proportion of franchised units has a curvilinear influence (inverted‐ shape) on chains' performance. Implications for franchising scholars and practitioners are discussed.

Stability and Change of Personality Across the Life Course: The Impact of Age and Major Life Events on Mean-Level and Rank-Order Stability of the Big Five

Does personality change across the entire life course, and are those changes due to intrinsic maturation or major life experiences? This longitudinal study investigated changes in the mean levels and rank order of the Big Five personality traits in a heterogeneous sample of 14,718 Germans across all of adulthood. Latent change and latent moderated regression models provided four main findings: First, age had a complex curvilinear influence on mean levels of personality. Second, the rank-order stability of Emotional Stability, Extraversion, Openness, and Agreeableness all followed an inverted U-shaped function, reaching a peak between the ages of 40 and 6'8 and decreasing afterwards, whereas Conscientiousness showed a continuously increasing rank-order stability across adulthood. Third, personality predicted the occurrence of several objective major life events (selection effects) and changed in reaction to experiencing these events (socialization effects), suggesting that personality can change due to factors other than intrinsic maturation. Fourth, when events were clustered according to their valence, as is commonly done, effects of the environment on changes in personality were either overlooked or overgeneralized. In sum, our analyses show that personality changes throughout the life span, but with more pronounced changes in young and old ages, and that this change is partly attributable to social demands and experiences.

Stability and change of personality across the life course: The impact of age and major life events on mean-level and rank-order stability of the Big Five.

Does personality change across the entire life course, and are those changes due to intrinsic maturation or major life experiences? This longitudinal study investigated changes in the mean levels and rank order of the Big Five personality traits in a heterogeneous sample of 14,718 Germans across all of adulthood. Latent change and latent moderated regression models provided 4 main findings: First, age had a complex curvilinear influence on mean levels of personality. Second, the rank-order stability of Emotional Stability, Extraversion, Openness, and Agreeableness all followed an inverted U-shaped function, reaching a peak between the ages of 40 and 60 and decreasing afterward, whereas Conscientiousness showed a continuously increasing rank-order stability across adulthood. Third, personality predicted the occurrence of several objective major life events (selection effects) and changed in reaction to experiencing these events (socialization effects), suggesting that personality can change due to factors other than intrinsic maturation. Fourth, when events were clustered according to their valence, as is commonly done, effects of the environment on changes in personality were either overlooked or overgeneralized. In sum, our analyses show that personality changes throughout the life span, but with more pronounced changes in young and old ages, and that this change is partly attributable to social demands and experiences.

COMPLEXITY AND FAMILIARITY WITH COMPUTER ASSISTANCE WHEN MAKING ILL-STRUCTURED BUSINESS DECISIONS

Using high-level tasks typical of managerial decisions, this experimental study examined the influence of computer assistance on solving ill-structured problems. Of specific interest were the influences of complex and simple assistance on decision performance and decision maker attitudes. Our findings suggest that performance and user attitudes can be enhanced by technology that provides clear and simple instruction in good problem-solving practices. However, when that technology adds a complex array of technical options and features, the assistance may fail to improve or/and may even diminish performance and damage user attitudes. Familiarization with such complex technology may not improve these outcomes. The findings regarding the relationship between assistance complexity and decision performance are consistent with those of studies that suggest complexity has a curvilinear influence on performance. When considering the application of technological assistance to ill-structured decision tasks, the complexity of the assistance should not be ignored.

National Income, Inequality and Global Patterns of Cigarette Use.

Declining tobacco use in high-income nations and rising tobacco use in low- and middle-income nations raises questions about the sources of worldwide patterns of smoking. Theories posit a curvilinear influence of national income based on the balance of affordability and health-cost effects. In addition, however, economic inequality, gender inequality and government policies may moderate the rise and fall in smoking prevalence with national income. This study tests these arguments using aggregate data for 145 nations and measures of smoking prevalence circa 2000. The results show nonlinear effects of national income for males that take the form of an inverted U, but show linear effects for females. They also show non-additive effects of economic inequality for males that moderate both the rise and decline of smoking with national income and non-additive effects of gender equality for females that moderate the positive effect of national income.