Business Domain Research Articles

Applications and Implications of Status Quo Bias

Status quo bias (SQB) refers to the inclination of individuals to prefer and maintain the current state in decision-making. This study explores the profound impact of SQB on decision-making in the fields of medicine, technology, and business. Through an extensive review of existing literature, we examine how SQB significantly influences the decision-making process and its subsequent outcomes, hampering the progress of innovation and hindering the adoption of optimal choices. Rooted in factors such as familiarity, comfort, and resistance to change, SQB acts as a formidable barrier to embracing novel alternatives. Additionally, limited understanding and low market penetration further reinforce this cognitive bias. By gaining a comprehensive understanding of the nature and implications of SQB, policymakers and decision-makers can access valuable insights to guide future planning and strategies effectively, mitigating the adverse effects of this cognitive bias. The study aims to encourage progress in medicine, technology, and business domains by promoting the exploration and adoption of new products and practices. By acknowledging and addressing SQB, stakeholders can foster a culture of adaptability and open-mindedness, ultimately driving positive advancements in their respective fields.

Analisis Uji Performa Aplikasi Dari Hasil Implementasi Refactoring Arsitektur Monolitik Ke Mikroservis dengan Decomposition dan Strangler Pattern

The SmartCampus application is still built with a monolithic architecture, where all components are tightly integrated into one unit. The increasing complexity of user scalability and service demands within the information system with a monolithic architecture is evident in the application's declining performance. In this research, a performance analysis is conducted by implementing refactoring from a monolithic architecture to microservices using the decomposition and strangler patterns. The Decomposition pattern divides the monolithic application into several business domains based on their main service categories, while the strangler pattern breaks down the business domains into microservices by replacing specific functions with new services through the stages of transform, co-exist, and eliminate. Once the new functionalities are ready, the old components are deactivated, and the new services are put into operation. The application's feasibility and quality considerations are assessed using the ISO/IEC 25010 model, which comprises eight characteristics: functionality suitability, performance efficiency, compatibility, usability, reliability, security, maintainability, and portability. The performance of the resulting microservices application is tested using different performance testing types, such as load testing, spike testing, stress testing, and soak testing. Microservices showing satisfactory performance improvements will be isolated using container technology to optimize application resource efficiency and anticipate long-term needs

Conceptualizing the Integration of Business and Private Components in Individual Information Systems

AbstractIndividuals build their individual information system (IIS) with which they manage the boundary between different domains of life. In this age of permanent mobile accessibility, however, the boundary between the private and business domains can become blurred. While some users try to maintain a degree of separation between the two IIS sub-systems (the private and the business information system), others integrate them. Understanding such integration is essential as it affects well-being and performance in both domains. To further this understanding, we introduce a conceptualization of IIS that distinguishes between four layers of IIS: devices, digital identities, relationships, and information. To measure IIS integration, we develop a method based on the IIS components’ usage frequencies in each domain. We evaluate our conceptualization as well as our measurement method by empirically testing a theoretical model of IIS integration on multiple layers. Our data provides empirical support for the importance of relationship integration as one of the four layers. This leads us to the conclusion that even though IIS are composed of four layers, only the relationship layer is of interest regarding IIS integration. Our results are of interest and service to individuals, organizations, and IT designers who aim to manage IIS integration for individual and organizational benefits.

Podcast Reenactments and the Sonics of Fictionalization from Cher to Swift

Podcasts often blend journalistic investigation with personal reflection, from Serial to Switched on Pop. Their veneer of fiction-as-fact especially confounds representation when podcasts’ voice acting and sound design portray pop stars in caricatured dramatizations. This paper examines reenactments of Cher and Taylor Swift in podcasts that investigate popular music industries and technology. As I show, these stars often are ventriloquized on podcasts due to their respective ages and visibility as women. Podcasts interrogate them for being too old or too young and for trespassing onto the often-male domains of business and technology. To show how podcast hosts represent women pop stars in particularly gendered and ageist ways, I listen to the sonics of fictionalization of two episodes that mythologize Cher’s Auto-Tuning and Swift’s battle to take back her masters from record industry men. First, American Innovations reenacts Cher’s request to producers to create the Auto-Tune effect, but the male host’s ventriloquy of her voice reduces her artistic and technological prowess to parody as they make her seem outdated. Then, in Business Wars, multiple voice actors reenact Swift’s career from its beginning and depict her as a child who doesn’t know any better. These podcasts blur facts and public opinion with alluring dramatizations of what “really happened,” placing listeners in the scene with compelling voice acting and ambient sound effects. In these reenactments, podcasts’ affordances of intimacy and immersion—which hosts often herald as democratizing—perpetuate cultural mythologies about gender and age in popular music.

Extraction of visual information to predict crowdfunding success

Researchers have increasingly turned to crowdfunding platforms to gain insights into entrepreneurial activity and dynamics. While previous studies have explored various factors influencing crowdfunding success, such as technology, communication, and marketing strategies, the role of visual elements that can be automatically extracted from images has received less attention. This is surprising, considering that crowdfunding platforms emphasize the importance of attention‐grabbing and high‐resolution images, and previous research has shown that image characteristics can significantly impact product evaluations. Indeed, a comprehensive review of empirical articles ( n = 202) utilized Kickstarter data, focusing on the incorporation of visual information in their analyses. Our findings reveal that only 29.70% controlled for the number of images, and less than 12% considered any image details. In this manuscript, we contribute to the existing literature by emphasizing the significance of visual characteristics as essential variables in empirical investigations of crowdfunding success. We review the literature on image processing and its relevance to the business domain, highlighting two types of visual variables: visual counts (number of pictures and number of videos) and image details. Building upon previous work that discussed the role of color, composition, and figure–ground relationships, we introduce visual scene elements that have not yet been explored in crowdfunding, including the number of faces, the number of concepts depicted, and the ease of identifying those concepts. To demonstrate the predictive value of visual counts and image details, we analyze Kickstarter data using flexible machine learning models (Lasso, Ridge, Bayesian additive regression trees, and eXtreme Gradient Boosting). Our results highlight that visual count features are two of the top three predictors of success and highlight the ease at which researchers can incorporate some information about visual information. Our results also show that simple image detail features such as color matter a lot, and our proposed measures of visual scene elements can also be useful. By supplementing our article with R and Python codes that help authors extract image details ( https://osf.io/ujnzp/ ), we hope to stimulate scholars in various disciplines to consider visual information data in their empirical research and enhance the impact of visual cues on crowdfunding success.

Game on! A state-of-the-art overview of doing business with gamification

Gamification is the act of applying game-design elements to transform activities, products, services, and systems in a way that provides the kind of experiences similar to those offered by games. These elements include badges, points, and leaderboards to motivate and reward problem solving activities and processes. Both businesses and business researchers are increasingly interested in the application of gamification. In this regard, this review aims to offer a state-of-the-art overview of gamification in business, revealing its current trends and future directions. Using business research on gamification published in the last decade (2012–2022) found on Scopus and Web of Science, we conduct a performance analysis to illuminate the field's performance (publication productivity and impact) alongside its key contributors (journals, authors, and countries) as well as a science mapping using a co-citation analysis to locate knowledge foundations, and bibliographic coupling and keyword co-occurrence analysis to reveal major themes in business gamification. Our exploration has unearthed gamification's pervasive influence across business domains, from enhancing learning and fostering innovation to empowering marketing strategies and catalyzing transformation. Gamification has also made significant inroads into management practices, driving engagement, influencing behavioral outcomes, and ushering sustainability. Peering into the future, our density-centrality quadrant analysis casts light on emerging frontiers. Noteworthily, we expect the next wave of gamification to be shaped by the allure of video games and the metaverse, bespoke industry-specific designs, confluence with e-commerce trends, emphasis on sustainable development, expanded social responsibilities, innovations in virtual reality, intersections with human urbanism, and the rise of smart cities. As gamification continues to integrate and reshape myriad facets of the business world, it holds the promise of not only enriching current practices but also charting the course for the future of innovative, sustainable, and transformative business strategies.

English Language Skills and their Significance in Efficiency of Performance Workplace

The significance of effective English communication skills in the professional realm cannot be overstated, as they have been recognized as essential instruments for achieving triumph in the business domain. The proficiency in the English language is widely regarded as an essential prerequisite qualification for gainful employment. English has long been regarded as a gateway to securing a lucrative and stable position within the public sector, ensuring a comfortable retirement. The acquisition of proficiency in the English language is widely regarded as a fundamental component of one's employability repertoire.

Financial sentiment analysis: Classic methods vs. deep learning models

Sentiment Analysis, also known as Opinion Mining, gained prominence in the early 2000s alongside the emergence of internet forums, blogs, and social media platforms. Researchers and businesses recognized the imperative to automate the extraction of valuable insights from the vast pool of textual data generated online. Its utility in the business domain is undeniable, offering actionable insights into customer opinions and attitudes, empowering data-driven decisions that enhance products, services, and customer satisfaction. The expansion of Sentiment Analysis into the financial sector came as a direct consequence, prompting the adaptation of powerful Natural Language Processing models to these contexts. In this study, we rigorously test numerous classical Machine Learning classification algorithms and ensembles against five contemporary Deep Learning Pre-Trained models, like BERT, RoBERTa, and three variants of FinBERT. However, its aim extends beyond evaluating the performance of modern methods, especially those designed for financial tasks, to a comparison of them with classical ones. We also explore how different text representation and data augmentation techniques impact classification outcomes when classical methods are employed. The study yields a wealth of intriguing results, which are thoroughly discussed.

Managing Student Mobility in Cameroon’s University Ecosystem: A FORM/BCS Approach

Nowadays, student mobility cannot be avoided in Cameroon university ecosystem. This phenomenon has many causes. Certain students live with their parents who are civil servants and they have to move with them when they are sending to a different region; another situation is link to universities newly created in cities where the cost of the live is better than in the home university city and students prefer move to these new universities. Since student circuit is not the same in each university, it is difficult to find his level in the new university and which courses he has to follow in order to complete his training. This problem is crucial in Cameroon university ecosystem and we tackle it in this paper. The Feature Oriented Reuse Method with Business Component Semantics (FORM/BCS) is a software domain engineering method that has been proposed to design an adaptable architecture for systems belonging in a same business domain. In this work, we apply the FORM/BCS method to manage student mobility in Cameroon university ecosystem. The result of this work is a management model that allows once a student gets an enrolment in a new university, to transfer credit from the student home university to the host one.

Research on Anti-monopoly Regulation of the MFN Clause on Internet Platforms

With the continuous development of electronic information technology, internet companies are playing an increasingly important role in the business field. This evolution has not only catalyzed shifts in business models and transaction habits but has also introduced novel practices, such as the integration of Most-Favored-Nation clauses (MFN clauses) that were formerly exclusive to traditional business domains. Currently, MFN clauses are widely used in commercial activities between internet platform companies, which require high attention from antitrust enforcement agencies. Through a comprehensive analysis of existing literature and research, this study aims to shed light on the similarities and differences between these two types of MFN clauses, offering valuable insights into the evolving landscape of business practices within the digital age. In addition, the article also uses case analysis to examine two typical cases in foreign jurisdictions, demonstrating the regulatory approaches of the extraterritorial judiciary towards MFN clauses within internet platforms. Based on the analysis, the conclusion of this paper is that the for collusive MFN clause, the illegal per se doctrine should be applied for exclusive MFN clause, the principle of reasonableness should be applied, taking account of both the effects on restricting and promoting competition.

ExDe: Design space exploration of scheduler architectures and mechanisms for serverless data-processing

Serverless computing is increasingly used for data-processing applications in both science and business domains. At the core of serverless data-processing systems is the scheduler, which ensures dynamic decisions about task and data placement. Due to the variety of user, cluster, and workload properties, the design space for high-performance and cost-effective scheduling architectures and mechanisms is vast. The large design space is difficult to explore and characterize. To help the system designer disentangle this complexity, we present ExDe, a framework to systematically explore the design space of scheduling architectures and mechanisms. The framework includes a conceptual model and a simulator to assist in design space exploration.We use the framework, and real-world workloads, to characterize the performance of three scheduling architectures and two mechanisms. Our framework is open-source software available on Zenodo.

Application of “Agile” principles to business process management: enhancing organizational efficiency

Agile principles, originally developed for software development, have gained significant attention and popularity due to their ability to foster flexibility, adaptability, and continuous improvement. However, these principles are not limited to software development alone and can be successfully applied to various business domains, including business process management (BPM). This article explores the application of agile principles to BPM, highlighting the benefits and challenges that organizations may encounter during the implementation process. Agile BPM involves a shift from traditional process management methodologies to a more iterative and collaborative approach. It focuses on delivering value to customers by enabling organizations to respond quickly to changing market dynamics, customer demands, and internal requirements. The core principles of agile BPM include customer-centricity, iterative management, continuous feedback and improvement, cross-functional collaboration, and empowerment of teams. By adopting agile principles in BPM, organizations can enhance their ability to identify and prioritize process improvements, reduce time-to-market, and increase customer satisfaction. Agile methodologies, such as Scrum or Kanban, provide frameworks and tools to manage work in smaller, manageable increments, allowing for faster and more frequent delivery of process improvements. This iterative approach enables organizations to respond to changing business needs and obtain early feedback, ensuring that processes are aligned with current requirements. However, implementing agile BPM is not without its challenges. It requires a cultural shift within the organization, as individuals must adapt to a more flexible and iterative mindset. Resistance to change, lack of clarity in roles and responsibilities, and inadequate training and support can hinder successful implementation. Therefore, organizations need to invest in change management initiatives, provide training and support to employees, and create an environment that encourages experimentation and continuous learning. In conclusion, applying agile principles to BPM offers organizations a way to optimize their processes, increase agility, and deliver enhanced value to customers. Successful implementation requires careful planning, stakeholder involvement, and a commitment to fostering a culture of agility and continuous improvement.

Linking supply chain performance with organizational strategic performance – a review and research agenda

PurposeThis article aims to comprehensively review the measurement and management of supply chain performance (SCP) and strategic performance (SP). It strives to identify integrable features regarding frameworks, measurement approaches, practices and emerging research issues in these areas to integrate SCP and SP for measuring and managing performance. It intends to develop a dynamic-integrated-performance-system by incorporating integrable aspects of SCP and SP to link these domains for organizational performance improvement.Design/methodology/approachUsing systematic-literature-review, this study analyzes 154 articles published in selected peer-reviewed international journals from 2000 to 2023 regarding SCP and SP. It assesses existing knowledge regarding research-design followed, challenging areas and imperatives in these critical business domains to investigate the prior conceptual, empirical, case study-based and literature-review-based articles.FindingsThe study identifies integrable features regarding key theoretical and measurement frameworks, critical objectives, significant measures, effective practices for measuring and managing SCP and SP and emerging research issues common to these areas. The findings help develop a dynamic-integrated-performance-system that uses the theoretical lenses of resource-based-view/dynamic-capability-theory and adopts a comprehensive framework like DBSC (system-dynamic-model with BSC perspectives). It incorporates identified integrable measures and best practices to monitor, measure, manage and improve organizational performance for sustainable competitive advantage. The article reveals that earlier studies have overlooked analyzing SCP and SP integration aspects.Research limitations/implicationsFrom the theoretical viewpoint, the present SLR is unique in three ways: first, in investigating both the measurement and management of SCP and SP holistically; second, in identifying integrative features of these two; and third, in proposing a DIPS to link SCP and SP for performance improvement. The study reveals that existing literature has focused on measuring and managing SCP and SP in isolation without attempting a comprehensive and unified approach to integrate the respective domains. The present SLR adopts a holistic approach to link SCP and SP from SCM and strategic-management perspectives. The study proposes a dynamic-integrated-performance-system to measure, manage and improve performance in a unified method.Practical implicationsThis study provides SC and strategy practitioners with an understanding of strategy-performance pathways for achieving strategic objectives and executing risk mitigation initiatives to counter disruptions. It enables SC managers to comprehend SC practices and SCP leading to dynamic SC capabilities development. Operationalizing the proposed DIPS will help firms link SCP and SP, align operational SC practices with strategic sustainability and circularity objectives and meet sustainable development goals while benefiting social and environmental stakeholders.Originality/valueAssessing relationships and identifying a unified approach integrating SCP with SP have not been addressed earlier. This study's uniqueness is finding integrable features of SCP and SP and constructing a dynamic-integrated-performance-system to link these domains for achieving strategic competitiveness.

How Satisfaction with Running Business and Private Life Are Related to Small-Business Owners’ Subjective Well-Being

This study examined how satisfaction with aspects of running the business as well as satisfaction with aspects of the private life are related to small-business owners' subjective well-being (SWB). Measures were obtained of both life satisfaction (LS) and emotional well-being (EWB) to investigate possible differences. Questionnaire data from a survey of small-business owners (n=614) showed that in the business domain LS is associated with satisfaction with revenues, EWB with satisfaction with customer and employee contacts, and both LS and EWB with satisfaction with working time. In the private life domain, LS is associated with satisfaction with family and economy and EWB with satisfaction with leisure. Overall, LS has a stronger association than EWB with satisfaction with aspects of private life, while the associations with satisfaction with business aspects are equally strong.

Privacy-Compliant Software Reuse in Early Development Phases: A Systematic Literature Review

ContextPrivacy-compliant software development has received substantial attention in recent years, especially with the growth of digital services and the emergence of privacy regulations and standards. The increasing popularity of open-source software repositories and reuse practices challenges privacy-compliant software development. ObjectiveThis paper aims to present the state-of-the-art in privacy-compliant software reuse, focusing on early development phases of requirements engineering, domain analysis and software design, as well as to discuss the current challenges that identify directions for future research. MethodWe conducted a Systematic Literature Reviews (SLR) and analyzed 61 papers published in the last two decades, in terms of their business and technological domains, followed reuse approaches, applied privacy strategies, and utilized evaluation approaches. ResultsThe reviewed studies vary in terms of business domains (e.g., healthcare, smart objects and finance) and technological domains (e.g., IoT, mobile, cloud and microservices). Most of the studies do not refer to a specific regulation and if so – to GDPR. Their common purpose is to support benign reuse, most notably through patterns, components & libraries and model-driven engineering, but malicious reuse is also researched to a lesser extent. A strong emphasis is put on integrating privacy strategies whose goal is building trust and transparency (in particular, inform and demonstrate), while other strategies are studied to a limited extent in software reuse context. Evaluation is commonly performed through analytical, observational and experimental approaches. ConclusionsThe operationalization of privacy compliance practices for existing software artifacts is still challenging. The challenges encompass improving trustworthiness of reused artifacts, ensuring privacy compliance in distributed architectures, bridging the gap between legal regulations and software requirements, enhancing privacy analysis and vulnerability detection, supporting late application of privacy strategies, and developing objective assessments for privacy-compliant software reuse.

A closed-loop analysis approach for ensuring stormwater source control design solution to achieve the intended goals

Stormwater source controls have been adopted worldwide to address hydrological and environmental impairments caused by the spread of impervious surfaces in cities. Current design method in China uses 30-year daily rainfall records to generate relationship of rainfall volume capture ratio (αg) and daily design storm, and then uses design storm to propose design solution. However, source control performance differs from rain to rain, and hence the design solution's actual effect may deviate from αg. Borrowing closed-loop feedback concept from business domain, this study proposes closed-loop analysis (CLA) which uses design solution's 30-year simulated result as data feedback to check design solution's effectiveness and then make improvements if necessary. It consists of four methods: 1) hourly design storm statistical method, for addressing the weakness of current daily design storm; 2) design solution model credibility examination method, for guaranteeing credibility of 30-year simulated results for CLA; 3) appropriate design storms determination method for source control without underdrain; 4) additional design parameters optimization method for source control with underdrain. Taking Xiamen city for example, case study results shows that design solution's 30-year simulated results were consistent/comparable with sizing calculation formula that was used to propose design solution, and therefore they were credible for CLA. Appropriate design storms ensured design solutions without underdrain to achieve the intended αg±3 %. Optimal design parameters combinations ensured design solutions with underdrain to achieve αg but also restore natural runoff events with pre- and post-development runoff frequency spectra similarity being 0.670–0.691. Based on stormwater mathematical model, CLA can drive source control design computation to a new methodological stage.

Valuation in emerging technoscience business: a case study of Finnish biobank research

PurposeThe paper contributes to the discussion on valuation in organization studies and strategic management literature. The nascent literature on valuation practices has examined established markets where producers and consumers are known and rivalry in the market is a given. Furthermore, previous research has operated with a narrow meaning of value as either a financial profit or a subjective consumer preference. Such a narrow view on value is problematic and insufficient for studying the interlacing of innovation and value creation in emerging technoscientific business domains.Design/methodology/approachThe authors present an empirical study about value creation in an emerging technoscience business domain formed around personalized medicine and digital health data.FindingsThe results of this analysis show that in a technoscientific domain, valuation of innovations is multiple and malleable, entails pursuing attractiveness in collaboration and partnerships and is performative, and due to emphatic future orientation, values are indefinite and promissory.Research limitations/implicationsAs research implications, this study shows that valuation practices in an emerging technoscience business domain focus on defining the potential economic value in the future and attracting partners as probable future beneficiaries. Commercial value upon innovation in an embryonic business milieu is created and situated in valuation practices that constitute the prospective market, the prevalent economic discourse, and rationale. This is in contrast to an established market, where valuation practices are determined at the intersection of customer preferences and competitive arenas where suppliers, producers, service providers and new entrants to the market present value propositions.Practical implicationsThe study findings extend discussion on valuation from established business domains to emerging technoscience business domains which are in a “pre-competition” phase where suppliers, customers, producers and their collaborative and competitive relations are not yet established.Social implicationsAs managerial implications, this study provides insights into health innovation stakeholders, including stakeholders in the public, private and academic sectors, about the ecosystem dynamics in a technoscientific innovation. Such insight is useful in strategic decision-making about ecosystem strategy and ecosystem business model for value proposition, value creation and value capture in an emerging innovation domain characterized by collaborative and competitive relations among stakeholders. To business managers, the findings of this study about valuation practices are useful in strategic decision-making about ecosystem strategy and ecosystem business model for value proposition, value creation and value capture in an emerging innovation domain characterized by collaborative and competitive relations among stakeholders. To policy makers, this study provides an in-depth analysis of an overall business ecosystem in an emerging technoscience business that can be propelled to increase the financial investments in the field. As a policy implication, this study provides insights into the various dimensions of valuation in technoscience business to policy makers, who make governance decisions to guide and control the development of medical innovation using digital health data.Originality/valueThis study's results expand previous theorizing on valuation by showing that in technoscientific innovation all types of value created – scientific, clinical, social or economic – are predominantly promissory. This study complements the nascent theorizing on value creation and valuation practices of technoscientific innovation.

Distributionally Robust Optimization Under Distorted Expectations

Optimal Decision Making Under Distorted Expectation with Partial Distribution Information Decision makers who are not risk neutral may evaluate expected values by distorting objective probabilities to reflect their risk attitudes, a phenomenon known as distorted expectations. This concept is widely applied in behavioral economics, insurance, finance, and other business domains. In “Distributionally Robust Optimization Under Distorted Expectations,” Cai, Li, and Mao study how decision makers using distorted expectations can optimize their decisions when only partial information about objective probabilities is available. They show that decision makers who are ambiguity averse can optimize their decisions as if they are risk averse with their risk attitudes characterized by a convex distortion function. This finding demonstrates why even non–risk-averse decision makers, such as those studied in the celebrated cumulative prospect theory, may consider it optimal to take risk-averse decisions when facing uncertainty about objective probabilities. Leveraging this finding, the authors show that a large class of distributionally robust optimization problems involving the use of distorted expectations can be tractably solved as convex programs.

The Impact of Job Training on Recruitment and Employability Skills Among Graduates

Purpose: The aim of the study is to examine the impact of job training on recruitment and employability skills among graduates by utilizing the self-perceived employability scale. Theoretical framework: the study is based on the evidence from the literature, we provide valuable insights through a literature review into the significance of job training for graduates in terms of recruitment and employability skills. Design/methodology/approach: This study used a sample of 190 graduate students who underwent job training with a specific company. Employability was measured by descriptive analysis using SPSS to assess questionnaire stability. The analysis also utilized Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) through the Smart-PLS 4.0 program. Findings: The findings of this study indicated a positive and significant relationship between job training and employment within the same company. This suggests that graduates who received training courses in their final year showed increased interest and likelihood of obtaining employment within the training company. Additionally, a significantly positive impact was found of job training on employability, highlighting the contribution of job training to the development and enhancement of employability skills among graduates. Research, Practical & Social implications: The results of this study strengthen employability skills among graduates, which holds implications for graduates seeking employment and organizations designing training programs to improve recruitment outcomes and employability skills within a company. Originality/value: The research value of this study is that it can positively grow the management and business domain, it has beneficial effects on both employed and unemployed individuals, with a greater impact on increasing employment opportunities for the unemployed.

Interactive Effects of CEOs’ Firm-Specific Experience and Versatile Experiences on Pursuit of New Growth Opportunity

Prior research has opposing views about the merits of firm-specific managerial experience, and empirical findings are mixed. To address this problem, we ask when firm-specific managerial experience is helpful versus harmful in pursuit of new growth opportunities. We propose that when CEOs’ firm-specific experience is combined with versatile managerial experiences, its growth-constraining effect is alleviated due to increased adaptability of CEOs' human capital to support growth in new business domains. We find support for this argument in a sample of U.S. food firms and their pursuit of the organic food opportunity during 1997 to 2007. We also find that CEOs’ versatile experience by itself is not sufficient for the pursuit of new growth, but it is when the two types of experience are combined synergistically that firms can achieve higher rates of opportunity pursuit. In this vein, our research reconciles the alternative theoretical perspectives on firm-specific experience and invites further consideration of experience combinations where both positive and negative synergies drive the ultimate impact of key managerial experiences.