Multilevel Conceptual Framework Research Articles

Conceptualizing HRM system strength through a cross-cultural lens

To date, literature on HRM system strength has been largely universalistic, that is, it has not considered the implications of context. This is problematic as it overlooks a more detailed exploration of the outcomes of HRM system strength in different situational settings. Adopting a contingency approach, we develop a multilevel conceptual framework and propositions for future research that incorporate context at a societal level, focusing on national culture values. By adopting a cross-cultural lens, we are able to explore the effects of cultural values on the relationship between employee perceived HRM system strength and employee attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. Furthermore, we apply the notion of cultural tightness/looseness, questioning the degree of national cultural value effects in all settings. Our work contributes to the HRM process field in general and HRM system strength in particular by questioning the assumption of universality, and highlights implications for practice and future research.

Enhancing innovation through behavioral stimulation: The use of behavioral determinants of innovation in the implementation of eco-innovation processes in industrial sectors and companies

The existence of a more sustainable chemical and petrochemical industry has been a long-standing aspiration and demand of modern industrial societies. In this respect, sociotechnical transition processes that hold the principles of green chemistry and green engineering as their main design frameworks represent a promising approach to progress the Brazilian petrochemical sector toward advanced states of sustainability. This raises a number of challenges that are related to the understanding of how such processes could be effected, how sectoral agents' willingness to embrace such trajectories could be stimulated and enhanced and how the main agents, mechanisms and actions, which are integral to the implementation of these processes, could be identified. Drawing on behavioral and innovation theories it was possible to develop a testable and generalizable multilevel conceptual framework that made it possible to learn, document and explain the extent to which companies were willing to engage in such eco-innovation processes and to identify its significant determinants. Thereby, more efficient and effective transition policies could be developed for helping to overcome the dissonance between intention and behavior. The results provided evidence of the central importance of a host of stakeholders and partnerships for developing the conditions and stimuli for the implementation of technical and non-technical changes at the company and sectoral levels.

Policy advice as policy work: a conceptual framework for multi-level analysis

This article argues that policy advice can be understood as a special kind of “policy work” that depends upon a diverse set of factors operating at different levels. The basic aim of the article is to disentangle this multi-level and multifaceted phenomenon into a conceptual framework that can be used for empirical analysis and theory building. In that framework, policy advice is conceptualized as a never-ending interaction among various actors in a specific institutional context, through which routines and norms are both reproduced and abolished. First, it is explained why policy advice is most fruitfully understood as a special kind of policy work, and then how it relates to other policy work activities. Second, problems with single-level approaches are discussed and the need for a multi-level approach is explained. Third, a multi-level conceptual framework is formulated and described. Fourth, some possible applications of the framework are illustrated with examples from current empirical research. The article concludes with implications for research and theory building.

Towards a framework for understanding transitional green entrepreneurship

The serious and complex environmental problems confronting today’s society highlight the urgent need to effect a transition to a greener, ecologically sustainable future. This article presents a multilevel conceptual framework to advance understanding of this transition. Aligning with entrepreneurship as agency for social change, it captures the nature of transformative social change by employing different levels of social innovation (incremental, institutional and disruptive), and change (local, institutional and systemic change), associating each level with a type of social change agent, namely, green entrepreneurs or ‘ecopreneurs’. The contemporary climate of social change overlays this integrative framework. Hence the temporal context links ecopreneurial activities to their political economy, socio-technological and cultural contexts, and the intensity of social action provides momentum for scaling their impact. New Zealand examples and insights drawn from the 2014 ‘Transitional green entrepreneurs: Re-thinking ecopreneurship for the 21st century,’ Symposium, in Sweden, illuminate the framework.

Evidence-based psychosocial treatment in the community: considerations for dissemination and implementation.

In psycho-oncology care, steps toward dissemination and implementation of evidence-based treatments (EBTs) have not been made. For this to change, factors associated with real-world dissemination and implementation must be identified. In the community, providers, their organizations, and patients are key stakeholders. A focused review of literatures in continuing education, dissemination, and implementation of mental health services is provided. Early-career providers are most ready to implement as they have greater openness and more positive attitudes toward EBTs. Current continuing education practices to teach EBTs have limited effectiveness. Instruction using interactive strategies tailored to therapists' clinical needs and the provision of post-education consultation is needed. There is tension between EBT delivery with fidelity and the necessity for adaptation. EBT service provision is the key outcome of implementation, and documenting such is important to patients, providers, and organizations. A multilevel conceptual framework, Setting, Therapist, Education, imPlementation, and Sustainability, is offered and provides directions for dissemination and sustainable implementation. Guidelines from the Commission on Cancer of the American College of Surgeons and the American Society of Clinical Oncology underscore the timeliness of the proposed framework to move EBTs from the research settings where they were developed to the practice settings where they are needed.

Grasping the dynamics of co-evolution between PMO and PfM: a box-changing multilevel exploratory research grounded in a routine perspective

Organizations’ poor performance results in losing 10.9 percent of their investment in portfolios of projects which shows their inadequate management of strategic initiatives. Thus the development of Portfolio Management of projects (PfM) as an organisational capability that enables organisations to align their projects with organizational strategy on the one hand, and concurrently, the raise of Project Management Offices (PMOs) to support executives ensuring strategic alignment across the portfolios, organizations establish. PMO supports PfM to fill the gap between strategy formulation and implementation. While PMO forms show a variety of structures in different organizational settings and transformations over time within the same organizational setting, there is still no clear understanding of how PMO evolves in its short life span in conjunction with PfM practices. However, the understanding of co-evolution processes of PfM practices and PMOs as organizational settings remains unclear, partly because the past and current studies rely on a being ontology in order to study change and evolution and because they are mostly based on single level or flat perspective locating phenomena in “a web of interconnections”. Taking a routine perspective and a process and becoming view we offer in this exploratory study: 1. A multi-level conceptual framework unveiling the dymamics of co-evolution between PfM practices and PMO as organizational / organizing entities. To this regards this research could be called a box changing research as, if the primary point of reference is the PfM and PMO literature, we call for routine lens. 2. An assumption challenging approach based on a process and becoming ontology, supporting a somehow innovative research, involving a multilevel or tall view linking local praxis level, i.e. PfM routines, with higher level of structure and system, i.e. PMO.

A conceptual framework for analysing the impact of influences on student engagement and learning

The notion that ‘customer satisfaction’ should be the ultimate measure of quality provision of any service organization is often accepted in the higher education context. However, measuring the quality of an educational institution based on students’ satisfaction is insufficient as it diverts the focus from student development, advancement and growth to an affective evaluation of the service. More appropriate measures of quality of higher education institutions are student engagement and learning. This study describes the likely impact of perceived overall quality of higher education institutions on student engagement. The contribution of this study is twofold. First, it draws attention to the importance of higher education institution quality as the main institutional-level determinant of student engagement and, second, it suggests a comprehensive multilevel conceptual framework for its empirical testing.

Trajectories of internalizing symptoms across childhood: The roles of biological self-regulation and maternal psychopathology.

Whether internalizing symptoms increase or remain at similar levels throughout childhood is currently not well understood. Moreover, the association between vagal regulation of cardiac activity and internalizing symptoms across childhood needs to be clarified. We used a multilevel conceptual framework to examine how children's vagal regulation of cardiac activity and mothers' internalizing symptoms were jointly associated with children's developmental trajectories of internalizing symptoms from ages 4 to 10 years old. Data came from 384 children who participated in an ongoing longitudinal study. Children and their mothers came to the research laboratory at ages 4, 5, 7, and 10. Mothers reported their children's and their own internalizing symptoms. Children's vagal regulation of cardiac activity was assessed during quiet baseline tasks and during challenge tasks. Multilevel models revealed that child internalizing symptoms increased from ages 4 to 10 years old, but only in females, and especially between ages 7 and 10. More vagal withdrawal in response to challenge was associated with more internalizing symptoms, particularly with more somatic symptoms. Associations between children's physiological regulation and internalizing symptoms differed by children's age, sex, and presence of maternal internalizing symptoms. Understanding associations between vagal regulation of cardiac activity and internalizing symptoms during childhood calls for fine-grained developmental analyses that take into account the heterogeneity of internalizing symptoms, as well as developmental phase, context, and gender.

What’s the Bandwidth for Democracy? Deconstructing Internet Penetration and Citizen Attitudes About Governance

Recent world events have highlighted the democratic potential of information and communication technologies. This article draws upon the democracy literature to develop a multilevel conceptual framework that links country-level Internet penetration and individual-level Internet use to citizen attitudes about governance in 34 developing countries. In doing so, it deconstructs “Internet penetration” into three dimensions—hardware (e.g., computers), users, and broadband—to provide greater theoretical specificity about how Internet diffusion leads citizens to adopt democratic attitudes. Results from multilevel analyses indicate that individual Internet use and the diffusion of Internet hardware shape citizens’ perceptions of the supply of democracy in their countries, and individual Internet use and diffusion of broadband lead citizens to adopt stronger democratic preferences. Theoretical and normative implications are discussed.

Comparing the role of boundary organizations in the governance of climate change in three EU member states

A plethora of institutional forms has emerged whose remit is to link climate change science to policy-making. These can be understood as boundary arrangements where science and politics meet and intertwine; when formalized these may be referred to as boundary organizations. This article examines boundary organizations and their role in climate change governance in three EU member states: Germany (FRG), United Kingdom (UK) and the Netherlands (NL). A multi-level conceptual framework and tentative causal model steer the comparison. It demonstrates how context at the political-cultural and problem governance levels is crucial to understanding the operation and impact of boundary organizations. We find that the climate change policy issue is generally treated as a moderately structured problem with goal agreement. However, given this problem structure, ‘climate change’ is framed differently: as primarily economic (UK) or environmental (FRG) or in between (NL), and as primarily mitigation (UK, FRG) or adaptation (NL). In all countries, but in FRG and the NL more than in UK, climate change issue politics is split in two sub-arenas: one ‘environmental’ (to do with adaptation), the other ‘economic’ (to do with mitigation and/or energy transition). National boundary arrangements are more (FRG, NL) or less (UK) stable over time, between bureaucratic-cum-advocacy and technocracy-cum-learning in all three countries, depending on policy domain, policy stage and political context at the time. They in turn sit within national political-cultural spheres that we characterize as, for this policy issue, primarily corporatist (NL), personalized and meritocratic (UK), and corporatist veering towards consensual (FRG). The multilevel conceptual framework for mapping boundary arrangements and detecting causal patterns therefore serves to satisfactorily describe, compare and explain national differences in expert advice on climate change policy

Executive summary of “Value creation through knowledge management in franchising: a multi-level conceptual framework”

Executive summary of “Value creation through knowledge management in franchising: a multi-level conceptual framework”

Value creation through knowledge management in franchising: a multi-level conceptual framework

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to present an integrative systems model of knowledge management (KM) across the franchisor-franchisee-customer triad. The conceptual development of this paper focuses on the areas of knowledge development, knowledge transfer and knowledge use within the context of dyadic monitoring, and key relational outcomes (partner congruence, relationship quality, perceived conflict, opportunism), and performance results (franchisor, franchisee and customer welfare).Design/methodology/approach– This paper critically reviews the relevant literatures in order to address three conceptual goals exemplified by the following research questions. How does knowledge development and organizational learning effectively facilitate knowledge transfer and knowledge usage in franchise systems? What role does monitoring play in the relationship between the knowledge management processes and the welfare of franchisors and franchisees? How does the process of knowledge management (development, synthesis, transfer, usage) influence franchisor, franchisee and customer welfare?Findings– An extensive review of the literature results in ten key research propositions being offered and these are graphically presented in the conceptual model in Figure 1. This model represents a multi-level perspective of KM which provides a solid platform for future empirical studies and further academic discussion.Originality/value– This paper makes two key contributions. First, through adopting an integrative KM perspective it draws attention to many (as yet) unanswered questions concerning the franchise relationship. Second, it re-positions KM research beyond consideration at a singular (firm, employee, supplier or customer) level by focusing on intra-firm and firm-customer linkages in the value creation process.

Expatriate knowledge utilization and MNE performance: A multilevel framework

We present a multilevel conceptual framework of expatriate knowledge utilization. Drawing from the resource-based view and multilevel approaches to expatriate utilization, we describe how individual expatriate characteristics (task-related and intercultural competencies, and motivation to transfer knowledge) and international adjustment, as well as subsidiary characteristics (absorptive capacity and knowledge sustainability) influence knowledge transfer effectiveness. We also draw from outward knowledge transfer and expatriate learning perspectives to address the cyclical nature of the process. As such, we include the effect of expatriate learning not only in continued knowledge flows to the subsidiary, but also in knowledge flows to the home division. We offer several implications for research on practice, including the notion that knowledge transfer to the subsidiary should continue upon repatriation, and that outward knowledge transfer can begin before repatriation. The framework reiterates that expatriates are valuable human capital and a source of sustained competitive advantage to the MNE.

The ‘state of exception’ and disaster education: a multilevel conceptual framework with implications for social justice

The term ‘state of exception’ has been used by Italian political theorist Giorgio Agamben to explain the ways in which emergencies, crises and disasters are used by governments to suspend legal processes. In this paper, we innovatively apply Agamben's theory to the way in which countries prepare and educate the population for various types of emergencies. We focus on two main aspects of Agamben's work: first, the paradoxical nature of the state of exception, as both a transient and a permanent part of governance. Second, it is a ‘liminal’ concept expressing the limits of law and where ‘law’ meets ‘not-law’. We consider the relationship between laws related to disasters and emergencies, and case studies of the ways in which three countries (England, Germany and Japan) educate their populations for crisis and disaster. In England, we consider how emergency powers have been orientated around the protection of the Critical National Infrastructure and how this has produced localised ‘states of exception’ and, relatedly, pedagogical anomalies. In Germany, we consider the way in which laws related to disaster and civil protection, and the nature of volunteering for civil protection, produce exceptional spaces for non-German bodies. In Japan, we consider the debate around the absence of emergency powers and relate this to Japanese non-exceptional disaster education for natural disasters. Applying Agamben's work, we conclude by developing a new, multilevel empirical framework for analysing disaster education with implications for social justice.

A conceptual framework for thinking now (and organising tomorrow) the agroecological transition at the level of the territory

The strong negative impacts of agriculture on the environment, combined with the energy crisis and the slowdown of the productivist model, has led to two forms of regreening of agriculture. One, called "weak ecological modernisation" corresponds to the implementation of good agricultural practices that improve input efficiency. The other, called "strong ecological modernisation" is based on ecosystem services provided by biodiversity. It corresponds to a paradigm shift due to the complexity in designing and implementing it. Strong ecologisation of agriculture requires to deeply revise farming systems, resource management at the territorial/landscape level, and the agrifood chain. After reviewing the principles underpinning this type of agriculture, we analyse the strengths and weaknesses of three conceptual frameworks (farming systems, socio-ecological systems and socio-technical systems) with respect to this goal. We then propose an interdisciplinary multi-level conceptual framework integrating and articulating the three previous ones. It describes the nature of the system affected by this agroecological transition. This framework formalizes a system of actors whose behaviour is determined by formal and informal norms and agreements, interacting via technology, with farms, landscape and agrifood chain resources. This conceptual framework is intended to be used to analyse current agricultural systems at the territorial level and design strongly ecologised agricultural systems or "territorialized agroecological systems." In the following, we analyse the conditions for the implementation of the strong ecologisation of agriculture. We emphasize in particular the diversity of innovations to promote, the diversity of actors to coordinate, and therefore the need to implement a participatory, holistic, transdisciplinary and "localized" (so called "territorialized") design approach of the features of agroecological transition.

Project Team Social Capital, Safety Behaviors, and Performance: A Multi-level Conceptual Framework

The current Hong Kong construction industry safety state of affairs are undesirable. While a myriad of safety approaches have been adopted in the industry through normative compliance, error prevention, and climate intervention, the situations remain dismal. One of the reasons for the ineffectiveness of these approaches to ensure construction projects’ safety performance is the mismatch between the approaches’ rigid and static formulations of construction operations that are put to use in the operations that are emergent and dynamic. We propose that the deficiency can be rectified through the project team adaptive inputs and interactions that are grounded in the project team social capital. We (1) explore such possibility by establishing the theoretical underpinning through extant literature and (2) propose a conceptual framework befitting a relational approach to ensuring project safety outcomes. To accomplish the objectives set forth above, we conduct literature search and review in the domains of social capital, construction safety, social psychology, and small team research. Through the process of convergent and refinement of the literary domains, we put forth a conceptual framework that can be put into empirical test. The framework reveals that project team social capital can be modeled as a multi-level phenomenon emanating from individual level network structure. These structural features, together with the relational and cognitive features at the group level, influence the individual safety behaviors, and in turn, their safety outcomes. The analysis through literature review and modeling have shown that project team members’ safety behaviors are influenced by the interaction of both the individual and group level relational phenomena. This study enriches current safety research agenda by highlighting the effects of team dynamics in safety performance. In this respect, we also provide methodological suggestions to empirically test the framework.

Sources and management of tension in co-opetition case evidence from telecommunications satellites manufacturing in Europe

Co-opetition is filled with tension due to inherent contradictory and opposing forces. In this research, we develop a multi-level conceptual framework that helps to understand key drivers of tension in co-opetition and key approaches to managing the tension. We combine literature-based conceptual arguments and insights from in-depth study of one exemplar case of co-opetition between Astrium (EADS group) and Thales Alenia Space (Thales group) within the sector of telecommunications satellites manufacturing in Europe. Our findings highlight multiple sources of co-opetitive tension at different levels. Further, our research shows that a mixed organization based on both separation and integration of competition and cooperation is helpful to understand and effectively manage tension in co-opetition. This paper offers case-based rich insights on the sources and management of tension and has important implications for the design and conduct of future empirical research.

Institutional transitions, global mindset, and EMNE internationalization

Recently revised theoretical explanations of the internationalization process have been offered to specifically account for the propensity of Emerging Market Multinationals (EMNEs) to engage in accelerated internationalization. However, this literature stream has yet to consider how the fundamental institutional transitions occurring in emerging markets promote the individual and organizational level global mindset that helps account for this accelerated, proactive international expansion. Our dynamic multi-level conceptual framework examines the influences of both the home country institutions and intra-organizational mindsets on the development of EMNE outward FDI decision making. This framework contributes to extant literature by integrating conceptualizations of national culture with the informal and formal institutions offered by institutional theory, while examining how fundamental shifts in these influence the intra-organizational context. Furthermore, our conceptual framework adopts a multi-level perspective of global mindset as an antecedent of firm decision making and adds to the global mindset literature by arguing that institutional transition is a macro level antecedent of global mindset.

English

This paper focuses on CSR integration in strategic management and control systems, with particular reference to the reasons which lead firms to strategically manage social dimension and the consequences in terms of social performance. The goal of the paper is to develop a conceptual framework which enables us to understand the relationship among contextual factors (internal and external), strategic control tools and mechanisms supporting management processes in corporate social responsibility, and results of socially oriented actions. Based on the research goals, we referred to the conceptual methods that aimed at theory building; we have used a methodology which combines inductive approach (creation of a mental model based on direct observation of the phenomena and on the analysis of the significant literature) and deductive approach (analytical explicitation of the mental model and identification of the logical relationships between concepts). In defining conceptual framework this paper applied an analysis perspective of integrative, multilevel and systemic type which included: the identification and evaluation of antecedents, elements and consequences; the study of cause-effect relationships, moderator effects and mediator effects. The conceptual induction refers to the integration of occurrences and instances to infer the nature and the working of the system. The induction process is related, on the one hand, to the long experience of the two researchers in the direct observation of the firms’ social aspects, and on the other hand, to the analysis of significant literature on CSR. This process contributed to define the mental model which the conceptual framework is based on. However, induction stops with the mental model and deduction begins with the conceptual framework and its ramifications and predictions. The deductive process is connected to the detailed explicitation of mental model; this process is realized by the development of the conceptual framework based on the identification of the propositions (logical relationships between concepts). In this phase, the literature analysis was used as a preliminary validation (theoretical or empirical) of the propositions.   Key words: Corporate social responsibility, corporate social performance, strategic management, strategic control, performance measurement, multilevel conceptual framework

Research on angel investing: a multilevel framework for an emerging domain of inquiry

We develop a multilevel conceptual framework of angel investing grounded on prospect theory. The framework provides an integrative foundation for this emerging domain of inquiry, delineates the boundaries of the domain, synthesizes research to date into distinctive levels of analysis, and identifies potentially interesting relationships between constructs across levels and across time. We discuss the domain's relevance and the opportunities it affords for insights into a variety of theoretical perspectives and develop propositions to illustrate the potential for unique contributions with a multilevel approach. The focus on angel portals and networks highlights the need for an extension of the multilevel paradigm for organizational phenomena that exhibit permeable boundaries.