Organizational Boundaries Research Articles

A Semantic Lens on Smart Working: Unpacking the Theoretical Construct

The paper provides a semantic lens on the concept of Smart Working by unpacking its theoretical construct on the basis of the terms scholars have used over the last 30 years of research. Based on a co-words analysis, we detect nine distinctive dimensions of SW (Work dematerialization, HRM practices, Dispersed organization, Work enhancement, Business opportunity, Digital spaces, Inclusivity work, Individual mindfulness, Organizational boundaries) and four promising macro-areas (“Organizational and technological dimension”, “Networking”, “Individual psycho-physical wellness”, and “Social interaction”) that might be of support to scholars interested in deepening specific issues of SW and to practitioners and professionals involved in the definition of organizational policies in the current context. We therefore unveil the relationships among the dimensions and the most frequently addressed terms used in association with the concept of SW, and an overall holistic picture of the SW phenomenon and latent future research areas.

An Occupational Lens on Social Inequality

Social inequality, i.e., the unequal opportunities and outcomes based on social group membership, is one of the grand challenges of our time. The current literature on social inequality foregrounds organizational practices and structures that contribute to patterns of social inequality. Given that organizations distribute most of the economic and social resources in our society, this research has yielded important insights into the drivers of social inequality both within and beyond organizational boundaries. However, such studies have predominantly focused on patterns of vertical segregation of individuals across organizational ranks. This focus has distracted from patterns of horizontal segregation of individuals into different occupations and industries, based on their social group membership. In this symposium we seek to develop an occupational lens on social inequality by bringing together organization theorists whose work is exemplar of this new direction. This symposium, which is both timely and relevant, is grounded in recent empirical work. The experts will draw on their own research to discuss how an occupational lens can help us to better understand social inequality. In discussing patterns of intra- and inter-occupational dynamics of social inequality, we seek to generate insights from the rich studies that the panelists have conducted and elaborate on why and how an occupational lens can enrich our understanding of social inequality. The symposium should be immensely useful for researchers and practitioners looking to address social inequality within the workplace by not only focusing on broad patterns of social inequality across occupations but also by addressing some of the micro-dynamics of social inequality within the workplace. We hope that this symposium will provide a forum for discussion about an occupational lens on social inequality and provoke insights into future research direction.

Megaprojects: What’s the Purpose?

A powerful new conceptual understanding of a ‘megaproject’ as a purposeful form of organizing capital production is emerging. The theory, which is nascent, offers novel insights as to why delays, cost overruns and scope creep are so widespread in capitalintensive, project-based enterprises, and what we can do about it. Further, it sheds light on how these social technologies achieve their purpose of creating both economic returns and societal gains, and distributing value in a way that stakeholders that affect or are affected by the capital investment see as fair. This essay identifies implications to our understanding of the bundle of resources that needs to be assembled to progress with capital production, organizational boundaries and governance, stakeholder claims, and performance. I conclude by emphasizing how the purpose of a project is contextsensitive, and linking the insights on why megaprojects behave the way they do to wider debates on the role of stakeholders in strategic management and value creation.

Multicultural Employee Roles in New Product Development

Managing the product innovation process in multinational corporations is a major challenge, especially because these organizations operate across a multitude of boundaries: cultural, functional, and organizational. Based on a 18-months field study in a leading cosmetic multinational corporation, we found that multicultural employees who were hired at the headquarters mainly for bringing knowledge about local markets, actually performed several roles that went far beyond this initial purpose and, in the process, brought together the various components of the multinational corporation and its collaborators. Specifically, multiculturals engaged in bringing local and product knowledge for the development of products for the local market; pre-empting tensions and conflicts; solving conflicts; connecting disparate actors and creating synergies for the development of products for the headquarter and global markets. Through these practices, multiculturals reached across cultures, functions, and organizational boundaries, within the multinational’s home country and abroad. Our work enriches the understanding of the innovation process, of multinational corporations, and sheds new light on the contributions of multicultural employees to their organizations.

Dissolving Organizational Bounds - Does Blockchain Digitalize Trust?

The purpose of this paper is to gain an understanding of the practicality in using blockchain to share information across organisational boundaries. Previous research has shown trust plays an essential role in information-sharing, but this is not evident in current blockchain literature, which this paper seeks to change. First, the importance of trust in information-sharing is presented by summarizing current literature´s take on the role of trust in information-sharing activities in the supply chain through which an analytical framework is presented. Following this methods used for acquiring the primary data from the wind industry, the secondary data from blockchain literature and the method used for analysing said data through thematic analysis are explained. The empirical case of the wind industry is then presented and analysed by presenting the identified themes of 1) product update handling and master data; 2) transparency and traceability; and 3) collaboration. The trust framework presented in the theoretical background is then used to analyse the contents of the themes and the wind case. This leads to the first set findings for the paper; for supply chain-based blockchain to be successful trust must be a pre-requisite for the involved parties, but in addition blockchain also facilitates trust through information-sharing, thus making trust and outcome of blockchain as well. Finally, the paper discusses how blockchain currently ties to operational interactions and not those related to tactical or strategic interactions.

Make an Environmental Impact Beyond the Organizational Boundary through Green Leisure Crafting

In this research, we aimed to investigate whether green transformational leadership and green training may contribute to employees’ green leisure crafting, thereby improving their green behaviors in private life. We also investigated whether employees’ green value may amplify the impact of green leisure crafting on their green behaviors. The hypotheses are underpinned by self-determination theory and supply-value fit. Using a two-wave research design and studying a group of working individuals from a variety of industries in Taiwan (N=374), we found that green leisure crafting fully mediated the relationships between green transformational leadership and green training and green behaviors in private life and that green value strengthened the positive effect of green leisure crafting on green behaviors. Theoretical contributions, pragmatic implications, and future research avenues are discussed at the end of this research.

Financial Ambidexterity of the Immigrant Family Businesses: A Conceptual Perspective (WITHDRAWN)

Based on the multi-contextual nature of immigrant entrepreneurship, this paper theoretically introduces and discusses the ambidextrous ability of the IFBs’ owners overcoming the financing barriers in host countries. Namely, discussing the behavioral ability of the immigrant entrepreneurs in flexibly switching their exploration and exploitation for formal and informal financing between the multiple contexts where they are embedded. The paper build on a synthesis of different theoretical notions in constructing the term of ‘financial ambidexterity of IFBs’, namely, organized proximity, boundary work, and behavioral complexity. This theoretical synthesis is thoroughly discussed within the immigrant entrepreneurship framework. The paper proposes four mechanisms to derive the IFBs’ financial ambidexterity, and argues for boundary work and behavioral complexity as the critical drivers for ambidexterity. The paper provides four detailed models that illustrate each proposed mechanism, in addition to an overall model that gives a comprehensive view of the different phases of accumulating the IFBs’ financial ambidexterity. The paper mainly contributes to the literatures on family business and immigrant entrepreneurship by proposing how IFBs survive the financing barriers they face in host countries. The paper tries to advance the understanding about entrepreneurial financing using social, and behavioral perspectives like organized proximity, behavioral complexity, boundary work, and behavioral complexity. The ultimate theoretical construct of this paper explains a behavioral manifestation, entitled, ‘financial ambidexterity’ of the IFB owners in overcoming financing barriers in host countries.

Online Boundary Work: Performing Participatory Practices in News Production

In modern democracies, the journalistic profession has traditionally been organized to maintain an exclusive jurisdiction over the mandate to watch democratic processes in the service of citizens, hold the powerful accountable and inform citizens. This exclusivity has been possible by upholding a solid boundary between journalists and readers through mass news production and distribution and in practice exercising every citizen’s freedom of expression. Over the last 25 years, digitization has made possible for many to take part in news production, in different ways questioning the role and boundaries of the journalistic profession. This paper analyzes the online boundary work performed by journalists and readers in the development of an online participatory news practice. The ethnographic study of the French news website Rue89 shows the role of digital technologies as boundary infrastructures where organizational, professional and political boundaries between journalists and users are configured, collaborated across and contested in an ongoing and recursive process. The analysis of this case shows how the participatory digital infrastructure lasted over a long period of time and was made transparent, but never finished nor invisible. We thus suggest the notion of boundary infrastructuring to capture the performative role of digital technologies in online boundary work.

The Three Loci of Organizational Identity Work: Prospective, Current and Former Members

Organizations work continuously to form, maintain and change their identities. This identity work has this far has been assumed to be carried out only with respect to the members of an organization. In this longitudinal study of identity formation, maintenance, and change we show that the identity work of some organizations has multiple loci. The Swedish secondary school that sought to form and maintain an identity of an ‘excellent school’ directed its identity work not only at its current staff and students, but also towards its prospective as well as former students. Multiple loci of identity work, we argue, is typical for organization where the characteristics of the members are important to its identity. Ignoring the identity work directed at prospective members ignores its fundamental importance in setting the scope for any identity work that can be carried out with the members of an organization. Re- conceptualizing identity work to also include efforts directed outside the organization, furthermore, address the critique that the organizational identity literature is too narrow in its focus on the formal boundaries of organizations and it opens up for an understanding of the sometimes competitive interactions across the identity work of several organizations.

Relational Investments and Contractual Choices for Diverse Engineering Designs

Engineering design has a major impact on downstream performance, but is often guided, in both procurement and solution type, by intuition rather than a solid science base. Engineering is also increasingly collaborative, crossing organisational boundaries. However, the long-term close partnerships, as often proposed, are difficult to achieve in the context of individual engineering projects. Building on concepts related to investments in specific assets, this study describes the underlying characteristics of engineering design investments and then prescribes the relational investment and contract forms to select them, thereby contributing to our understanding of the engineering design and relational investments that can and should be made. We undertook multiple case study research, which is presented in two phases. The descriptive phase identifies positive outcomes for solutions based on off-the-shelf designs with fixed price mechanisms, for solutions based on adaptive designs with target cost mechanisms, and for bespoke solutions contracted either on cost-plus mechanisms or, if in bite-sized pieces, on fixed price mechanisms. Negative performance outcomes were found for adaptive solutions with Fixed Price mechanisms. A prescriptive phase, yielding a visualized model, then offers guidance for relational investments and contract mechanisms that are suitable for different engineering designs. Applicability zones and three potential transitions to challenge and guide current practice are developed to inform decision making.

Search for Innovation: Past, Present, and Future

The primary goal of the symposium is to reflect upon the rich contributions that search and recombination research has made so far and uncover promising questions for future research. The topics we aim to discuss in the symposium include 1) how we define search and its various dimensions, i.e., depth, breadth, local, distant, etc. 2) how does organizational boundary spanning influence search and learning behavior of firms 3) what are the implications of different search and recombination strategies such as simultaneous vs. sequential, for subsequent innovation outcomes 3) how do the new technological advancements challenges the behavioral assumptions underlying the search process and what are the opportunities that new technology evolution presents? 5) what is the role of cognition or individual beliefs in structuring the search processes, particularly in nascent industries? 6) What are the empirical implications of theoretical developments such as different measurement methods and inherent trade- offs involved in such selection.

Media Review: Age at Work: Ambiguous Boundaries of Organizations, Organizing and Ageing

Media Review: Age at Work: Ambiguous Boundaries of Organizations, Organizing and Ageing

Impact of Managerial Reputation and Risk-Taking on Enterprise Innovation Investment From the Perspective of Social Capital: Evidence From China.

China’s enterprises established in the emerging economy are relatively short of technological innovation resources; therefore, these enterprises need to make use of managerial reputation to break through organizational boundaries in order to obtain richer social capital and reshape their technological creativity to cope with the complex and a changeable international economic situation. This corporate phenomenon also serves as the key for China’s economy to advance to the stage of high-quality development. Based on the panel data of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2007 to 2016, this paper adopts the Heckman two-stage evaluation model to empirically study the impact of managerial reputation on enterprise innovation activities, the moderating role of corporate governance, and the mediating role of risk taking. From the standpoint of social capital, the findings indicate that managerial reputation promotes enterprise innovation investment. The mechanism test reveals that this correlation is realized through the mediating role of risk taking. Furthermore, the promotion effect of management reputation on enterprise innovation investment is stronger when the enterprises adopt the CEO duality, the larger board size, higher management ownership, and stronger equity restriction. The conclusions of this study confirm the important role of social capital in enterprise innovation in the context of the Chinese economy. The study implications also enrich and expand the research on the influencing factors of enterprise innovation investment that focus on the managerial reputation and provide important business inspiration for enterprises to build reputation management strategy and promote the transformation and upgrading of local enterprises.

The Construction of Ecosystem and Collaboration Platform for Enterprise Open Innovation.

In the era of the knowledge economy that is filled with intense competition, formal closed innovation can no longer meet the market demand. The enterprise needs to implement open innovation involving external resources. The concept of open innovation emphasizes both the use of internal and external resources in the process of enterprise innovation and the use of internal and external markets to promote the commercial application of innovation achievements. With the rapid development of Internet technology, enterprises must build an open innovation ecosystem of benefits-sharing, identify, connect, and utilize external innovation resources, and be committed to creating an open innovation ecosystem without organizational boundaries. Enterprises should pay attention to coordinating the relationships among the innovation ecosystem members, eliminating heterogeneous barriers between enterprises and their partners, and enhancing their cooperative innovation ability with external organizations. It is also necessary to build a collaborative innovation platform convenient for the release and acquisition of innovation information, the collection of customer needs and related ideas, and the full use of external resources for innovation. In particular, it is necessary to guide users and related resources to the innovation platform, realize the maximum effect of resource aggregation, and promote customer demand-oriented new product development. Through building an open innovation ecosystem and a collaboration platform, it is helpful for enterprises to seek all kinds of technical and resource support, enhance their ability of independent innovation, promote the emergence of many innovative achievements, and realize value co-creation and win-win cooperation with partners.

Integrated care in Western Europe: a wise solution for the future?

ABSTRACT Introduction IC is a term commonly adopted across the world underpinning a positive attitude against fragmentation of healthcare service provision. While the principles supporting IC are simple, their implementation is more controversial. Areas covered The growing number of IC definitions is related to the increasing domains of applications, which reflect the increasing demand induced by aging multi-morbid patients. A comprehensive definition of IC should now include the coordination of health and social services useful to deliver continuous care across organizational boundaries. The recent debate on IC is largely influenced by the mismatch between the increasing burden of health and social needs for chronic conditions from the demand side, and the design of health-care systems still focused on acute care from the supply side. Expert opinion The major reasons of persisting IC weakness in European countries stem from arguable choices of health policy taken in the recent past. The political creed in ‘market competition’ is probably the most emblematic. All initiatives encouraging health-care providers to compete with each other are likely to discourage IC. Since most European GPs are still self-employed professionals working in their own cabinets, the anachronistic professional status of GPs is another historically rooted reason of IC weakness.

What We (Do Not) Know About Punishment Across Organizational Boundaries

Though organizational scholars have studied punishment for decades, recent examples of punishment in organizations cannot be fully explained by the scholarly literature. This may be because much of our prior understanding of punishment has been based on studies in highly bounded organizations, but with the shift to remote work arrangements and contract or freelance work, modern organizations are becoming increasingly boundaryless. Does punishment in bounded organizations look different than punishment in boundaryless organizations? To answer this question, we review and categorize the literature on punishment in organizations according to the boundedness of the organization it examined. We find that though there are similarities in punishment in bounded and boundaryless organizations, punishment in boundaryless organizations involves different actors, punishing different situations, for different reasons, using different methods. However, many questions about punishment in boundaryless organizations remain, including about the pervasiveness, motivations, and impacts that punishment has in boundaryless organizations.

SMEs and digital transformation during a crisis: The emergence of resilience as a second-order dynamic capability in an entrepreneurial ecosystem

In this research, we examine how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) build their resilience capability during a crisis, through the adoption of digital technologies. Utilizing a qualitative approach grounded in case studies of eight entrepreneurs from India who had to radically change their business models and operations during the COVID-19 pandemic, we develop a multilevel model of resilience capability: at the micro (entrepreneur), meso (organizational), and macro (entrepreneurial ecosystem) levels. In developing resilience, the SMEs alternate their focus: from concentrating on the core to moving toward the periphery of their organizational boundaries, highlighting a shifting play of the three first-order dynamic capabilities of sensing, seizing, and transforming. By affording SMEs an opportunity to transform themselves by embracing digital technologies, the crisis leads to the emergence of resilience capability as a second-order dynamic capability.

Value Impedance and Dynamic Capabilities: The Case of MedTech Incumbent-Born Digital Healthcare Platforms

During the last decade, MedTech companies started to invest in building digital healthcare platforms to maintain their competitiveness in the Digital Economy. However, launching a new digital platform business revealed several challenges that MedTech incumbents must overcome, including value impedance. This is caused by digital transformation gaps, which, when left unmanaged, can stall digital healthcare platforms’ growth and even lead to their demise. This article distills four dynamic capabilities: sensing the internal environment, value-capturing through connectedness, orchestrating silos, and transforming organizational boundaries. These mitigate value impedance and bestow competitive advantage to MedTech incumbents’ digital platform business.

Delphi study to derive expert consensus on a set of criteria to evaluate discharge readiness for adult ICU patients to be discharged to a general ward—European perspective

Background/purposeDischarge decisions in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients are frequently taken under pressure to free up ICU beds. In the absence of established guidelines, the evaluation of discharge readiness commonly underlies subjective judgements. The challenge is to come to the right decision at the right time for the right patient. A premature care transition puts patients at risk of readmission to the ICU. Delayed discharge is a waste of resources and may result in over-treatment and suboptimal patient flow. More objective decision support is required to assess the individual patient’s discharge readiness but also the current care capabilities of the receiving unit.MethodsIn a modified online Delphi process, an international panel of 27 intensive care experts reached consensus on a set of 28 intensive care discharge criteria. An initial evidence-based proposal was developed further through the panelists’ edits, adding, comments and voting over a course of 5 rounds. Consensus was defined as achieved when ≥ 90% of the experts voted for a given option on the Likert scale or in a multiple-choice survey. Round 1 to 3 focused on inclusion and exclusion of the criteria based on the consensus threshold, where round 3 was a reiteration to establish stability. Round 4 and 5 focused on the exact phrasing, values, decision makers and evaluation time frames per criterion.ResultsConsensus was reached on a standard set of 28 ICU discharge criteria for adult ICU patients, that reflect the patient’s organ systems ((respiratory (7), cardiovascular (9), central nervous (1), and urogenital system (2)), pain (1), fluid loss and drainages (1), medication and nutrition (1), patient diagnosis, prognosis and preferences (2) and institution-specific criteria (4). All criteria have been specified in a binary decision metric (fit for ICU discharge vs. needs further intensive therapy/monitoring), with consented value calculation methods where applicable and a criterion importance rank with “mandatory to be met” flags and applicable exceptions.ConclusionFor a timely identification of stable intensive care patients and safe and efficient care transitions, a standardized discharge readiness evaluation should be based on patient factors as well as organizational boundary conditions and involve multiple stakeholders.

The role of brokers in cultivating an inter-institutional community around open educational resources in higher education

Brokers are individuals who facilitate transfer of knowledge and resources, and coordinate efforts across boundaries of organizations. They are defined by their role rather than their organizational position. Brokers might be imperative for the formation and maintenance of inter-institutional relationship as they have the responsibility and the necessary structural position to connect otherwise separate groups. In the context of this study, brokers had the role to cultivate an inter-institutional community around open educational resources (OER) by connecting groups of teachers across higher education institutes. OER provide higher education institutes with an aid to face the challenges of improving teaching and learning. Yet most OER users encounter challenges that relate to finding resources that are relevant, up-to-date, and of good quality. Communities could minimize this issue, but many OER initiatives fizzle out as expanding their impact is an arduous task. This qualitative descriptive study draws upon cultural-historical activity theory to understand the complexities associated with the role of brokers in creating sustainable collaboration on OER across 15 higher education institutes in the Netherlands. Data was collected from project documents, process reports, reflections reports, and a retrospective focus group. The findings show that brokers engaged in a wide variety of actions but that a small-scale, personal, and content-oriented approach to encourage teachers to engage with the OER repository and the online community was perceived as the most valuable. Brokers also experienced conflicts due to the demanding context they were operating in, the ambiguity of their role, and the organizational constraints they were confronted with. Practical implications refer to supporting higher education institutes that wish to initiate sustainable collaboration across institutes.