European Management Review

Publisher:: Wiley
Publication date:: 2021-02-01

ISBN:: 1740-4754

Issue Number

Latest documents

Managers’ Corruption Prevention Efforts in Small and Medium‐Sized Enterprises: An Exploration of Determinants
Based on an extension of the theory of planned behavior, this paper examines the determinants of managers’ corruption prevention efforts in small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). For this, we collected survey data from 339 managers in German SMEs and conducted five supplementary in‐depth interviews. Our quantitative findings show that the SMEs’ managers’ moral obligation, subjective norm, self‐efficacy, perceived controllability, and perceived threat of employees’ corrupt behavior are positively related to managers’ intention to apply corruption prevention measures in their SME. This intention in turn is positively related to the application of such measures as is the managers’ perceived controllability. The supplementary qualitative analysis mostly supports these results. Based on our findings, we identify starting points to reach a higher sensitization of managers in SMEs to corruption prevention.
Making Risk Management Strategic: Integrating Enterprise Risk Management with Strategic Planning
Enterprise risk management (ERM) is an established management practice and is increasing in prominence as more firms spend substantial resources implementing ERM frameworks, partially induced by regulatory requirements. Yet, there is a lack of knowledge as to whether such frameworks add value and, if so, how the performance enhancing dynamic works. Drawing on survey data from 260 of the largest firms in Denmark, this study analyzes these empirical questions and finds that ERM is associated with higher profitability and lower financial leverage, and that strategic planning enforces these favorable outcomes. The study develops a new multidimensional measure of adherence to ERM practices where earlier studies typically have relied on dichotomous proxies. We discuss the implications of these findings for ERM practice and strategic management in general.
Organizational‐Social‐Capital, Time and International Family SMEs: An Empirical Study from the East of England
Previous studies on family‐SME internationalization have largely focused on what resources are needed to drive an incremental process rather than how resource management occurs in historical time. This paper focuses on the latter, adopting a social capital perspective (capturing both internal, i.e. among family‐SME board members, and external, cross border agent dyads, relations) in order to decipher case study data from the East of England. Findings show that it is not the presence or absence of organizational‐social‐capital that affects family‐SME internationalization success but rather its variable use over the years driven by the future pursuit of longevity, not growth. Key within this context is the variable use of the international expertise and management capability of non‐family managers in the family SME intra‐organizational context. Ultimately this may lead to change and learning that occurs erratically, often including reversals, without causing family‐SME progression across a sequence of incremental stages.
Perceived Managerial and Leadership Effectiveness in UAE and Egypt: A Comparison through the Combined Lenses of Islamic Work Ethics and Islamic Leadership
We conduct an emic replication study of managerial and leadership effectiveness in UAE, thereby addressing the paucity in extant literature of indigenous management research in non‐Western countries. Second, we compare our findings from the UAE study with those from a similar study previously conducted by author 3 in Egypt, to reveal that there are considerable similarities in the perceived effectiveness and ineffectiveness of managerial behavior across these two countries, but also considerable differences. Finally and most importantly, we examine the findings from the two studies through the combined conceptual lenses of Islamic Work Ethics (IWE) and Islamic Leadership (IL). We find that more than half of positive and negative Behavioral Statements emerging from these studies are grounded in the principles of IWE and IL, implying that these principles exercise significant influence on followers’ Implicit Leadership Theories, and consequently their perceptions of managerial and leader behaviors. Theoretical and managerial implications are also offered.
Migrant CEOs: Barriers and Strategies on the Way to the Top
This study discusses the main barriers that qualified migrants face in their route towards becoming chief executive officers (CEOs) along with the strategies they employ in their quest to reach the top. The study was conducted in France, a leading economic power with a long history of migration. A relational analytic framework was adopted, where in‐depth interviews with migrant CEOs were triangulated with accounts from native CEOs, organizational leaders, and institutional actors. It emerged that meso‐ and macro‐level factors created powerful barriers to advancement, while migrant CEOs tended to deploy four career strategies, two of them reactive – adaptation/adjustment and overcompensation – and the other two proactive – differentiation and manoeuvring. In addition, substantial differences were identified in the accounts of migrant CEOs and the other participants as to the existence of barriers and awareness of these by organizational actors.
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An Organizational Perspective on Patenting and Partnering: Unpacking Capacities to Manage Participation in Patent Pools
In this research, we investigate how firms manage their participation in patent pools, which are private interorganizational arrangements for sharing patents on a large scale. Drawing on the licensing and open innovation literature, we develop a conceptual framework to analyze the organizational capacities that enable firms to manage their participation in patent pools. We illustrate and enrich this conceptual framework through an in‐depth study of Technicolor. Our findings show that the company develops and leverages its patent portfolio to strengthen its positions both as a licensee and licensor vis‐à‐vis the pools’ members through two articulated capacities: absorptive and desorptive. We also reveal how the company assesses opportunities to join patent pools and continues to integrate more patents. The organizational perspective articulated in this paper enhances the understanding of patent pools and expands the literature on licensing and open innovation.
Editorial
Design Thinking and Social Enterprises: A Solution‐Focused Strategy for Social Enterprise Research
Had we had the vantage point of centuries of experimentation with social enterprises, separating the wheat (i.e., successful social enterprises) from the chaff, empirical social enterprise research could be on the verge of making a contribution. But since social enterprises as a mass phenomenon are relatively new, the output of empirical research must be taken very carefully because it may actually support doomed business models. It is thus submitted that a design thinking approach to social enterprise research that involves a solution‐focused strategy of knowledge production is needed. The latter consists of addressing the internal inconsistencies of a well‐established general theory when trying to account for social enterprises, similarly to how a designer addresses the shortcomings of an original chair design to come up with something more suitable. It is argued that a solution‐focused strategy of knowledge production will make scientific breakthroughs in the field of social enterprises possible.
A neglected pool of labour? Frontline service work and hotel recruitment in Glasgow
The paper presented considers soft skills in the hospitality sector and explores how managers in four hotels in Glasgow, Scotland enact recruitment and selection processes. Empirically, the analysis is based on a rich cross case comparison including interviews, observations, attendance at training events and analysis of hotels’ recruitment and selection policies. Conceptually, the analysis draws on the work of Pierre Bourdieu and Andrew Sayer, portraying an understanding of social class as a social, economic, and cultural category and people's agency as shaped by their habitus and lay normativity. Crucially, the paper reveals the pivotal role individual managers play in enabling and constraining opportunities for employment in the enactment of hotel recruitment policy and engagement with job applicants and new recruits. Overall, the analysis suggests that, despite many deterministic analyses of class, an organization's recruitment, learning and development strategies, plus management's commitment to make a difference, can positively impact on those who might otherwise be part of a neglected pool of labour.