Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand the role of risk-taking attitude as an important antecedent to corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives.
Design/methodology/approach The authors use regression models on a sample of 2,136 publicly traded US companies over a 10-year period.
Findings Corporate risk-taking encourages the pursuit of CSR initiatives and internal (i.e. board strength) and external (i.e. financial analysts) corporate governance mechanisms strengthen that relationship.
Originality/value While pursuing CSR initiatives involves financial and reputational risks that are evident by the variability in the outcomes (e.g. firm value) of firms that have historically undertaken CSR initiatives, to the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first paper to theoretically explain why risk-taking is an important antecedent to CSR and empirically test that relationship.
Human capital attributes, such as political skill, motivate employees and relate to their success. While political skill is associated with greater objective (i.e. salary) and subjective (i.e. career satisfaction) career success, the strength of these relationships has been inconsistent. Grounded in social identity theory, therefore, we propose and test the hypothesis that in certain types of contexts, political skill may be more strongly associated with subjective career success than objective career success. The sample ( N = 856) was taken from a large family-controlled financial services firm in Ecuador. Using Smart Partial Least Squares (PLS) structural equation modeling, our results showed that, in the unique Ecuadorian context, political skill is more strongly related to career satisfaction than to performance evaluations or salary. In addition, the relationship between political skill and career satisfaction is partially mediated by affective commitment. Theoretical explanations of how political skill operates in non-Western contexts have not been addressed in the extant literature. As such, our single-culture context provides an elaboration-type advancement in political skill theory by testing the boundaries of the theory in very specific contexts. This work contributes to cross-cultural management research by providing a reason for why specific employee skill sets may be developed in different ways depending on cultural specifics. As such, excelling at certain work skills may be much more socially complex when cultural dynamics are taken into consideration.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand the implicit motivations of entrepreneurial philanthropists during different stages of their lives.
Design/methodology/approach The authors follow a Historical Organization Studies approach by performing a psychobiographical analysis using McClelland's Thematic Apperception Test on the autobiography of Andrew Carnegie across different stages of his life while considering the historical context.
Findings The configuration of the implicit motivations of entrepreneurial philanthropists change with achievement motivation decreasing and power motivation increasing over time explaining the shift of focus from self to others.
Originality/value While researchers have been theorizing and using interviews to uncover shifts in entrepreneurial motivations, this is the first paper to longitudinally uncover implicit motivations to explain why successful entrepreneurs give back later in life.
Purpose– The purpose of this study is to examine an historical account of an effective leader who was able to draw from multiple styles of leadership, and choose a dominant style based upon contextual constraints and demands context, and subordinate behaviors associated with leadership styles not suited to the context.Design/methodology/approach– To identify his prominent style at each leadership episode, we critically analyzed Nehemiah's leadership role transitions across 13 chapters of text using sociohistorical method and a quasi-repeated treatment design via qualitative comparative analysis.Findings– We found that Nehemiah adapted his behaviors such that his prominently displayed leadership style varied based on dynamic configurations of demands placed on him during his rebuilding efforts. As Nehemiah progressed through distinct stages of his mission, he differentially emphasized tactics associated with different styles of leadership in response to the contextual demands that were most salient during each stage.Practical implications– Organizational leaders are presented with evidence that developing a broad repertoire of leadership behaviors is essential to guiding followers within dynamic environments.Originality/value– This paper uses a novel historical source material to investigate contemporary leadership concepts grounded in established theoretical frameworks. Using this material, we demonstrate the applicability of various leadership styles within different contexts, and use Nehemiah as an illustration of an effective leader capable of fluidly enacting multiple leadership styles.
PurposeAlthough green management has gained legitimacy as a sustainable business practice, little is known about the elements that will lead to the long-term success of the movement. To identify these elements, this study aims to review the existing literature on social movements and analyzes archival data from a specific social undertaking, the Hispanic Civil Rights movement in the USA.Design/methodology/approachA historiographical approach was used in which systematic combining used abductive logic to developed a provisional framework based on the interpretation of secondary sources of data concerning the Hispanic Civil Rights movement. Subsequently, an ethnomethodologically informed interpretation of primary data based on the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) archives refined the provisional framework.FindingsThe authors identified common elements that are critical to the success of social movements, as supported by both secondary data on the Hispanic Civil Rights movement and primary data based on the LULAC archives. These elements consist of: ideology, identity, mobilization, goals, leadership and integration. Using these results, a pseudo-gap analysis approach was completed by systematically comparing the interpretive data with current knowledge of the green management movement to identify the missing gaps and to offer guidance for further development of green management as a contemporary movement.Social implicationsApplying the lessons learned from social movements will help the development and prosperity of the green movement in current business organizations. Such applications are important, given that local and global environmental crises can have profound implications on ecosystems, economics and social systems.Originality/valueSocial movements are an important means by which societal concerns such as injustices are addressed. By identifying the important elements needed for the green management movement to be successful in the long term, managers will know where to put their efforts. Such actions may help environmental awareness in business organizations to become more than a fad or marketing tool.
ABSTRACTA significant body of literature focuses on learning mediated by technology (eLearning). We conceptually develop and empirically test a model of trust antecedents with online undergraduate students. Contributing to the student eLearning success literature, we posit that eLearning students require the support of technologies and trust in those technologies to feel satisfied with their learning and perceive that they will have a positive learning outcome. This study considers the effect of culture by comparing the trust and satisfaction of American and Latin American students in eLearning technologies. By conducting this study in two countries that differ in terms of national culture power distance and individualism, we learned that culture directly and significantly impacts trust in learning technologies. Culture also significantly changes the strength of the relation between trust and satisfaction. Future research directions and implications for researchers and higher education instructors are discussed.
DeRue and Ashford (2010) proposed a social process of leadership identity construction, asserting that leadership identity is co-constructed by way of claims and grants of leader and follower identities. In addition, these authors suggested that the collective endorsement of the broader social context might serve as a catalyst to initiate the leader identity construction process. As a result, they called for qualitative studies to further develop this idea. During archival research of James Meredith's historic integration of the University of Mississippi, we discovered evidence to support and extend their theoretical arguments. Accordingly, we interpret the archival evidence of support and opposition of Meredith's defiant integration to contrast the leader identity construction processes of Meredith with his contemporary antagonist, former Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett. We use this analysis to illustrate how the distinctive social context broadly recognized the key element of defiance and collectively endorsed Meredith as a leader, thereby initiating his leader identity construction process.
