The purpose of this paper is to: (a) offer rationale for the importance of an increasingly important organizational management topic – the wisdom of top managers – what we call executive wisdom; (b) develop a theoretical framework for the construct, including core components and outcomes, and (c) provide implications for practice. The research in several related literatures is reviewed and synthesized to provide the foundation for the development of this theoretical framework. Applying the extant literature on wisdom to the specific context of a top-level business manager, we argue that there are four foundational characteristics of executive wisdom: (1) Knowledge, developed by prior learning and experience, (2) moral maturity, (3) reflective strategic decision-making, and (4) ability to manage uncertainty. Executives possessing such characteristics are: (a) able to make enlightened strategic judgments that are (b) implemented as principled actions. The effectiveness of such implementation is contingent upon, among other moderators, the executive's leadership skills. We view each of the characteristics as necessary but not sufficient to possess and benefit from executive wisdom. The principled actions undertaken by those possessing executive wisdom will, when compared to other executives, have a greater likelihood of leading to valued outcomes indicative of organizational effectiveness, including enhanced stakeholder trust and loyalty, reputational capital, and stronger financial and social performance. We believe that the main arguments developed in this paper will help improve managers’ understanding of how to become a wise executive and to realize the benefits of doing so. From a theory perspective, this paper adds to the growing body of literature in a new and increasingly valued area of research.

This study focuses on firms’ search behavior with regard to corporate R&D investment. Building on Cyert and March's (1963) behavioral theory of the firm, we develop specific hypotheses about how firms adjust their R&D investment in response to performance discrepancies, and how this adjustment varies for two types of slack resources. Moreover, by utilizing institutional logic, we also hypothesized that the firms’ search behaviors in response to performance feedback may differ between business-group affiliated and unaffiliated firms. Empirical evidence from panel data coving 274 Taiwanese electronics firms listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange over the period 1999–2008 is consistent with our theoretical predictions. In particular, we find that firms will increase R&D investment when they faced discrepancies in performance, but will decrease R&D spending when close to bankruptcy. Moreover, our results show that unabsorbed and absorbed slack have different impacts, positively and negatively affecting R&D investment, respectively. In addition, we find that both business group-affiliated and unaffiliated firms will increase R&D investment in response to negative performance feedback, but only business group-affiliated firms will increase R&D activity when facing positive performance feedback. Furthermore, we also find that only business group-affiliated firms have a greater inclination to invest in R&D when there is unabsorbed slack. Our findings extend the claims of behavioral theory in newly industrialized economies, and identify the important factors that need to be considered in future studies.

This research project seeks to contribute to the literature on management by presenting and testing a model of leadership linking leadership styles directly to culture type and indirectly to firm effectiveness. The authors selected a four-factor theory of leadership and examined how it directly impacted organizational culture, and indirectly impacted organizational effectiveness (via an organization's culture). Using surveys designed to measure attitudinal and behavioral indicators of organizational culture, leadership, and effectiveness, we collected data from 2,662 individuals in 311 organizations. The results generally support the hypotheses that organizational effectiveness is related to type of culture and that cultural norms are related to type of leadership styles. The results have implications for management and organizational development practices and processes. The results indicate that the leadership skills of managers and supervisors are critical factors in the creation and reinforcement of cultural norms. Furthermore, cultural norms seem to positively impact organizational effectiveness.

This study investigates how family control influences entry mode choice between joint ventures and wholly owned subsidiaries. Based on past studies revealing family-controlled firms’ unique concerns regarding the preservation of socioemotional wealth, the researchers posit that, firms with higher family control respond more drastically to perceived environmental uncertainty when choosing their entry mode. The researchers hypothesize that, when perceiving high environmental uncertainty, firms with higher versus lower family control are more likely to choose joint ventures. However, when perceiving low environmental uncertainty, firms with higher versus lower family control tend to choose wholly owned subsidiaries. The empirical results obtained from a sample of 1,644 investments undertaken by publicly listed companies in Taiwan support the hypotheses.

Increasingly, innovation in services is brought to market by a network of firms, or alliance networks, asset orchestration, knowledge sharing capabilities, resources and competencies, and operated in a coordinated manner. Recent literature has recognized the evolutionary nature of dynamic capabilities in that managers may adapt their alliance networks dynamically to sustain competitive advantage, as well as identified a continuing gap in the lack of empirical studies on feedbacks between network environments, dynamic capabilities, and innovation performance. In addition, other literature calls for more quantitative research on examining dynamic capabilities in a network environment to provide a better understanding of how firms should direct their resources and capabilities to successfully respond to competition. This study contributes towards closing both gaps by empirically examining the cumulative and incremental effects of fostering and deploying different dynamic capabilities on services innovation, and by quantifying their impact, thus providing managers with a better account of how services innovation comes about in a service value network. It does so using empirical data from 449 respondents from a telecommunications service provider in Australia and its partnering organizations, using structural equation modelling.

Emerging empirical evidence has noted that multimarket firms may not always behave in ways that are consistent with their multimarket positions. Assuming multimarket ties between firms exists that are sufficient to permit tacit agreement among them to refrain from aggressive competition, we describe how additional factors are likely to affect the decision of managers of multimarket firms to abide by such an agreement. In particular, we focus on factors that are likely to make the negative consequences of violating a tacit agreement of mutual forbearance more salient and those that encourage managers to direct their firms to behave in more cooperative ways.

Business groups not only help affiliates circumvent market imperfections, but they also have great influence on the economic development of emerging markets. This study applies three ways to clarify the influence of business-group effects on affiliate performance. First, this study finds that the business group can explain a respectable portion of the variations in affiliate performance. Second, this study examines the impact of family ownership, resource abundance, and resource dispersion on affiliate performance and finds that group size and financial resources positively affect affiliate performance, while family ownership and group diversification do not have a significant effect on affiliate performance. Finally, the magnitude of business-group effects is subject to the ownership and resources of each business group. Family groups, large groups, and highly diversified groups have smaller business-group effects, while groups with high financial resources have greater business-group effects, indicating that business-group effects are heterogeneous and dependent on different group features. This study provides support to the resource-based and the institution-based views of business groups.

Workaholism is an important workplace phenomenon that has received less empirical testing than might be expected. This study of 100 New Zealand blue-collar workers tested whether three dimensions of the workaholism triad: work involvement, drive to work and work enjoyment were related to anxiety, depression and insomnia, and in the majority this was supported. Work involvement was positively related to all outcomes, while work enjoyment was negatively related. Drive to work was positively related to anxiety and insomnia only. Overall, consistently, large amounts of variance were explained by the workaholism triad. While previously untested in the literature, a three-way interaction of the workaholism triad was found towards anxiety and insomnia. Overall, higher work involvement was useful in buffering detrimental outcomes for those with either high work involvement or high drive to work, but not both. The present study provides a new way of understanding the effects of workaholism in the workplace.

Mentoring and coaching practices are helping businesses grow by supporting the development of their human capital. Family businesses have a unique atmosphere and distinctive features that make it especially important to discover whether mentoring and coaching affect their performance. We have used a resource-based vision and knowledge-based vision to analyse this relationship using structural equation methodology in a sample of 630 companies. The results show that there is a direct relationship between mentoring and coaching and the performance of family businesses.

Te Ao Māori, or the Māori world, locates Māori philosophy, ethics and knowledge (wisdom) in a central role, and is therefore foundational to Māori thinking and practice. In this article, we present an example of pragmatic leadership, using the epistemological and ontological space of kaupapa Māori, a perspective that represents practice guided by the wisdom of Te Ao Māori. To do so, we draw from narrative shared by 22 Māori practitioners involved in leadership roles in a wide range of organisations to illustrate key features of Māori leadership practice. We argue that this approach offers a unique contribution and deeper understanding to the contemporary and instrumental representation of pragmatic leadership. Such a perspective allows researchers to explore leadership practices, particularly those that may be heavily influenced by culturally specific behaviours. In regards to practitioners, it provides foundation for innovative leadership practices grounded on giving weight to more deeply contextualised processes and relations. The consequences are widespread not only for researchers and practitioners of leadership, but also for a perception of indigenous leadership that is true to the indigenous logics in which they are grounded and reflective of good practice.

Traditional approaches to leadership assert that leadership is a definite quality of leaders. In contrast, the social constructionist approach conceptualises leadership as a quality of observers. The goal of this paper is to show how this philosophical base can be used to create a teaching strategy for leadership. In this strategy, there are three learning objectives: understanding the philosophical approach; revealing students’ lay theories of leadership; and, skill development. The lessons revolve around understanding how leadership perceptions form so that students appreciate how they are influenced and, in turn, how they might influence other people's perceptions of themselves.

The present study examined the contributions of mindfulness meditation practice on job burnout, a choice of stress coping styles, and job satisfaction. The online survey data were obtained from 93 meditation practitioners and 54 non-practitioners in Thailand (total n = 147). Results from partial least squares regression suggested that respondents who had regularly practiced mindfulness meditation tended to report lower burnout. In addition, they tended to adopt more problem-focused coping and less emotion-focused coping in order to deal with work-related stress. The author also found that regular mindfulness meditation practice also contributed indirectly to higher job satisfaction.

Uncertainty, which is an inherent characteristic of cultural industry in the sense that no one can accurately predict the success or failure of cultural goods, increases greatly when organizations export cultural goods overseas. Then, when exporting cultural goods, how can organizations manage the risks of uncertainty to improve their export performance? Focusing on the case of the Korean movie industry, this study shows that strategies such as market signaling, generalist strategy and vertical integration can contribute to improving the export performance of movies, and thereby help organizations effectively manage the risks of uncertainty arising from the export of movies. For the analysis, this study uses the data of all Korean movies released from 2000 to 2004, and analyzes them on the basis of negative binominal regression. The findings of this study help us understand what strategies are needed for organizations in cultural industry to manage the risks of uncertainty arising from the export of cultural goods.

Supporting on recent theoretical approaches to the concept of familiness based on the notion of social capital, this study analyzes the composition of top management teams in non-listed family firms and its effect on the performance of these firms. An empirical analysis comprising 929 Spanish private family firms highlights the positive and significant influence of the inclusion of non-family managers, the family nature of top executives, as well as the presence of the founder. The study includes no significant results regarding homogeneity within family managers, or the interaction between a top family executive and the proportion of non-family managers.

This paper, with its multilevel design including 90 work groups in South Korea, proposes and examines how distributive justice relates to job stress, and thus leading to turnover intention at the individual level, and how this relationship is affected by empowerment climate at the group level. The results of hierarchical linear modeling show that employees’ perception of distributive justice was negatively related to job stress. We also find that job stress partially mediated the influence of distributive justice on turnover intention. In addition, at the work group level, the empowerment climate decreased employees’ job stress, and the negative relationship between distributive justice and job stress at the individual level was moderated by the empowerment climate. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Despite the fact that the majority of studies have suggested that it is beneficial for organizational performance, some empirical evidence has generated contradictory results concerning these variables. For this reason, this research attempts to look in-depth at the relationships between trust and organizational performance, using organizational learning capability as an explanatory variable. To confirm the hypotheses, the structural equation technique was used on data from a survey carried out in Spanish firms with recognized excellence in human resources management. The results obtained show that, in these firms, organizational learning capability mediates in the relationship between trust and organizational performance.

Typically most studies of individual employees perceptions of the work place adopt multiple regression models (ordinary least squares [OLS]) which ignore inherent clustering in their data. However, such an approach does not supply unbiased and accurate answers to research questions. This study intends to simulate three data alternatives – weighted, disaggregated (individual level), and aggregated (organizational level) using the OLS and multilevel models to compare the results of different research designs. To answer the research questions, the current study investigates the impact of individual and organizational factors on job satisfaction, using a 2000 USA National Partnership for Reinventing Government survey. This study presents the methodological misuse and measurement errors of the previous research and presents guidelines for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to examine firms’ adoption of corporate social responsibility activities and the efficacy of such activities in specific contexts and industries. This paper analyses the specific context of the Spanish construction and real-estate industry. By using a longitudinal multi-case approach, the study suggests links between market orientation and corporate social responsibility. The research also identifies two profiles of firms. The first group, which is proactive (e.g., market oriented), demonstrate altruistic concerns about consumers and corporate social responsibility; for the second, which is more reactive, their concerns about corporate social responsibility are more opportunistic and aimed at attracting additional customers or responding to competitive pressures.

The purpose of this study is to gain insight into the relations between gender, networking behavior and network structure, in order to investigate the relevance of gender for organizational networks. Semi-structured interviews with 39 white, Dutch, women and men account managers were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. Our study's results show that the men account managers employ exchange and affect-based trust networking and, to a lesser extent, authoritative networking, whereas the women account managers employ affect-based trust and also use exchange. Authoritative networking appears to foster higher status ties, exchange networking behavior fosters lower status ties and affect-based trust networking fosters equal status ties. Gender differences in network structure may be explained by networking behavior rather than by gender. Our study is limited by the size of our group of respondents (n = 39). A larger sample is needed to test hypotheses concerning the relations between networking behavior, network structure and gender in a more rigorous manner than our study allowed. However, our research material enabled us to test these relations in a sound, be it preliminary way. Our study suggests to focus less on gender as a demographic bivariate category to explain gender differences in network structures and outcomes. In so doing, organizational network research will gain more insight into how gender expectations are negotiated in networking. In organizational practice, this will support organization members to employ the diversity of networking behaviors necessary to generate optimal network structures and outcomes. While most organizational network research focuses on network structures, we introduce the relational process of fostering network relations as central to women's and men's networking behavior. Networking behavior may have greater explanatory power for differences in network structure, than gender as a demographic, bivariate variable.

Prior studies on strategic management and entrepreneurship have argued that entrepreneurial orientation (EO) is positively associated with performance when firms face certain contingencies, specifically, the dynamism of the external environment and the attributes of resources/capabilities owned by the firm. However, the current empirical evidence is inconclusive. This study advances the argument that the interactive effects of EO, environmental dynamism, and the rareness of resource–capability (rareness) combinations positively influence firm performance. By combining data collected via a secondary database and a questionnaire survey from 237 public firms in Taiwan, this study finds that EO positively influences firm performance. The EO–performance relationship is further moderated by the rareness of resource–capability combinations and environmental dynamism. It is also found that firm performance is collectively determined by the three-way interactions of EO, rareness, and environmental dynamism. That is, when firms own rare resources and are located in a dynamic environment, EO will lead to improved performance.