Extant research examining the effects of top management team (TMT) gender diversity on firm performance report equivocal findings. We seek to enhance understanding of this critical relationship in the context of an acquisition, which necessitates changes in one or both firms during a process characterized by non-routine decisions, time pressures, high uncertainty, and frequent debates among strategic leaders. Specifically, we examine the effects of gender diversity of top management and female executives’ formal and informal power on post-deal performance. Our results indicate gender diversity has negative effects on post-deal performance. Further, in a subsample of acquirers with gender diverse teams, our results reveal that female executives’ structural power and ownership power have negative performance effects, while power conferred through an elite education has positive performance effects. Our findings highlight the need to expand gender diversity research to consider the strategic context facing diverse TMTs and power dynamics among them.

Despite prior research on political capabilities and their relationships with meaningful outcomes at work, it remains unclear why certain employees are incapable of successfully navigating workplace politics. To clarify this, our research develops and validates a measure of political self-efficacy at work (PSEW) across seven independent and varying samples. Evidence from faculty members and subject-matter experts in Study 1 provides initial support for the content validity of the new PSEW scale. Then, in Studies 2 and 3, we employ two separate samples to confirm the scale’s convergent and discriminant validity and factor structure. We repeat this process, in Study 4, on several new nomological neighbors (e.g., the Dark Triad traits, general political behavior, impression management, and political will). In Studies 5 and 6, using multi-wave and multi-source data, we assess the criterion-related and predictive validity of the PSEW scale, and in Study 7, we test our full theoretical model. Altogether, these findings verify the nomological network and validity of the new PSEW measure and provide theoretical and practical developments surrounding organizational politics.

In Asian workplaces, effective innovative work behavior (IWB) presents challenges. Knowledge on how Asian leaders can promote employee IWB through their behavioral repertoire is needed. This assumption prompted us to develop and validate the so-called Innovative Leader Survey (ILS), covering a repertoire of leader behaviors by which employee IWB is stimulated in Asia. Study 1 interviewed 60 high-performing leaders and employees on such behaviors, bringing forth three leader-behavioral dimensions and survey items for fostering employee idea generation, promotion, and implementation, labeled Envisioning, Energizing, and Enabling. Study 2 involved 1,037 survey respondents through which we validated these three sets of specific leader behaviors. Study 3, with 287 respondents, established ILS’s discriminant validity while all of its 11 operationalized leader behaviors were found to predict their followers’ IWB after 4 months. Future research with the ILS is proposed to enrich theory and empirical research on the relationship between effective leadership and employees’ IWB in Asian organizations.

Grounded in the organizational legitimacy perspective, this study examines the influence of formal institutional distance (FID) on the entry mode choice of Japanese cross-border acquirers. By disaggregating the FID variable using the Worldwide Governance Indicators, we provide a nuanced understanding of the relationship between FID dimensions and acquisition behavior. We find that out of the six disaggregated FID measures, three dimensions significantly impact acquisition decisions. Specifically, FID related to ‘regulatory quality’ and ‘control of corruption’ negatively affects the likelihood of full acquisitions, while FID related to the ‘rule of law’ positively influences full acquisitions. Our findings challenge the use of aggregated measures and highlight the importance of considering institutional variations. Japanese acquirers demonstrate a preference for higher control in uncertain legal environments. This study contributes to the literature by offering insights into the specific FID dimensions that drive the choice between partial and full acquisitions for Japanese firms.

The study aims to understand the interplay between sustainability strategy and the approach to sustainability reporting in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). To achieve this purpose, a case study is developed, examining four companies that exemplify different sustainability strategy types delineated by Baumgartner: introverted, extroverted, conservative, and visionary. According to the findings of the research, while it is possible to identify sustainability strategies based on the key defining elements of the adopted conceptual map, and to interpret the company’s perception and approach to sustainability reporting considering the sustainability strategy, integrating owner-manager values, stakeholder proximity, and supply chain dynamics the conceptual map becomes a more adaptable and practical tool for SMEs seeking to thrive in an increasingly sustainability-focused business landscape. The incorporation of these insights extends Baumgartner’s work, enhancing the comprehension of sustainability strategies within SMEs and providing implications for regulatory bodies, consultants, and managers.

The shift to telework and hybrid arrangements has prompted organizations to reevaluate leadership competencies specific to remote environments. Therefore, we developed the Leadership Competencies for Telework (LCT) scale, designed for telework settings and addressing new challenges such as telework-life balance and virtual distance. The validation process included two studies: (1) Two content validity panels with 27 experts, and (2) validation of the 67-item scale through a survey of 543 Spanish teleworkers. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a five-factor structure: Digital Communication, Digital Trust-Building, Remote Goal Management, Remote Relationships Development, and Telework-Life Balance Support. The scale demonstrated high reliability (α < 0.90 for all factors) and validity, correlating with key outcomes such as job satisfaction, professional isolation, telework-life conflict, and organizational citizenship behaviors. The LCT scale provides organizations with a validated tool for assessing and developing effective telework leadership. Future research could validate the scale through longitudinal studies, exploring its predictive power over time.

With a conceptual basis in conservation of resources theory, this paper investigates the relationship between employees' career plateau beliefs and their voice behavior, using parallel arguments that reflect resource-conservation versus resource-acquisition logics. The career plateau beliefs–voice behavior link, whether negative or positive, might be invigorated when employees encounter adversity in the workplace, such as due to work pressures (work overload and work–family conflict) or because of how their organization makes decisions (organizational politics and organizational underperformance). Survey data from employees in the Canadian information technology sector provide empirical support for the resource-acquisition logic: career plateau beliefs enhance employees' propensity to offer ideas for organizational improvement, particularly if they suffer from excessive workloads or conflicting work–family demands, perceive organizational decision making as political, and are unhappy about their organization's performance. These novel insights point to the critical role of a stagnated career in triggering, instead of dampening, proactive voice behaviors.

Existing studies agree that owner dynamic capabilities are crucial in dynamic environments. Based on a systematic literature review of 44 research with CiteSpace and the content analysis method, this study aims to elucidate the dimensions and key factors of owner dynamic capabilities. Owner dynamic capabilities are studied in the context of a construction project due to their resource-constrained, goal-urgent, and uncertainty characteristics. Cognition capabilities, resilient change management capabilities, integrated organization capabilities, and strategic innovation capabilities are identified as the dimensions. Critical factors have also been analyzed at different levels. This study proposes a discriminatory framework of owner dynamic capabilities that combined organizational ambidexterity and resilience. Moreover, this study contributes to the clarification of the concept of owner dynamic capabilities and the enrichment of their knowledge hierarchy. Practitioners can track the main contradictions that owners are currently facing against the actual situation and seek strategies.

Leader–member exchange (LMX), a well-researched leadership theory that focuses on the dyadic relationships between leaders and subordinates, is associated with positive subordinates’ outcomes. However, the contexts outside the LMX dyadic relationship might influence those favorable outcomes. In this study, we investigate the cross-level moderating effect of leader’s feelings of violation, as a contextual boundary, on LMX outcomes. Based on social exchange theory, crossover model, and the psychological contract literature, we discuss how the relationship between a subordinate’s perceived LMX and favorable subordinate attitudes and behaviors, such as performance, task-focused citizenship behaviors, and organizational commitment, is reduced when the leader experiences feelings of violation toward the organization. Using a three-wave time-lagged multilevel design with a sample of 226 subordinates and 39 leaders, we find that leader’s feelings of violation mitigate the positive association of perceived LMX on citizenship behavior and commitment but have no effect on performance. Research and practical implications are discussed.

The rapid evolution of digital technology has made it necessary to examine the digital transformation and firms’ innovation initiatives. However, prior studies have often oversimplified the relationship between ‘digital transformation’ and ‘innovation’ as linear. By integrating perspectives from search and recombination, attention-based views, and competitive strategy theory, this paper constructs a theoretical framework, revealing that the relationship between digital transformation and innovation is nonlinear. We analyzed 21,509 observations from 2,565 Chinese listed companies spanning the period from 2009 to 2019 and found an inverted U-shaped relationship between digital transformation and innovation. We also discovered that differentiation strategies and cost leadership strategies have different moderating impacts on this inverted U-shape. This study provides valuable insights for businesses seeking to effectively navigate the complexities of digital transformation and innovation.

We provide a meta-analytic examination of the CEO overconfidence–firm performance relationship. Our results support a positive relationship between these focal variables. Drawing from trait activation theory and national cultural differences literatures, we find that cross-cultural effects moderate the focal relationship. More specifically, we find that the CEO overconfidence–firm performance relationship is stronger in high assertive, low institutional collectivistic, low in-group collectivistic, high future-oriented, high gender egalitarian, high performance-oriented, low power distance, and low uncertainty avoidance cultures. Consistent with the resource orchestration literature, we also find that entrepreneurial orientation mediates the focal relationship between CEO overconfidence and firm performance. Taken together, our results present a more nuanced picture of the CEO trait–firm performance relationship. In the future, researchers may consider examining additional CEO traits as well as additional contextual factors including internal, as well as environmental, factors.

This study investigates the influence of perceived organizational support (POS) on employees’ intentions to recommend their employer or leave the organization. Based on social exchange theory, it explores how POS affects employee well-being and shapes behaviors such as loyalty and advocacy. An online survey gathered data from 604 French employees across various sectors, analyzing variables like POS, positive and negative well-being, and intentions to leave or recommend the employer. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the relationships among these variables and to test the mediating role of well-being. Results show that POS positively influences employee well-being. High POS is associated with improved positive well-being, which decreases the intention to leave and increases the intention to recommend. Similarly, reduced negative well-being linked to high POS lowers the desire to leave and lessens negative effects on recommendation intentions. The study confirms the mediating role of well-being between POS and employee intentions. The study provides new insights into the impact of POS on employee intentions by highlighting the pathways of positive and negative well-being. For human resource practices, strengthening POS is essential to boost employee retention and encourage positive behaviors, thereby enhancing the organization’s reputation and attractiveness.

This study examines the impact of organizational gossip on workplace outcomes, including affective organizational commitment, loneliness, and turnover intention, with a focus on differences between the public and private sectors. Using a mixed-methods approach, the research combines qualitative and quantitative data from surveys conducted with Turkish citizen partners and in-depth interviews with employees in both sectors. The findings reveal that positive gossip enhances social bonds and commitment, while negative gossip leads to loneliness and increased turnover intention, especially in the private sector where job insecurity is higher. The study introduces an integrated framework linking gossip dynamics to organizational processes. Practical implications suggest that managers should address negative gossip while promoting positive gossip to strengthen workplace relationships. This study highlights the dual role of gossip in shaping employee experiences and retention strategies.

While the importance of innovation alliance for high-technological firms is well-documented, existing literature provides little guidance on the role of performance feedback in an alliance governance structure choice. Drawing on performance feedback theory, this study sheds light on the association between performance deviating (either above or below) from firms’ social aspirations and the governance structure choice of innovation alliances. Using an unbalanced panel of Chinese biopharmaceutical firms spanning from 2007 to 2020, we find that firms experiencing negative performance feedback prefer a non-equity innovation alliance structure, whereas those with positive performance feedback are more likely to adopt an equity one. The strength of these relationships is contingent on top management team average tenure and educational-level diversity. Our findings both provide theoretical and practical insights into guiding how firms under different states of performance feedback select alliance governance structures.

Based on strategic human capital theory, this study examines the effects of star surgeons on two different types of healthcare outcomes (i.e., number of surgical patients and length of patients’ in-hospital stay after surgery) in the surgery department. We also explore whether the relationship between star surgeons and healthcare outcomes is contingent on the expertise disparity between star and non-star surgeons. The results of an empirical analysis on colorectal cancer surgeons in 80 departments in South Korean hospitals show that the number of star surgeons increases the number of surgical patients and reduces the length of patients' stay after surgery. Moreover, the positive relationship between star surgeons and the number of surgical patients is strengthened when the expertise disparity between star and non-star surgeons is low. The implications of these findings for research and practice are also discussed.

Leveraging the human capital specificity and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO)–top management team (TMT) interface literature, this study explores the impact of generalist versus specialist CEOs on R&D commitments by Indian firms under the boundary conditions of TMTs' functional and educational diversity. Based on a sample of 253 firms over a period of 6 years, in contrast to previous studies, our findings suggest that specialist CEOs are more likely to invest in R&D than generalist CEOs; however, when supported by functionally and educationally diverse TMT, the R&D commitment of generalist CEOs increases as well.

This study investigates the barriers that hinder the non-leading Brazilian higher education institutions (HEIs) in repositioning within the digital landscape based on dynamic capabilities. In-depth semi-structured interviews with top managers at six non-leading HEIs show that the main barriers include uncertainty about the traditional HEI future in the digital scenario, lack of strategic tools to reposition the HEIs, lack of knowledge about the cost-benefit of an institution’s digitization, lack of knowledge on how to implement changes, and lack of information on if an HEI should (or not) meet all the new stakeholder needs. These barriers prevent HEIs from successfully adapting to the digital era. Methodologies and tools are required to guide strategic decisions, perform digitization’s cost-benefit analysis, and implement changes that meet stakeholders’ evolving demands. By overcoming these barriers, HEIs can effectively implement dynamic capabilities, transforming the challenges of the digital age into opportunities for growth and innovation.

Fostering employees’ innovative work behavior (EIB) has become one of the most important tasks of leaders. Although numerous studies have investigated the relationship between leadership and EIB, it is still unclear which specific leader behaviors promote EIB. Previous research has focused on leadership in terms of broad, non-innovation-specific leadership styles. Behavioral sub-factors have been neglected, and prioritization according to the importance of individual behaviors is still lacking. To address these issues, we identify innovation-specific leader behaviors and analyze which behaviors are best suited to increase EIB. To explain the relationship between the respective leader behaviors and EIB, we rely on the Ability–Motivation–Opportunity (AMO) framework and distinguish between ability-enhancing, motivation-enhancing, and opportunity-enhancing leadership behaviors. Our empirical analyzes are based on data from 1214 German employees. Our findings reveal that motivation- and opportunity-enhancing leadership behaviors foster EIB, with certain innovation-specific behaviors being particularly important for EIB. Building on our results, we provide guidelines for innovation-specific leadership.

This study tests whether employee participation in different types of physical activity benefits employees' training stress and career satisfaction perceptions differently and if grit, as a psychological resource, mediates this relationship. In two samples, we assess whether (1) regular physical activity; or (2) exercise to reach a competitive goal have similar associations with employee outcomes. In study 1, we find no relationship between employee engagement in regular physical activity and the outcomes. Moreover, grit's consistency of effort mediates the physical activity – training stress relationship, exacerbating employees' training stress. In study 2, employee exercise reduces career satisfaction and increases training stress. Importantly, grit's perseverance dimension increases their career satisfaction, and the consistency of interest dimension lessens training stress. Thus, we find evidence that employee participation in different types of physical activity leads to divergent outcomes, and that grit as a mediator only benefits employees exercising for a competitive goal.

To explain why nurses intend to stay or leave their organizations after perceiving a psychological contract breach (PCB), we investigated whether perceived organizational support (POS) among nurses moderates the relationship between PCB and turnover intention (TI). We used a survey methodology targeting currently employed nurses. After controlling for nursing unit, POS accentuated the positive relationship between PCB and TI. The study contributes to literature by demonstrating (1) the impact of PCB on TI and (2) that POS explains why the strength of the positive relationship between PCB and TI varies among individuals. Results highlight the importance of fulfilling obligations and promises made by supervisors and managers to nurses. The findings suggest that when nurses with high POS perceive PCBs, the consequences may be more detrimental.