Understanding interorganizational network evolution

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Harini K.N. ◽  
Manoj T. Thomas

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the available insights regarding interorganizational network evolution. The research questions being addressed are as follows: What is the nature of interorganizational network evolution? And what causes interorganizational network evolution? The review hence focuses on the nature of interorganizational network evolution (at the ego-network level and whole-network level) and the causes of interorganizational network evolution (firm-related causes and environmental causes). This paper highlights relevant gaps in the existing literature on interorganizational network evolution while outlining a research agenda by identifying key research questions and issues requiring further scholarly contributions to stimulate research in this field. Design/methodology/approach An extensive review of scholarly peer-reviewed English language journal articles was conducted in the subject areas of economics, sociology, business and management (including entrepreneurship) while excluding articles in the domain areas of computer science that dealt with computer networks and the health field that addressed neural networks to obtain articles on interorganizational network evolution for the period 1970-2019. Various journal databases such as EBSCO, ScienceDirect (Elsevier), Emerald, JSTOR and ABI/INFORM and Ebook Central on ProQuest were used to extract relevant articles using specific keywords. Findings To better understand this phenomenon of interorganizational network evolution, there is a need for future studies to focus on the less researched areas such as the “nature of evolution” of EINR1, EINR3 and EINR4 and the “causes of evolution” of FRC3, FRC5, FRC7 and FRC8. Further, over the years, in comparison to the evolution of interorganizational network relationships (EINR), fewer works have considered the evolution of overall interorganizational network structure (EINS). The research studies on environmental causes (EC) have been less in number in comparison to firm related causes (FRC), and this could be an area for further research. Also, studies on interorganizational network evolution have not examined the impact of FRC1 on EINR 3 and only a few studies have examined the impact of FRC1 on EINR1 and EINR4. Less attention has been given to the impact of FRC2 on EINR1, EINR3, EINR4 and EINS. Additionally, the impact of FRC3 on EINR1, EINR3 and EINS needs more in-depth examination. The impact of FRC4 on EINR4; FRC5 on EINR1, EINR2 and EINR4; FRC6 on EINR1 and EINS; and FRC7 and FRC8 on all forms of “nature of interorganizational network evolution” requires more research work. Finally, the impact of EC on EINR3 and EINR4 is also a less researched stream in the literature needing more scholarly contribution to better understand the phenomenon under consideration in this study. Some of the least explored theoretical lenses and relevant questions that can be addressed using these lenses to advance research on network evolution have also been discussed. Originality/value The main contribution of this paper is that it provides a comprehensive literature review, collating the dispersed knowledge on interorganizational network evolution – nature of evolution and causes of evolution, identifying areas that require further research attention for the development of this domain.

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geetanjali Pinto ◽  
Shailesh Rastogi ◽  
Sanjeev Kadam ◽  
Arpita Sharma

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study the general trends in the area of dividend policy which will help to identify fertile research streams in this area with a potential for further investigation. Design/methodology/approach To conduct a systematic literature review, the authors use a three-step methodology to collect resources and thus evaluate the research work done in the area of dividend policy. First, the necessary data are extracted from the Scopus database using the relevant keywords. The initial search results are then narrowed down to include only English language journal publications which are stored in the file. Finally, this file is used as primary data for data analysis. Data analysis is done using bibliometric and network analysis tools to recognize the trends in dividend policy to help researchers identify emergent areas for future work to be done. Findings This study reveals that research in the area of dividend policy is rapidly expanding since 2005; affiliation statistics show that majority of the publications are done in the USA and the UK; and many questions linked to dividend decision remain unanswered, especially in respect of emerging markets. Originality/value There is a need to organize the literature and understand the different areas that have been explored by many researchers. This study attempts to recognize the important research studies, determine the current areas of research attention, provide an understanding for current research interest and provide guidelines for future studies in the area of dividend policy.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aasif Ahmad Mir ◽  
Sevukan Rathinam ◽  
Sumeer Gul

PurposeTwitter is gaining popularity as a microblogging and social networking service to discuss various social issues. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a global pandemic and is discussed worldwide. Social media is an instant platform to deliberate various dimensions of COVID-19. The purpose of the study is to explore and analyze the public sentiments related to COVID-19 vaccines across the Twitter messages (positive, neutral, and negative) and the impact tweets make across digital social circles.Design/methodology/approachTo fetch the vaccine-related posts, a manual examination of randomly selected 500 tweets was carried out to identify the popular hashtags relevant to the vaccine conversation. It was found that the hashtags “covid19vaccine” and “coronavirusvaccine” were the two popular hashtags used to discuss the communications related to COVID-19 vaccines. 23,575 global tweets available in public domain were retrieved through “Twitter Application Programming Interface” (API), using “Orange Software”, an open-source machine learning, data visualization and data mining toolkit. The study was confined to the tweets posted in English language only. The default data cleaning and preprocessing techniques available in the “Orange Software” were applied to the dataset, which include “transformation”, “tokenization” and “filtering”. The “Valence Aware Dictionary for sEntiment Reasoning” (VADER) tool was used for classification of tweets to determine the tweet sentiments (positive, neutral and negative) as well as the degree of sentiments (compound score also known as sentiment score). To assess the influence/impact of tweets account wise (verified and unverified) and sentiment wise (positive, neutral, and negative), the retweets and likes, which offer a sort of reward or acknowledgment of tweets, were used.FindingsA gradual decline in the number of tweets over the time is observed. Majority (11,205; 47.52%) of tweets express positive sentiments, followed by neutral (7,948; 33.71%) and negative sentiments (4,422; 18.75%), respectively. The study also signifies a substantial difference between the impact of tweets tweeted by verified and unverified users. The tweets related to verified users have a higher impact both in terms of retweets (65.91%) and likes (84.62%) compared to the tweets tweeted by unverified users. Tweets expressing positive sentiments have the highest impact both in terms of likes (mean = 10.48) and retweets (mean = 3.07) compared to those that express neutral or negative sentiments.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitation of the study is that the sentiments of the people expressed over one single social platform, that is, Twitter have been studied which cannot generalize the global public perceptions. There can be a variation in the results when the datasets from other social media platforms will be studied.Practical implicationsThe study will help to know the people's sentiments and beliefs toward the COVID-19 vaccines. Sentiments that people hold about the COVID-19 vaccines are studied, which will help health policymakers understand the polarity (positive, negative, and neutral) of the tweets and thus see the public reaction and reflect the types of information people are exposed to about vaccines. The study can aid the health sectors to intensify positive messages and eliminate negative messages for an enhanced vaccination uptake. The research can also help design more operative vaccine-advocating communication by customizing messages using the obtained knowledge from the sentiments and opinions about the vaccines.Originality/valueThe paper focuses on an essential aspect of COVID-19 vaccines and how people express themselves (positively, neutrally and negatively) on Twitter.


2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 384-401 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cary Christian ◽  
Jonathan Bush

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the Great Recession on small- to medium-sized municipalities within the states of Georgia and Florida using a newly developed set of quantitative indices. Design/methodology/approach An examination of the methods and strategies utilized by individual cities to maintain public service levels despite distressed revenues is performed. From the data, performance measures are developed and used to evaluate the efficacy of the various strategies used by the cities. Outcomes of Georgia municipalities were compared to similarly sized Florida municipalities to study how underlying differences in tax structures and economies might have affected those outcomes. Findings Georgia and Florida municipalities relied on very different strategies for surviving the recession and its aftermath. Enterprise activities were critically important in both states with transfers to or from governmental activities rationalized in various ways. While Georgia is generally anti-property tax, more than half the Georgia municipalities relied on property tax increases to survive. Municipalities were unable to count on increased intergovernmental revenues during the recession. Finally, even with a tourist activity advantage, Florida municipalities fared only marginally better during and just after the recession, and fared worse four to six years post-recession. Practical implications The measures developed in this study provide a new, customizable methodology for the evaluation of financial condition that does not require in-depth comparisons to peers. Social implications Small- and medium-sized cities, and especially those in rural areas, are worthy of targeted research to better understand their unique problems. Originality/value This research is novel in utilizing a fiscal condition methodology that can be applied to a single municipality and does not require comparisons to peers for validity. However, it represents a very intuitive and customizable tool for making comparisons between municipalities of any size when such comparisons are desired. Additionally, the focus of this study is on small- to medium-sized municipalities which generally do not receive as much research attention as larger cities.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Wilhelmsen

Purpose For centuries, men have dominated football organizations in all levels, and the imbalance in status between male and female football is unparalleled in the world of sports. This may affect female football by means of career opportunities, resource allocation and organizational performance. This study will explore managerial, organizational and cultural parameters that have an impact on women’s career possibilities in football organizations as players, coaches and leaders. The following research questions will be explored: In what way do governing mechanisms such as culture, attitudes and values have an impact on female positions in football organizations? How do organizational structures and cultures in football organizations affect women's career opportunities? How do power mechanisms, gender roles and stereotypes, unbalanced resource access, commercial investment impact female versus male football? Methodology Data will be collected among female football organizations in the two top football leagues in Norway. Qualitative data will be collected by interviews, field notes from facilitated face-to-face meetings with World Café dialogue technique and participant evaluations, whereas quantitative data will be collected by surveys and registry data. Implications Female football has received very little research attention, and as such, findings from the present project will give provide novel insight regarding the impact of organizational performance for women’s opportunity for a career in football. Directing attention towards female participation in football organizations may increase participation and positions of trust within the organizations.    


2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 685-701 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia Mejia ◽  
Edwin N. Torres

Purpose Asynchronous video interviews (AVIs) enable recruiters and job candidates to conduct and review employment interviews at different points in time, promising improved cost and time efficiencies for all users. This research aims to investigate the implementation and normalization process of AVI in the hospitality industry with the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) and the normalization process theory (NPT) providing theoretical support. Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured interviews have been conducted with hiring managers from three different hospitality companies, which were in different stages of the implementation process. The data have been recorded, transcribed and coded according to the UTAUT and NPT constructs, revealing emergent themes. Findings Five overarching themes emerged: AVI effort and efficiency expectation; augmentation to the interview process; challenges for the applicant; challenges for the recruiter; and issues with applicant interviewing aesthetics. Additional coding and analysis with NPT identified the following in terms of evaluation of the implementation process: participants’ implementation activities showed a tendency to emanate from cognitive participation (relationship work), leading to coherence (sense-making work), followed by collective action (enactment of work/operational work) and finally reflexive monitoring (appraisal work). Practical implications Findings from this research include recommendations for the best practices integrating AVI into the hospitality employee selection process. Originality/value Given the increased demands on the recruitment and selection of talent in the hospitality industry, several organizations have turned to mechanized HR software platforms. The impact of interview modalities and particularly AVI has received limited research attention, thus this study expanded this new stream of literature. Furthermore, this research is among a nascent stream using NPT to evaluate the implementation and normalization of this new technology.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adil Khan ◽  
Mohd Yasir Arafat ◽  
Mohammad Khalid Azam

Purpose This study aims to investigate the influence of religiosity (intrinsic and extrinsic) and halal literacy on the intention of Muslim consumers to purchase halal branded food products in India. An extended version of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) was used as a framework. Apart from religiosity and halal literacy, the influence of attitude, social norms and perceived behavioural control of halal on buying intention were also tested. Design/methodology/approach The study uses a survey design. The data were collected from 350 individual respondents, using a closed-ended, structured questionnaire. The quality of the measurement model has been assessed through reliability testing, factor loading, average variance extracted and Fornell-Larcker criterion. The test of hypotheses was conducted by performing the partial least square structural equation modelling. Findings The result of hypotheses testing shows that both intrinsic and extrinsic types of religiosities did not have a direct influence on buying intention. However, religiosity (extrinsic and intrinsic) and halal literacy have significant relationships with most of the antecedents of the intention of the TPB. In addition, both kinds of religiosities (extrinsic and intrinsic) and halal literacy had a significant indirect effect (through TPB antecedents) on buying intention. Originality/value Muslim population in India is one of the largest in the world, yet there is a lack of popular halal branded food products in the market. Nevertheless, few researchers have attempted to study the consumer behaviour of the Muslim population for halal products in India. A large amount of research work on halal food behaviour is from countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia, where the Muslim population is in the majority and halal brands are already popular. Further, this paper studies the impact of dimensions of religiosity, which has been overlooked by researchers studying the halal food purchasing behaviour. The study also explores the impact of halal literacy, an understudied construct in halal marketing literature. The present study is amongst the earliest empirical research based on Muslim consumers in India on the topic of halal branded food products.


2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 708-731 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keshab Ray ◽  
Meenakshi Sharma

Purpose There is a lacuna in research work in terms of understanding how Indian IT organizations can become global brands. Benchmarking has not received much attention in marketing literature due to lack of benchmarking framework, and IT organizations are yet to make progress in benchmarking. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of brand strength on global branding by developing a conceptual benchmarking framework for Indian IT organizations. Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured in-depth interviews are conducted with thirty middle-level managers from two Indian IT organizations, two US-based global IT organizations and one UK-based leading bank, which is a customer of these IT organizations. Findings Results show a positive relationship between brand strength and global branding, between customer loyalty and global branding, between brand loyalty and competitive advantage and between global branding and competitive advantage. Indian IT organizations can benchmark global IT organizations to improve delivering brand promise, positioning, awareness building and authenticity toward making Indian IT organizations future ready to address the entire breadth of opportunities in the evolving world of cloud and digital. Practical implications This research helps managers with a brand strength-based benchmarking framework toward global branding of Indian IT organizations. Social implications IT is instrumental for rapid growth of Indian’s economy. India should optimally utilize its greatest wealth, its human potential, with the latent global demand in IT through building global IT brands. Originality/value The originality of the study lies in conducting a qualitative study on global branding of Indian IT organizations and also proposing a conceptual benchmarking framework. The study further validates the model using qualitative analysis.


2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 453-474 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amin Khalifeh ◽  
Peter Farrell ◽  
Malek Al-edenat

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to answer the research question: “does the incorporation of sustainability as a new school of thought in project management support project success?” The authors carried out a systematic literature review (SLR) on relevant empirical studies before 2018 to answer this question. Design/methodology/approach The authors carried out an SLR by selecting, extracting, analysing and critically appraising relevant literature that met pre-specified criteria by using transparent, well-organised and replicable steps. The main sources are publications in peer-reviewed journals regardless of their impact factor because the topic of incorporating sustainability in project management practices is restrained by a lack of research. Findings Based on the analysis, it seems that incorporating sustainability into project management may support project success. However, more evidence is required to support this finding as there are too few relevant empirical studies in the literature. Research limitations/implications Therefore, considering sustainability as a new school of thought in project management is premature, and there are recommendations for further research at the end of this study. There are several limitations to the studies chosen, which may have significantly affected results, and thus may affect outcomes in this study. Originality/value Project success needs to be the main endeavour when incorporating sustainability into project management, and it should be a key criterion when considering sustainability as a new school of thought in managing projects. The most challenging elements of project success that need to be addressed are cost and time. This study contributes to a better understanding of the impact of PSM on project success. It facilitates decision making in considering sustainability as a new school of thought in project management. Furthermore, it defines a need for more research work in this potential paradigm shift in managing projects.


2020 ◽  
Vol 202 (14) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Juliane Kahl ◽  
Alexa Price-Whelan ◽  
Lars E. P. Dietrich

ABSTRACT Light is known to trigger regulatory responses in diverse organisms, including slime molds, animals, plants, and phototrophic bacteria. However, light-dependent processes in nonphototrophic bacteria, and those of pathogens in particular, have received comparatively little research attention. In this study, we examined the impact of light on multicellular development in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a leading cause of biofilm-based bacterial infections. We grew P. aeruginosa strain PA14 in a colony morphology assay and found that growth under prolonged exposure to low-intensity blue light inhibited biofilm matrix production and thereby the formation of vertical biofilm structures (i.e., “wrinkles”). Light-dependent inhibition of biofilm wrinkling was correlated with low levels of cyclic di-GMP (c-di-GMP), consistent with the role of this signal in stimulating matrix production. A screen of enzymes with the potential to catalyze c-di-GMP synthesis or degradation identified c-di-GMP phosphodiesterases that contribute to light-dependent inhibition of biofilm wrinkling. One of these, RmcA, was previously characterized by our group for its role in mediating the effect of redox-active P. aeruginosa metabolites called phenazines on biofilm wrinkle formation. Our results suggest that an RmcA sensory domain that is predicted to bind a flavin cofactor is involved in light-dependent inhibition of wrinkling. Together, these findings indicate that P. aeruginosa integrates information about light exposure and redox state in its regulation of biofilm development. IMPORTANCE Light exposure tunes circadian rhythms, which modulate the immune response and affect susceptibility to infection in plants and animals. Though molecular responses to light are defined for model plant and animal hosts, analogous pathways that function in bacterial pathogens are understudied. We examined the response to light exposure in biofilms (matrix-encased multicellular assemblages) of the nonphotosynthetic bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa. We found that light at intensities that are not harmful to human cells inhibited biofilm maturation via effects on cellular signals. Because biofilm formation is a critical factor in many types of P. aeruginosa infections, including burn wound infections that may be exposed to light, these effects could be relevant for pathogenicity.


2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 396-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giulio Toscani ◽  
Gerard Prendergast

PurposeTo date the vast majority of sponsorship research has focused on the perspective of sponsors. The purpose of this paper is to use this research to identify factors that sponsored institutions and organizations (sponsees) should be cognizant of before entering into a sponsorship arrangement, and to propose a research agenda based on these factors.Design/methodology/approachThe authors leverage sponsorship research that has been published in business journals with an impact factor above 0.5 (Reuters, 2015).FindingsThis paper argues that sponsees should be aware of the benefits that sponsorship brings to sponsors so that they can better appeal to potential sponsors. A sponsee also needs to be aware of the impact a sponsorship partnership may have on its own brand, image, and equity.Research limitations/implicationsThis is a conceptual paper grounded in the literature that aims to stimulate further research in the domain of sponsorship and provide deeper understanding for sponsees. Empirical research addressing the research questions posed is required.Practical implicationsIn a holistic manner, this literature review offers insights into factors that sponsees should consider before entering a sponsorship relationship.Originality/valuePrevious research in the sponsorship domain has focused primarily on dyadic sponsors. This paper considers sponsorship from the sponsee’s perspective.


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