External Interfaces or Internal Processes? Market Positioning and Divergent Professionalization Paths in Young Ventures

We explore how the initial market positioning of entrepreneurial ventures shapes how they professionalize over time, focusing specifically on the development of functional roles. In contrast to existing literature, which presumes a uniform march toward professionalization as ventures scale and complete developmental milestones, we advance a contingent perspective, distinguishing between the development of external interface functions (marketing & sales and customer development) and internal process functions (accounting, human resources, and finance). Specifically, we argue that positioning in an unconventional market space raises demand for external engagement that focuses ventures’ attention and resources toward developing external interface roles. At the same time, such unconventional ventures are less apt to elaborate their internal process roles relative to more conventional peers. We test these predictions using a novel longitudinal data set on the internal organizations of 3,748 U.S.-based entrepreneurial ventures. In contrast to common assumptions of convergent professionalization, our theory and findings advance the perspective that ventures pursue divergent professionalization paths based on their initial market positioning as they scale up.

How to re-enchant workplaces and organizations? An introduction to the special issue

Enchanting work is a polysemic term that can account for multiple interpretations. It can be defined as a feeling of being connected in an affirmative way to existence. In organizational terms, enchanted workplaces are places of wonder that allow people to be active agents, who can impact on their environment, find meaning in their work, and flourish. In this context, enchantment has been operationalized in organizational and managerial literature in a variety of ways, including being resourceful, happy, resilient, passionate, motivated, or healthy at work, among others. The main purpose of this special issue was to highlight those elements that may promote enchanting work environments, and the processes through which (re-)enchantment may be achieved. Also, we were interested in understanding re-enchantment as an internal process. JEL CLASSIFICATION: M50

The analysis of drivers of operational risks in Nigerian commercial banks

Despite the institutionalization of operational risk management in banks and the strict supervision of bank regulators, operational risk events are still on the increase. It is becoming evident to banks that there is a need to identify the drivers of this risk and nib it at the root to reduce the probability of recurrence. Hence, this study examined the drivers of operational risks in Nigerian commercial banks and the extent to which each driver contributes to operational risk. To achieve the study’s objectives, primary data were collected from the Operational Risk Management Desks of six (6) sampled commercial banks and analyzed using SPSS and Microsoft Excel. The result showed that Internal processes, IT systems and Quality of Risk Officers are determinants of operational losses in banks. The internal process was however indicated as having the most impact. The study concluded that Internal Process is the major driver of operational risk in Nigerian Commercial banks. The researcher, therefore, recommends that bank management must have defined procedures for core activities and prioritize regular review of their critical processes to reduce operational risk events and the associated costs.

Comparison of Artificial Intelligence and Human Motivation

According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, humans act according to their needs. Humans also act with an interest in the internal process itself, rather than solely based on external rewards. Artificial intelligence, on the other hand, is trained through a large amount of data and neural network learning. Unlike humans who are greatly affected by emotions and various circumstances, AI is neutral and objective. With no clear limitations and vast potential for development. AI has been receiving a lot of attention. Many futurists say AI will replace humans in areas that we, in the past, couldn’t imagine machines doing the work. However, there are still areas where AI cannot replace humans. Metacognition to judge one's thoughts and creativity, the power to come up with new ideas, still remains in human domains that artificial intelligence has not been able to enter. This paper explores the reinforcement of humans and AI and explores the original human realm. Furthermore, understanding the original human domain can suggest developing human competitiveness.

Conversion as the Path to the Recovery of Humanity in the Context of St John Paul II’s Theology of Holiness

The study focuses on Pope John Paul II’s view of conversion as an essential aspect of holiness. It explores why he emphasises the personal conversion of a Christian to God, and in a broader context, how conversion relates to the recovery of humanity and human dignity. The reflection is based on the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, especially as presented in the documents Gaudium et Spes and Lumen Gentium. Conversion is viewed from the perspective of spiritual theology and the union between God and the human person and focuses on some related features from John Paul II’s ‘Trinitarian’ group of encyclicals. The reflection also examines the importance of Christian conversion to God as an internal process of transformation in the human person in the context of both internal ruptures and external existential threats.

Changes of changes: Sociality and the lack of protection

Despite the fact that social changes are often proclaimed as a combination of positive development prospects, in practice they will not necessarily lead to positive results for everyone and in general. The sociological, ontological and cultural essence of modern changes in the mode of unreliability and redundancy of security systems is revealed. The horizon of understanding the problem in the mode of transition to a new technological order, which requires individual adaptation of people to a risk-generating environment, to a society without guarantees, is proposed. The concepts of “the lack of protection” and “the culture of control” are the basic part of the content. It has been established that digitalization is not substantial, but epiphenomenal, and that the culture of control is an imperative of digitalized sociality and dehumanization. The lack of protection is a sign of transition to the metric rationality of the culture of control, which increases the inanity of the forms and meanings of human existence simplifying it to an adaptation formula. The nature of the lack of protection is not metric, but an internal process that leads away from the adaptive logic of protection to the depth of understanding the limits of its probability in practice. The quality of this level of reflection is not determined by the pressure of changes, but is formed in the creation of thought and the upbringing of will within the social whole.