Extant literature remains inconclusive with regard to optimal structural designs for sustaining effective knowledge flows, boosting innovativeness, and achieving superior performance in organizations. We contribute to the ongoing debate on formal, informal, and ambidextrous configurations in the specific context of small high-tech innovators. Adopting an inductive approach to theory building, we explore the factors that account for the variation in knowledge-focused designs across sample firms. In our study, innovative ventures rely on pure formal and informal organizational designs but also attempt to mix both, suggesting that gains from ambidexterity are not ubiquitous. Our analysis unveils that the pursuit of a given structural configuration results from a set of operating contingencies and a deliberate managerial effort to align firm idiosyncrasies with desired strategic outcomes. We advance a grounded theory of knowledge-focused organizational design in small high-tech innovators and formulate propositions that may be tested in future inquiries in the field.

This study uses a sample of technological mergers and acquisitions (M&As) of A-share listed companies in the five major high-tech industries from 2012 to 2016, and conducts factor analysis to measure the heterogeneity of these enterprises in terms of financial slack resources, equity resources, and governance structure. On this basis, multivariate regression analysis is utilized to explore the influence of the acquiring firms' heterogeneity on their innovation performance, and the adjustment action of absorptive capacity between heterogeneity and innovation performance. The research results show that the slack financial resources and highly centralized equity structure of enterprises are not conducive to enterprises improving their innovation performance following a technological M&A, while the impact of governance structure on innovation performance following an M&A is similarly not significant. The empirical evidence provided offer insights and a decision reference for technological M&As of high-tech enterprises.

Research uncovering the behavioural and cognitive foundations of capability development has gained traction in recent years. However, the emotional foundations of capability development have not been adequately addressed. This is an important gap; if emotions impact decisions and actions of key organisational actors, this suggests an influence on capability development processes in organisations, with implications for their survival and evolution. In this paper, we therefore explore ‘how do the emotions of key strategists enable and/or hinder capability development?’ Our in-depth qualitative research, based on five small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), shows that emotions of key strategists, including emotional tensions and ambivalence, have multi-faceted effects on capability development depending on the activation level of pleasant and unpleasant emotions experienced. This adds to extant understanding of idiosyncratic foundations of capability development and extends conversations regarding the internal dynamics behind organisational survival and evolution.

How can an entrepreneurial education program simultaneously create entrepreneurial knowledge, skills and competencies, as well as new ventures and jobs? This is a particular challenge for universities that are keen to align with government policies and demonstrate impact. Our paper examines a novel approach to enterprise and entrepreneurship education that integrates training/learning with new venture creation by operating as an entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE). We outline a comprehensive EE framework and apply this model using an exploratory case study of an EE centred around an innovative academic unit called The Entrepreneurial Garden (TEG) at Burgundy School of Business in Dijon, France. TEG offers entrepreneurial education, research and new venture development as an integrated portfolio. This analysis shows how an academic unit can be developed as an EE building from local resources and expertise, aligning with macroeconomic policies and priorities, and leveraging partnerships to provide access to other entrepreneurial players, resources and networks.

Drawing on Wales, Monsen, and McKelvie's (2011, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 35(5), 895–923) model of entrepreneurial orientation pervasiveness and the strong culture hypothesis (Denison, 1984, Organization Dynamics, 13, 4–22), this study investigates how entrepreneurial orientation (EO) strength, defined as the level of agreement in the shared perceptions of EO, serves as a boundary condition of the EO–firm performance relationship. Four field studies provide evidence for a valid and reliable 10-item multidimensional measure of entrepreneurial orientation, the EO-10, which in turn, may be used to assess EO strength. We establish content and construct validity of the EO-10 (study 1; n = 447 employees), criterion-related validity with revenue growth and sales growth (study 2; n = 412 employees in 43 profit centers), and convergent validity with Covin and Slevin's (1989, Strategic Management Journal, 10, 75–87) 9-item measure (study 3; n = 291 employees). Finally, in study 4 (n = 853 employees nested in 22 organizations), we demonstrate the interactive effects of EO and EO strength on profit growth and revenue growth. In sum, this study provides conceptual and empirical evidence for the importance of EO strength as a moderator of the EO–firm performance relationship.

Indigenous literature suggests Māori businesses are distinct within Aotearoa New Zealand, due to facing unique challenges and having different operating preferences. It could also be argued that Māori and non-Māori enterprises in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors are identical as a function of operating in similar markets. However, there is a paucity of empirical evidence, and the present article rectifies this with a study of 230 Aotearoa enterprises, including 24 Māori. We test differences and find Māori enterprises report higher cultural capital, which relates to employees' knowledge and skills towards working with and respecting cultural values. However, we find no differences across human capital, relational capital, entrepreneurial culture, and organisational performance. The findings suggest that apart from a culturally specific factor, Māori and non-Māori enterprises appear to be similarly enabled, which provides a useful benchmark for understanding Māori business. We discuss the implications for research.

Organizations are now more complex and require collaboration to function effectively across multiple stakeholders. Consequently, they need to be familiar with collaborative projects and participate consciously in shared processes for the accomplishment of particular goals. In order to support and strengthen business partnerships, organizations could use a model based on a multi-perspective approach, as a way of visualizing effective decision-making processes and gaining an understanding regarding how they can establish and maintain stable relationships with other organizations and strategic alliances. The benefits of the new multi-perspective model could be utilized for the collaboration of multiple stakeholders and to drive future organizational change. This study presents a case study which explores the use of a multiple perspective framework in Australian Government Organizations. The results from this study suggest that a multi-perspective model may be used to address organizational complexity through the holistic integration of stakeholder perspectives and sustained knowledge flow.

This study investigates whether the perceived opportunity to craft (POC) is related to job crafting (JC) strategies and whether these strategies are related to thriving at work, in terms of both vitality and learning. It aims to verify the mediating role of JC between POC and thriving. Data were collected from 424 accounting professionals in Canada. The structural equation modeling based on bootstrap analysis was used to test mediation. The results indicate that POC is positively related to increasing structural and social resources and challenging job demands and negatively to decreasing hindering job demands. They reveal that increasing structural and social resources enhances learning and mediates the relation between POC and vitality and learning, as do challenging job demands, whereas decreasing hindering job demands does not. This study is one of the first to confirm that POC influences vitality and learning via JC behaviors as mediators.

Integrative and distributive negotiation strategies are a key paradigm of practice, teaching, and research. Are these US-formulated negotiation prototypes valid in the rest of the world? Adopting a cross-cultural view, we analyze a sample of 214 foreigners who detailed the negotiation behavior they faced in Italy (134) and in the United States (80). Implementing latent class analysis, we identify three clusters of negotiation prototypes. Our findings show how the Country is a predictor for cluster membership, and peculiar cultural traits of the two groups contribute to explain the differences in negotiation strategies. Three prototypes emerged: a typically distributive, an emotional integrative (mostly Italian), and an impersonal integrative (mostly American). Results show how the handling of emotions is a crucial part of the interaction for Italian negotiators, regardless of their orientation toward negotiation strategies, implying a cultural influence toward handling emotions in negotiations.

Cross-cultural research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) dealing with specific stakeholder groups is fairly rare in the existing literature. The aim of this research is to investigate the level of recognition of CSR in companies by employees working in micro/small, medium-sized and large companies. The research is based on the survey conducted in Bulgaria, Russia and Serbia with the employees' attitudes obtained via a structured questionnaire. A similar socio-historical background of the three countries and different levels of accomplished socio-economic development at present is taken into account. A proposed ranking methodology was based on the multi-criteria decision analysis approach, observed through five studied dimensions: environmental, social, economic, stakeholder and voluntariness. The ranking was carried out using the integrated Entropy-PROMETHEE-GAIA method, where the Entropy method was used for determining the weights of the criteria, whereas PROMETHEE-GAIA was used for final ranking. The obtained results were analyzed from the multi-cultural point of view and show more significant differences in the attitudes of employees from different countries, rather than when the size of a company is taken into consideration.