Colleagues and Competitors: How Internal Social Comparisons Shape Organizational Search and Adaptation
Oliver Baumann, J. P. Eggers, and Nils Stieglitz
When managers and units in a firm compare their performance and vie for the same resources, colleagues can turn into competitors. This article discovers one condition when this situation benefits the firm – as long as their aggressive competition is channeled through R&D and the competing managers has complementary product lines, even overly ambitious projects can be beneficial.
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How Misconduct Spreads: Auditors' Role in the Diffusion of Stock-option Backdating
Aharon Mohliver
Auditors help firms stay within the lines of clear rules-and sometimes help them cross the lines of unclear rules. This article shows the key difference, because it documents that auditors spread knowledge of an unethical practice, but also were key to stopping it when it became illegal.
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Learning Not to Diversify: The Transformation of Graduate Business Education and the Decline of Diversifying Acquisitions
Jiwook Jung and Taekjin Shin
Once a preferred strategy, corporate diversification into disparate lines of business has been on the decline. This article explores how changes in business education led to firms putting the brakes on diversification. It illustrates the power of education well, and also raises the question of how well we need to know something before teaching it. If our students follow our prescriptions this closely, we need to be very confident.
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Multinational Firms, Labor Market Discrimination, and the Capture of Outsider's Advantage by Exploiting the Social Divide
Jordan Siegel, Lynn Pyun, and B. Y. Cheon
Want a competitive edge in a labor market that discriminates against women? This research shows why you should hire female managers. They think differently from men, and they are more independent because they cannot rise through the ranks through conformity – they are different to begin with, and have to stand out through making better decisions.
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The Hidden Side of Trust: Supporting and Sustaining Leaps of Faith among Firefighters
Michael G. Pratt, Douglas A. Lepisto, and Erik Dane
Trust can emerge from two sources: knowledge/evidence that is meaningful in the context in question, and faith. Firefighters have to know who to trust when the worst happens, but as they fight fewer and fewer fires, they need to make more leaps of faith. That's why they look very carefully at each other, and make decisions on what type of colleague to trust.
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Contesting Commercialization: Political Influence, Responsive Authoritarianism, and Cultural Resistance
Lori Qingyuan Yue, Jue Wang, and Botao Yang
How do contentious moral markets develop? This article examines how monks and others effectively resisted admission fees to Buddhist temples in China. The monks did not agree that local authorities should profit from their temples, and found ways of protesting effectively – even using social media, which they knew was monitored by the central government to make sure local governments did not cause unrest.
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The Rise of Socially Responsible Investment Funds: The Paradoxical Role of the Financial Logic
Shipeng Yan, Fabrizio Ferraro, and Juan (John) Almandoz
To have socially responsible investment options, you need a strong financial sector-but not too strong. It turns out that any form of investment requires a professional finance sector, but this sector is not naturally drawn to social responsibility, and will avoid it if possible.
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Book Reviews
Magali A. Delmas with David Colgan: The Green Bundle: Pairing the Market with the Planet
Jeffrey G. York
Mike Lenox and Aaron Chatterji: Can Business Save the Earth? Innovating Our Way to Sustainability
Thomas P. Lyon
Christian Seelos and Johanna Mair: Innovation and Scaling for Impact: How Effective Social Enterprises Do It
Marya Besharov
Phanish Puranam: The Microstructure of Organizations
Olav Sorenson
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