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We study how the cognitive complexity of chief executive officers (CEOs) changes during their tenures. Drawing from prior theory and research, we argue that CEOs attain gradually greater role-specific knowledge, or expertise, as their tenures advance, which yields more complex thinking. Beyond examining the main effect of CEO tenure on cognitive complexity, we consider three moderators of this relationship, each of which is expected to influence the accumulation of expertise over a CEO’s time in office: industry dynamism, industry jolts, and CEO positional power. We conduct our tests on a sample of 684 CEOs of public corporations. The analytic centerpiece of our study is a novel index of CEO cognitive complexity based on CEOs’ language patterns in the question-and-answer portions of quarterly conference calls. As part of our extensive theory of measurement, we provide evidence of the reliability and validity of our index. Our results indicate that CEOs, in general, experience substantial increases in cognitive complexity over their time in office. Examined moderators somewhat, but modestly, alter this general trajectory, and nonlinearities are not observed. We discuss the implications of our findings.

We use extensive longitudinal data from companies in the book retailing and telecommunication industries to replicate and extend Gilbert’s qualitative study on the influence of opportunity/threat perceptions on resource rigidity and routine rigidity in incumbents’ responses to discontinuous change. After discovering important anomalies in an empirical generalization study, we engage in a generalization and extension study to unbundle opportunity/threat perception into the dimensions of gain/loss framing and perceived control and induce a revised theory of the effect of such appraisals on incumbent inertia. Specifically, we induce that (a) imminent loss framing relaxes resource rigidity only when decision makers perceive a moderate level of control; (b) resource rigidity also relaxes in response to gain framing, at least when decision makers perceive the discontinuity as a particularly relevant strategic issue and strongly sense that they can control it; (c) loss framing and low perceived control can amplify routine rigidity by exacerbating resource rigidity; and (d) structural separation creates perceptions of gain and control by fostering the emergence of a local organizational identity in the unit implementing the discontinuous change. We resolve long-debated contradictions in studies on managerial and organizational cognition and discontinuous change, particularly between studies invoking threat rigidity theory and studies invoking prospect theory. We also demonstrate the usefulness of replicating qualitative research that is based on multiple case comparison.

Context: The Russian attack on Ukraine has been ongoing since February 24, 2022. Nevertheless, no research has documented the mental health of Ukrainians during the biggest land war in Europe after the Second World War, or how Ukrainians cope with the impact of the war. Objectives: To provide the prevalence rates of symptoms of psychological distress, anxiety, depression, and insomnia; and to link them with Ukrainians’ productive coping strategies during the war. Design, setting, and participants: Online survey conducted in Ukraine during the initial period of the Russian invasion (March 19–31, 2022), using a quota sampling method, of 1,400 Ukrainians aged 18 years or older, with a total of 801 valid responses for a response rate of 57.2%. Main outcome measures: Psychological distress assessed by the Kessler Psychological Distress scale (K6); anxiety assessed by Generalized Anxiety Disorder-2 (GAD-2) scale; depression assessed by Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2); insomnia assessed by Insomnia Severity Index-4 (ISI-4); modes of coping assessed by Brief COPE. Results: Of 801 Ukrainian adults, 52.7% had symptoms of psychological distress (mean = 13.3 [ SD = 4.9]); 54.1% of them reported symptoms of anxiety (mean = 2.9 [ SD = 1.7]); 46.8% reported symptoms of depression (mean = 2.6 [ SD = 1.6]). Symptom criteria for insomnia were met by 97 respondents (12.1%) (mean = 10.4 [ SD = 4.2]). Demographic variables (including gender, living in an urban area, having children or elderly persons in the household, living in an area occupied by Russian forces) were associated with symptoms of distress, anxiety, depression, and insomnia. The productive coping strategies of using instrumental support, behavioral disengagement, self-distraction, and planning were significantly associated with mental health symptoms. Conclusions: Prevalence rates of symptoms of psychological distress, anxiety, depression, and insomnia were high. These findings underscore the need for healthcare and productive coping strategies for Ukrainians during the war.

There is a lack of clarity in information systems research on which factors lead people to use or not use technologies of varying degrees of perceived legality. To address this gap, we use arguments from the information systems and political ideology literatures to theorize on the influence of individuals’ political ideologies on online media piracy. Specifically, we hypothesize that individuals with a more conservative ideology, and thus lower openness to experience and higher conscientiousness, generally engage in less online media piracy. We further hypothesize that this effect is stronger for online piracy technology that is legally ambiguous. Using clickstream data from 3873 individuals in the U.S., we find that this effect in fact exists only for online media piracy technologies that are perceived as legally ambiguous. Specifically, more conservative individuals, who typically have lower ambiguity intolerance, use (legal but ambiguously perceived) pirated streaming websites less, while there is no difference for the (clearly illegal) use of pirated file sharing websites., Information technology and management;Bd 23. 2021, H. 1, S. 51-63

How does CEOs’ trait empathy affect their management of organizational crises? So far, management scholars have highlighted mostly positive effects of CEOs’ empathy in the emotionally charged conte...

Over the past years, media coverage of firms has received significant scholarly attention. However, the resulting literature is spread across multiple disciplines and, therefore, varies with regard to its theoretical underpinnings and contextual settings. This makes it challenging for scholars to understand the contributions of this literature, to identify areas of inquiry, and to develop an encompassing research agenda. In this review, we address these issues by surveying the diverse literature on media coverage of firms to develop an integrative framework of the antecedents and consequences of media coverage that highlights paths for future research. Specifically, we identify the three theoretical perspectives—economic, institutional, and social-psychological—that the literature generally assumes on the news media. In addition, we highlight differences between strategy, finance, governance, and crisis contexts and review results from articles examining media coverage of firms in aggregate. In each context, we identify the primary functions of the news media as well as antecedents and consequences of media coverage. We proceed to develop an integrative framework for media coverage of firms by building on these findings and by examining the empirical methods used to measure media coverage, particularly regarding the measurement of specific coverage attributes. We highlight the gaps in current knowledge that our framework exposes and derive opportunities for future research that can further scholars’ and practitioners’ understanding of firm media coverage.

There is a lively debate on chief digital officers (CDOs). Some practitioners stress CDOs’ critical role in recrafting digital strategies and accelerating digital transformation, while others predict their disappearance. Academics have also recently begun to study this new executive position and conducted research on CDOs which is, however, scattered across different disciplines and publication outlets. We conduct a systematic literature review that consolidates these initial gains in knowledge. Specifically, we integrate findings on theoretical lenses, research designs, and key themes in studies on CDOs and we propose a framework that organizes CDO research in three broad themes: antecedents of CDO presence, the CDO role, and consequences of CDO presence. We then build on identified gaps to develop an extensive agenda for future research on CDOs. For academic researchers, we not only offer a discipline-spanning overview of knowledge on the topic at hand but also provide useful direction towards fruitful avenues for future research on CDOs. For practitioners, we offer a summary of the current scientific literature on CDOs, including relevant insights on CDO appointments, governance, and performance consequences., Management review quarterly;Vol. 72. 2022, issue 4, pp 1249-1286

The readability of scientific texts is critical for the successful distribution of research findings. I replicate a recent study which found that the abstracts of scientific articles in the life sciences became less readable over time. Specifically, I sample 28,345 abstracts from 17 of the leading journals in the field of management and organization over 3 decades, and study two established indicators of readability over time, namely the Flesch Reading Ease and the New Dale���Chall Readability Formula. I find a modest trend towards less readable abstracts, which leads to an increase in articles that are extremely hard to read from 12% in the first decade of the sample to 16% in the final decade of the sample. I further find that an increasing number of authors partially explains this trend, as do the use of scientific jargon and corresponding author affiliations with institutions in English-speaking countries. I discuss implications for authors, reviewers, and editors in the field of management., Review of managerial science;Vol. 15. 2021

This study predicts handwashing behavior during the Covid-19 pandemic. An analysis of 674 adults in Malaysia identifies their time spent on social media per day as a key predictor of handwashing. The association between time spent on social media and handwashing substantially depends on gender and the number of children in the same household. Additional predictors include age and health condition. This study helps identify specific target groups for health communication on hand hygiene via people’s use of social media, which can be a key channel for health communication campaigns during a pandemic.

©American Psychological Association, 2020. This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the authoritative document published in the APA journal. Please do not copy or cite without author's permission. The final article is available, upon publication, at: https://doi.apa.org/doi/10.1037/bul0000220 To what extent are research results influenced by subjective decisions that scientists make as they design studies? Fifteen research teams independently designed studies to answer five original research questions related to moral judgments, negotiations, and implicit cognition. Participants from 2 separate large samples (total N 15,000) were then randomly assigned to complete 1 version of each study. Effect sizes varied dramatically across different sets of materials designed to test the same hypothesis: Materials from different teams rendered statistically significant effects in opposite directions for 4 of 5 hypotheses, with the narrowest range in estimates being d = 0.37 to 0.26. Meta-analysis and a Bayesian perspective on the results revealed overall support for 2 hypotheses and a lack of support for 3 hypotheses. Overall, practically none of the variability in effect sizes was attributable to the skill of the research team in designing materials, whereas considerable variability was attributable to the hypothesis being tested. In a forecasting survey, predictions of other scientists were significantly correlated with study results, both across and within hypotheses. Crowdsourced testing of research hypotheses helps reveal the true consistency of empirical support for a scientific claim.

Of all actors involved in managing an organizational crisis, strategic leaders play a particularly central role. However, the growing scholarship on the impact of strategic leaders in crisis situations is characterized by a high degree of fragmentation, considerably hindering the generation of parsimonious theory and practically useful insights. To address this issue, we conduct a systematic multidisciplinary literature review that spans the research streams on strategic leadership and organizational crises. For each type of strategic leader—Chief Executive Officer (CEO), top management team, and board of directors—we identify the different applied theoretical lenses and highlight commonalities and differences between studies and their insights. We use our review to derive an integrative conceptual framework that guides future research. Our exploratory review unveils that, while each type of strategic leader plays a significant role in a crisis context, the perspectives taken and the resulting evidence vary: as for the CEO, research focuses on social evaluations—for instance, based on the CEO's appearance—as well as agency-theoretic considerations—particularly, financial incentives. Regarding the top management team, research mostly adopts a managerial and organizational cognition lens, focusing on characteristics such as personality and human capital. Lastly, for the board of directors, agency-theoretic considerations again dominate the scholarly conversation, especially studies of board independence. Overall, we review and organize a rich but patchy research landscape, and we derive ample opportunities for novel theoretical and empirical inquiries into strategic leaders and their role in managing organizational crises.

Social influence has been shown to profoundly affect human behavior in general and technology adoption in particular. Over time, multiple definitions and measures of social influence have been introduced to the field of technology adoption research, contributing to an increasingly fragmented landscape of constructs that challenges the conceptual integrity of the field. Consequently, this paper sets out to review how social influence has been conceptualized in technology adoption research. In so doing, this paper attempts to inform researchers’ understanding of the construct, reconcile its myriad conceptualizations, constructively challenge extant approaches, and provide impulses for future research. A systematic review of the salient literature uncovers that extant interpretations of social influence are (1) predominantly compliance-based and as such risk overlooking identification- and internalization-based effects; (2) primarily targeted at the individual level and non-social technologies, thereby precluding the impact of socially enriched environments; and (3) heavily reliant on survey-based and US/China-centric samples, which jeopardizes the generalizability and predictive validity of the findings. Building upon these insights, this paper develops an integrated perspective on social influence in technology adoption research that encourages scholars to pursue a multi-theoretical understanding of social influence at the interface of users, social referents, and technology.

Managerial debiasing studies are rare because it is often challenging to obtain manager samples to perform the required experiments. Student subjects could mitigate this difficulty, but there is widespread uncertainty regarding their implications for a study’s validity. In this paper, I first trace the debate, and structure the literature, on the use of student subjects in business research in general. Next, I propose a conceptual framework of criteria to identify under which circumstances student subjects can be valid surrogates in managerial debiasing research. Finally, I illustrate the use of the framework by repeating an extant debiasing study conducted with management practitioners with a large sample of business students (N = 1423), showing that the student sample replicates the results from the manager sample to the expected degree. I close by discussing the study’s implications, limitations, and opportunities for future research.

Contains fulltext : 228242.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) Drawing on the concept of a gale of creative destruction in a capitalistic economy, we argue that initiatives to assess the robustness of findings in the organizational literature should aim to simultaneously test competing ideas operating in the same theoretical space. In other words, replication efforts should seek not just to support or question the original findings, but also to replace them with revised, stronger theories with greater explanatory power. Achieving this will typically require adding new measures, conditions, and subject populations to research designs, in order to carry out conceptual tests of multiple theories in addition to directly replicating the original findings. To illustrate the value of the creative destruction approach for theory pruning in organizational scholarship, we describe recent replication initiatives re-examining culture and work morality, working parents’ reasoning about day care options, and gender discrimination in hiring decisions. Significance statement It is becoming increasingly clear that many, if not most, published research findings across scientific fields are not readily replicable when the same method is repeated. Although extremely valuable, failed replications risk leaving a theoretical void - reducing confidence the original theoretical prediction is true, but not replacing it with positive evidence in favor of an alternative theory. We introduce the creative destruction approach to replication, which combines theory pruning methods from the field of management with emerging best practices from the open science movement, with the aim of making replications as generative as possible. In effect, we advocate for a Replication 2.0 movement in which the goal shifts from checking on the reliability of past findings to actively engaging in competitive theory testing and theory building. Scientific transparency statement The materials, code, and data for this article are posted publicly on the Open Science Framework, with links provided in the article. 19 p.

Research Question/Issue We review the literature on the relationship between strategic leadership and technological innovation. Research Findings/Insights We identify the theoretical lenses that researchers apply when studying strategic leadership and innovation, most notably agency theory and upper echelons theory. We review the innovation constructs and measures that scholars employ, and we survey the links among strategic leaders' characteristics and technological innovation. Ultimately, we organize the literature into an integrative framework that provides a concise overview of the extant knowledge, and we outline an agenda for future research. Theoretical/Academic Implications First, we offer scholars a discipline‐spanning overview of the extant knowledge on the topic. Second, by integrating important aspects of corporate governance, such as the role of the board of directors, incentives for the chief executive officer or the top management team, and firm ownership, into the context of technological innovation, we highlight the vital role it plays in the realm of technological innovation. Third, we provide a useful guide for scholars and direct their work towards fruitful avenues for future research. Practitioner/Policy Implications We offer insights for practitioners interested in better understanding the bidirectional relationship between strategic leadership and technological innovation. In particular, our framework and our detailed analysis of the impact of strategic leaders on technological innovation can guide shareholders and board members in matters related to board composition as well as top executive selection and compensation.

Although handwashing is an effective way to prevent infections, there is scarce evidence on predictors of handwashing during a pandemic. This paper aims to identify behavioural and demographic predictors of handwashing. The study surveyed 674 adults in Malaysia in May 2020 regarding whether the time spent on social media predicted handwashing contingent on gender and number of children. More time spent on social media was positively associated with handwashing for males with three or more children. However, for males without children, social media use was negatively associated with handwashing. The association was not significant for males with one or two children. For females, more time spent on social media was significantly linked to more handwashing only for females with one child. Gender, a traditional predictor of handwashing, was a useful predictor only for those who spent more than three hours per day on social media and had at most one child. Number of children was a novel negative predictor for males who did not use social media and who averaged one hour per day on social media, a positive predictor for males who spent lots of time on social media, but not a predictor for females. In sum, social media use predicts handwashing, and is thus a helpful variable for use in targeted health communication during a pandemic – particularly through social media. Further, more conventional predictors like gender and number of children exhibit contingency effects with social media use.

How can incumbents use framing to effectively alleviate securities analysts’ concerns about the adoption of a discontinuous technology? Combining framing theory with sociological perspectives of an...

In this paper, we examine how a key facet of entrepreneurs’ cognitive processes—cognitive complexity—influences decision making among early-stage investors. Cognitive complexity refers to an indivi...