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How does sentiment in a pitch affect an entrepreneur’s fundraising outcomes? Although research suggests that negativity in entrepreneurial “pitches” to investors adversely impacts resource acquisition, there is a lack of empirical research showing whether, and to what extent, this is true. We study over 30,000 entrepreneurial loan requests from one of the largest loan marketplaces to understand how the sentiment in text-only pitches to investors affects fundraising. In contrast to prior literature, we find that negatively-worded pitches are funded faster than positively-worded ones. We also find that negatively-worded pitches result in lower interest rates to entrepreneurs. Finally, we find that negatively-worded loans default less, suggesting that the benefits of negativity are not one-sided but two-sided: negativity helps both resource seekers and resource providers. Collectively, the results from our study reveal how negativity can be beneficial in impression management and offer fresh insights for the psychological foundations of entrepreneurship.

Building upon conservation of resources theory and affective event theory, this study broadens the organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) literature by investigating the effects of two forms of OCB on employees' positive emotion, perceived role overload, and quality of work-life (QWL). Based on data collected from 321 hotel employees in China, the study findings indicate that engaging in organizational citizenship behavior toward the organization (OCBO) generates positive emotions, consequently affecting employees' QWL. Similarly, performing organizational citizenship behavior toward individuals in the organization (OCBI) has a positive impact on employees' positive emotions. Moreover, the results reveal a negative relationship between OCBO, and employees perceived role overload, suggesting that employees may achieve resource acquisition and alleviate role overload through OCB. The study findings make valuable theoretical contributions and provide meaningful empirical implications for hospitality organizations.

Establishing a high-performance fund requires strong entrepreneurship skills in many aspects including fundraising ability, networking skills, and fund management techniques. Using a complex network perspective, this paper constructs and analyzes Chinese fund networks based on coshareholding relationships. Social network analysis methods are employed to construct index measures of fund network centrality, and the impacts of the index measures on fund performance and capital flow are systematically studied. Our results reveal that network centrality has a significant and positive impact on fund performance. That is, the more central a fund’s network location is, the more it may benefit from information, resource acquisition, decision-making and interinstitutional communication advantages, resulting in better fund performance. The paper further reveals that higher network centrality can also enhance the spillover effect of capital flows. Our research can provide a theoretical basis and practical guide for more effective fund management. Fund managers can build and manage high-performance funds by increasing their network centrality measures.

Identifying the mechanisms that result in a “high impact” invasive species can be difficult. Coexistence theory suggests that detrimental invasive species can be better predicted by incorporating both niche differences and fitness differences than examining niche overlap alone. Specifically, detrimental invasive species should take up shared limited resources more efficiently than their neighbouring resident species. While there is clear evidence that invasive Phragmites australis is successfully displacing resident species, there remains few field studies that attempt to quantify the niche overlap and fitness difference between P. australis and the species it is displacing in the field. Using P. australis we measured differences in photosynthetic performance (carbon assimilation rates, δ 13 C, photosynthetic water use efficiency, biomass), the effects of competition for photosynthetically active radiation, and niche overlap between P. australis and three resident freshwater wetland species ( Calamagrostis canadensis, Carex aquatilis, and Typha spp.) growing with or without interspecific competition . Invasive P. australis intercepted more photosynthetically active radiation, assimilated more carbon more efficiently, and had a larger niche region compared to resident species. Resident plant species showed a significant decrease in photosynthetic performance when growing in competition with P. australis and had a high probability of overlap onto the niche space of P. australis. These results provide evidence that the ability of P. australis to reduce the availability of a required resource and more efficiently use it over the growing season, while exhibiting high niche overlap with resident species, likely contributes directly to its success in North American freshwater wetlands.

Oak species displayed high interspecific functional trait variation. The resource use strategy among oaks both at the above and belowground organs was guided by the fast-slow continuum. Plant functional ecology has focused on the study of functional strategies and general patterns of trait covariation. Mostly, studies intend to elucidate how plants cope with resource capture both at the above and belowground organs and to understand how the capacity for resource gain relates with the species distribution. American oaks are an interesting and important tree clade, they radiated into diverse environments outside temperate regions implying the development of adaptations to persist under different environmental regimes. Therefore, we explored patterns of differentiation in functional traits related with the capacity for resource use in 3-month seedlings of ten Mexican oak species representative from semiarid, temperate and subtropical montane regions. We examined the fast–slow trade-off and its importance in species differentiation on both above and belowground organs. Additionally, we investigated how resource acquisition strategy of the species was related with the environmental conditions experienced in their habitats. We found a significant differentiation in both above and belowground traits, and in both cases oak species segregated along the fast–slow continuum. We found only a few significant trait-by-trait relationships, implying a weak coordination among aerial and subterranean organs. Additionally, species from sites with higher precipitation seasonality had a higher root growth, and species from humid sites had larger leaves. These findings highlight important functional variation among oak seedlings which was related with the climatic conditions encompassed along their native geographic range.

Familiarity between members of the same group is predicted to play a role in many biological processes. Familiarity can facilitate recognition, aggregation, communication, coordination and cooperation between group members. We tested a path of interrelated hypotheses on the effect of familiarity on survival, resource acquisition, predator avoidance and cooperation. We predicted that individuals with familiar members in their group would have a higher survival, acquire resources faster, avoid predators more easily and perform more cooperative actions. We used data from an online video game (Dead by Daylight) where small groups of four players (i.e. prey) must exploit resource patches while avoiding a predator. Prey can help fellow prey when the predator catches them (cooperation). Using a video game as a study system provided access to a large behavioural data set that would otherwise be difficult to obtain in nature. Using path analysis, we found evidence that coordinated resource acquisition and helping behaviours increased with the number of familiar individuals in the group. However, more cooperative actions increased their encounters with the predator and thus reduced their survival. When accounting for all indirect effects of familiarity on survival (through resource acquisition, cooperation and predator–prey encounters), familiarity had a small indirect net positive effect on survival.

Small tourism firms (STFs) established and operated by local families can be an engine of sustainable rural tourism. This paper stresses the intimate intertwining of family and business in rural STFs and conceptualizes their entrepreneurial success as a combination of business performance and family well-being. Integrating the resource-based view and network embeddedness theory, relationships among the STF owners’ dual social networks (family and industry networks), entrepreneurial resource acquisition, and entrepreneurial success are proposed and tested with a sample of 276 STFs in rural China. The empirical analyses reveal that (1) compared with tangible and knowledge-based resources, the owners’ acquisition of psychic resources has the strongest effect on entrepreneurial success; and (2) although industry networks provide more diverse access to entrepreneurial resources, family networks are superior in facilitating psychic resource acquisition, thus are especially important to the entrepreneurial success of rural STFs. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

To pursue business innovation with PSS, many different PSS concepts are designed and evaluated. Various business models of a PSS design concept are devised and evaluated as well. Evaluation of the economic sustainability of PSS business models is critical. This paper presents a systematic method to evaluate the economic sustainability of PSS business models using a system dynamics modelling template. System dynamics modelling task is challenging for practitioners due to the variety of variables comprising business model strategies and their complex interrelationships. To enable the modelling task, a system dynamics modelling template composed of six modules of customer acquisition, channel acquisition, profit creation, resource acquisition, PSS provision, and partnership pattern has been devised. The PSS business model evaluation method has been illustrated using a smart study experience management service system design case to demonstrate the proposed system dynamics modelling template can reflect the case-specific business model which consists of the particular business model strategies.

This research focuses on how entrepreneurs utilize cronyism to acquire resources. A case study method allowed us to explore three firms in the private property development industry in China. These firms uniquely cultivated cronyism and achieved distinctly different outcomes. Our findings highlight Chinese entrepreneurs in start-up ventures and later-stage enterprises employ cronyism. The underlying rationale for using cronyism have common and heterogeneous motivations. The similarity and distinguishing rationale also apply to the impact of cronyism. We also find two contingency working mechanisms for cronyism: entrepreneurial characteristics and a staged model for cronyism. With the firm’s growth, cronyism remains important, but firms with more community involvement outperform others. This research contributes to the theory on strategic network utilization for resource acquisition during entrepreneurial development stages. We investigate how entrepreneurial strategies can assist in adapting to the “rules of the game” while utilizing resources within the set contextual constraints.

Adolescent sport participants, particularly girls, continue to drop out of sport at alarmingly high rates, which presents an opportunity for new sport programs to enter the marketplace to better cater to those participants. Starting new sport programs, however, presents significant challenges, including acquiring and mobilizing resources in innovative ways. Using theory in sport development and the resource-based view, the authors examined six emergent sport programs for girls within the United States and United Kingdom to identify the resources obtained and mobilized to create new and distinctive sport opportunities in a crowded marketplace. Following a case study approach, data from site visits and interviews with 137 individuals were analyzed using within- and across-case analysis. The findings reveal the resources needed to grow the programs, the ways in which those resources are attained, and strategies to mobilize resource bundles to maximize sport opportunities by differentiating programs from traditional, mainstream sport opportunities. The findings also highlight the distinctive opportunities and challenges for sport organizers in both top-down and bottom-up sport development systems. This study informs theory in sport development and provides insight for creatively designing and delivering sport opportunities that expand overall sport participation for adolescent girls.

Simultaneously defending against predators, stymieing competitors, and generating immune responses can impose conflicting demands for host species caught in the entanglement of a food web. Host immunity is not only shaped by direct interactions among species, but also many indirect cascading effects. By reducing competition, predators in particular can affect resource acquisition necessary for hosts to mount energetically costly immune responses. However, identifying the links between predators and host immune responses determined by resource acquisition is a complex affair, because predators can (1) reduce host density and thus competition among hosts, (2) exert non-consumptive trait-mediated effects on host resource acquisition behavior, and (3) generate natural selection on host resource acquisition behavior. To examine the relative contributions of these potential predator driven density- and trait-mediated effects on a key aspect of immune function (total phenoloxidase activity, total PO), we conducted mesocosm and field experiments with larval damselflies (Enallagma signatum) and their dominant fish predator (Lepomis macrochirus). Although we expected to observe declines in total PO activity with increases in damselfly density, we found no relationship between density and total PO activity. We also found no support for the prediction that total PO activity would vary as a result of either non-consumptive trait-mediated effects or selection on damselfly foraging activity underlying resource acquisition. Despite the lack of trait- or density-mediated effects, we did find that total PO activity increased with damselfly prey density among lakes, implying resource limitation for this aspect of immune function. These unexpected results point to the need to better understand the ecological conditions whereby predators and competitors constrain immune functions necessary for species to defend themselves in complex food webs.

PurposeThe study seeks to differentiate informal firms with high-growth prospects by their resource acquisition acts and to improve identification of growth-oriented informal firms for effective design and targeting of support measures.Design/methodology/approachAn original set of firm-level data was collected using face-to-face survey in Lusaka, Zambia. Six clearly defined criteria were used to sample informal firms, apart from general informal business. Regression analyses were conducted to test the association of different resource acquisition acts with two growth dimensions: number of employees and business earnings of the 325 informal firms sampled.FindingsAccessing clientele beyond local market, linking up with formal businesses and acquiring information and knowledge via online sources were found influential to growth in business earnings. Surprising, acquisition of finance and skills showed no effect. Employment expansion, though widely used, may not be a stable indicator of informal firm growth.Research limitations/implicationsThe study highlights the relevance of the emerging entrepreneurship perspective to understanding the topic. It cautions against pre-setting a size threshold for sampling informal firms and against relying on employment expansion as the sole proxy of growth.Practical implicationsThe findings prompt a rethink of the effectiveness of conventional support programmes to drive growth of informal firms such as funding and training. Directing support measures to target growth-oriented informal firms will lead to creation of decent and sustainable jobs and formalisation.Originality/valueWith an original firm-level dataset, the study challenges a long-held assumption that growth of informal firm is negligible and shows that segments of informal firms are sustainable and could attain significant growth and derives new insights into researching and supporting informal firm growth.

International audience; The ability of individuals and populations to adapt to a changing climate is a key determinant ofpopulation dynamics. While changes in mean behaviour are well studied, changes in trait variancehave been largely ignored, despite being assumed to be crucial for adapting to a changingenvironment. As the ability to acquire resources is essential to both reproduction and survival,changes in behaviours that maximise resource acquisition, should be under selection. Here, usingforaging trip duration data collected over 7 years on black-browed albatrosses (Thalassarchemelanophris) on the Kerguelen Islands in the southern Indian Ocean, we examine the importanceof changes in the mean and variance in foraging behaviour, and the associated effects on fitness, inresponse to the El Niño Southern Oscillation. Using double hierarchical models, we find noevidence that individuals change their mean foraging trip duration in response to a changingenvironment, but strong evidence of changes in variance. Younger birds showed greater variabilityin foraging trip duration in poor conditions as did birds with higher fitness. However, duringbrooding, birds showed greater variability in foraging behaviour under good conditions,suggesting that optimal conditions allow the alteration between chick provisioning and selfmaintenancetrips. We found weak correlations between sea-surface temperature and the El NiñoSouthern Oscillation, but stronger links with sea-level pressure. We suggest that variability inbehavioural traits affecting resource acquisition is under selection and offers a mechanism bywhich individuals can adapt to a changing climate. Studies which look only at effects on meanbehaviour may underestimate the effects of climate change and fail to consider variance in traits asa key evolutionary force.

International audience; Feed efficiency (FE) is a complex phenotype made up of multiple traits for which there is potential for substantial genotype by environment interaction (G & times; E). The objective of this study is to evaluate the extent of G & times; E for FE traits with a simulation approach. We used a mechanistic model of the dairy cow that simulates trajectories of phenotypes throughout lifetime, depending on trajectories of resource acquisition and allocation, driven by 4 genetic scaling parameters, and depending on the nutritional environment (quantity and quality of feed resources). The cow model, calibrated for a grass-based farming system and seasonal calving, was combined with a genetic module. This simulated genetic variation in the 4 genetic scaling parameters related to resource acquisition and allocation, based on a simple balanced pedigree structure (200 paternal half-sib groups each of 100 daughters). The population of 20,000 cows generated was simulated in 4 nutritional environment scenarios, representing a gradient of feeding constraints. In each scenario, 6 traits derived from the model outputs were analyzed to obtain population genetic parameters. Genetic correlations between second-lactation production and FE were positive and high in all scenarios and increased as the nutritional environment became more constraining. A measure of lifetime FE was positively correlated with second -lactation production under a less constrained environment, but these correlations decreased as the environment became more constraining. The genetic correlation between body reserves at second calving, and lifetime FE was positive and low in the least constraining scenario and increased as the environment became more constraining. In addition to genetic parameters, we looked at the distributions of acquisition and allocation pa rameters among the best performing cows for lactation and life FE, in the 2 most contrasted scenarios. The 4 subpopulations of best cows had acquisition and allocation strategies different from the whole population. In conclusion, this simulation study identifies the potential underlying biological basis for important G & times; E in FE traits. This highlights the importance of having a balanced breeding goal when undertaking selection that should also be based on phenotypes relevant to the environment.

This paper examines the home-based creating shared value (CSV) projects of two multinational corporations (MNCs), and three small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). One CSV project was examined in each firm. Based on qualitative case studies, we developed two bricolage-based models to represent different motives, different processes of resource acquisition, and different processes of resource utilization when implementing CSV. For the MNCs, both based in Hong Kong, institutional advocacy and recognition provided encouragement to engage in CSV. Internal resource slack underpinned their ability to implement their respective CSV projects by repurposing internal resources or infusing them with purpose. By contrast, the SMEs, two from Pakistan and one from Hong Kong, found it necessary to adopt collective bricolage for their respective CSV projects, involving repurposing external human resources while drawing on donations or grants and enlisting the collaboration of benevolent external experts or giants. Interviewees indicated that all the focal CSV projects were distinguishable from corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects, in that the former (but not the latter) were designed to create economic revenue for the respective focal firms, while concurrently generating social/environmental benefits. Most of the CSV projects were reported to have created significant economic value for external beneficiaries.

Competing in an era of de-globalization presents new challenges for multinationals, particularly for those from large emerging economies. Emerging market MNEs (EMNEs) in the past benefited from an open, globalizing context that facilitates springboard and compositional strategies. De-globalization makes it significantly harder for them to continue this journey. This study tackles the question of what it takes for EMNEs to execute compositional springboard strategies in the new era, making five points. First, de-globalization implies difficulties for EMNEs to acquire global open resources and needed strategic options. Second, uneven de-globalization has a differential impact on the ability of EMNEs from different countries and different sectors to execute springboard strategies. Third, varieties of capitalism represent an underestimated obstacle to compositional springboard strategies, both in general and in interaction with de-globalization. Fourth, EMNEs can consider a double-loop springboard – doubling down on inward internationalization and treating inward internationalization as a series of iterative, continuous, and transformative resource acquisition loops. Finally, springboard MNEs need to reconfigure their global posture strategies and bolster their critical capabilities in pursuit of sustained advantages in a de-globalization world.

This paper argues that the high-tech enterprise certification (HTE certification) can facilitate firm performance and that this effect is mediated by external resource acquisition, including ventur...

Libraries within higher education institutions in Jamaica make tremendous use of information communication technology in their efforts to provide their users with access to electronic resources. Fa...

This study scrutinizes the mediating role of tangible–intangible resources between entrepreneurial orientation and new venture growth. We analyzed the data of 308 Pakistani manufacturing‐SMEs through the AMOS. The results displayed that risk‐taking and innovation significantly while proactive do not influence new venture growth. Risk‐taking, innovativeness, and proactiveness significantly influence tangible–intangible resources. Tangible–intangible resource acquisition does not mediate between risk‐taking and new venture growth; however, it partially mediates between innovativeness and new venture growth and fully mediates between proactiveness and new venture growth. This research recommends owners/managers of new ventures to emphasize entrepreneurial activities to access external resources for survival.

This article examines the effects of board turnover on nonprofit financial performance: resource acquisition and utilization. Governing board members play key roles in connecting organizations with external environments and ensuring that executives properly manage the organizations to achieve organizational missions. They also help in effectively attracting and appropriately utilizing financial resources. Given the importance of governing board members, any turnover occurring in the board should affect nonprofit financial performance. Using insights from organizational theories, we argue that the relationship between board turnover and the ability of UW organizations to acquire and utilize funds is nonlinear (first positive and then negative). We find general support for the hypothesis, which yields implications for both research and practice of board governance and human resources management in the nonprofit sector.

Housing development calls for collaboration through a multipronged and concerted effort from all stakeholders to acquire resources within institutional arrangements set by state and local governments. Despite growing attention by UN-Habitat towards the New Urban Agenda for affordable housing, the role of institutional collaboration among stakeholders has been overlooked. For purpose of the present research, a structured literature review was conducted based on 33 papers collaborative archetypes in the affordable housing sector. A typology of key collaborative approaches in housing research and practice is presented jointly to juxtapose these approaches emphasizing the integration of stakeholder engagement with institutional patterns of resource acquisition. The present study offers a conceptual framework of Institutional Stakeholder Collaborations (ISCs) beyond the conventional definitions and concepts of collaboration. The ISCs framework offers a two-level agenda, encouraging scholars and academicians to examine stakeholder engagements and resource dependency patterns within the institutional arrangements for future empirical research, to navigate the affordable housing provision effectively. Finally, this research advances the collaboration theory integrating resource dependence, institutional, and stakeholder theories.

PurposeSocial network theory emphasizes that, to acquire needed resources, new ventures should cultivate industrial connections (intra-industry ties and extra-industry ties). In the meanwhile human capital theory focuses on entrepreneurs' employment experience, especially with respect to its breadth and depth. This study examines ties and experience to determine whether, in combination, they have positive or negative effects on resource acquisition in new ventures.Design/methodology/approachThis study tests research hypotheses using questionnaire survey data with a sample of entrepreneurs in new ventures. Multivariate regression analysis is used to analyze the data.FindingsCombining intra-industry ties and experience breadth or extra-industry ties and experience depth affects resource acquisition positively, whereas combining intra-industry ties and experience depth or extra-industry ties and experience breadth affects resource acquisition negatively.Research limitations/implicationsConclusions may be constrained by the limited sample size and source. Rather, the impact of the study lies in its identification of the effects of interaction between network ties and entrepreneurs' experience on resource acquisition. Future research can explore the effects of interaction between other dimensions of network ties and a range of entrepreneurs' experience characteristics on resource acquisition.Practical implicationsEntrepreneurs are provided with effective strategies to make use of their ventures' network ties and their personal accumulated experience in the process of obtaining resources.Originality/valueThe findings enrich the entrepreneurship literature by providing a more nuanced understanding of how and when new ventures' industry ties and entrepreneurs' employment experience together influence resource acquisition.

Although several researchers have emphasized that top managers' social ties influence firms' economic activities, the links between microlevel personality factors and organization-level outcomes remain unclear. We examined how the social ties of top managers affect firm performance through the mediating mechanism of resource acquisition. We surveyed 253 top managers from Chinese firms and found that the social ties of top managers facilitated resource acquisition, which was, in turn, beneficial for firm performance. These findings indicate that the social ties of top managers play an important role in firms' activities, particularly resource acquisition and organizational performance. Study limitations are discussed and directions for future research are presented.

Entrepreneurs invest considerable time and effort cultivating digital networks but it is not clear what benefits they derive from this investment. Emerging research on digital networks suggests that online networking behavior may differ from networking face-to-face due to affordances of digital network technologies. This article draws on depth interviews with 26 founders to investigate the extent to which founders extract resources from digital networks. Contrary to behavior predicted by current network theory, founders are found to extract few resources, other than information, from their digital networks. This is due, in large part, to lack of willingness resulting from perceived social judgment risk. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Previous research implies a positive relationship between job stressors and cyberloafing, but that may be half the story. Under the challenge-hindrance stressors framework and conservation of resources theory, we propose that the impact of stressors on cyberloafing depends on the nature of stressors that employees encountered. Using a sample of 498 employees from various fields, we tested a conceptual model in which challenge stressors and hindrance stressors have differential effects on cyberloafing through resilience and emotional exhaustion separately. The results revealed that challenge stressors have a negative direct effect on cyberloafing, whereas hindrance stressors have a positive direct effect. Both two types of stressors have positive indirect effects on cyberloafing through emotional exhaustion. However, even though challenge stressors were positively related to resilience and hindrance stressors were negatively related to resilience, our data did support the mediating role of resilience between job stressors and cyberloafing. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

1. Invasive plants generally align with the fast side of the plant's trait economics spectrum, characterized by fast nutrient acquisition, growth and reproduction. However, there are numerous and notable exceptions, including woody invasives. 2. The generalization that invasives are fast is driven by the high occurrence of invasive ruderal species colonizing nutrient-rich disturbed habitats, a consequence of anthropogenic disturbance usually going hand-in-hand with biological introductions. 3. Successful invasive plans have shown a remarkable ability to rapidly adapt to the new regions where they are introduced. These changes predominantly involve increased resource acquisition, growth and reproduction, aligning them even further with the fast side of the plant economics spectrum. 4. Common garden experiments with invasive model systems provide valuable insights about the speed and direction of adaptive responses to different climates, helping us to predict general plant responses to global change. 5. Synthesis. Invasive plant species commonly present fast nutrient acquisition, growth and reproduction, but this general pattern is mostly driven by ruderal species. Still, common garden experiments comparing populations from distant world regions show a clear trend for already fast invasive plants to rapidly adapt towards even faster traits in their non-native regions.

For too long, problem solving has been studied as a solitary and isolated activity where individuals make progress based on personal resources acquired from knowledge, previous experiences or moments of illumination; however, in society, and indeed amongst mathematicians, problem solving can be highly collaborative and occurs in spaces where external resources (technology, the internet, social connections etc.) are abundant. In this paper, we present research into what problem solving looks like in classrooms when it is done collaboratively with access to resources that go beyond the knowledge and past experiences of the individual and even the group. Results indicate that in such choice-affluent environments, students will seek out new resources either when their collective or individual resources run low and will do so either by looking or discussing with others. This manuscript also offers a new methodological tool in the form of, what we call, gaze-dialogue transcripts for documenting such resource acquisition.

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the relationships between the group affiliates’ dual legitimacy (membership legitimacy and societal legitimacy) and dual resource acquisition (intra-group and out-group), and the moderating roles of environmental uncertainty and munificence in the emerging economies.Design/methodology/approachThis paper adopts hierarchical regression analysis to test the hypotheses based on the unique data of 251 group affiliated firms in China and applies the alternative measurements and alternative methodology of structural equation modeling into robustness check to confirm the results.FindingsThe results show as follows: the group affiliates can benefit from membership legitimacy for intra-group resource acquisition and out-group resource acquisition through the mediations of societal legitimacy and intra-group resource acquisition. However, in the linkage between affiliates’ membership legitimacy and intra-group resource acquisition and the linkage between societal legitimacy and out-group resource acquisition, environmental uncertainty plays the positive moderating roles while environmental munificence plays the negative moderating roles. Under the condition of high environmental uncertainty and low environmental munificence, the linkage between membership legitimacy and intra-group resource acquisition, and the linkage between societal legitimacy and out-group resource acquisition reach the strongest level.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings highlight the importance of dual legitimacy building for group affiliates to acquire resources both inside and outside the business group when they operate in emerging economies characterized by high environmental uncertainty and low environmental munificence. However, it does not explore the contextual factors (e.g. institutional distance) affecting the relationship between the affiliate’s membership legitimacy and societal legitimacy. Then more group-level factors are expected to be included and explored with multi-level models in the future studies.Originality/valueThe findings reveal the mechanism of how group affiliates benefiting differently from dual legitimacy to acquire resources in the emerging economies, which also provide a new interpretation for the questions of who benefiting more from the group affiliation, how and why (Carney et al., 2009). This research also explores the moderating roles of task environmental characteristics (environmental uncertainty and environmental munificence) on the affiliate's dual legitimacy and dual resource acquisition, which helps understand why legitimacy building is more important in terms of resource acquisition in the emerging economy characterized by uncertainty and non-munificence.

In many organisations or institutions, several degrees of opportunities exist for which members (workers or students) have to work hard at achieving. While some work hard legitimately, others may not be willing to undergo the rigour required to attain the desired goals and so would strategically flirt in order to attain some undeserved benefits. Based on the theory of planned behaviour, an extension of the theory of reasoned action, this paper proposes the concepts of resource scarcity and resource acquisition difficulty to explain the rationale for strategic flirtation. Data were collected from university students as well as workers in the corporate world in Ghana to solicit their views on strategic flirtation which was explained to them as part of the data collection procedures. It was observed that resource scarcity was more pronounced in the work environment while the resource acquisition difficulty was more pronounced in the academic setting as reasons to engage in strategic flirtation. Implications of these for organisations are further discussed.

Resource acquisition, one of the major functions of roots, can contribute to crop growth and mitigating environmental impacts. The spatio-temporal distribution of roots in the soil in relation to the dynamics of the soil resources is critical in resource acquisition. Root distribution is determined by root system development. The root system consists of many individual roots of different types and ages. Each individual root has specific development, resource acquisition, and transport traits, which change with root growth. The integration of individual root traits in the root system could exhibit crop performance in the various environments via root distribution in the soil. However, the relationship between individual root traits and the pattern of root distribution is complicated. To understand this complicated relationship, we need to evaluate enormous numbers of individual root traits and understand the relationship between individual root development and root distribution as well as the integrated functions of individual root traits along with dynamics of resources in the soil.

Background Suboptimal water and nutrient availability are primary constraints in global agriculture. Root anatomy plays key roles in soil resource acquisition. In this article we summarize evidence that root anatomical phenotypes present opportunities for crop breeding. Scope Root anatomical phenotypes influence soil resource acquisition by regulating the metabolic cost of soil exploration, exploitation of the rhizosphere, the penetration of hard soil domains, the axial and radial transport of water, and interactions with soil biota including mycorrhizal fungi, pathogens, insects, and the rhizosphere microbiome. For each of these topics we provide examples of anatomical phenotypes which merit attention as selection targets for crop improvement. Several cross-cutting issues are addressed including the importance of phenotypic plasticity, integrated phenotypes, C sequestration, in silico modeling, and novel methods to phenotype root anatomy including image analysis tools. Conclusions An array of anatomical phenes have substantial importance for the acquisition of water and nutrients. Substantial phenotypic variation exists in crop germplasm. New tools and methods are making it easier to phenotype root anatomy, determine its genetic control, and understand its utility for plant fitness. Root anatomical phenotypes are underutilized yet attractive breeding targets for the development of the efficient, resilient crops urgently needed in global agriculture., Plant and Soil, 466 (1), ISSN:0032-079X, ISSN:1573-5036

Root–soil interactions in the rhizosphere are central to resource acquisition and crop production in agricultural systems. However, apart from studies in idealized experimental systems, rhizosphere processes in real agricultural soils in situ are largely uncharacterized. This limits the contribution of rhizosphere science to agriculture and the ongoing Green Revolution. Here, we argue that understanding plant responses to soil heterogeneity is key to understanding rhizosphere processes. We highlight rhizosphere sensing and root-induced soil modification in the context of heterogeneous soil structure, resource distribution, and root–soil interactions. A deeper understanding of the integrated and dynamic root–soil interactions in the heterogeneously structured rhizosphere could increase crop production and resource use efficiency towards sustainable agriculture.

Entrepreneurs are responsible for bringing innovative products and services to market. However, in order to bring new value to consumers, most entrepreneurs must secure funding. An integral component in the process of resource acquisition is the entrepreneur’s story. Very little research has dealt with the storytelling structure that a good pitch should use. Stories are a fundamental part of the way human beings understand themselves and the world around them. This paper synthesizes the current state of entrepreneurial storytelling and builds a parsimonious framework for strategic entrepreneurial storytelling (SES) through qualitative analysis of actual pitches. Our framework will help entrepreneurs build intentional and compelling stories for their investment pitch through the concepts of SES context, content, and execution.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of entrepreneurial orientation (EO), social network, and resource acquisition on firm performance in Chinese SMEs.Moreover, we analyze the impact of EO and social network on resource acquisition and further the mediating effect of resource acquisition on the relationship between EO and firm performance, and the mediating effect of resource acquisition on the relationship between social network and firm performance. Design/methodology/approach: The research is based on a survey of 204 SMEs in the Liaoning province of China, which includes entrepreneurial orientation, social network, resource acquisition, and firm performance.A structural equation model is used as the methodology. Findings: EO and social network have a significant positive impact on resource acquisition and firm performance. Resource acquisition proves to play a mediating role in the relationship between EO and firm performance, and the relationship between social network and firm performance.A higher EO can acquire more resources, and thus improve firm performance. Research limitations/implications: This research is meaningful, but it has its own limitations.First, the analysis target is limited to one area of China.If the target is expanded to other areas, different results may come out. Second, there may be measurement errors because firm performance is self-reported by the respondents.It is almost impossible that the authors gauge the accuracy and precision of these responses. The research implications are as follows: for SMEs in this region to thrive, the corporate executives should promote their entrepreneurial orientation, and strengthen their business and political ties to enhance mutual trust, and to get government support, information, loans or financing from financial institutions.These ties may also enable them to get favorable details on tax reduction Originality/value: The five-dimensional model of EO is the most prevalent in recent studies.Yet, there is not much research existent on Chinese companies.In this regard, this research using EO's five-dimensional model on Chinese SMEs may provide some contributions to the literature.

It has been an active research area to develop robust supervisory control policies for production systems with unreliable resources. So far, most methods for robust deadlock resolution apply only to systems without flexible routes, where each processing step of any part type requires a unique prespecified resource. In this paper, we address deadlock avoidance control problem in production systems with both failure-prone resources and flexible routings, which allow that a part has options when deciding the resource acquisition at each step. This paper presents properties that a controller with robustness must satisfy. Specifically, at any system reachable state, neither the failed resources nor part instances trapped in these resources should have too much detrimental effect on the other portions of the system. Thus, the full range of part types’ production could be assured at all time. After defining the notions of reduced system and reduced state with respect to unreliable resources, we identify and prove conditions for determining whether or not the state resulting from the occurrence of an event is feasible. Subsequently, we develop a method for robust deadlock avoidance, which uses the solutions to state safety checking problem for the reduced production system with only reliable resources. An illustrative example shows the effectiveness of this method. Finally, we conduct a comparison investigation of some representative approaches in the literature about robust supervisory control for deadlock resolution in resource allocation systems with routing flexibility.

In this study, we are interested in how export firms organize knowledge management and increase product innovation performance. Prior studies have concluded that knowledge transfer from external actors leads to operational performance outcomes; others have questioned the positive influence of buyer‐driven knowledge transfer activities on innovation performance. Drawing on absorptive capacity, we aim to offer a better understanding, how export firms as recipients of knowledge resources, organize their internal capabilities in order to realize firm‐level product innovation. This empirical study examines the interplay of buyer‐driven knowledge activities, resource acquisition and combining, and product innovation outcomes in the context of Pakistani export firms. Drawing on survey data from 239 export‐manufacturing firms, we test hypotheses using structural equation modeling. Our findings show that buyer‐driven knowledge transfer activities play a crucial role in enhancing export firms in absorbing and combining resources that lead to product innovation. The pragmatic suggestion of the research suggests that managers look closely at developing a culture of involvement with their buyers that promotes the development of knowledge resources. The results of this study have research, policy, and managerial implications.

Species contributing high proportions to community biomass strongly influence ecosystem processes within the community. Studies have shown that dominant species may serve as nurse plants, helping to ensure biomass stability of the subordinate species under stress conditions. The question is widely debated as to whether either niche differentiation or neutral processes drive the net outcome of plant interactions within a subordinate plant community. To answer this question, requires precise estimates of individual variation in functional traits and performance. In a 5‐year mesocosm experiment, the functional responses of a subordinate plant community to the removal of the dominant species were evaluated across two drought‐stress scenarios. Small‐scale (i.e. large pots) wetland communities were constructed comprising one dominant species Carex elata and three subordinate species. Removal of the dominant species allowed evaluation of the net effects of drought and interspecific interactions. We estimated the functional divergences for three traits (SLA, leaf dry matter content and allocation to height growth) and compared these with performance differences quantified individually. This enabled distinctions to be made between deterministic (i.e. niche differentiation) and neutral processes driving the drought response of the subordinate community. We showed that the dominant species decreased relative performance differences within the subordinate plant community under conditions of permanent drought stress. These changes were associated with the convergence of traits related to resource acquisition and growth. The dominant species equalized species performance differences by supressing relatively drought‐tolerant species with low competitive ability and by supporting the less drought‐tolerant species with relatively high competitive ability. Meanwhile, under conditions of inter‐annual drought, the subordinate species likely coexisted due to differentiation in resource‐use strategies and the interaction with the dominant species. Inclusion of individual variation in performance with a functional trait approach provides valuable insights into the processes structuring plant communities. Ours is the first study to provide evidence that subordinate species exposed to drought may coexist via neutral processes arising from their interactions with the dominant species, leading to functional convergence of traits associated with the trade‐off between stress tolerance and competitive ability. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

PurposeThis study aims to explore the relationship between entrepreneurial strategies and the performance of technological start-up companies.Design/methodology/approachBuilding on the extant literature on network theory, this paper derives the propositions that observe the effect of strategic alliances on the growth of technology-based ventures.FindingsThis study suggests that the network of a start-up evolves in response to the changing resource needs and resource acquisition challenges of a firm as it moves through the life cycle stages of emergence and early growth.Originality/valueThe present study challenges the basic assumption that more embeddedness is better by examining which kinds of specific ties are more beneficial than others, and whether these beneficiaries are maintained overtime.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of user-driven innovation (UDI) and employee intrapreneurship (EI) on the innovation performance of platform enterprises through the mediating role of market intelligence responsiveness (MIR) and the moderating role of knowledge and information resource acquisition (KRA and IRA, respectively) between MIR and innovation performance.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 167 platform enterprises in northern, eastern and southern China with survey questionnaires. Participants were mainly middle and senior managers with a comprehensive grasp of the enterprises' information.FindingsThe results indicated that both UDI and EI, particularly synergy, positively influenced the innovation performance of platform enterprises. Furthermore, higher innovation performance resulted from high congruence between UDI and EI, and the innovation performance of enterprises increased when UDI and EI shifted from being incongruent to congruent. Lastly, MIR played a mediating role in this relationship, and both KRA and IRA played a positive moderating role between MIR and innovation performance.Practical implicationsPlatform enterprises should pay attention to external users and internal employees to achieve their development goals and establish tripartite cooperative relationships involving firms, employees and users. Enabling platform enterprises to develop continually and in a healthy way requires the integration and utilization of all types of resources.Originality/valueThis was an empirical study on the impact mechanism of employees and users on the innovation performance of platform enterprises in China.

This paper constructs a three-stage model of corporate turnaround, beginning with political connections’ affects declining companies’ implementation of turnaround strategies. The model also explore...

We examine how entrepreneurs acquire financial resources for their early-stage ventures from distributed non-professionals via crowdfunding. Through an inductive analysis of entrepreneurs’ successful and unsuccessful non-equity crowdfunding campaigns, we derive a holistic framework of community-based resource mobilization. Our framework consists of three distinct processes entrepreneurs use to attain financial capital from non-professional resource providers over time: community building to establish psychological bonds with individuals possessing domain-relevant knowledge, community engaging to foster social identification with existing resource providers, and community spanning to leverage proofpoints with intermediaries who can help orchestrate resource mobilization with broader audiences. Entrepreneurs’ enactment and temporal sequencing of these three processes distinguish successful versus unsuccessful resource mobilization efforts in a crowdfunding setting. Community building is used by successful entrepreneurs primarily prior to a campaign’s launch, community engaging is used throughout a campaign, and community spanning is most effectively used after achieving a campaign’s initially-stated funding goal. This study empirically illustrates and theoretically conceptualizes the dynamics of resource mobilization in a crowdfunding setting.

This study investigates the relationship between knowledge management and employee effectiveness of deposit money banks in Nigeria using cross-sectional survey. Sixty branch managers from ten deposit money banks operating in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State were surveyed using convenience sampling technique. Forty four copies of questionnaire were filled Statistical tool used to analyse the hypotheses is Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (rs). Respondents’ profiles were analysed using descriptive statistics. The study found that knowledge management has positive significant association with employee effectiveness in deposit money banks in Abakaliki. It concluded that knowledge management measured in terms of knowledge acquisition, knowledge dissemination, knowledge conservation and knowledge retrieval enhances employee effectiveness when resources are provided for the employees quite apart from setting goals on how jobs should be carried out. Based on the conclusion above, one of the recommendations is that managers of deposit money banks should encourage their subordinates to make contributions in decision-making to enhance employee effectiveness.

Territoriality is central to animal behaviourists' understanding of many facets of animal behaviour, including resource acquisition, space use behaviour, communication and mating systems. However, the term itself, how it is conceptualized and defined, has long been nebulous and contentious. Here, we ask whether juxtaposing debates about territoriality from animal behaviour with parallel discussions of territoriality from the social sciences can offer a historically and sociologically informed path out of the conceptual gridlock in which animal territoriality has been located for decades. We delineate two key problems with territoriality identified in the animal behaviour literature: First, that it focuses on how animals are expected to behave rather than how they actually behave and, second, that it assumes rather than demonstrates the function of, and specific relationships among, individuals. We then link these problems to social scientists' theorizations of the difference between property and access: whereas property is focused on how people are expected to behave under juridical–legal rules governing resource use, access focuses on a wide array of means by which people actually access resources. We thus argue that longstanding problems with animal territoriality have arisen due to implicitly embedded notions of property and ownership. Our juxtaposition raises two further problems with territoriality: first, it unwarrantedly serves to attribute authority to individuals described as territory ‘owners’ and casts others (‘intruders’, ‘sneakers’) as transgressors and, second, conceiving of ownership is unfeasible in animal societies lacking the particular juridical–legal institutions that establish and enforce property rights. Instead, we advocate for an access-based approach that will obviate these problems. Ultimately, we argue that the theory of access, as developed in social science literatures on spatial and relational resource use, will allow for a fuller and more nuanced understanding of variation in animal behaviour than that afforded by current dominant notions of territoriality.

Strategies of resource acquisition are subject to change due to introduced pressures placed upon individual animals. The pressures of food deprivation and competition can lead to a drastic change in previously established strategies of resource acquisition. We conducted a series of trials in which red swamp crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) were either deprived of food or satiated and competition was introduced via a plastic model to necessitate the abandonment of established resource acquisition strategies in favor of risk-insensitive strategies. Crayfish exhibited no difference in behavior when exposed to a singular pressure; however, an interaction between food deprivation and competition was detected and indicates that crayfish responded to food sources more quickly and with more risk-insensitive behavior when a model competitor was present. This combination of factors indicates a complex relationship between resource acquisition strategies and the pressures of acquiring food.

Background and AimsDespite recent progress in elucidating the molecular basis of secondary growth (cambial growth), the functional implications of this developmental process remain poorly understood. Targeted studies exploring how abiotic and biotic factors affect this process, as well as the relevance of secondary growth to fitness of annual dicotyledonous crop species under stress, are almost entirely absent from the literature. Specifically, the physiological role of secondary growth in roots has been completely neglected yet entails a unique array of implications for plant performance that are distinct from secondary growth in shoot tissue.ScopeSince roots are directly responsible for soil resource capture, understanding of the fitness landscape of root phenotypes is important in both basic and applied plant biology. Interactions between root secondary growth, edaphic conditions and soil resource acquisition may have significant effects on plant fitness. Our intention here is not to provide a comprehensive review of a sparse and disparate literature, but rather to highlight knowledge gaps, propose hypotheses and identify opportunities for novel and agriculturally relevant research pertaining to secondary growth of roots. This viewpoint: (1) summarizes evidence from our own studies and other published work; (2) proposes hypotheses regarding the fitness landscape of secondary growth of roots in annual dicotyledonous species for abiotic and biotic stress; and (3) highlights the importance of directing research efforts to this topic within an agricultural context.ConclusionsSecondary growth of the roots of annual dicots has functional significance with regards to soil resource acquisition and transport, interactions with soil organisms and carbon sequestration. Research on these topics would contribute significantly toward understanding the agronomic value of secondary growth of roots for crop improvement.

This paper is an attempt of using co-citation analysis to sort out and to analyze the development and evolution of a latest hot area, open innovation from the perspective of network embedding. A dataset of 1437 records published between 1990 and 2019 is collected from Web of Science database. The empirical results show the latest hot topics in the open innovation study focus on innovation performance and value creation. In addition, we make a new interpretation of open innovation from four aspects: innovation and entrepreneurship, resource acquisition, knowledge sharing and innovation performance, then combines the importance of network embedding to the innovation and development of enterprises, and proposes the future research direction of open innovation. Our research in this paper is helpful to systematically sort out the knowledge context of open innovation, which is of great significance to the construction and development of open innovation knowledge system. The conclusions and implications in this paper will be particularly illuminating for both academic research and enterprises’ practice application.

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the social entrepreneurs’ attention allocation and their resource action that lead to hybrid organization using the paradox theory. Paradox theory deepens understandings of the varied nature, dynamics and outcomes of entrepreneurial tensions. This study explores the systematic effects of internal and external attention on both economic and social performance.Design/methodology/approachFirst, theoretically, hypotheses linking different attention allocations to ambidextrous behavior and entrepreneurial performance were formulated. Subsequently, the empirical studies based on Chinese social entrepreneurship were conducted to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe study provides support to the hypotheses showing that external attention is linked to resource acquisition and social performance, while internal attention is linked to resource acquisition and strategic human resource management and thus these ambidextrous behaviors promote both social and economic performance. Furthermore, normal pressure moderates the relations between internal attention and strategic human resource management only.Research limitations/implicationsThe research measures entrepreneurs’ attention with questionnaire rather than psych test. Also, static data rather than longitudinal research is designed to test the hypotheses.Practical implicationsDeeper understanding of the attention of social entrepreneurs and resource action can help entrepreneurial outcomes and can potentially contribute to paradox and tension management by entrepreneurial practitioners in China.Originality/valueSocial entrepreneurs’ different attention allocation and related entrepreneurial ambidextrous behavior processes are linked to paradoxical thinking for the first time. The findings of this research can potentially enhance social entrepreneurship paradoxical thinking aimed at preventing mission drift.