abstract This paper examines the development and initial validation of a multidimensional measure of servant leadership behaviour (Servant Leadership Behaviour Scale). Both qualitative and quantitative studies are reported to establish preliminary psychometric properties for the new 35‐item, six‐dimension measure. The resultant servant leadership model is characterized by its service orientation, holistic outlook, and moral‐spiritual emphasis, thereby extending current models of servant leadership and existing works on contemporary leadership approaches. Theoretical contributions, practical implications, and future research directions are discussed in the concluding section of the paper.

AbstractSundaram and Inkpen (2004a, 2004b) proposed shareholder value maximization (SVM) as the preferred corporate objective since it alone impels the firm to implement strategies that enhance outcomes for all stakeholders. Goranova and Ryan (2021) argue that three recent developments – common ownership, decoupling of owners from managers, and greater divergence in shareholder interests – call into question our SVM view. We dispute their arguments: (i) The developments they cite are overplayed in the literature, and may not matter much for SVM; (ii) To the extent they do matter, their concern is less about SVM’s relevance as corporate objective but more whether these developments bias decisions towards the short‐term. We do not disagree since, after all, Sundaram and Inkpen (2004a) is solely about SVM for the long‐term; (iii) If anything, Goranova and Ryan’s (2021) proposed solution of ‘strategic corporate governance’ can be viewed as an endorsement of the relevance and enduring primacy of SVM for the long‐term.

AbstractWe analyse business‐NGO (B2N) alliances through the lenses of multiple agency and behavioural agency theories to identify the sources of agency problems and the most effective choice of mitigation mechanisms. We contend that three types of agency relationships constitute B2N alliances: the relationship between the firm's managers and B2N alliance employees; the relationship between the NGO's managers and the B2N alliance employees; and the novel ‘claimed principal‐agent relationship’ involving the external beneficiary, the NGO's managers and the alliance employees. We argue that B2N alliances’ three types of agency problems stem from (1) the relative emphasis on public vs. private goods, both at the employee and at the partner levels, and (2) the level of the external beneficiary's voice. We then predict the mechanisms to mitigate these problems: hiring altruistic over self‐interested individuals; narrowly specifying the employees’ activities; emphasizing input‐based and intrinsic incentive mechanisms; and investing significantly into non‐intrusive monitoring mechanisms.

AbstractIn this Point–Counterpoint article we argue that institutional scholarship has become overly concerned with explaining institutions and institutional processes, notably at the level of the organization field, rather than with using them to explain and understand organizations. Especially missing is an attempt to gain a coherent, holistic account of how organizations are structured and managed. We also argue that when institutional theory does give attention to organizations it inappropriately treats them as though they are the same, or at least as though any differences are irrelevant for purposes of theory. We propose a return to the study of organizations with an emphasis upon comparative analysis, and suggest the institutional logics perspective as an appropriate means for doing so.

abstractThis article examines the affect of family management on performance of the company. We examine how familiness can provide further insights beyond the classical demographic measures of top management teams (TMTs) in explaining variations in firms' financial performance. We combine arguments on the ‘bright’ and ‘dark’ side of family involvement in the firm; we complement positive predictions on family involvement with negative predictions and develop family firm‐specific measures of TMTs' familiness. Results indicate that while the presence of a family CEO is beneficial for firm performance, the coexistence of ‘factions’ in family and non‐family managers within the TMT has the potential to create schisms among the subgroups and consequently hurt firm performance. We find support for a hypothesized U‐shaped relationship between the ratio of family members in the TMT and firm performance. Additional evidence related to interactions between firm listing and CEO type on firm performance is then presented and discussed.

ABSTRACTResearch on organizational signalling tends to focus on the effects of isolated or congruent signals, assuming highly rational responses to those signals. In this study, we theorize about the cognitive processes associated with the attention paid to and interpretation of multiple, often incongruent signals that organizations send to consumers, financiers, and other stakeholders who make organizational assessments. Contributing a cognitive perspective of signal attention and interpretation, alongside the introduction of signal sets, we provide a more complete picture of how organizational signalling unfolds in the field. Our research opens new frontiers for future inquiry into the cognitive foundations of signal attention, multi‐signal interpretation, and incongruent signals.

Abstract The study investigates how local actors pursue two paradoxical aspects of legitimacy in a global institutional framework: the need for global conformity and the need for local distinctiveness. Drawing on the notion of glocalization, it explicates how this pursuit is accomplished by actors' selective fidelity to global norms and adaptation of these norms to local conditions. The empirical work consists of a five‐year qualitative case study of the Ontario wine industry. It provides empirical evidence for the presence of several non‐mutually exclusive paths through which local actors seek legitimation in a global context. The study offers important implications for future research on legitimation and globalization.

ABSTRACT Employees often have ideas, information, and opinions for constructive ways to improve work and work organizations. Sometimes these employees exercise voice and express their ideas, information, and opinions; and other times they engage in silence and withhold their ideas, information, and opinions. On the surface, expressing and withholding behaviours might appear to be polar opposites because silence implies not speaking while voice implies speaking up on important issues and problems in organizations. Challenging this simplistic notion, this paper presents a conceptual framework suggesting that employee silence and voice are best conceptualized as separate, multidimensional constructs. Based on employee motives, we differentiate three types of silence (Acquiescent Silence, Defensive Silence, and ProSocial Silence) and three parallel types of voice (Acquiescent Voice, Defensive Voice, and ProSocial Voice) where withholding important information is not simply the absence of voice. Building on this conceptual framework, we further propose that silence and voice have differential consequences to employees in work organizations. Based on fundamental differences in the overt behavioural cues provided by silence and voice, we present a series of propositions predicting that silence is more ambiguous than voice, observers are more likely to misattribute employee motives for silence than for voice, and misattributions for motives behind silence will lead to more incongruent consequences (both positive and negative) for employees (than for voice). We conclude by discussing implications for future research and for managers.

AbstractBuilding upon the perspective that narcissism is a leadership trait with both ‘bright’ and ‘dark’ sides, the present study examines the question of whether companies led by narcissistic CEOs exhibit higher levels of entrepreneurial orientation (EO). Moreover, this research examines whether EO partially explains why narcissistic CEO‐led firms experience greater variability in firm performance. Using survey data collected from 173 CEOs, and an archival measure of firm performance variance, we find support for our model. These findings offer an improved understanding of how CEO narcissism influences performance variance, and why the firms they lead may even, at times, be viewed as on a path to success. Study implications are discussed.

abstractDespite its many achievements, scholarship at the intersection of entrepreneurship and cognition has focused primarily on the consequences of what happens when an entrepreneur benefits from various cognitive characteristics, resources, or other dispositions. As such, cognitive research in entrepreneurship continues to suffer from narrow theoretical articulations and weak conceptual foundations that lessen its contribution to the managerial sciences. To address these issues, we draw from extant work on the nature and practice of cognitive research to develop a systematic approach to study entrepreneurship cognition. To further articulate this agenda, we assess the state of the field by content‐analysing entrepreneurship cognition articles published between 1976 and 2008. We find that, although it has investigated many relevant variables, research on entrepreneurship cognition has failed to fully articulate key conceptual features of the cognitive perspective. Building on these observations, we propose concrete strategies and research questions to augment the contribution of entrepreneurship cognition research, and advance this research beyond its current focus on ‘cognitive consequences’. In particular, we illustrate the scholarly potential of disentangling the various antecedents of entrepreneurship cognition, of studying the process interactions between cognitive resources and mental representations, and of exploring the operation of entrepreneurship cognition across levels of analysis.