Our faculty consistently produce research that is world leading in terms of originality, significance and rigour. This research is published in top international journals.
Over the past year our faculty have published in top international journals on a wide range of subjects, as follows:
2015
- Stein, M-K, Newell, Susan, Galliers, R and Wagner, E (2015) Coping with information technology: mixed emotions, vacillation and non-confirming use patterns. MIS Quarterly, 39 (2). pp. 367-392. ISSN 0276-7783 (In Press)
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Abstract - While much is known about different social, cognitive, and technical factors that influence initial adoption and use, less is known about the role of emotional factors in users’ behaviors. Through an in-depth field study conducted in two North American universities, we examine the role of emotions in how specific IT use patterns emerge. We find that there are five different characteristics of an IT stimulus event (cues) that, when interacting in a reinforcing manner, elicit a single class of emotions (uniform affective responses) and, when interacting in an oppositional manner, elicit mixed emotions (ambivalent affective responses). While users respond to uniform emotions with clear adaptation strategies, they deal with ambivalent emotions by combining different adaptation behaviors, a vacillating strategy between emphasizing positive and negative aspects of the stimulus. Surprisingly, these ambivalent emotions and vacillating strategies can lead to active and positive user engagement, exhibited in task and tool adaptation behaviors and improvisational use patterns that, despite their nonconformity to terms of use, can have positive organizational implications.
Web profile: Prof Susan Newell
- Restuccia, Mariachiara, de Brentani, Ulrike, Legoux, Renaud and Ouellet , Jean-François (2015) Product lifecycle management and distributor contribution to new product development. Journal of Product Innovation Management. ISSN 0737-6782
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Abstract - After the initial launch of a new product, distributors are frequently among the first to learn about product related problems through the information they get about how it is perceived and used by customers, and how it might be improved or adapted for broader market coverage. For producers, such information, which has the potential to impact new product development (NPD) activities during the product lifecycle management (PLM) phase that follows launch, can be decisive for ensuring the continued viability of the product in the medium-to-longer term. The goal of this article is to better understand how distributors contribute to producer PLM activities by engaging in product-related information processing. A typology of four distinct scenarios is developed by integrating three conceptual themes: organizational information processing, dynamic capabilities, and task complexity. Each scenario results from the interplay of the distributor’s level (low/high) of capability—specifically, a combination of information coordination and management of inter-organization relations—and of the degree (low/high) of complexity of the product-related problem. The four scenarios are analysed and described in terms of NPD-related information processing. According to the typology, distributors act as ‘problem informers’ (low capability/high complexity), ‘solution advisors’ (low capability/low complexity), ‘solution implementers’ (high capability/low complexity) or ‘solution managers’ (high capability/high complexity). 14 in-depth interviews with distributors and producers in industrial goods provide empirical evidence for the analysis, description and support of each scenario. The article contributes to NPD by shedding light on the role of distributors in terms of incremental innovation in the context of PLM. Developers of new products can use the typology in planning for distributor involvement in PLM activities; distributors can use it to map out their current and future level of engagement in PLM-related activities.
Web profile: Dr Mariachiara Restuccia
- Petrakaki, Dimitra and Klecun, Ela (2015) Hybridity as a process of technology's ‘translation’: customizing a national Electronic Patient Record. Social Science and Medicine, 124. pp. 224-231
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Abstract - This paper explores how national Electronic Patient Record (EPR) systems are customized in local settings and, in particular, how the context of their origin plays out with the context of their use. It shows how representations of healthcare organizations and of local clinical practice are built into EPR systems within a complex context whereby different stakeholder groups negotiate to produce an EPR package that aims to meet both local and generic needs. The paper draws from research into the implementation of the National Care Record Service, a part of the National Programme for Information Technology (NPfIT), in the English National Health Service (NHS). The paper makes two arguments. First, customization of national EPR is a distributed process that involves cycles of ‘translation’, which span across geographical, cultural and professional boundaries. Second, ‘translation’ is an inherently political process during which hybrid technology gets consolidated. The paper concludes, that hybrid technology opens up possibilities for standardization of healthcare.
Web profile: Dr Dimitra Petrakaki
- Martins, Pedro and Yong Yang (2015) Globalised labour markets? International rent sharing across 47 countries, British Journal of Industrial Relations
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Abstract - We present evidence about the role of rent sharing in fostering the interdependence of labour markets around the world. Our results draw on a firm-level panel of more than 2,000 multinationals and over 5,000 of their affiliates, covering 47 home and host countries. We find considerable evidence that multinationals share profits internationally by paying higher wages to their workers in foreign affiliates in periods of higher headquarter profits. This occurs even across continents, and not only within Europe, as shown in earlier research. The results are robust to different tests, including a falsification exercise based on ‘matched’ parents. Finally, we show that rent sharing is higher when the affiliate is located in countries with specific relative characteristics, such as lower economic development or taxation, while it falls with the number of affiliates. We argue that these results are consistent with transfer pricing and bargaining views.
Web Profile: Dr Yong Yang
- Conway, E., Fu, N., Monks, K., Alfes, K. and Bailey, C. (2015) ‘Demands or Resources? The Relationship between HR Practices, Employee Engagement and Emotional Exhaustion within a Hybrid Model of Employment Relations’. Human Resource Management
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Abstract - This article explores the ways in which employees may experience and respond to tensions inherent in the mix of potentially conflicting human resource (HR) practices that compose hybrid models of employment relations. By drawing on the job demands–resources (JD-R) literature and viewing HR practices as “demands” and “resources,” we explore the impact of performance management and employee voice practices on employee well-being, as exemplified by engagement and emotional exhaustion, in a large public-sector organization in Ireland. Our findings suggest that employee voice mechanisms may act as a resource in both enhancing engagement and in counterbalancing the demands presented by a performance management system, thus reducing the deleterious effects of emotional exhaustion. Our study extends understanding of hybrid models of human resource management (HRM) and of the ways in which employees manage the contradictory signals that such models may send in terms of performance expectations.
Web profile: Prof Katie Bailey
- In press / forthcoming
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Norifumi Kawai & Alex Mohr. (2015) “The Association between Role Ambiguity, Role Novelty & Expatriates’ Job Outcomes: The Moderating Effects of Organizational & Supervisor Support”, British Journal of Management.(US: Wiley)
Madden, A., Bailey, C. and Kerr, J. (2015 – on line) ‘For this I was made’. Gender and callings: the experience of being called as a woman priest.’ Work, Employment and Society.
2014
- Mohr, Alexander, Fastoso, Fernando, Wang, Chengang and Shirodkar, Vikrant (2014) Testing the regional performance of MNEs in the retail sector: the moderating effects of timing, speed and experience. British Journal of Management, 25. S100-S115. ISSN 1045-3172
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Abstract - Drawing on regional strategy theory we complement the core effect of firm-specific advantages on the performance of multinational enterprises with an analysis of the performance consequences of home region concentration on firm performance. We also develop hypotheses regarding the effect of foreign entry timing, internationalization speed and international experience on the performance effect of home region concentration. We test our hypotheses against unique longitudinal data from a panel of 128 multinational enterprises in the retail sector whose geographical spread of international activities we traced between 1995 and 2010. Our findings support the predictions of regional strategy theory and highlight the importance of foreign entry timing and internationalization speed in strengthening the positive effect of home region concentration on the performance of multinational enterprises.
Web profile: Dr Vikrant Shirodkar - Nielsen, Jeppe, Mathiassen, Lars and Newell, Sue (2014) Theorization and translation in information technology institutionalization: evidence from Danish home care. MIS Quarterly, 38 (1). pp. 165-186. ISSN 0276-7783
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Abstract - Although institutional theory has become a more dominant perspective in information systems research, studies have only paid scant attention to how field dynamics and organizational processes coevolve during information technology institutionalization. Against this backdrop, we present a new conceptualization based on the "traveling of ideas" metaphor that distinguishes between theorization of ideas about IT usage across an organizational field and translation of such ideas into practical use of IT within particular organizations. Drawing on these distinct analytical views, we posit that IT institutionalization is constituted through recursive intertwining of theorization and translation involving both linguistic and material objects. To illustrate the detailed workings of this conceptualization, we apply it to a longitudinal study of mobile IT institutionalization within Danish home care. We demonstrate how heterogeneous actors within the Danish home care field theorized ideas about mobile IT usage and how these ideas translated into different local arrangements. Further, our account reveals a complex institutionalization process in which mobile IT was first seen as a fashionable recipe for improvement but subsequently became the subject of controversy. The paper adds to the emerging process and discourse literature on IT institutionalization by shedding new light on how IT ideas travel across a field and within individual organizations, how they transform and become legitimized over time, and how they take on different linguistic and material forms across organizational settings.
Web profile: Prof Susan Newell
- Kornelakis, Andreas (2014) Liberalisation, flexibility and industrial relations institutions: evidence from Italian and Greek banking. Work, Employment and Society, 28 (1). pp. 40-57. ISSN 0950-0170
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Abstract - The article seeks to explain how institutions change within varieties of capitalism, focusing on an important institution for the world of work: wage bargaining. Although there is a widespread expectation that liberalization and firms’ needs for flexibility brings convergence to the liberal market model of decentralized industrial relations, recent literature suggests that diversity persists and that there are a range of different responses. This article contributes to the debate by applying a coalitional perspective to highlight the factors that influence divergent trajectories of change in wage bargaining. The case studies of Italian and Greek banking suggest that the existence of ‘employer associability’ may moderate decentralizing tendencies and facilitate the reform of industrial relations institutions, while ‘labour–state coalitions’ are critical for the survival of institutions. Finally, the article discusses the findings in relation to wider debates in the comparative political economy of work.
Web profile: Dr Andreas Kornelakis
- Petrakaki, Dimitra, Waring, Justin and Barber, Nick (2014) Technological affordances of risk and blame: the case of the electronic prescription service in England. Sociology of Health and Illness, 36 (5). pp. 703-718.
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Abstract - Information and communication technology (ICT) is often presented by health policymakers and software designers as a means for reducing clinical risk, leading to safer clinical practice. Studies have challenged this view, showing how technology can produce new or unanticipated risks. Although research seeks to objectively identify these risks, we recognise that technological risks are socially constructed through the interaction of technology and practice. The aim of this article is to explore how technology affords opportunities for the social construction and control of risk in health care settings. Drawing upon a study of the electronic prescription service introduced in the National Health Service in England, we make three arguments. Firstly, as technology interacts with social practice (for example, through policy and the design and use of ICT) it affords opportunities for the construction of risk through its interpretive flexibility, transformative capacity and materiality. Secondly, social actors interpret these risks within and across professional boundaries and cultures. Thirdly, the social construction of risk affords certain implications to policymakers, designers and users of health ICT, specifically a reordering of power and responsibility and a recasting of questions of blame. These, in turn, raise questions concerning the boundaries and bearers of responsibility.
Web profile: Dr Dimitra Petrakaki
- Hearn, B. (2015). Institutional influences on board composition of international joint venture firms listing on emerging stock exchanges: Evidence from Africa. Journal of World Business, 50(2), 205-219
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Abstract - The attraction of blue-chip listings in emerging stock markets is a major policy initiative common across much of the developing world. In many cases however, local blue-chip firms are the result of foreign Multinational Enterprise (MNE) firms engaging with local indigenous partners to form an international joint venture (IJV). These are unique with bilateral governance structures underscoring co-ownership between partners of residual cash flows and assets of the IJV. Using a unique and comprehensive sample of 202 IPO firms from across the emerging African region evidence of both a pronounced internal as well as external role for IJV boards was found. Social and political legitimacy concerns dominate the external role of boards in particular. Increasing proportions of boards drawn from commercial and governmental social elites are associated with IJV IPO firms in high institutional quality while lower proportions of these elites are associated with civil code law jurisdictions rather than common law. Governmental elites are associated with country-level improvements in corruption control and political stability while commercial elites are only marginally associated with improvements in political stability, regulatory quality, rule of law and democratic voice and accountability measures.
Web profile: Dr Bruce Hearn
- Driffield, Nigel and Love, Jim and Yang, Yong (2014) Technology Sourcing and Reverse Productivity Spillovers in the Multinational Enterprise: Global or Regional Phenomenon? British Journal of Management, 25(S1): S24-S41.
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Abstract - The focus of this paper is the importance of regions in technology transfer by the multinational firm. Specifically, we focus on an issue that has become known as knowledge or technology sourcing via ‘reverse spillovers’, i.e. productivity effects running from domestic firms to foreign establishments. Traditionally this issue has presented a challenge for international business scholars, both in terms of identifying the phenomenon and in terms of determining the success of the strategy. In this paper we examine these questions within the context of the debate on globalization/regionalization. For a set of some 4500 subsidiaries of multinationals across a wide range of countries we show that reverse productivity spillovers via technology sourcing are significant but that they tend to be concentrated within ‘triad regions’ rather than across them. We also find that reverse spillovers from host country multinational enterprises are greater than those from other host country firms or from other foreign affiliates.
Web Profile: Dr Yong Yang
- Unzueta, M. M., Everly, B. A., & Gutiérrez, A. S. (2014). Social dominance orientation predicts differential reactions to Black and White discrimination claimants. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 54, 81-88
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Abstract - We suggest that because racial discrimination claims made by Blacks potentially challenge the legitimacy of racial inequality, whereas racial discrimination claims made by Whites potentially reinforce the legitimacy of racial inequality, social dominance orientation (SDO) may differentially predict reactions to Black and White discrimination claimants. Consistent with this idea, Studies 1 and 2 suggest that negativity toward Blacks who make discrimination claims increases as a function of participants' SDO, while SDO predicts increased positivity toward Whites who make discrimination claims. Moreover, Study 3 demonstrates that differential reactions to White discrimination claimants as a function of SDO are particularly likely to occur when racial inequality is thought to be unstable; when racial inequality is thought to be stable, SDO does not predict positive reactions to White discrimination claimants. In all, the reported studies provide evidence for the idea that reactions to Black and White discrimination claimants may serve a role in respectively challenging or reinforcing racial inequality.
Web profile: Dr Benjamin Everly
- George Saridakis, Susan Marlow, David J. Storey “Do Different Factors explain self-employment rates for males and females?” Journal of Business Venturing, (2014) 29(3), 345-362.
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Abstract - This article challenges the assumption that the factors associated with the self-employment choices of women differ from those of men; specifically, we test the extent to which women are influenced by standard economic factors compared with family and social issues. We find that economic factors influence the self-employment choices made by men and by women in the long and short-run. Although some findings were sensitive to the chosen self-employment measure our short-run findings, in particular, are at variance with the interpretation that self-employed women are less likely to be influenced by economic factors than their male counterparts. Consequently, we argue that gender-based explanations have exaggerated the importance of social factors in the self-employment choices made by women.
Web profile: Prof David Storey
- Anders Lundström Professor, Peter Vikström, Matthias Fink, Miguel Meuleman , Paweł Głodek, David Storey, Andreas Kroksgård (2014) ‘Measuring the Costs and Coverage of SME and Entrepreneurship Policy: A Pioneering Study. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. Volume 38, Issue 4, pp 941–957.
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Abstract - This paper documents a methodology used to assess, for the first time, the costs to the taxpayer of small and medium enterprise (SME) and entrepreneurship policy in Sweden. It then uses that data to compare the resulting expenditure patterns with the focus of policy as expressed by experts. It finds important areas where the two diverge, implying a possible mismatch between expenditure priorities and political rhetoric. This approach is then extended beyond Sweden to include Poland, Austria, and the Flanders region of Belgium to demonstrate the application of the approach to other countries and regions.
Web profile: Prof David Storey
- Jory, Surendranath and Ngo, Thanh Ngoc (2014) Cross-border acquisitions of state-owned enterprises. Journal of International Business Studies, 45 (9). pp. 1096-1114. ISSN 0047-2506
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Abstract - We examine the decision of private sector enterprises from developed countries to acquire state-owned enterprises (SOEs) abroad. Using a sample of US firms buying targets abroad between 1987 and 2009, we find that bidders of SOE fare worse than bidders of non-SOE both in terms of stock price and operating performance. We also find that the quality of the target country location – as captured by the Economic Freedom of the World (EFW) Index – greatly influences the choice of SOE targets. Interestingly, the quality ranking of the target country location on the EFW Index and the performance of the bidder of a SOE target are inversely related. Our findings imply that the characteristics of the location of the target firm affect bidders’ choice of targets in international mergers and acquisitions; otherwise, acquiring non-SOEs is more lucrative. Furthermore, either limiting conditions in the business environment force managers to work harder to generate more wealth, or in weak legal and business environments buying targets with ties to the government yields extra wealth. Our findings are highly relevant within the international business literature as they influence the choice of foreign market entry mode.
Web profile: Dr Surendranath Jory
- Everly, B. A. & Schwarz, J. L. (2014). Predictors of the adoption of LGBT-friendly human resource policies. Human Resource Management.
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Abstract - Employment discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals remains a persistent problem not addressed by federal and most state equal employment opportunity laws in the United States. Despite this lack of regulation, a growing number of organizations are voluntarily adding sexual orientation and gender identity to their nondiscrimination statements, providing domestic partner benefits, sponsoring affinity groups, and establishing other “LGBT-friendly” policies. This article incorporates institutional theory and organizational demography to explore the antecedents to these policies to understand why some organizations seek to be at the forefront of this trend while others do only the minimum to embrace this element of diversity. The analysis of a sample of Fortune 1000 firms reveals that state law dealing with gay rights in non-employment-related areas for the state where each company is headquartered, the number of women serving on each firm's board of directors, and whether other companies in the same industry have adopted progressive policies are all related to company policy toward its LGBT employees. Sexual orientation of employees by industry does not seem to influence company policy.
Web profile: Dr Benjamin Everly
- Klecun, Ela, Lichtner, Valentina, Cornford, Tony and Petrakaki, Dimitra (2014) Evaluation as a Multi-Ontological Endeavour: A Case from the English National Program for IT in Healthcare. Journal of the Association for Information Systems , 15 (3). pp. 147-176. ISSN 1536-9323
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Abstract - This paper analyzes how researchers’ different ontological and epistemological assumptions shape the process and outcomes of evaluation research. Focusing on the critical realism (CR) and social constructionism (SC) philosophical approaches, it outlines the rationale for multi-ontological evaluation and develops principles for conducting it. The paper draws from experience of evaluating a national implementation program of electronic health records in hospitals, one of the projects of the English National Programme for IT. It argues that an evaluation based on SC and one based on CR are significantly different in how they use knowledge gained in the field, and in the kind of evidence and recommendations that they can offer policy makers. The CR philosophy applied to evaluation research provides foundations from which judgments and abstractions can be presented in the form expected by the policy makers and managers who commission evaluations. In line with its ontological standing, social constructionism cannot simply or directly abstract and generalize across contexts, though it can offer other types of valuable evaluative insight. We show that, despite their differences, these two philosophical positions can, when taken together, produce jointly useful knowledge. This paper argues for the use of multi-ontological evaluation approaches and provides guidelines for undertaking such endeavors by emphasizing the need for mutual respect, dialogue, negotiation, and reflection.
Web profile: Dr Dimitra Petrakaki
* Photo: Paul Mison