Business Administration, Management, and Operations Commons^™

Agreements And Disagreements About The Roll Of Leadership Team Diversity In Strategic Change: A Critical Review Of Measurement And Empirical Inconsistencies, Amy C. Horner

Engaged Management ReView

Research examining the relationship between leadership team diversity and strategic change has produced inconsistent and often contradictory findings. This dissertation digest synthesizes prior research through a meta-analytic review of twenty-five studies representing more than 500,000 observations across multiple industries and countries. The results indicate that relationships between leadership team diversity characteristics and strategic change are generally small in magnitude and highly variable across studies.

Rather than reflecting a clear directional effect, these patterns point to a fundamental challenge in the existing literature: inconsistency in how key constructs are defined and measured. Strategic change is operationalized through a wide range of …

The Impact Of Ceo Sociopolitical Activism On Firms’ Financial And Stakeholder Outcomes: A Critically Appraised Topic, Philip R. Stuczynski

Engaged Management ReView

In recent years, CEO activism has emerged as a highly visible and controversial form of executive communication. This structured literature review examines 23 peer-reviewed, ABS-rated articles published between 2017 and 2025, with the goal of synthesizing what researchers have learned about the effects of sociopolitical speech by corporate leaders. Drawing on studies from strategy, management, accounting, and finance journals, this paper explores how CEO-initiated public commentary influences investor reactions, firm performance, and stakeholder sentiment. Using the PICOC framework, the review defines CEO activism as executive speech or public commentary on controversial social or political issues which may be unrelated to …

Burning Bridges? Conflicting Advice In Early Job Reneging And Implications For Practice, Amanda Leigh Bisson, Jo-Louise Huq

Engaged Management ReView

The time between early talent offers and students’ graduation dates is increasing. Although students are strongly encouraged by their universities not to renege on accepted early job offers, reneging is not uncommon in practice. In this paper, we explore how students approach the reneging decision, specifically examining the questions they ask and the advice they receive from peers and professionals. Using an interpretivist approach and reflective thematic analysis, we analyzed 25 Reddit posts by accounting students navigating reneges. Our findings offer novel insights into the student experience and the advice students are receiving from social network contacts. We find that …

The Impact Of Sustainable Responsible Investment On The Environmental And Financial Performance Of Listed Companies (In The Context Of European Regulatory Framework), Leila Kamara

Engaged Management ReView

Although socially responsible investment (SRI) first emerged in the United States in the 1970s, its influence is now global and booming. The most striking illustration is the increase of signatories to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI): The number of signatories surged from around 100 in 2006 to more than 5,000 in 2025 (Peillex & Comyns, 2020), confirming that SRI is now central to investment strategies. The landscape of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment has seen the emergence of new stakeholders, including data providers. However, persistent limitations regarding data transparency, accessibility, and comparability have prevented investors from …

Rightsizing Regulations To Foster Innovation And A Healthy Business Environment: Insights From Elite Executives, Brian Charles Mulligan, Nelson Granados

Engaged Management ReView

This study examines insights from business executives on how TRAILS—that is, taxes, regulations, assessments, interventions, litigation, and subsidies—influence entrepreneurial behavior and firm performance. Using an applied constructivist grounded theory design, we conducted 17 in-depth interviews to identify how top business executives view the effects of regulations on business performance. We adopt the premise that the right level and set of regulations lead to a healthier business environment. We find that right-sized TRAILS catalyze entrepreneurial dynamism, whereas wrong-sized TRAILS impose hidden opportunity costs, stifle innovation, and erode institutional trust. Crucially, the study reveals the vital role of the government as …

Cultural Intelligence In Expatriate Employee Success: A Critically Appraised Topic, Kathy So

Engaged Management ReView

Studies have shown a high failure rate among employees of multinational enterprises (MNEs) who work on overseas assignments. Although research often heralds cultural intelligence as an essential factor in expatriate employees, whether cultural intelligence should be the primary focus when choosing employees for overseas assignments is inconclusive. This topic paper aims to provide specific recommendations for ensuring the success of expatriate employees. More specifically, this assessment explores the effect of cultural intelligence on the success of expatriate employees. The research question is this: What is the effect of cultural intelligence on the success of expatriate employees who work for multinational …

Seeing The Whole Together Through Relational Mapping: A Method For Engaging In Complex Systems Change, John Paul Stephens

Faculty Scholarship

Complex global challenges cut across organizational and sectoral boundaries, increasing calls for holistic responses. Seeing the whole across diverse stakeholders is challenging for participants in complex systems, yet doing so is essential for engaging effectively in systems change. A promising new method known as relational mapping, based on relational coordination theory, has been used to facilitate complex systems change. Here, we propose that relational mapping can be applied to help participants (1) see the whole in relation to the parts, (2) share their explicit and tacit knowledge, (3) engage in dialogue across distinct perspectives supported by the map as a …

Well-Being In Gen Y Employee Retention: A Critically Appraised Topic, Janine Smith

Engaged Management ReView

Retention continues to be a top business concern. Retention is the ability to keep employees from voluntarily leaving. Without a workforce, companies cannot execute their mission, which results in a loss of revenue. Companies focused on the retention of their workforce use the total rewards package to retain employees. One component of the rewards package is well-being. Well-being comprises multiple components, some of which have been identified as reasons for the wave of recent resignations. Well-being is when employees “have the psychological, social, and physical resources they need to meet a particular psychological, social, and/or physical challenge” (Dodge et al., …

Emotional Expression Between Ceo And Chairperson As A Micro-Foundation Of Organizational Capabilities: An Exploratory Mixed Methods Study, John Paul Stephens

Faculty Scholarship

The work relationships between CEOs and Chairpersons are key to the functioning of the firm. This study uses survey and interview data to explore how these work relationships serve as a micro-foundation for an organization's communication climate. Survey data suggested that CEO-Chairperson relationships can be characterized by emotional carrying capacity (ECC; constructively expressing more positive and negative emotions). The survey-based model further demonstrated that CEOs and Chairpersons perceive their ECC to positively predict organizational communication climate and, in turn, knowledge creation capabilities. The latter, in turn, are positively associated with firm performance. CEO-Chairperson dyadic interview data supplemented the associations identified …

Does Work-Life Boundary Management Improve Work-Life Balance For Remote Workers: A Critically Appraised Topic, Danyelle L. Berger

Engaged Management ReView

This topic paper examines whether managing the boundaries between work life and personal life positively affects work-life balance in the context of remote work. The research that forms the basis of this topic paper is derived from five scholarly, peer-reviewed articles relevant to the stated purpose. The findings are mixed. In the long term, they indicate that successful management of the boundaries between work life and personal life affects work-life balance positively, while non-management of boundaries affects work-life balance negatively. In the short term, the findings demonstrate that managing boundaries in a way that allows for temporary and deliberate weakening …

Does Engaging Commercial Customers In A Shared Social Mission Improve Impact Sourcing Service Provider (Issp) Success? A Critically Appraised Topic, Michael F. Corbett

Engaged Management ReView

This topic paper examines whether engaging commercial customers through a shared social mission improves the success of social enterprises. It is based on an examination of a subset of the information technology and business process outsourcing (ITO/BPO) industries, known as impact sourcing service providers (ISSPs). ISSPs are social enterprises – B2R Technologies and Digital Divide Data are two examples – that provide call center, transaction processing, data entry, and other technology-enabled services for commercial customers from remote locations around the globe. What is unique about ISSPs is that they do this with a social mission of creating jobs and economic …

Gauging The Effect Of Buyer Vs. Seller Initiation Of Customer Value Creation On Buyer Loyalty In Large B2b Sales Relationships, George Talbert, Earl D. Honeycutt Jr., Subhashish Samaddar

Engaged Management ReView

This study addresses two central questions: Is it important to determine whether the salesperson or the buyer initiates value creation in large business-to-business (B2B) selling environments? Furthermore, does the mode of initiation – buyer or seller – later influence customer attitudes toward the sales interaction? Value creation is necessary for large B2B sales situations because customized solutions often are required to meet customer needs. This empirical study compares buyer and seller initiators of value creation in B2B dealings and analyzes which actor most positively affects customer perceptions. In a study of 142 senior-level managers at buyer organizations

who participated in …

Increasing Software As A Service (Saas) Customer Retention: Do Intangible Factors Matter?, Jim Schleckser

Engaged Management ReView

This topic paper examines whether intangible customer relationship factors drive customer retention for a subscription-based software business. My analysis is based on a review of peer-reviewed articles that focus on renewal intent for subscription-based offerings. Subscription-based offers can include a range of products, from enterprise software to IT support to streaming video services. My findings indicate that intangible relationship factors are essential to the renewal intent of subscription-based software. Intangible relationship factors are not directly related to the product but do affect relationship quality, including social factors like trust and technical aspects like knowledge transfer. A company focused on customer …

Public-Private Partnership (P3) Success: Critical Success Factors For Local Government Services And Infrastructure Delivery, Antonio M. Lopez, George M. Marakas

Engaged Management ReView

The Public-Private Partnership (P3) approach is a viable option to address the slow growth and burgeoning need to deliver infrastructure projects and services by state and local governments. This study focuses on identifying critical success factors (CSF) that influence the success of P3s for local government service and infrastructure delivery. A framework is presented for integrating relationship and project management CSFs identified from previous literature into P3s. In addition, public agency entrepreneurial orientation is introduced as a potential CSF – a focus that has been absent in previous P3 CSF literature. To empirically assess the influence of these CSFs on …

Betting On Talent: Examining The Relationship Between Employee Retention And Onboarding Programs, Jonna B. Blount

Engaged Management ReView

The expectations of employees in the United States continue to evolve as generational shifts occur in the workforce. The already raging war for talent has been fueled by the 2020 pandemic, which introduced new ways to work and different types of work opportunities. As a result, employees are re-evaluating their options and seeking ways to extract more value from their professional lives. In these circumstances, employee retention is a competitive advantage, and companies must consider how to retain their most desirable talent. Research in the organizational behavior domain shows that when employees hold values like those of their employing organization, …

Improving Feedforward Controls To Improve Npd Portfolio Performance – An Empirical Study, Mark H. Baker, Mike Bourne

Engaged Management ReView

Managers making crucial project selections in large, fast-changing project portfolios face the challenge of balancing the tension between control (performance) and creativity (experimentation/innovation). To better manage this challenge and to improve performance, some practitioners and scholars have considered the application of more sophisticated feedforward controls in new product development portfolio project selections. However, empirical studies of changes in the sophistication of such controls and of their influence on performance are lacking. We use an engaged scholarship approach and an action research methodology in a large international organization with multiple business units to study the post-intervention changes in applied controls and …

Learning Through Dialogue During Intelligence Assessments: A Translation Of Theory Into Practice, Adrian Wolfberg, Nancy M. Dixon

Engaged Management ReView

We translate a theory into the practice of intelligence assessments. Following Karl Weick’s (1993) retrospective approach, the translation relies on previously published evaluations of intelligence assessment practices. Intelligence assessments are used in organizations to inform leaders of threats and opportunities. The theory we apply describes how an intelligence analyst learns through dialogue during the practice of conducting an intelligence assessment, and it consists of four learning archetypes: cooperative, focused, survival, and reflective. The theory is based on the differential effects on learning caused by the interaction between information overload and equivocality. We use the role of dialogue in the theory …

How To Turn Around A Failing Erp Implementation: Project Management Routines As Boundary Objects, Douglas A. Battleson, Lars Mathiassen

Engaged Management ReView

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are very challenging and expensive to implement and past research recognizes that these projects continue to suffer from high failure rates. While the factors that contribute to these failures have been extensively examined, we know little about how to turn failing projects around. In response, this research presents a study of a failing ERP implementation project that was successfully turned around over a twelve-month period. Adapting theory of sensemaking through boundary objects, we explain how a new project manager helped the team members share their individual perspectives on the problematic situation and together develop new …

Critically Appraised Topic (Cat): Building A Library Of Validated Practices., Jahan Moghadam, Samuel W. Yates, Richard L. Baskerville

Engaged Management ReView

Abstract

We review the critically appraised topic (CAT) as an evidence-based tool in management research and provide original examples for consideration. The CAT is a highly condensed form of systematic literature review, collecting study findings to address a specific practice-oriented research question. Such questions often investigate the effectiveness of a known intervention. In addition, a CAT critiques the best evidence available by considering the rigor and validity of relevant published research. CATs consolidate investigations of research relevant to specific, practical treatments in the field. We include two different CAT examples from unique business settings to illustrate the fundamental elements and …

Problem-Solving In Complex Settings: Techniques For Crossing Organizational Boundaries, Adrian Wolfberg

Engaged Management ReView

Solving problems in complex organizations requires managers to successfully navigate organizational boundaries. Yet, crossing boundaries can be an extremely difficult endeavor that requires sophisticated and multifaceted skills and behaviors. In this paper, we introduce boundary permeability to expand on the available boundary crossing techniques identified by Carlile (2004). Acknowledging the messiness in organizational life, we propose a set of techniques requiring that managers consider the multiplicity of boundary conditions and, in many cases, use multiple techniques simultaneously. We describe an innovative, real-world, problem-solving program within the U.S. Department of Defense to demonstrate the practical application of the proposed techniques and …

Experiential Organizing: Pursuing Relational And Bureaucratic Goals Through Symbolically And Experientially Oriented Work, Keimei Sugiyama, John Paul Stephens

Faculty Scholarship

Current scholarship on organizational practices that foster a sense of care and collaboration in work relationships has yet to fully account for the potential misalignment between the goals of a given practice and how it is actually experienced. To address this issue, we develop a theoretical framework of experiential organizing, which we define as an iterative process through which positive relational and bureaucratic goals of a practice are pursued via symbolically and experientially oriented work. We offer theory to explain how organizations move through the experiential organizing process, what different types of work are required, and how the different parts …

Engaged Participant Observation: An Integrative Approach To Qualitative Field Research For Practitioner-Scholars, Daniel Robey, Wallace T.F Taylor

Engaged Management ReView

Abstract

Participant observation is an appropriate research method for engaged practitioner-scholars seeking in-depth insights available from qualitative field research. Conventional approaches to participant observation include ethnography and action research. However, conventional approaches were originally developed with the assumption that the roles of practitioner and scholar are separate. We propose a new approach, engaged participant observation, which recognizes the integration of research and practice roles. We illustrate the application of engaged participant observation, and its special demands, through a completed executive doctoral dissertation conducted by second author and supervised by the first author. We address the specific tensions and demands …

Immigrant Entrepreneurship: An Account Of The Korean Experience, Wallace T.F Taylor

Engaged Management ReView

This research account reports conclusions from a small group of interviews done with Korean-American entrepreneurs located in three ethnic enclaves near Atlanta, GA. The purpose of this research is to further knowledge in immigrant entrepreneurship. Methodology comprised seven one-hour interviews conducted with first generation business owners (one male and six female) in three enclaves in Atlanta. The research used qualitative design and focused on answering three important questions: How do Korean entrepreneurs discover and exploit opportunities to develop business, how does this sample describe their experiences in the studied enclaves, and how might espoused cultural traits and business skills affect …

The Complexity In The Discrepancy: A Holistic View Of The Electricity Supply And Demand Discrepancy In Nigeria, Olufunso O. Olulafe

Student Scholarship

The gap between electricity supply and demand, in Nigeria, is not decreasing. To gain more insight into the phenomenon, we sought to take a holistic approach at analysis and learn about the relationship between dimensions of investment, policy, entrepreneurial orientation innovation, and the electricity situation in Nigeria. In this qualitative study, we interviewed 30 individuals, who have experience in Nigeria. The interviewees also have sound perspectives on key stakeholders in the electricity ecosystem. Building on this foundation, we make the case that the dimension of national character, and its second order constructs has a relationship with the previous dimensions, in …

Emergence And Growth Of The Medical Device Entrepreneurial Ecosystem In Minnesota, Brian Abraham

Student Scholarship

Different geographic regions in the United States have experienced varying degrees of entrepreneurial activity that give rise, maturity and in many cases declines in regional industry vertical strengths. We investigated the medical device industry in Minnesota to explain how entrepreneurial or new venture communities emerge, operate and perform. Absorptive capacity, social network theory, agent-network theory and technology diffusion are clearly evident phenomena observed. We used a qualitative, grounded theory methodology to interview 20 experts with knowledge of the ecosystem studied. We found significant development impediments created with the emergence of policy that has slowed technology commercialization as the regional medical …

Beyond The Grade: Bonding Faculty Behaviors Predicting Community College Student Commitment To Learning, Lucia D. Heddleson

Student Scholarship

This study investigated factors influencing community college student academic retention\, specifically a student’s commitment to learn. Data was obtained from two local community colleges\, and the study’s proposed model was evaluated using structural equation modelling. Student Identity Capital and Relational Climate functioned as mediating factors influencing academic retention as they relate to supportive faculty behaviors. Direct effects of supportive bonding faculty behaviors on academic retention were also considered. Results supported mediation from student identity capital to academic retention\, and relational climate was found to be insignificant. Finally\, supportive faculty behaviors proved to be a significant factor overall in the evaluation …

Factors Influencing The Case Selection Of Irs Special Agents, Robert A. Warren

Student Scholarship

This study examines how Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (CI) Special Agents select cases to investigate during a period of stagnant budgets and significant personnel attrition. Semi-structured interviews (N=30) of current and retired agents and supervisors, along with information gleaned from published reports and through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, suggests that special agents did not believe that the 13% reduction of IRS-CI's appropriated funding from 2010 to 2016 impeded their ability to select and investigate the best tax and money laundering cases, even though the funding gap resulted in a 19% reduction in special agents. However, the data also …

Food Deserts: What Are The Decisions To Achieving A Healthy Life And Well-Being In Low Income €“ Low Access Neighborhoods?, Roxanne Jimenez

Student Scholarship

There has been a great deal of academic material and public policy published on food deserts, however, there still are significant gaps of understanding in regard to the lived experience of those individuals residing within those geographical locations. This study employed a qualitative methodology to elicit the lived experiences of 20 people who are living within a food desert. The findings from this research suggest those residing in food deserts, do not plan their purchases and travel to markets outside of their immediate neighborhoods in search of food products that have quality, variety and lower price points. It was also …

Building Globally Accepted Local Brands And Locally Authentic Global Brands, Ellen Schmidt-Devlin

Student Scholarship

In academic literature, brands have been categorized as either global or local, driven primarily by the distance their businesses reach beyond their national borders. This difference is evaporating with the advent of digital marketing and ecommerce. Academics clearly recognize this changing landscape and have researched the impacts to consumer perceptions and identities, but literature has provided less strategic direction for global and local brand leaders as they compete head-to-head in the fast-paced global marketplace. This qualitative study of fifty executives in the global/local sports product industry reveals distinctly different paths taken by global brands toward local authenticity and local brands …

Building Globally Accepted Local Brands And Locally Authentic Global Brands, Ellen Schmidt-Devlin

Student Scholarship

In academic literature, brands have been categorized as either global or local, driven primarily by the distance their businesses reach beyond their national borders. This difference is evaporating with the advent of digital marketing and ecommerce. Academics clearly recognize this changing landscape and have researched the impacts to consumer perceptions and identities, but literature has provided less strategic direction for global and local brand leaders as they compete head-to-head in the fast-paced global marketplace. This qualitative study of fifty executives in the global/local sports product industry reveals distinctly different paths taken by global brands toward local authenticity and local brands …