Special Research Forum—Our Transformational Era: Implications for Management and Organizations

Coopetition, strategy, and business performance in the era of digital transformation using a multi-method approach: Some research implications for strategy and operations management

Organizational innovation has become a critical determinant of competitiveness in modern manufacturing firms, particularly in the era of digital transformation and dynamic market pressure. This study examines the influence of employee creativity and motivation on organizational innovation within the broader framework of human resource management. Using a quantitative associative approach, data were collected from 85 employees selected through proportionate stratified random sampling from a workforce of 500 employees in a large-scale manufacturing company. Survey responses were measured using a Likert-scale instrument, and multiple linear regression analysis was performed using SPSS version 26. The empirical results show that employee creativity significantly predicts organizational innovation (β = 0.465, p < 0.001), indicating that creative employees tend to generate novel ideas and contribute to innovation-driven practices. Motivation also demonstrates a significant positive effect (β = 0.389, p < 0.001), suggesting that motivated employees are more engaged in innovative behavior and improvement initiatives. Together, creativity and motivation account for 68.2% of the variance in organizational innovation (R² = 0.682), confirming their synergistic role as key drivers of innovation capability. The study highlights important implications for human resource management, emphasizing the need for strategic policies that nurture creativity, strengthen intrinsic motivation, and reward innovative contributions to sustain organizational competitiveness.

Principles for the Organization of Forensic Support

Organizational dynamics are changing due to cultural variability among employees. Little communication research explores ways in which organizations attempt to adapt to multicultural issues such as cultural stereotyping, language barriers, and employee attempts to acculturate. This study explores cultural differences in employee perceptions of social support received from sources in a multicultural organization. In addition, the study explores the relationship between Hispanic employees’ emotional acculturative stress and the social support they perceive receiving from organizational sources. Hispanics reported receiving more social support from their Hispanic coworkers than Anglo‐Americans reported receiving from that source. No differences were found in either group's perceptions of the amount of social support received from Anglo‐American coworkers and persons in supervisory positions. Social support received from Anglo‐American coworkers was found to be significantly related to Hispanics’ emotional acculturative stress. Praise and help with personal problems emerged as the types of support most closely related to emotional acculturative stress. Methodological dilemmas for conducting multicultural organizational research and implications for organizational management in providing social support to employees are discussed.

Workaholism has received considerable attention in the popular media but little research consideration. This study, using measures of workaholic and non‐workaholic type developed by Spence and Robbins, examines the relationship of workaholic type and organizational values supporting work‐personal life balance. Data were collected from 530 women and men MBA graduates inprofessional and managerial jobs using questionnaires. The results showed that organizational values supporting work‐ personal life imbalance were significantly higher in workaholic than non‐workaholic types. Practical implications for organizations and management are offered.

Regulators have a crucial role to play in the economy and society. This paper presents an approach to taking into account the evolution of transnational private rule-makers. It argues that the governance of business conduct involves important, and often underproblematized, assumptions. The transformation of organizations, procedures and rules is considered as a key strength of various forms of private authority. Space is given to local, national and transnational mechanisms of business governance, aiming to explore the shifting and new roles of government in these mechanisms in novel and theoretically insightful ways. These include tensions between complementary competitive relations between public and private bodies and question the ability of the former to effectively enroll, lead and influence the latter. The article describes how regulator and organizational crises are catalyzing the formation and evolution of transnational private regulators and affect the relationship between public and private regimes. Finally, we consider the potential challenges to competitiveness arising from the use of a dynamic perspective on transnational private regulation. Thus, this piece provides an interpretation of the related historical discourses of the past half century, problematizing key underlying assumptions in the field, and proposes a research agenda for the further exploration of governments in governance, underscoring the implications for management and organizations.

Examines the relationship of organizational values and measures of family‐friendliness and presence of a level playing field. Family‐friendliness refers to the presence of supportive work‐family conflict. Level playing field measures include the absence of gender bias and a commitment to fairness in decision making. Data were collected from 1,608 women and men employed in the same large professional services firm using anonymously completed questionnaires. The same organizational values were related to both family‐friendliness and level playing field measures. These included respect among co‐workers and balance to self, family, community and the firm. However, these values were relatively uncommon in the firm. Offers implications for management and organizations.

Accessibility-oriented performance evaluation of high-speed railways using a three-layer network model

Tourism distribution research to date has essentially taken a tier-by-tier approach to questions of channel structure and channel relationships rather than a nodal network approach. This article provides a new perspective by extending existing notions of distribution channels through a more explicit articulation of tourism distribution in network terms. It is based on a review of the literature and is informed by the experience of undertaking a major 5-year project on tourism distribution in New Zealand. Concepts and examples of tourism distribution networks are outlined; limitations in existing distribution research reviewed; ways to take network analysis forward are suggested and illustrated with examples; and the management implications for firms and destination management organizations are outlined. Steps to operationalize a network approach to tourism distribution include identifying the focal actors, considering the form of network and the structural dimensions to be analyzed, developing typologies and exploring network relationships.

Communicating via photographs: A gendered analysis of Olympic athletes’ visual self-presentation on Instagram

The management of competing stakeholder interests has emerged as a significant topic in the management literature. Related issues are the relationship between stakeholder management and the perception that a firm is socially responsible, and the performance implications of both stakeholder management and social responsibility. Theory and models surrounding these issues are abundant, but empirical research is in an early stage. This research forum reports six excellent efforts to tackle fundamental ideas about stakeholders, social responsibility, and performance.

How to improve service provision in the health care sector is a question of high economic and social relevance, as the health service industry represents a major part of developed nations’ economy and health care is a service virtually everyone is touched by in their life. The topic embraces different perspectives or levers, including the (re)organization of service provision, a stronger focus on the patient in the service delivery process, and the crucial role of employees in health service provision. We invited a group of well-renown scholars from different academic fields to share with us personal observations, empirical evidence, and interpretations of how to improve service provision in health care in the form of individual commentaries that cover the different perspectives. The resulting special research article includes motivations on why changes in the health care sector make service management research (smr) more relevant, it depicts implications (of smr) for health care organizations, and it outlines suggestions for future research. This article is designed to offer avenues for further service research on different perspectives for the improvement and professionalization of health care – a discipline in which joint efforts of service and health care researchers can have great societal impact.

The Coming of Age for Qualitative Research: Embracing the Diversity of Qualitative Methods