Extant research has documented the role of workplace-related factors in eliciting uncivil employee behaviors in the workplace, while the role of family-related variables has been largely overlooked. Drawing on the work-home resources model and the conservation of resources theory, the present study attempts to bridge this gap in the literature by exploring the relationship between family incivility and instigation of incivility towards subordinates in the workplace. In addition, this study examines the intervening role of family emotional exhaustion and the buffering role of mindfulness and LMX within the proposed relationship. Results based on time-lagged survey data collected from 282 supervisor-subordinate dyads indicate that family emotional exhaustion mediates the relationship between family incivility and instigated workplace incivility. Results also indicate that mindfulness weakens the impact of family incivility on family emotional exhaustion, while LMX dampens the impact of family emotional exhaustion on instigated workplace incivility. Further, results suggest that mindfulness and LMX together mitigate the overall impact of family incivility on instigated workplace incivility through family emotional exhaustion. This study is an attempt to explore the spillover effects of family-related variables on uncivil employee behaviors in the workplace. Additionally, this study offers new insights with respect to the boundary conditions that may help to alleviate the ramifications of family incivility in the workplace. The results of this study may be utilized by managers in developing appropriate measures to prevent the incidence of uncivil behavior in the workplace.

This article explores the role of narratives as drivers that guide the institutional change associated with globalization and deglobalization. For China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to succeed as a driver of institutional change in favor of globalization, it must pass the narrative “virality” test and successfully contend with competing narratives. Rival narratives will be launched by firms and organizations worldwide that expect to win or lose from deglobalization or from new forms of globalization. This study develops a useful framework for establishing the extent to which China’s BRI is a genuine narrative or just a story. In this regard, four testable propositions are put forth to ascertain whether the BRI is values-based, extends an invitation to participate, is open-ended, and is associated with economic performance for both Chinese and non-Chinese participants. The analysis of the BRI-related institutional change that leads to globalization applies a theoretical lens centered on the narrative economics perspective and on the institution-based view and political economy perspective. Implications for BRI stakeholders, international business practitioners, and international business scholarship are outlined.

In this study, the relationship between CEO temporal focus and family business succession planning is examined and the moderating effects of family interactions and environmental uncertainty are assessed. Based on data from 198 CEOs of family businesses and additional data from 15 semi-structured interviews in China, we find that CEO temporal focus (i.e., past, present, or future focus) is positively associated with succession planning. In addition, family interactions strengthen the relationship between CEO past focus and succession planning and weaken the relationship between CEO future focus and succession planning. Moreover, in uncertain environments, past-focused CEOs are more likely to plan for succession than present-focused CEOs. The theoretical contributions and practical implications of the study are also discussed.

Institutions have an important impact on corporate outward foreign direct investment, while differences in environmental regulations play a significant role in international capital flows based on the pollution haven hypothesis (PHH). This study examines the effect of green insurance, an institutional innovation tool designed to diversify and transfer environmental risks, on the decisions of firms regarding their overseas investment. Using a quasi-natural experiment of green insurance in 2007, this paper investigates the relationship between green insurance and corporate outward foreign direct investment and then further examines the effects of marketization and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) on this relationship. The results show that green insurance significantly reduces corporate outward foreign direct investment. Furthermore, the effect of green insurance on corporate outward foreign direct investment is stronger in regions with higher marketization and is weaker when investing in BRI countries. These findings suggest that green insurance is playing a gradually important role in influencing corporate overseas investment decisions. This study contributes to the research on the effects of institutions on corporate outward foreign direct investment while also broadening the research perspective of the PHH.

Resource acquisition is vital for new venture survival and growth. However, surprisingly little is known about how the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) of the new venture affects its resource acquisition. Drawing on the resource-based view of the firm, we articulate a theory and treatment of EO that address this oversight and remedy for the routine absence of context among studies of EO. Accounting for the simultaneous effect of environmental dynamism and an opportunistic orientation (OO), a tendency among Chinese new ventures to imitate technology and profit through market information asymmetry, as important contextual variables reflecting the Chinese business context, we provide insights on the contingency effects of contextual variables. Results from a quantitative study of 361 Chinese new ventures show that EO positively influences resource acquisition. However, this relationship is context sensitive. In a low dynamic environment, OO negatively moderates this relationship. However, in a highly dynamic environment, OO exhibits no effect on the relationship between EO and new venture resource acquisition. Our results contribute to a resource-based theory of EO and reveal its context sensitivity. Our study is a step in moving the scholarship of EO forward and away from the performance debate towards greater predictive accuracy of EO and its systems of effects.

This study extends the idea of subsidiary ambidexterity as a subsidiary’s attempt to obtain a fit between its dual embeddedness (i.e. ambidextrous contexts) and its learning strategy (i.e. ambidextrous behaviors). We design a dyadic survey to collect data from Taiwanese MNEs and their Chinese subsidiaries to test our arguments. First, we redefine subsidiary ambidexterity as a three-step mechanism in which three different types of dual embeddedness will cause different legitimacy effects (resource or conformity effect), which will then result in a subsidiary’s different learning strategies. Second, we propose three different subsidiary ambidexterity patterns: (1) a subsidiary will prefer in maintaining higher external than internal political embeddedness, which leads to their focusing on exploitation (an adaptability case of ambidexterity); (2) a subsidiary will intend to develop both high external and high internal cultural embeddedness and that will cause them to explore and exploit simultaneously (an alignment case of ambidexterity); and (3) in sometimes a subsidiary will prefer to maintain higher external than internal cognitive embeddedness and that will lead the subsidiary to emphasize exploration, whereas in other times a subsidiary will prefer to have higher internal cognitive than external cognitive embeddedness and that will lead the subsidiary to emphasize exploitation (a balancing case of ambidexterity). Our view can largely contribute to the subsidiary learning literature.

Boundary spanning is an important mechanism for the successful and efficient management of client-vendor relationships in Information Technology (IT) outsourcing. Vendors are often responsible for initiating boundary-spanning between the two parties, and the final effectiveness of boundary-spanning often hinges more on vendors rather than on clients. Boundary-spanners are individuals, who operate at the boundary of an organization, performing functions like external representation and information processing. The idea that boundary-spanning can become an organizational capability is well acknowledged in prior literature; but research regarding this process is limited. Boundary-spanning is often left to the ingenuity of the individual performing the role, preventing its development as an organizational capability. Therefore, this study attempts to uncover the process and develop the building blocks of the organizational capability in managing client-vendor relationships in IT outsourcing. We adopt an exploratory case study method for theory building to address the question, “How do vendor boundary-spanners influence client-vendor relationships in IT outsourcing engagements?” We use multiple-case design (9 cases) for literal replication. Our propositions show that the practices of an effective boundary-spanner involves establishing a dyadic tie with the client-manager; strengthening the established tie based on shared context; using it to identify a joint problem; and developing interpersonal trust while solving this joint problem. The outcome of this interpersonal trust then gets appropriated through client-manager’s structural networks and contributes to the vendor organization’s business growth. This study uses the social capital lens to develop propositions regarding how boundary-spanners operate.