Abstract International entrepreneurial orientation (IEO) and its potential impact on business performance in foreign markets has attracted significant research attention in recent years. However, few studies have attempted to examine how, and under what conditions, IEO results in enhanced performance for international firms. The present study aims to contribute towards filling this gap by investigating the internal mechanism through which IEO influences performance, considering the mediating effects of dynamic capabilities and international business strategy. Using data collected from 258 small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) that engage in international business activities, we find that IEO contributes to the frequent use of sensing and reconfiguring, which in turn fosters international strategy comprehensiveness and implementation speed. Our results also indicate that international strategy comprehensiveness and implementation speed have a positive impact on international market performance. These findings suggest that research on the impact of IEO on performance should explore how it influences firms' dynamic capabilities and examine the effect of these dynamic capabilities on business strategy. For entrepreneurs and managers of emerging market SMEs, our results indicate that IEO should guide international expansion efforts.

Abstract This paper aims to encounter the scholarly demand for comprehensive identification and investigation of the factors that highlight the sense of the “workplace of the future.” Besides, this study sheds in‐depth qualitative and quantitative insights into analysing such drivers in international entrepreneurial small and medium enterprises of emerging economies like Iran. A mixed method of systematic literature review and hesitant triangular fuzzy Delphi was initially employed to identify and finalise the significant factors. Afterwards, the causal level‐based relationship network and the finalised factors' power map were accomplished for three distinct scenarios (i.e., the pessimistic, probable and optimistic conditions). To this end, a novel integration of hesitant triangular fuzzy sets and interpretive structural modelling‐matrix‐based multiplication applied to a classification was designed and applied. As a result, future workplace concerns were systematically reviewed. From the initial list of 34 factors, eight were selected from the perspective of three panels of experts (15 international entrepreneurs) as the most crucial for international small and medium enterprises due to implementing the hesitant triangular fuzzy sets. Furthermore, the selected factors were categorised and levelled according to the novel interpretive structural modelling‐matrix‐based multiplication applied to a classification method developed in this article. Accordingly, for each scenario studied, from low to high uncertainty and indeterminacy, a separate conceptual model illustrating the relationship among the factors propelling the reimagining of the future of the workplace was presented.

Abstract Research shows how blame shifting deemed unethical by evaluators leads to a damaging reputational backlash. Yet, scholars have not determined how evaluators judge if blame‐shifting messages are ethical. To fill this gap, we develop a conceptual model of evaluators' judgments of blame‐shifting ethicality, integrating insights from ethical decision‐making and the ethics of blame. The ethical evaluation of blame shifting is based on perceptions of target blameworthiness, the motives of the blamer, and message fairness. These three perceptions explain the evaluators' judgment of whether blame shifting is ethical. Furthermore, the model explains why at times evaluators fail to develop a detailed ethical evaluation of the message. Organizational blame shifting in these circumstances can be effective and yet unethical because evaluators do not cognitively process the relevant ethical factors. This article contributes to research on blame shifting by explaining how evaluators judge ethicality and examining the conditions for ethical blame shifting.

Abstract This paper analyzes the effect of restructuring internationalized companies on financial performance. We hypothesize that companies implementing restructuring strategies in internationalized companies obtain better financial performance than non‐internationalized companies that restructure. Both strategies exploit resource complementarities that promote improved resource access, generation, and use. We empirically analyze a sample of 932 companies from 15 European Union countries from 1998 to 2011, including periods of economic growth and financial crisis. Our study extends the internationalization literature by demonstrating that internationalization improves financial performance (return on assets) for companies facing narrowing or refocusing their scope.

Abstract Previous research on co‐existing paths has usually revolved around the development of a novel path that finally supersedes an existing path. In contrast, this study introduces an empirically grounded conception of the dynamic interplay between two intentionally co‐existing organisational paths, one path persisting although in decline and one emergent path, where parallelism between the paths prevails. Our research is based upon a longitudinal, explorative case study at a large‐scale telecommunications corporation, which tackles the challenge of introducing a new organisational path (i.e. an agile approach) while at the same time—intentionally and for good reasons—sticking to an older, well‐established organisational path for some of its operations (i.e. a traditional management approach), leading to a fadeaway from the old path. We contribute to the literature by elucidating the evolving interaction dynamics of two parallel paths and how they give rise to a phenomenon we term paralysing parallelism in organisational paths. Towards this end, we elucidate the role of endogenous and exogenous self‐reinforcing mechanisms.

Abstract The last decade has witnessed increased demand by employers and workers for greater flexibility, especially regarding remote and hybrid work. There has therefore been a substantial increase in academic interest in coworking, including within business and management studies. We conduct a systematic literature review of research on coworking and coworking spaces (CWS) to argue this field is now sufficiently developed to merit recognition as an important element of discussion surrounding workplaces of the future. We outline the core themes in coworking research and identify three key research weaknesses relating to common understandings of community, context and change. The article then advances a future research agenda based on two avenues of enquiry. First, greater attention needs to be paid to the value propositions of CWS as businesses. Second, the concept of embeddedness should be used to better understand CWS in their local and national contexts, and we argue for a broader, place‐based analytical focus on CWS. We present two possible future scenarios for CWS, based on opposing forces of homogenisation and differentiation, and we outline their relevance for further debate surrounding workplaces of the future.

Abstract Family firms increasingly opt for an external succession route and sell shares to financial investors. Yet, not all family‐firm takeovers by financial investors are financially successful. To date, however, we lack a nuanced understanding of the conditions under which financial investors' family‐firm takeovers will succeed financially. Our fsQCA study builds on 52 interviews to reveal the interplay of three typical levers that financial investors use (i.e., operational, strategic, and governance measures), the market situation, and investor type. We identify three distinct roles (i.e., incentivizers, optimizers, and adjacent investors) that financial investors take in successful family‐firm takeover cases. We situate our findings in the literature on resources and their orchestration to explain how investors create value in each of the identified paths, and we contribute to the literature on family‐firm succession and the interplay of family firms and financial investors.

Abstract In this paper, we examine the role played by compassion in leadership in intercultural situations. Focusing on the growing and important economic context of Indo‐Japanese business, we develop a model that identifies contingent factors that affect Japanese leaders' expressions of compassion in intercultural organizational contexts. We engage with the spiritual capital construct and analyse leaders' lived experiences leading to a novel extension of the well‐established Nested Spheres Model of Culture. By adopting an inductivist and social constructivist approach, semistructured interviews with Japanese business leaders operating in India are employed to generate data. The empirical data show how changes in time and place cause deeply embedded cultural values (such as compassion) to surface and become more explicit in leadership. The study also underlines the need to explore the wider spatial, temporal, and economic contingencies that affect both the dynamics of compassion in “intercultural” business situations and spiritual leadership in intercultural contexts.

Abstract Our paper investigates vertical agency conflicts that result from the separation of ownership and control in privately held firms. Vertical agency conflicts can lead to vertical agency costs resulting from bonding costs, monitoring costs, and residual losses. More specifically, we focus on the roles of firm size and corporate reporting requirements in the level of these costs. We demonstrate that vertical agency costs are higher in smaller, privately held firms because shareholders have less monitoring capacity and limited access to the labor market. Furthermore, vertical agency costs in smaller firms are amplified in countries characterized by relatively weaker reporting requirements because shareholders have less information available to assess managers' actions. We suggest for the first time that firm size and strength of auditing and reporting requirements are essential to understanding agency costs' magnitude in privately held firms. Our analysis also offers a more comprehensive understanding of the factors that explain agency costs in privately held firms. Thus, this study poses important implications for public policy, as disclosure requirements are a major issue for many countries.

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