Joshua Jackson; Patrick Hill; Brent Roberts

In his defense of self-efficacy, Bandura (Journal of Management, vol. 38, no. 1) does the field a disservice by misconstruing what constitutes a trait. The authors of this response discuss current definitions of a trait and contrast these conceptions with the definition put forth by... [view more]

In his defense of self-efficacy, Bandura (Journal of Management, vol. 38, no. 1) does the field a disservice by misconstruing what constitutes a trait. The authors of this response discuss current definitions of a trait and contrast these conceptions with the definition put forth by Bandura. Integral to this disagreement is the level of specificity across different psychological constructs. The authors suggest that if levels of specificity are acknowledged, traits may be meaningfully integrated into social cognitive models of personality. They contend that integrating traits and social cognitive units can benefit both fields and meaningfully impact applied research.

Anupama Phene; Stephen Tallman; Paul Almeida

Previous research has suggested that firms need to balance exploitation and exploration. Acquisitions can be used as a way to explore (i.e., develop new areas of technological expertise) or exploit (i.e., reinforce existing technological capabilities). This article examines acquisitions in the semiconductor industry... [view more]

Previous research has suggested that firms need to balance exploitation and exploration. Acquisitions can be used as a way to explore (i.e., develop new areas of technological expertise) or exploit (i.e., reinforce existing technological capabilities). This article examines acquisitions in the semiconductor industry to answer the following question: Under what conditions do acquisitions facilitate exploitation and/or exploratory activity by the acquirer firm? The authors posit that an acquirer firm’s ability to develop such exploratory innovation is a function of three key factors: opportunity available to the acquirer firm for exploration, ability of the acquirer firm to effectively assimilate and establish innovations in new technologies, and extent of control of target firm postacquisition. The results demonstrate strong support for the hypotheses indicating the benefits of target technological uniqueness and for the moderating effects of commonality between acquirer and target firms in geographic bases for exploration. However, the findings contradict expectations about the effects of mergers and suggest that merger enables the acquirer to engage in effective exploration. For exploitation, the authors find negative effects of target technological uniqueness and positive effects of commonality of geographic bases.

John Kammeyer-Mueller; Lauren Simon; Bruce Rich

Many employees feel ethically conflicted at work, but research has yet to identify the specific mechanisms that give rise to this sense of ethical conflict. The authors propose that ethical conflicts occur when companies encourage employees to behave counter to their own sense of right and wrong during the... [view more]

Many employees feel ethically conflicted at work, but research has yet to identify the specific mechanisms that give rise to this sense of ethical conflict. The authors propose that ethical conflicts occur when companies encourage employees to behave counter to their own sense of right and wrong during the process of organizational socialization. Employees who are subject to these pressures experience psychological distress. The authors’ study of 371 early career lawyers found that divestiture socialization was positively related to ethical conflict and that ethical conflict was related to higher emotional exhaustion and lower career fulfillment. Ethical conflict partially mediated the relationship between divestiture socialization and emotional exhaustion. Narrative comments provided by respondents reinforced the relationship between divestiture socialization and ethical conflict.

Christina Sue-Chan; Robert Wood; Gary Latham

Consistent with the arguments of regulatory focus theory, an experiment revealed that a promotion coaching orientation relative to a prevention coaching orientation had a more positive effect on the performance of recipients following coaching. Moreover, in support of regulatory fit theory, a prevention coaching orientation had a more... [view more]

Consistent with the arguments of regulatory focus theory, an experiment revealed that a promotion coaching orientation relative to a prevention coaching orientation had a more positive effect on the performance of recipients following coaching. Moreover, in support of regulatory fit theory, a prevention coaching orientation had a more positive effect on the performance of recipients with implicit fixed beliefs about ability than for those with implicit incremental beliefs. The robustness of these results was supported through replication in a lagged, correlation field study of employees in the production facility of a global company. In addition, in the field study, there was a significant additive component in the effects for promotion-oriented coaching, due to better regulatory fit for employees with incremental beliefs.

Gianvito Lanzolla; Fernando Suarez

A firm may readily subscribe to a new technology but then fail to use it. This article advances existing technology diffusion theory by bringing in a new construct that can explain the likelihood of technology use after adoption. The authors define contiguous user bandwagon and show how this information... [view more]

A firm may readily subscribe to a new technology but then fail to use it. This article advances existing technology diffusion theory by bringing in a new construct that can explain the likelihood of technology use after adoption. The authors define contiguous user bandwagon and show how this information diffusion mechanism can help in explaining the time to technology use. They test their hypotheses using data on the adoption and use of e-procurement technology (N = 3,158) in the early phase of its diffusion. The authors find support for the hypothesis that contiguous user bandwagon is a strong antecedent of time to technology use.

Harry Bowen

The use of limited dependent variable (LDV) models is becoming ubiquitous in empirical management research. When using such models, researchers frequently postulate and test that the relationship between an explanatory variable and the dependent variable is moderated by another variable by including in the model an interaction variable... [view more]

The use of limited dependent variable (LDV) models is becoming ubiquitous in empirical management research. When using such models, researchers frequently postulate and test that the relationship between an explanatory variable and the dependent variable is moderated by another variable by including in the model an interaction variable. Although recent papers clarify methods for analyzing a moderating effect in LDV models, it is not widely appreciated that this effect confounds two moderating effects: one associated with including an interaction variable in the model and one associated with the inherent nonlinearity of such models. This article presents a method to separate these two sources of a moderating effect for a general class of nonlinear models that includes all LDV models commonly used in the management literature. For such models, the article demonstrates that the statistically correct method to assess the validity of a moderating hypothesis is not, as currently recommended, to test for significance of the total moderating effect derived from the model that includes the interaction variable but instead to test for significance of the secondary moderating effect, the latter defined as the difference between two moderating effects: the one in the model that includes the interaction variable and the one in the model that excludes this variable. The result that the secondary effect is the correct statistic for testing a moderating hypothesis is very general, and it applies whenever a moderating hypothesis is to be tested by including an interaction variable in any model, whether linear or nonlinear.

Mel Fugate; Gregory Prussia; Angelo Kinicki

This article examines antecedents and consequences of employees’ threat appraisal during organizational change. Positive change orientation and change-related fairness are examined as antecedents of threat appraisal and multiple forms of employee withdrawal as outcomes (intentions to quit, voluntary turnover, and absenteeism). Structural equation results show ... [view more]

This article examines antecedents and consequences of employees’ threat appraisal during organizational change. Positive change orientation and change-related fairness are examined as antecedents of threat appraisal and multiple forms of employee withdrawal as outcomes (intentions to quit, voluntary turnover, and absenteeism). Structural equation results show negative relationships between threat appraisals and positive change orientation (change self-efficacy, positive attitudes toward change, and perceived control of changes) and change-related fairness (distributive, procedural, and interactive). Threat appraisals are positively related to absenteeism and intentions to quit, which predict voluntary turnover. Threat appraisals have differential intervening effects on relationships between the antecedents and outcomes.