The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science: A Publication of the NTL Institute

Alderfer, Clayton P.; Marshak, Robert J.

doi: 10.1177/0021886304266878pmid: N/A

Alvord, Sarah H.; Brown, L. David; Letts, Christine W.

doi: 10.1177/0021886304266847pmid: N/A

This study provides a comparative analysis of 7 cases of social entrepreneurship that have been widely recognized as successful. The article suggests factors associated with successful social entrepreneurship, particularly with social entrepreneurship that leads to significant changes in the social, political, and economic contexts for poor and marginalized groups. It generates propositions about core innovations, leadership and organization, and scaling up in social entrepreneurship that produces societal transformation. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications for social entrepreneurship practice, research, and continued development.

Rothblum, Esther D.; Balsam, Kimberly F.; Mickey, Ruth M.

doi: 10.1177/0021886304266877pmid: N/A

This study provides an innovative methodology to study social issues across sexual orientations. Lesbians, gay men, and bisexualwomen and men (LGB) were recruited via LGB periodicals and organizations, and they in turn recruited their siblings. Results of female participants indicate that lesbians are more highly educated, have occupations with greater status, are less religious, and are more geographically mobile than are heterosexual women. Heterosexual women are more similar to census data in terms of marriage, children, religion, and homemaker status. Gay men have moved to large cities and are more highly educated than are heterosexual men. In general, bisexual women are more comparable demographically to lesbians, whereas bisexual men are more similar to heterosexual men. Limiting the sample to paired comparisons between lesbian-heterosexual sisters and gay-heterosexual brothers generally yielded similar means on demographic variables.

Walsh, Kate

doi: 10.1177/0021886304266845pmid: N/A

Research in multinational organizational structures has traditionally used either a rational, conscious perspective in which decision makers, through a single-loop change process, strategically choose to interpret the environmental culture to shape the organization’s structure or a nationalistic view, in which through a double-loop change process, organizational members of one culture impose their favored structures on organizational members of a different culture. This article considers a third perspective, one in which organizational culture and structure are socially constructed phenomena. Through a case study of a multinational office staffed by members of two distinct national cultures (Japanese and American), this research demonstrates how cultures and structures can be simultaneously created through single-, double-, and triple-loop change processes. These processes can lead to a third-order level of change. Ideas for “actionizing” this concept are discussed.

Daly, Joseph P.; Pouder, Richard W.; Kabanoff, Boris

doi: 10.1177/0021886304266815pmid: N/A

Recent studies have concluded that most mergers and acquisitions (M&As) reduce rather than increase shareholder value for the acquiring firm, but understanding of why this occurs is limited. To date, most research has focused on issues of strategic fit, whereas this study examines the effects of organizational fit—specifically the effects of differences in firms’ pre-M&A configurations of espoused values in regards to relationships with employees versus production. The dependent variable of interest is the resulting entities’ subsequent financial performance (return on assets, adjusted for industry). The study analyzed 59 M&As between 1989 and 1996. The authors measured the espoused values of both firms in the transaction by content analyzing presidents’letters to shareholders in corporate annual reports. Using a longitudinal design, results show an inverse relationship between differences in espoused values and postmerger performance. Results and methodology are discussed in terms of their application beyond the M&A context.

Kumar, Rajesh; Nti, Kofi O.

doi: 10.1177/0021886304266846pmid: N/A

The article assesses the role played by national cultural values in shaping the evolution of international strategic alliances. The authors build on a systems dynamic model of alliance evolution in which the developmental path of an alliance depends on how the partners manage process and outcome discrepancies that may emerge during the course of an alliance. They argue that national culture affects alliance evolution by influencing partners’ sensitivity to discrepancy detection, shaping the nature of attributions they make, and by affecting the partners’ reactions to discrepancies. They focus on differences in three value orientations among cultures. Activity orientation, mastery over nature, and assumptions about human nature are the value orientations that affect alliance functioning. The authors argue that alliances are prone to interpretational, attributional, and behavioral conflicts originating from differences in value orientation among partners. The three value orientations are shown to be the most useful in explaining the dynamics of alliances.