Sachiko Takeda

Purpose: Drawing upon the framework of social exchange theory, this study investigated the influence of work-life balance, procedural justice and distributive justice on job satisfaction and turnover intention among Vietnamese millennials.Design/methodology/approach: Employing a quantitative research method, the authors collected a sample of 258 millennial participants in Vietnam. Utilizing the method of multiple regression analysis, the collected data were rigorously examined.Findings: The results showed that job satisfaction is negatively related to the turnover intention of the millennial generation in Vietnam. Distributive justice is a stronger predictor of job satisfaction than procedural justice. Of particular note, the study revealed an intriguing result: work-life balance does not have a significant influence on job satisfaction among millennials.Practical implications: Leveraging insights from national cultural theories, the authors' findings provide some insightful explanations of what drives millennials in Vietnam to consider leaving their organizations.Social implications: The study provides some insights for policymakers in Vietnam and other similar developing countries to reform their approach at managing the millennial generation.Originality/value: The research addresses the existing gap in literature by delving into the underlying factors driving the propensity of Vietnamese millennials to frequently switch jobs.

Purpose: Multinational corporations (MNCs) at their foreign subsidiaries hire local employees, whose cultural values may differ from the organisations' home cultures. Such value differences may pose managerial difficulties, making it critical to observe whether working at MNCs changes local employees' cultural values, reducing these differences. This study investigates how and to what extent local employees from a collectivistic culture acculturate their ethics-related values when working at MNCs' foreign subsidiaries. The authors examine (1) whether local employees change their values to become closer to the MNCs' home cultures, and if so, (2) whether the cultural distance between the MNCs' home and host national cultures affect the degree of such adaptation.Design/methodology/approach: Survey data were collected through stratified random sampling from Thai employees of a Japanese-owned MNC (n = 196), a UK-owned MNC (n = 143) and a Thai-owned organisation (n = 137), all operating in Thailand. Hypotheses were developed using Berry's bidimensional acculturation model and were tested using OLS and logistic regression analyses.Findings: The study's findings indicate that MNCs' local employees from collectivistic cultures adopt Berry's integration acculturation strategy and acculturate their ethics-related values – collectivism, ethical relativism, collective responsibility preference and executive pay differentiation tolerance – towards the values prevalent in MNCs' home cultures. Overall, acculturation is greater when cultural distance is greater. New insights are presented in relation to collective responsibility preference and pay differentiation tolerance.Originality/value: Findings add to current knowledge on acculturation in management by (1) providing new insights into value acculturation (2) utilising Berry's acculturation model to analyse employees' acculturation within an organisation in the context of an emerging economy, outside the more frequently studied topic of mergers and acquisitions, and (3) investigating the impact of cultural distance on the degree of employee acculturation outside the field of expatriate adjustment.

Purpose: This study connects the theoretical concepts of strategic orientation and information technology (IT)-based product innovation strategy to suggest that several key factors can help small firms to develop IT-based product innovation strategies.Design/methodology/approach: With data from 245 useable questionnaires (response rate 25.18%) from UK-based small firms in the high-tech industry, the research model was tested and validated.Findings: Findings show that information technology support for core competencies mediates the relationship between strategic orientation and IT-enabled product innovation (ITEPI). Specifically, by distinguishing the different types of strategic orientation and information technology support for core competencies, the study finds that IT support for market access competency (ITMA) mediates the market orientation–ITEPI relationship, while IT support for functionality-related competency (ITFR) mediates the technology orientation–ITEPI relationship. Academic implications arising from the findings are discussed and managerial propositions provided.Originality/value: This study offers a fresh theoretical angle from which to understand the factors that contribute to ITEPI. More specifically, we argue that strategic orientation reflects managers' focus to pursue certain activities, and that ITEPI serves as organizational activity. Further, this study also extends relevant research in the field of strategy, IT and innovation. It provides a more nuanced picture of how strategic orientation affects ITEPI.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the changes in Chinese workers’ values by comparing the work-related values of the One-Child Generation (OCG), the Social Reform Generation and the Cultural Revolution Generation. Design/methodology/approach: A survey was conducted with 918 Chinese employees, the vast majority of them working for Chinese domestic firms in Guangzhou, Shaoguan and Harbin. The collected data were analysed mainly using ANOVA, Tukey’s pairwise comparison and Kruskall–Wallis tests. Findings: The OCG was found to place less importance on income and job security, while possessing higher tolerance towards the practice of nepotism, than the older two generations. The authors found no significant differences in the levels of intrinsic values and altruism among the three generations. Additionally, the results indicate overall low altruistic values and high extrinsic values across all three generations of Chinese workers. Originality/value: China’s unprecedented generation of only-children as workers is an unknown factor. It is only now, over a decade after the OCG first entered the job market, that a comparative study between their work values and those of previous generations has become possible. This study exploits the momentum and is one of the first studies to include the OCG in the investigation of work value changes in Chinese society.

Purpose: Drawing from resource-based theory, the authors aim to study how and under what conditions small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) capitalise on their proactive entrepreneurial behaviour (PEB) to achieve new product development (NPD) performance.Design/methodology/approach: The authors’ data were drawn from a cross-sectional questionnaire survey of 401 UK-based SMEs in the manufacturing sector.Findings: The authors identify an upward curvilinear relationship between PEB and NPD performance. Taking a step further, the authors propose and confirm that this curvilinear association arises from, in part, SMEs’ innovation capability, which in turn translates into NPD performance. The authors also find that this upward curvilinear relationship between PEB and innovation capability flips to a downward curvilinear relationship when firms pursue a customer and competitor orientation.Originality/value: This paper looks beyond the linear relationship that exists among entrepreneurial behaviour, market orientation and innovation outcomes.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the realities of Algerian employee relations and the challenges autonomous trade unionists encounter in their activities, which are normally far removed from the eyes of the international community. Design/methodology/approach – In total, 12 semi-structured interviews were conducted with Algerian autonomous trade union leaders, union members and non-members. The collected data were analysed using a thematic approach. Findings – The interview results brought into relief the challenges of Algerian trade unionism with the following four themes: first, scepticism towards the only government-affiliated trade union in Algeria; second, the relationship between autonomous unions and the government; third, strike actions and intimidation/harassment; and fourth, views of non-trade unionists and the future of Algerian trade unionism. Research limitations/implications – The sensitivity of the topic and widespread fear limited the number of interviewees and the l...

The purpose of this article is to extend the existing research on the relationship between eight different types of marketing capability and social enterprise performance. More specifically, we examine third–sector organizations that have transformed their traditional business model to become more business–like social enterprises and how these marketing capabilities influence the success of this transformation in both the UK and Japan. We identify, among other things, that not all marketing capabilities are positively associated with social enterprise performance. These findings challenge the conventional wisdom that market–driven organizations must develop all types of marketing capability. We suggest that social entrepreneurs should develop their marketing capabilities selectively according to their specific performance objectives.

The importance of teamwork skills as part of employability has been widely acknowledged and accompanied by active research on successful cooperative learning. However, relatively few studies have focused on the effects of gender on students' group work, and only a limited number of empirical studies exist that examine students' group work process and performance through the results of self‐ and peer‐assessment. This study examines the effects of gender on group work process and performance using the self‐ and peer‐assessment results of 1001 students in British higher education formed into 192 groups. The analysis aggregates all measures on the group level in order to examine the overall group performance. Further, a simple regression model is used to capture the effects of group gender compositions. Results suggest that students in gender balanced groups display enhanced collaboration in group work processes. The enhanced collaboration could be associated with less social loafing behaviours and more equitable contributions to the group work. However, the results imply that this cooperative learning environment does not lead to higher student performance. Students' comments allow us to explore possible reasons for this finding. The results also indicate underperformance by all‐male groups and reduced collaborative behaviours by solo males in male gender exception groups (i.e., groups consisting of one male student and other members being female). The results thus have implications for the composition of groups. The pedagogical implications of these findings are discussed.

Even though previous research indicates that an organization’s pursuit of strategic orientation (SO) has positive effects on its performance, we have deepened and expanded our understanding of how this concept can also be applied to social enterprises (SEs). Using data collected from British and Japanese social enterprises, we examined the mediating roles of market effectiveness and consumer satisfaction in both the social and commercial domains with regard to SO effects on performance, as well as how performance in one aspect of practice positively moderates the impact of SO behavior in another. The results contribute to the development of a theory for understanding the concept of SO associated with social enterprise performance. More generally, this article contributes to the ongoing efforts to understand the strategic management aspect of social enterprises.