Sajjad M. Jasimuddin

Purpose: The paper aims to examine how algorithmic opacity in digital platforms reshapes signalling processes within client-agency relationships. While signalling theory assumes that agencies can convey qualities such as expertise, performance outcomes and accountability through costly, observable and reliable signals, digital marketing services are increasingly enacted within platform-mediated environments that distort what information can be produced, accessed and evaluated by the client. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected through 32 interviews with clients, agency representatives, digital marketing bodies, procurers, trainers and legal professionals. Interviews were thematically analysed in NVivo using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) method. Findings: The study identifies three interrelated signalling distortions: Influence, Gatekeeper and Proof, that explain how platform dynamics alter the conditions under which signals are produced, observed and interpreted. Platforms limit pertinent algorithm update information, restrict access to performance data and complicate attribution of outcomes, thereby destabilising the core signalling conditions of costliness, observability and reliability. Signals traditionally used to convey competence and accountability, such as performance reports or case evidence, lose their differentiating power when evaluation is mediated by opaque algorithmic systems. Originality/value: The paper addresses the call of scholars who argue for the use of signalling theory in contemporary contexts, to show how the client-agency signalling environment is now platform-mediated and distorts the informational conditions of signalling. A new algorithmic risk disclosure signal is introduced, outlining a proactive mechanism for agencies to disclose algorithmic risks to clients.

Supply chain management (SCM) is a systematic approach to managing asset flows from raw material sources through product manufacturing to customer delivery. It has a significant impact on the busin...

Persistent fragilities in global value chains (GVCs) necessitate an intra-organizational adaptation. In this respect, external pressures shape the allocation of multinational enterprise (MNE) headquarters (HQ) attention on their subsidiaries’ actions addressing resilience-related issues in GVCs. Extant theorizing treats HQ attention as a dichotomy (i.e. positive/negative), limiting our insight into the attention governance in HQ-subsidiary relationships. We overcome this limitation by theorizing HQ attention structures that govern the order of attention to prioritized issues (e.g., resilience strategies) across subsidiaries. This structure encompasses attentional orientation, expatriates, slack resources, and dual embeddedness, distributes HQ limited attention in order to shape subsidiary trade-offs between reactive and proactive, or even dual resilience strategies in GVCs. Our analysis culminates in testable propositions and microfoundations of HQ attention structures. Overall, we provide a comprehensive framework and a research agenda for studying HQ attention dynamics in MNEs and their effects on subsidiary resilience duality in GVCs in international business.

In technology-intensive industries, alliance portfolio diversity (APD) offers firms access to heterogeneous knowledge for innovation, yet its effects remain inconsistent in prior research. Drawing on organisational learning theory, this study addresses this inconsistency by uncovering a fundamental asymmetry in the APD–innovation relationship. The results of this longitudinal analysis of a panel data set of 43 U.S. biopharmaceutical firms indicate that APD is positively associated with exploratory innovation but negatively related to exploitative innovation. Building on this core asymmetry, the study further investigates how absorptive capacity dimensions, exploratory and transformative learning, moderate the relationship between APD and innovation outcomes. Furthermore, while exploration intensity does not moderate this relationship, higher knowledge diversity and R&D intensity strengthen the positive effect of APD on exploratory innovation, and knowledge diversity also enhances exploitative output. The study contributes to the collaborative innovation literature by clarifying that the value of APD depends on both the type of innovation pursued and the firm’s internal capacity to absorb and transform external knowledge.

This study investigates the impact of commitment- and collaboration-oriented human resource management (HRM) systems on business model innovation (BMI) in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), drawing on the knowledge-based view (KBV) as well as HRM and BMI literature. The findings reveal that commitment-oriented HRM systems, which focus on fostering internal trust and collaboration, enhance knowledge acquisition efficiency, thereby positively influencing BMI. Conversely, collaboration-oriented HRM systems, designed to facilitate external partnerships and boundary-spanning activities, improve knowledge application, further driving BMI outcomes. Using survey data from 192 SMEs in China, the study provides empirical validation of these relationships. Furthermore, the results show that BMI significantly enhances SMEs’ innovation performance, particularly in new product development. The research also identifies the moderating role of flow-facilitating HRM practices, which strengthen the relationship between BMI and innovation performance by promoting effective knowledge flows across the organization. These findings offer both theoretical and practical implications, demonstrating how SMEs can strategically employ HRM systems to optimize knowledge management processes and achieve sustained innovation success.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping accounting services, making it vital to understand the factors that drive its adoption. This study investigates AI adoption among French accounting professionals using an integrated Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Technological-Organizational-Environmental (TOE) framework. A cross-sectional survey of 238 accounting professionals was analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results show that perceived compatibility, IT infrastructure, financial readiness, trust, and vendor support positively influence adoption intention through their effects on perceived usefulness and ease of use, while perceived cost acts as a significant barrier. This model explains a substantial portion of the variance in adoption intention. The study offers practical recommendations for firms and AI vendors and contributes crucial empirical evidence on AI acceptance within the French professional service context.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is formed to ensure peace and prosperity in its member countries. The paper intends to highlight the contemporary OIC leaders’ acumen to remove their differences, and thereby resume and maintain political relations among them. Moreover, the paper proposes a framework to ensure strong cooperation in various fields (e.g., political, economic and defense) among the OIC member states to ensure tangible benefits for their people. The current phenomenon is that the opposite sides agree to establish the necessary mechanisms with the encouragement of dialogue between them to minimize their differences. The recent trend is that OIC leaders intend to enhance unity and solidarity through dialogue. Most specifically, the contemporary OIC leaders’ acumen prefer a dialogue-centered approach to conflict prevention and resolution of disputes. The paper articulates a framework taking the three constructs (i.e., political ties, economic cooperation and defense alliance) under three layers among OIC countries. These constructs can be viewed as hierarchy of solidifying the foundation of political ties among the member states by removing their differences through dialogue. The three components of the proposed framework that incorporate the three constructs seems to help to ensuring global peace and prosperity. Additionally, this paper guides to understand the way the second largest international organization (after the UNO) with a membership of 57 states can establish closer ties for betterment of their people.

The role of the chief knowledge officer (CKO) within organisations has grown in importance. The information management literature has discussed the notion of CKO, but has not effectively addressed the rationale behind the creation of CKO position in an innovation firm. This paper explores the need for and value of a CKO by investigating a high-tech innovation-driven multinational corporation. The paper is conceptually grounded in reviews of the relevant literature supported by an empirical work. This research was carried out as an exploratory case study, which allowed to observe the phenomenon in a natural setting. Although much has been written on the notion of CKO provides an unambiguous description, the paper provides a working definition of CKO. The CKO can take an active role through advising knowledge contributors to deposit knowledge in a repository; asking knowledge contributors to update the stored knowledge, and helping prospective knowledge users in finding the right source and using it in their new product and process development. The results of this study justify the need for such a person. This paper also contributes by identifying several challenges for senior management in legitimising the presence of CKO.

Purpose: This study proposes and empirically tests a framework for predicting employee knowledge application (KA) behaviour. Specifically, it examines the influence of ability-motivation-opportunity (AMO)-enhancing human resource (HR) practices, information and communication technology (ICT) support, leader-member exchange quality and employee commitment as the predictors of knowledge application behaviour.Design/methodology/approach: Empirical data are collected from 206 employees working in Brunei’s private sector organisations. Asymmetric Partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) is first employed to test the research framework. Subsequently, an asymmetric fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) was applied to identify the necessary conditions for knowledge application and explore causal recipes for sufficient configurations based on the factors for predicting KA.Findings: The results of PLS-SEM only provide empirical support for the significant role of motivation-enhancing human resource management (HRM) practices and employee commitment as KA’s predictors. On the other hand, the results of fsQCA reveal that there were four causal combinations of factors that led to KA.Originality/value: By developing an integrated framework for predicting employees’ KA behaviour, this study contributes to prior research on KA from the employee’s standpoint, which has been relatively underexplored in the KM literature. Additionally, this study complements extant research shedding light on the potential presence of multiple configurational paths that may lead to KA behaviour, thereby adding significant nuances to our current understanding of KA phenomenon.