European Management Journal最新文献

{"title":"The impact of communications and emotions on merger and acquisition success: Does anyone care how you feel about your deal?","authors":"Duncan N. Angwin ,&nbsp;Maureen Meadows ,&nbsp;Yun Luo ,&nbsp;Basak Yakis-Douglas","doi":"10.1016/j.emj.2025.01.012","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.emj.2025.01.012","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Most merger and acquisition (M&amp;A) performance studies focus upon protagonist pre-deal characteristics, post-deal post-acquisition integration strategies, or a combination of the two. However, a critical part of the M&amp;A process has been overlooked. The “deal completion” phase, between the announcement of a deal and its completion, can make the difference between success and failure. This paper examines this neglected process by focusing upon managerial practices aiming to influence investor sentiment during the deal completion phase. We contend that skillful use of acquirer voluntary communications can affect acquirer stock market price. This matters, as a higher price for acquirer stock generally improves an acquirer's ability to purchase a target company and helps a deal to close successfully. We therefore investigate whether acquirers can influence their share price positively through the skillful use of voluntary communications, in terms of both the volume of communications and the sentiment expressed. We suggest that these voluntary communications can reduce information asymmetry between the acquirer and the financial markets, and so influence market prices. We examine 548 large M&amp;A deals between US acquirers and US targets, completed during 2010–2016, and analyze more than 15,000 voluntary communications taking place between announcement and completion dates. Using stock volatility and cumulative abnormal returns, we find that acquirers benefit from more voluntary communications in the short term, particularly in all equity deals. We also find that the sentiment of voluntary communications matters, as those that express negative sentiment in the short term see a reduction in performance, while longer term those expressing positive sentiment see a positive relationship with stock volatility. These results show that managers can use voluntary communications to influence market perceptions of their acquisition strategies, and that sentiment matters.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48290,"journal":{"name":"European Management Journal","volume":"44 2","pages":"Pages 298-311"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147636588","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"One concept to bind them: An exploration of the search fund phenomenon","authors":"Dustin Bauer,&nbsp;Tobias Reif,&nbsp;Sebastian Junge","doi":"10.1016/j.emj.2025.02.007","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.emj.2025.02.007","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Using established theories, this study examines the private equity model of search funds with the aim of enhancing our understanding of this phenomenon and elucidating the factors contributing to its current success. Despite the rapidly growing importance of search funds in practice, research about the model remains limited. We draw on 21 semi-structured interviews with searchers, investors, and target firm CEOs to contribute to this emerging field of research. Our results include a detailed overview of the search fund process, offering unique insights into key milestones and critical activities that determines a successful search fund process. Furthermore, using entrepreneurial opportunity literature, we argue and verify that search funds represent a novel entry mode into entrepreneurship, and hence, searchers can be seen as entrepreneurs. In addition, using family firm succession literature, we compare search funds to internal and external alternatives in the succession process. Based on their unique configurations, searchers can be seen as hybrid alternatives that combine positive aspects of internal and external succession candidates. This combination creates a family business without kinship that has the potential to be the second-best option for family firms after the internal succession. The study holds valuable contributions to research on entrepreneurship and family businesses as well as for practitioners involved in the search fund model.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48290,"journal":{"name":"European Management Journal","volume":"44 2","pages":"Pages 344-359"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147636592","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Advice tie reallocation under organizational downsizing: A longitudinal network study","authors":"Rick Aalbers ,&nbsp;Alexander Smit","doi":"10.1016/j.emj.2025.01.009","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.emj.2025.01.009","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div><span>Drawing on network theory we investigate how the hierarchical position of organizational members affects their willingness to exchange advice during sudden corporate downsizing. Based on a field study that focuses on employee downsizing at a European IT service provider, we propose and test a theoretical perspective that explains how and when employees reallocate voluntary advice ties. Our findings suggest that individuals exhibit varying levels of resilience to change, with new advice activity shifting towards hierarchical equals and away from colleagues with a higher hierarchical level. Moreover, whereas individuals with a preference for upward networking do not seek others out before a downsizing event, they do so after downsizing. The results of our study shed light on the theoretical mechanisms that underlie the formation of voluntary intra-organizational network patterns. These findings have important implications for understanding </span>organizational behaviour during organizational change.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48290,"journal":{"name":"European Management Journal","volume":"44 2","pages":"Pages 288-297"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147636533","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Institutions, uncertainty, and venture capital staged investments in ICT start-ups","authors":"Bin Hao ,&nbsp;Wen Zheng ,&nbsp;Nanxin Deng ,&nbsp;Bingqing Zhao","doi":"10.1016/j.emj.2025.02.002","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.emj.2025.02.002","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>How do institutions influence the staging investment decisions of venture capitalists (VCs) in the face of uncertainty? This study disentangles this effect by examining the relationship between technological uncertainty and VCs' subsequent investment decisions in the context of an emerging economy. We argue that, in emerging economies, VCs typically view an increase in technological uncertainty as a decrease in the value of the growth option for subsequent investment and thus are less likely to continue investing in the portfolio companies in the subsequent financing round. Further, we propose that the degree of institutional development, which is reflected by the speed of pro-market reform and the density of government VCs, could revise the effect of technological uncertainty on VCs' subsequent investment. Our empirical analysis of VC investments in China's information and communication technology industry provides full support to our predictions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48290,"journal":{"name":"European Management Journal","volume":"44 2","pages":"Pages 312-321"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147636589","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Intertemporal tradeoffs in family firms’ R&D investments: The role of transgenerational succession intention","authors":"Wei Lei ,&nbsp;Jianhua Ge ,&nbsp;Yanlong Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.emj.2025.03.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.emj.2025.03.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Research on family firm innovation increasingly highlights the heterogeneity within family firms. Integrating a temporal perspective with institutional theory, this study examines when and why family firms’ long-term orientation becomes more or less salient, impeding or enhancing R&amp;D investments. We theorize that transgenerational succession intention indicates a long-term orientation and affects how family firms compare past, present, and future reference points in R&amp;D decisions. Furthermore, we argue that both state and family institutions moderate the influence of a family firm’s temporal orientation (short-term vs. long-term) on R&amp;D investments. Using a nationwide database of family firms in China, our analysis provides robust support for the argument that both state intervention (as a key feature of state institutions) and familism values (as a key feature of family institutions) moderate the positive effect of transgenerational succession intention on family firms’ R&amp;D investments. Our research contributes to the understanding of the heterogeneity in family firm innovation by illustrating how family firms vary in their intertemporal tradeoffs in R&amp;D decisions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48290,"journal":{"name":"European Management Journal","volume":"44 2","pages":"Pages 360-370"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147636593","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Professional imprinting mechanisms in the doctoral trajectory: Impact on researcher identity diversity","authors":"Marie Gruber ,&nbsp;Thomas Crispeels ,&nbsp;Vadim Grinevich ,&nbsp;Pablo D'Este","doi":"10.1016/j.emj.2024.11.003","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.emj.2024.11.003","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Shaping one's professional identity is a complex process that starts early on in the professional career and is influenced by many factors along the way. An important process in professional identity formation is <em>professional imprinting.</em> In socialization theory, professional imprinting refers to how individuals adjust behavior and beliefs to fulfill expectations from their working environments and achieve a feeling of belonging during sensitive periods. In this study, we turn to the academic setting, which is characterized by high researcher identity heterogeneity and thus can give us insights into the dynamics of professional identity development. Professional imprints during doctoral training lead to permanent characteristics in one's researcher identity. To investigate professional imprinting and its mechanisms, we conducted a qualitative study involving interviews with 16 PhD students and their supervisors (16 professors and 4 post-docs) within the setting of an EU-funded project. We identify the imprinting mechanisms that shape a researcher's identity during a sensitive period. Our study offers valuable insights for managers and policy makers about the role of supervisors or supervising managers in the development of the professional identities of junior colleagues and about the future career trajectories of people entering academia and industry.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48290,"journal":{"name":"European Management Journal","volume":"44 1","pages":"Pages 38-54"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147427843","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The new normal of corporate sustainability: A post-pandemic perspective on greenwashing discourse and manager perceptions","authors":"Ouiam Kaddouri","doi":"10.1016/j.emj.2024.12.003","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.emj.2024.12.003","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Amidst the unprecedented economic backdrop of a global pandemic, the intricate web of greenwashing discourse in times of fake news has woven its threads into the fabric of corporate sustainability, reshaping managers' perceptions and challenging their attitudes toward sustainable decision-making. In a two-phase qualitative study, this research explores the impact of greenwashing discourse on managers’ perceptions and attitudes toward sustainability post pandemic in France. The results reveal a disconnection between external greenwashing discourse and the managerial mindset, as claims of greenwashing are often linked to “fake news.” Furthermore, the study shows that the pandemic has shifted the spotlight onto financial concerns, overshadowing sustainability in strategic decision-making and thereby altering the landscape of corporate responsibility. Going beyond the conventional focus on consumers and clients, this study aims to fill a critical gap in greenwashing research by examining the impact on different stakeholders. In this investigation, we aim to contribute to research on greenwashing discourse by offering more comprehensive understanding of the complexities and nuances involved in managerial perceptions of the discourse and sustainability initiatives in an era marked by unprecedent challenges.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48290,"journal":{"name":"European Management Journal","volume":"44 1","pages":"Pages 132-144"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147427839","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"‘The great resignation’: The ambivalences of the liquid employee facing a consumerist work relationship","authors":"Vincent Meyer ,&nbsp;Jean-Denis Culié ,&nbsp;Xavier Philippe ,&nbsp;Thomas Sorreda ,&nbsp;Jean-François Garcia ,&nbsp;Luc Tessier","doi":"10.1016/j.emj.2024.11.008","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.emj.2024.11.008","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In early 2021, many workers in OECD countries, especially France, decided to resign, a phenomenon commonly known as ‘the Great Resignation’. Based on 41 interviews with employees who voluntarily left their jobs in the wake of the COVID-19 health crisis and building on the work of Zygmunt Bauman, our research unveils the emergence of “liquid employees”, trapped in a vicious circle of consumption. Organisations consider employees as consumer goods, and in return, the latter become consumers of organisations through frequent job-hopping. Our findings also highlight how this consumerist work relationship is embedded in a process of adiaphorisation of organisations and managers and how resignation represents more of a necessity than a choice for liquid employees.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48290,"journal":{"name":"European Management Journal","volume":"44 1","pages":"Pages 25-37"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147427845","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Nonprototypical managers: The identity work of young managers in relation to age-based stereotypes","authors":"Hanna Irehill ,&nbsp;Oscar Rantatalo ,&nbsp;Robert Lundmark ,&nbsp;Susanne Tafvelin","doi":"10.1016/j.emj.2024.12.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.emj.2024.12.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>To be a young manager is to deviate from the norm, because youth and management are perceived as contradictory social positions. Thus, young managers are positioned as nonprototypical, which poses challenges to gaining acceptance and claiming the managerial identity. In this multicase interview study, we show how available social prototypes of management and self-to-prototype comparisons are important as young managers approach the identity work process. We conducted interviews (<em>N</em> = 38) and workshops (<em>N</em> = 6) in three business sectors with young and senior managers, subordinates, and those performing support functions. Based on an analysis of these interviews and workshops, we developed a theoretical model illustrating how young managers use implicit theories of leadership (ILT) to reduce the incongruity between internal self-conceptions and external prototypes of management as a benchmark toward managerial identity, revealing three main approaches to identity work. Young managers approach age-based drawbacks by acting based on <em>noncontextualized ILTs</em>, making adjustments in relation to <em>available prototypes,</em> and by making <em>self-to-prototype insights</em>. Our findings augment the identity work theory by providing an age perspective on this process and highlight the importance of future research engaging in depth with age as a sociodemographic factor in relation to the managerial role.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48290,"journal":{"name":"European Management Journal","volume":"44 1","pages":"Pages 113-122"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147427852","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The benefits of an enabling managerial control style in a teleworking situation. A latent profile analysis","authors":"Clara Laborie ,&nbsp;Céline Desmarais ,&nbsp;Emmanuel Abord de Chatillon ,&nbsp;Alain Lacroux ,&nbsp;Christine Jeoffrion","doi":"10.1016/j.emj.2024.12.005","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.emj.2024.12.005","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Coronavirus pandemic forced a significant number of organizations worldwide to introduce teleworking. In this context of physical distance, the first objective of this article was to present the different attitudes toward control used by managers in teleworking situations, as well as the impact these have on employees' occupational health, job performance and organizational commitment. We also investigated whether these managers’ attitudes toward control depend on the intensity of their employees' teleworking. Thanks to a survey of 2522 employees carried out in a branch of the French Social Security administration between November 2021 and February 2022, we developed a Latent Profile Analysis method. Our results highlight four managerial control styles with different consequences on occupational health, job performance and organizational commitment, depending on the balance between task control, managerial trust and empowering leadership. They also suggest that telework does not affect the managerial relationship as fundamentally as it might seem from the work of many researchers studying this practice.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48290,"journal":{"name":"European Management Journal","volume":"44 1","pages":"Pages 145-155"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147427840","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}