Business Horizons最新文献

{"title":"Communicating corporate social advocacy (CSA) in polarized times: A Stoic turn from dancing to wrestling","authors":"Ganga S. Dhanesh","doi":"10.1016/j.bushor.2024.08.004","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bushor.2024.08.004","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div><span><span><span>In an age of increasing stakeholder activism, seen in movements like Fridays for Future, MeToo, and </span>Black Lives Matter as well as demands from socially conscious consumers, companies are expanding their roles beyond </span>corporate social responsibility (CSR) and publicly addressing contentious social and political issues via corporate social advocacy (CSA). However, as stakeholders become more divided along ideological and sociopolitical lines, CSA can often lead to backlash from polarized audiences, damaging the company’s reputation, relationships, and legitimacy. This raises the question of whether it is prudent for companies to engage in CSA in polarized times. Can companies endure potential repercussions like </span>consumer boycotts, disaffected employees, and irate politicians and investors? This article critiques the limitations of current approaches to communicating corporate societal responsibilities and explores Stoicism—an ancient Hellenistic philosophy—as an alternative lens to answer these difficult questions. As a denomination of applied philosophy and practical ethics, Stoicism offers not only a philosophical rationale for CSA but also actionable principles to deal with agitated and divergent voices in polarized times. This article discusses four selected Stoic thoughts and provides practical advice for managers on whether and how to effectively engage in CSA amid polarized times. Recommendations include aligning CSA efforts with corporate identity, prioritizing factors within the organization’s control, remaining flexible and adaptable when encountering obstacles, and adopting reflective practice.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48347,"journal":{"name":"Business Horizons","volume":"68 5","pages":"Pages 613-625"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2024-08-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144890235","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Unpacking the peace dividend: A subnational analysis of the relationship between business, peace, and economic growth in nine Colombian cities","authors":"Juana García ,&nbsp;Angelika Rettberg ,&nbsp;Federico Dupont","doi":"10.1016/j.bushor.2024.07.007","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bushor.2024.07.007","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>After the signing of a peace agreement in Colombia 7 years ago, expectations of a peace dividend for the private sector ran high. To what extent has this dividend materialized, and what have been the experiences of companies in different regions and cities of the economy? To evaluate the impact of the peace agreement on key indicators, we conducted a subnational analysis in post-agreement Colombia. We examined nine cities and created a model to determine the relationship between the conflict—represented by the Victimization Risk Index released by the Colombian national victim’s unit—and a business dynamic variable. We found that the cities presenting a higher VRI tend to have lower business dynamic scores. We paired the findings from our business dynamics model with the results of a survey conducted in 2018 by the Bogotá Chamber of Commerce (CCB). This comparison confirms that the majority of the regions most affected by the conflict had the largest peace dividend both in terms of perception and in reality. Peace will not lift all boats across the country evenly. Policymakers can leverage these insights to ground their expectations and devise more effective policies and interventions capable of navigating the challenges of peacemaking and the opportunities peace can offer the private sector.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48347,"journal":{"name":"Business Horizons","volume":"67 6","pages":"Pages 755-768"},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141934266","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"“Todos pagan” (Everybody pays): SMEs and urban violence in Medellín, Colombia","authors":"Ben Miller ,&nbsp;Angelika Rettberg","doi":"10.1016/j.bushor.2024.08.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bushor.2024.08.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Medellín, a bustling city of 2.5 million, is marked by convivial relations between formal and informal economic activity, and between legal and criminal actors. This article examines what this context means for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and how they respond to it. In Medellín and elsewhere, SMEs are more numerous than large firms but operate at a smaller scale. They are organizationally more informal, less mobile (i.e., more dependent on specific contexts), more accountable to customers and legal authorities, and less prominent in public debate. Their need to act collectively to counter violence may be greater than that of larger companies, yet they may also find it more challenging to organize collective action. As a result, they face possibilities that are different from those of large companies in the context of violence. The article suggests that most SMEs in Medellín have adapted to, or navigate, the multiple, intersecting layers of legality and illegality, of formality and informality, and of actual or threatened violence. Only very few respond by deliberately seeking to change the external environment. Based on a review of official documents, academic literature, and our own observations during several field trips and 39 interviews, we develop a three-part typology of SME responses to violent actors: acquiescence, avoidance, and mitigation. The implications of our findings will be relevant to managers interested in understanding business conditions in the presence of organized criminal activity and the ways in which SMEs have adapted their own practices to those conditions. The findings suggest that some SME strategies are more effective than others in supporting the survival and growth of SMEs in violent contexts. But while cooperation with illegal actors for the purpose of safeguarding economic activities may be conducive to keeping the peace and ensuring enterprise viability in the short run, it also poses challenges to outcomes that would be more beneficial to communities in the long run: empowerment, institutional strengthening, and inclusive economic development.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48347,"journal":{"name":"Business Horizons","volume":"67 6","pages":"Pages 743-754"},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141934265","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Stakeholder satisfaction with corporate conflict engagement actions: Exploring the effects of goodwill, trust, and value alignment","authors":"Chiara Valentini ,&nbsp;Juha Munnukka ,&nbsp;Hui Zhao","doi":"10.1016/j.bushor.2024.08.003","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bushor.2024.08.003","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In the last decade, businesses have played an increasingly significant role in promoting stability, democracy, and human rights, particularly concerning the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which emphasize peace, justice, and strong institutions. Consequently, there has been a greater focus on corporate social responsibility and corporate citizenship. Research has explored business motivations and actions in conflict mitigation. Nevertheless, less attention has been given to the impact of conflict engagement actions on stakeholders’ perceptions and behavioral intentions. This study aims to fill this gap by testing the effects of types of corporate conflict engagement actions (CCEAs) on stakeholders’ satisfaction with business choices and overall corporate goodwill. This study employs an experimental design in which respondents are exposed to CCEAs in scenarios related to the Russia–Ukraine conflict. The findings of this study are particularly relevant to business firms and their quest for whether to engage in regions undergoing conflict. The results illuminate the key factors of CCEAs that shape stakeholder satisfaction and corporate goodwill perceptions in today’s complex geopolitical landscape.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48347,"journal":{"name":"Business Horizons","volume":"67 6","pages":"Pages 797-813"},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141934264","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Reflections on purposeful entrepreneurship with Mike Evans, Founder of GrubHub","authors":"Gerard Beenen,&nbsp;Chethan Srikant","doi":"10.1016/j.bushor.2024.07.006","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bushor.2024.07.006","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":48347,"journal":{"name":"Business Horizons","volume":"68 5","pages":"Pages 551-558"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144890229","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Entrepreneurship amid armed conflicts: Insights from Artsakh","authors":"Knar Khachatryan","doi":"10.1016/j.bushor.2024.07.004","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bushor.2024.07.004","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Armed conflicts are exogenous shocks that engender multifaceted turbulence. This article explores the corporate behavior of companies operating in the active conflict of Artsakh and their strategic responses to the devastating war of 2020 by using multiple case studies. Building on the Business for Peace literature, this article contextualizes the mission and governance mechanisms of companies and their interlinkages with the company activities perceived as peace-enhancing. The research findings support existing evidence indicating that (semi)hybrid business forms are appropriate in unconventional contexts. The article unfolds the mechanisms that enable companies to work through conflict and identify key moderating factors that significantly affect their development perspectives. This study is the first to illuminate how companies from several sectors in a conflict-affected zone in the South Caucasus pursue different combinations of social and economic goals, maintain and develop relationships with stakeholders, and interact progressively with markets and institutions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48347,"journal":{"name":"Business Horizons","volume":"67 6","pages":"Pages 727-741"},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2024-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141851302","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Environmental violence and enterprise: The outsized role of business for environmental peacebuilding","authors":"Richard Marcantonio","doi":"10.1016/j.bushor.2024.07.003","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bushor.2024.07.003","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Environmental violence (EV) is the complex of direct and indirect impacts of human-produced pollution on human health and wellbeing. Today, EV is the single largest cause of human mortality and morbidity, resulting in around 8 to 9 million deaths annually and about 275 million years of poor health every year. By comparison, about 89,000 people die from warfare and terrorism each year combined—more than 100 times fewer. EV also drives mass human migration, which displaces about 24 million people annually and is cited as a growing contributory—or even causal—factor for violent conflict. To realize the promise of business for peace, the implications of EV and the systemic suffering it produces must be addressed. This article examines the role of business in producing and mitigating EV and the possibility of reversing it via regenerative practices. It then maps and measures the primary links between business and EV and outlines paths to environmental peacebuilding. Although business is shown to be a chief contributor to EV, this article ultimately argues that it is also one of the most potent tools for countering it and equitably restoring affected communities and ecosystems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48347,"journal":{"name":"Business Horizons","volume":"67 6","pages":"Pages 685-698"},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2024-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141847971","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Bridging business and human rights and business for peace: A case study of Microsoft’s multitrack diplomacy","authors":"Catherine McDonald","doi":"10.1016/j.bushor.2024.07.005","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bushor.2024.07.005","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Through the practice of corporate diplomacy—a subset of track-two diplomacy—multinational enterprises (MNEs) can help address issues of polycentric governance, including those in the realms of business and human rights (BHR) and business for peace (B4P). Despite growing interest in both fields of academia and practice, there remains scope for further empirical work at their intersection. This article, therefore, contributes to the extant literature on BHR and B4P by empirically exploring the case of Microsoft, an American MNE, and its corporate diplomacy activities on digital peace in cyberspace. Specifically, the case focuses on three purposefully selected initiatives: (1) the company’s corporate diplomacy efforts on the Digital Geneva Convention, (2) the Digital Peace Now campaign, and (3) its proactive engagement in response to the war in Ukraine. These initiatives highlight how responsibility, leadership, employee empowerment, and partnerships have contributed to Microsoft’s corporate culture and decision-making processes to create an environment that prioritizes digital peace and integrates both BHR and B4P perspectives. In doing so, this article argues for the importance of addressing B4P activities in tandem with BHR in a complementary manner within practitioner initiatives.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48347,"journal":{"name":"Business Horizons","volume":"67 6","pages":"Pages 815-825"},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2024-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141845433","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Keep the ball rolling: Harnessing generativity in online retail platforms","authors":"Yi Lin ,&nbsp;Birgit Apenes Solem ,&nbsp;David Sjödin ,&nbsp;Vinit Parida","doi":"10.1016/j.bushor.2024.07.002","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bushor.2024.07.002","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Online retail platforms face significant challenges, including intense competition, the chicken-or-egg dilemma in acquiring consumers and sellers for network effects and establishing sustainable growth models. This article addresses these challenges by focusing on the concept of <em>generativity</em>: a platform’s ability to expand product and ecosystem boundaries, thereby unlocking the potential economies of scale and scope. Drawing on experiences from both small and large online retail platforms, we outline an extended set of strategic actions to foster generativity by engaging consumers (e.g., facilitating consumer creativity), complementors (e.g., creating open marketplaces), and their cross-sided interactions (e.g., extending interaction along consumer journeys). For each strategy, we provide practical, actionable recommendations that platform owners can implement to expand their product offerings and add new functions and services to improve interactions between participants. By emphasizing the importance of integrating the contributions of both consumers and complementors, these strategies foster a dynamic and innovative platform ecosystem, which is crucial for the sustained growth and competitiveness of online retailers.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48347,"journal":{"name":"Business Horizons","volume":"68 5","pages":"Pages 601-612"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141840795","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Navigating hardships: Resilience-building coping strategies and actionable techniques for entrepreneurs","authors":"Nastaran Simarasl ,&nbsp;Pooya Tabesh ,&nbsp;Mahshid Jessri","doi":"10.1016/j.bushor.2024.07.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.bushor.2024.07.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Hardships are an inevitable part of entrepreneurial experiences. Successful entrepreneurs identify hardships early on and craft effective strategies to overcome them. While previous work in practitioner-oriented and academic outlets has emphasized the significance of resilience in overcoming hardships, entrepreneurs are left with minimal guidance on cultivating coping strategies that build resilience in response to different types of hardships. In this article, we first provide a typology of hardships that entrepreneurs face. Then, by grounding our work in the resilience literature, we offer a typology of coping strategies. Finally, we offer a list of actionable recommendations by introducing a toolbox of coping techniques entrepreneurs can use to effectively manage different hardships. Our work contributes to a more nuanced understanding of hardships in entrepreneurship research and offers practical guidance on how entrepreneurs can build resilience.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48347,"journal":{"name":"Business Horizons","volume":"68 5","pages":"Pages 589-600"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141695840","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}