Management & Organization

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How Firm Resources and Behavior Impact Firm Performance: An examination of firm resources, competitive actions, and performance
(2009) Major, David Lanier; Smith, Kenneth G; Business and Management: Management & Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
In this dissertation, I considered how firm resources, actions and performance may be interrelated. I tested the notion that resources both enable and interact with firm actions to impact performance. Drawing from resource-based and actions-based theory and empirical research, testable hypotheses were developed suggesting that a firm's resources may impact performance potentially in three ways - directly, mediated by actions, and in combination with actions. I examined 1) the extent to which firm resources and actions each directly predict variation in firm performance; 2) the extent to which firm resources predict variation in intervening actions and thereby predict variation in performance; and 3) the extent to which the product of resources and actions in combination predict variation in performance. With a combined dataset of 4,337 actions, gathered through the structured-content analysis of over 16,000 published news articles, and 980 model-years of resources and performance data collected from industry and government sources, 44 foreign and domestic automakers were analyzed over a study period from 1993 to 2000. I find empirical support for key components of their relationships. The analysis shows evidence that firm resources impact performance, both through and with firm actions.
Do Investor Capabilities Influence the Interpretation of Entrepreneur Signals? Theory and Testing in the Private Equity Setting
(2009) Gera, Azi; Kirsch, David A; Goldfarb, Brent; Business and Management: Management & Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Informing outsiders of the potential and quality of the organization in a way that will benefit the organization and avoid putting it at risk is a challenging task in competitive settings. Under conditions of uncertainty, in which external entities are imperfectly informed about the organization, outsiders will seek for alternative signals of quality. Current research of interfirm signaling has focused on the sender's ability to generate signals. In this dissertation, I propose that receivers of signals are heterogeneous in their ability to interpret signals and that this heterogeneity significantly influences the outcome of the interaction between signaler and interpreter. I apply this insight in an entrepreneurial setting to explain differences in signaling to venture capitalist and informal private equity investors (business angels) over the early stages of a firm's lifecycle. The findings have strong implications for entrepreneurial firms' strategy and, generally, to signaling theory. I argue that signals are multifaceted. Outsiders may base their decisions on two aspects of signal: the informative aspect, which relays direct information on the capabilities of the organization; and, the legitimizing aspect, which conveys legitimacy through actions of third-party entities. The use of each aspect is determined by the abilities of the sender to generate the signal and the receiver to interpret it. I posit that the informative aspect of the signal will be prominent when both the sender's and the receiver's abilities are high. When either the sender's ability to generate a signal, or the receiver's ability to interpret it, is limited, the legitimizing aspect of the signal will be prominent. When both the sender and the receiver possess low signaling abilities, the interpretation will be based on idiosyncratic data. This dissertation explores the differences between these two facets of signals, the relationships between the signal aspects at different stages of the organizational life cycle, and the usefulness of each signal aspect when considering the organization's target audience. The first essay explains the purpose of the two signal aspects for stakeholders and the interactive nature of the signals' facets. The two following essays test the theory by utilizing two large datasets of private equity investment solicitations. The second essay evaluates the effectiveness of the legitimizing aspect of the signal as a mechanism for screening startups' funding solicitations. The third essay compares the informative and legitimizing aspects of signals as decision making mechanisms for both angel and venture capital investors.
Employee Health: A Value Creating Organizational Resource
(2009) Kiyatkin, Lori; Baum, J. Robert; Business and Management: Management & Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
U.S. businesses have overwhelmingly approached employee health from a cost management, rather than investment, perspective. This singular focus on costs is likely due to lack of clarity regarding the potential of employee health to be a value creating organizational resource and the underlying mechanisms by which health may be subject to organizational influence. In this dissertation, I outline the `resource potential' of employee health from an organizational perspective. First, I draw upon the resource-based view and past research on health promotion and health care cost management to outline the significant organizational performance implications of employee health as a source of value generation in organizations. In so doing, I propose a model that explains the process by which employees' health risks, health motivations, and healthy behaviors impact organizational outcomes. Next, I develop a model that explains how two distinct categories of healthy behaviors - `healthy consumption' and `physical/mental fitness' uniquely impact medical costs and organizational productivity. To test these models, I employ structural equation modeling to examine a dataset of 152 and 149 organizational level outcomes regarding models 1 and 2, respectively. I find support for my assertions that employee health is a value creating organizational resource and that health motivations are an important means by which this resource may be built. I also find that healthy consumption behaviors have a stronger relative impact on costs whereas physical/mental fitness behaviors strongly promote productivity. Based on these findings, I argue that minimalistic cost management approaches to employee health are unwise from both organizational social and financial performance perspectives. In particular, this research demonstrates the crucial importance, and potential, of employee health and its components as value creating resources from a strategic organizational management perspective. Further, this research suggests that employee healthcare may be `strategic' social performance as organizational health promotion can simultaneously address both financial and social performance interests. Implications and areas for future research are discussed.
Virtual Team Member Performance and Viability: The Influence of Individual Characteristics
(2008-04-23) Hill, Nora Sharon; Bartol, Kathryn M; Business and Management: Management & Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
The use of virtual teams is increasing in organizations. Virtual teamwork occurs when team members collaborate using technology-mediated communication rather than face-to-face. Research has shown that virtual teamwork can be challenging. However, currently there is little research to help organizations identify team members who are most likely to be effective in a virtual teamwork environment. Given this, the purpose of my dissertation research was to identify individual characteristics that influence a virtual team member's contribution to team performance and team membership viability. This dissertation developed and tested a theoretical model that integrates literature identifying individual team member characteristics that are directly germane to effective functioning in a team operating virtually. These characteristics include virtual teamwork knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs); self-regulatory team orientation; and preference for face-to-face communication with team members. These individual characteristics were hypothesized to influence team member contribution to team performance and membership viability through the intervening variables of virtual teamwork behaviors and attitude toward virtual teamwork with the team. In addition, team technology support and empowering team leadership were two contextual factors predicted to moderate the hypothesized relationships between team member characteristics and virtual teamwork behaviors. The hypotheses were tested using data from 193 team members in 29 virtual teams in the procurement department of one large multinational company. The data were collected from team members and team leaders using online surveys, and hierarchical linear modeling was used to analyze the data. Results showed that both virtual teamwork KSAs and self-regulatory team orientation, although not directly associated with virtual teamwork behaviors, interacted with empowering team leadership to influence virtual teamwork behaviors. Self-regulatory team orientation and preference for face-to-face communication were both found to be positively associated with attitude toward virtual teamwork. Results further showed that virtual teamwork behaviors and attitude toward virtual teamwork were both positively associated with contribution to team performance and membership viability. Finally, no support was found for the hypothesized moderating influence of team technology support on the relationship between team member characteristics and virtual teamwork behaviors.
Locked Up: Exploring the Complex Nature of Conflicting Values Systems and Their Effects on Work Attitudes
(2007-08-06) DeCelles, Katherine A.; Tesluk, Paul; Business and Management: Management & Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Values are individuals' enduring perspectives on what is fundamentally right or wrong (Rokeach, 1973). These perspectives affect how people interpret their surroundings and interactions with others; individuals act in accordance with, and judge others' behavior by, what they believe is right (Bandura, 1991). Values have been studied extensively in the organizational literature, focusing on how individuals' values (such as honesty or achievement) affect their job attitudes (such as organizational commitment and job satisfaction; Ravlin & Meglino, 1987). While values and their effects on employees have been widely studied (Braithwaite, 1994; Cable & Edwards, 2004; Judge & Bretz, 1992; Rokeach, 1973; Ravlin & Meglino, 1987; Schwartz, 1992, 1994; Tsui & O'Reilly, 1989), they are often categorized into competing or conflicting frameworks (e.g., Cameron & Quinn, 1999; Schwartz, 1994). However, emerging evidence suggests that some competing values might actually be held simultaneously by individuals (Braithwaite, 1994; El-Sawad, Arnold, & Cohen, 2004; Kerlinger, 1983; Tetlock, 1986). If this paradoxical scenario is true, these values may actually interact, rather than displace one another. While cognitive dissonance theory (Festinger, 1957) and balance theory (Heider, 1946) --- central in psychology and organizational literature --- predict that individuals cannot hold conflicting values simultaneously without suffering from negative consequences like stress, I argue otherwise. This dissertation examines the extent to which individuals can hold conflicting values simultaneously rather than dichotomously, explores the mechanisms through which they do so, and also examines the effects of such value composition on employee attitudes. This is accomplished through two studies: first, a survey-based examination, and second, an in-depth inductive study. Both of these studies investigate these questions about conflicting values in a sample of correctional officers, and their values towards crime (punitive and rehabilitative ideals). Results indicate support that conflicting values can be simultaneously held by individuals, and that they interact to produce positive, rather than negative, job attitudes. More specifically, I find that correctional officers who hold both of these values have higher levels of perceived fit with their organization, higher levels of organizational commitment, and lower levels of burnout than officers of other value combinations. Inductive results of the qualitative portion also add explanatory value to the question of why and how this can happen; qualitative results show that correctional officers often draw from both value-perspectives in order to complete their difficult job duties in effective and balanced ways.
Information in the Marketplace: Two Essays on Firm Strategies and Stakeholder Perceptions
(2007-08-02) Pfarrer, Michael D.; Rindova, Violina P.; Business and Management: Management & Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
This dissertation consists of two essays that examine the role of information exchange in the marketplace and how firm strategies shape stakeholder perceptions of this information. In Essay 1, I develop a theoretical framework of Perceived Information Quality (PIQ), the extent to which stakeholders consider information useful in their evaluations of firm behavior. As PIQ increases, stakeholders' information asymmetry and evaluation costs decrease, thereby potentially leading to more transactions between the firm and its stakeholders, greater access to resources for the firm, and ultimately, a greater probability of the firm achieving economic success. However, stakeholders may perceive certain types of information about the firm to be more useful than others, depending on whether the firm is engaging in conforming or non-conforming behavior and whether information about these behaviors is received directly or through a mediated channel. Essay 2 looks at the relationships among firm intangible assets, investor perceptions, and financial outcomes. In Chapter 1, I examine the influence of firm reputation and celebrity on the likelihood of the firm announcing either a positive or negative earnings surprise. In Chapter 2, I examine the impact of reputation and celebrity on investors' reactions to the surprise announcement. Using a matched sample of 291 firms over a 15-year period, results show support for financial reputation decreasing the likelihood of positive and negative surprises, whereas one measure of firm celebrity, strategic deviance, predicts an increase only in the likelihood of negative surprises. Two additional celebrity measures, visibility and positive emotion, predict a greater likelihood of positive surprises and a lower likelihood of negative surprises respectively. In addition, results of post-hoc paired t-tests among six firm categories that group firms according to varying combinations of intangible assets show that reputation and visibility enhanced the returns of firms' announcing positive earnings surprises, but only reputation provided a buffer for negative surprises. Tests also showed that firms high in both reputation and visibility performed worst among the six groups. Thus, certain levels of reputation or visibility may enhance investor perceptions of the firm amid deviant behavior, but high levels of both may not.
Linking Empowerment and Employee Creativity: The Mediating Roles of Creative Process Engagement and Intrinsic Motivation
(2007-04-25) Zhang, Xiaomeng; Bartol, Kathryn M.; Management and Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
With an increasingly turbulent environment, heightened levels of competition, and unpredictable technological change, more and more organizations are encouraging their employees to be creative. Considerable evidence indicates that employee creativity can substantially contribute to organizational innovation, effectiveness, and survival (Amabile, 1996; Madjar, Oldham, & Pratt, 2002; Shalley, Zhou, & Oldham, 2004). Not surprisingly, the field of organizational behavior has witnessed an increasing interest in understanding factors that promote employee creativity. One factor that has been suggested as being particularly important is empowerment (e.g., Amabile, 1983, 1996; Spreitzer, 1995). Drawing on leadership theories, empowerment theories, and creativity theories, the major purpose of this dissertation was to develop and empirically test an integrative process model linking empowerment approaches with creativity. More specifically, this model integrates leadership theories and empowerment theories to explore how empowering leadership influences both psychological empowerment and job structural empowerment. It also examines how psychological empowerment and job structural empowerment influence employee creativity via the mediating effect of employee creative process engagement and intrinsic motivation. Finally, it investigates how certain personal characteristics (e.g., domain-relevant skills, openness to experience, and proactivity) and a contextual factor--leader encouragement of creativity--work as moderators to affect employee creativity. Using survey data from a large information technology company in the People's Republic of China (PRC), the theoretical model was examined though structural equation modeling and hierarchical regression analyses. Findings indicated that empowering leadership was positively related to psychological empowerment, which was fully mediated by creative process engagement in influencing employee creativity. In addition, empowering leadership also had a direct impact on job structural empowerment, whose impact on creativity was mediated by intrinsic motivation directly and also indirectly through its influence on creative process engagement. Further results showed that leader encouragement of creativity interacted with psychological empowerment to further motivate employees to engage in the creative process. Moreover, employees' proactive characteristics strengthened the positive influence of creative process engagement and intrinsic motivation on creativity. Implications for theory and practice and future research direction are discussed.
Performance tip-sharing: When, and how, do employees share their insights?
(2006-11-15) Burnett, Meredith Flowers; Shapiro, Debra L.; Management and Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
The purpose of my dissertation is to expand understanding about when, and how, employees share performance-tips-- that is, when employees will more frequently disclose to their colleagues (in organizationally-targeted or coworker-targeted ways) the new ideas that they have discovered in the process of working that improve their work tasks (e.g., ideas that help employees to work faster, more efficiently, with fewer mistakes, etc.) for the purpose of helping others in the same job to complete work or solve problems to improve efficiency or quality. Current literature suggests that this is more likely to occur when employees: (1) feel more rather than less obligated toward their organization and (2) believe that sharing performance-tips will benefit, not harm, them. The conceptual problem I resolve in this dissertation regards my belief that the latter assumptions are overly simplistic since the effect of any one of them seems likely to depend on the presence or absence of the other factors and on what type of performance-sharing (coworker-targeted vs. organizationally-targeted) is occurring. Via a field-survey of employees in the information-technology industry, I test the more complex set of relationships I theorize as predictors of the frequency and type of performance-tip sharing that employees engage in. I conclude with the theoretical and practical implications of my findings.
Internal Team Leadership: An Examination of Leadership Roles, Role Structure, and Member Outcomes
(2006-08-07) Carson, Jay; Tesluk, Paul E.; Management and Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Effective leadership is widely considered a critical ingredient of team success, and some scholars have argued that abdication of leadership in any team is a recipe for failure (Sinclair, 1992; Zacarro, Rittman, & Marks, 2001). However, much of the existing research on team leadership has focused exclusively on external leaders serving in a formal capacity in the organization (Kozlowski & Bell, 2002; Stewart & Manz, 1995), while largely ignoring the processes and impact of internal team leadership. This dissertation addresses this shortcoming in our understanding of team functioning and team leadership by studying internal team leadership roles, which are often informal and emergent. I extended previous work on external team leadership roles in order to articulate a comprehensive yet parsimonious set of four team leadership roles - Navigator, Engineer, Social Integrator, and Liaison - that may be engaged in by members of teams, not just formal leaders. I examined how time and team-level role differentiation serve as moderators of the relationship between these four leadership roles and individual contributions to the team. I also articulated three individual-level role-structuring processes - role overlap, role switching, and role sharing - and examined the benefits and challenges of these three individual processes across time by looking at their relationship with team member outcomes such as individual contributions, satisfaction with the team experience, and role stress - namely role conflict and role ambiguity (Jackson & Schuler, 1985; Tubre & Collins, 2000). I tested hypotheses for this dissertation using data from 24 consulting teams in a multilevel longitudinal design. Data were collected primarily through surveys administered to team members at three points in time (beginning, middle, and end of projects). The primary statistical techniques were regression and hierarchical linear modeling. Findings showed support for the validity of the four leadership roles, as well as their ability to predict individual contributions to the team. The findings also demonstrated that both time and role differentiation are important moderators of this relationship, though not always in the hypothesized direction. Finally, there were important individual consequences for the role-structuring processes of role overlap and role switching.
Venture Capitalists' Investment and Reinvestment Decisions
(2006-08-03) Khanin, Dmitry; Baum, J. Robert; Management and Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Prior research (Wells, 1974; MacMillan, 1985, 1987; Shepherd, 1999) has focused on examining VCs' decision making at the pre-investment stage. Few studies have investigated VCs' financing decisions at the post-investment stage, and the differences between investment and reinvestment. Some scholars claimed that VCs are more likely to provide a venture with initial funding than subsequent financing (Dean & Guglierano, 1990). Others argued the opposite (Ryan, 1994; Guler, 2003). My dissertation seeks to answer this question empirically. I surveyed 40 VCs either in person or over the phone, and asked them to assess how some new incremental information will affect the likelihood that they will invest in a venture at the pre-investment vs. post-investment stage. The results have demonstrated that VCs assess the same positive information more positively at the post-investment stage compared to the pre-investment stage and hence, are more likely to provide a venture with additional than with initial funding.

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