Boon or curse? A contingent view on the relationship between strategic planning and organizational ambidexterity

Numerous scholars have attempted to explain which factors allow for organizational ambidexterity. Strategic planning, as a possible antecedent, has not been considered so far. This is surprising because strategic planning is among the most widely used strategic decision-making tools in management practice and one of the most extensively studied concepts in management research. In addition, prior research has demonstrated the potential of strategic planning to impact innovation-related outcomes—both positively and negatively. Here, we investigate the association between strategic planning and organizational ambidexterity using a survey of 217 senior executives. We highlight the importance of considering how executives use strategic planning. Our results support the hypothesis that strategic planning's positive or negative association with organizational ambidexterity is contingent on other organizational factors. Our findings reveal that strategic planning is only positively associated with organizational ambidexterity when leaders' innovation orientation is extraordinarily high. We further contextualize this interaction effect by considering the environmental uncertainty perceived by the top management. This work contributes to the literature by examining the antecedents of organizational ambidexterity

Different Ambidextrous Learning Architectures and the Role of HRM Systems

During the past decade ambidexterity has emerged as the central research stream in organization science to investigate how organizations manage to remain successful over time. By using the lens of organizational learning, ambidexterity can be defined as the simultaneous pursuit of exploration and exploitation. However, the link between ambidexterity and the human resource management of a firm is still a blind spot on the ambidexterity research map. To shed light on this issue, we show how different ambidextrous learning architectures can be created and maintained by the means of consistent HRM systems. By doing so, we show how HRM systems as specific bundles of HRM practices facilitate ambidextrous learning. Thereby we emphasize the challenge of creating and sustaining the horizontal and vertical fit of an HRM system with regard to different ambidextrous designs.Ambidexterity; Exploration; Exploitation; Organizational Learning; HRM; Strategic Human Resource Management

US consumers’ mental associations with meat substitute products

Negative impacts of meat consumption on both consumers’ health and the environment call for alternative sources for protein intake. In the last decades, the development of meat substitute products has made enormous progress. Given the beneficial aspects of reduced meat consumption, meat substitutes might be a promising approach for a more plant-based diet. However, despite the continuous improvement of meat substitute products and their increasing market potential, meat consumption in the US is still at a high level. Extant literature acknowledges that meat substitute products prompt several negative thoughts and feelings in various European countries, while US consumers’ perceptions of meat substitute products have not been investigated so far. However, understanding consumers’ thoughts and feelings toward meat substitute products provides valuable insights which can help policymakers and marketers to efficiently promote meat substitute products. Against this background, the current research investigates US consumers’ mental associations (i.e., connections of information and prior experiences with the product category stored in memory) with meat substitute products and explores if there are any differences between women and men. A sample of 175 US citizens acquired through an online panel provider completed a free word association technique resulting in 824 mental associations that qualified for the subsequent analysis. In a deductive-inductive content analysis, we assigned the mental associations to 20 categories (e.g., taste, health, environment) and determined their valence (i.e., positive, neutral, or negative). Frequencies and relationships among the categories were analyzed by employing frequency analyses, Chi-square difference tests, and multidimensional correspondence analysis. The findings reveal that meat substitute products elicit more negative mental associations than positive ones. Results validate categories identified in existing literature, but also reveal new categories of mental associations. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate that mental associations differ between women and men, with women tending to perceive meat substitutes more negatively than men. The multiple correspondence analysis resulted in four different consumer profiles (skeptics, innovators, health-oriented consumers, and avoiders) which can guide policymakers and brand managers on the effective promotion of meat substitute products

What Do Crowd Equity Investors Do? Exploring Post-Investment Activities in Equity Crowdfunding

Equity crowdfunding has become a viable alternative to the traditional forms of financing technology startups. This survey-based two-study article aims to shed light on the prevalence of crowd equity investors’ postinvestment activities and the antecedents to these engagement activities. Our first study finds that most crowd equity investors engage with the startups in which they invest in some way. While the majority engage in low-involvement activities (e.g., word of mouth), a smaller number of crowd equity investors also engage in high-involvement activities (e.g., strategic advice). Our second study reveals that engagement in these activities is driven by investment-, investor-, and proximity-related factors. In particular, the amount of investment—despite its smallness compared with that in the traditional forms of funding—is a reliable antecedent of crowd equity investors’ engagement in postinvestment activities. Furthermore, age and geographic proximity are positively associated with low-involvement activities, whereas intrinsic motivation and personal proximity are positively linked to high-involvement activities. By providing insights into the prevalence of postinvestment activities in equity crowdfunding and their antecedents, this article contributes to the debate on the potential of equity crowdfunding to complement or even replace the traditional forms of funding technological innovation

The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Consumers' Intention to Use Shared-Mobility Services in German Cities

One sector that severely suffers from the outbreak of the coronavirus is carsharing (i.e., short-term car access). The downswing of the carsharing industry may not only experience negative economic consequences but also ecological ones. Carsharing has the potential to reduce emissions, occupied space, and congestion and hence can actively contribute to mitigating climate change. As Bill Gates strikingly states: “Covid-19 is awful. Climate change could be worse.” For this reason, it is important to understand which underlying mechanisms drive carsharing usage during the Covid-19 pandemic. The current research has the overall objective to provide deeper insights into the mediating mechanisms that explain carsharing usage intention during the Covid-19 pandemic. In particular, we draw on signaling theory to explore how different claims (environmental claims, safety claims) that prompt two different opposing underlying processes (perceived ecological benefits, perceived physical risk) influence carsharing usage intention. An online experiment employing a 3 (environmental claim vs. safety claim vs. no claim) × 2 (high information diagnosticity vs. low information diagnosticity) between-subjects design with participants acquired by the online panel platform Clickworker was conducted in April 2020. Fictitious labels and fictitious advertisements served as stimulus material and constituted the five experimental conditions. The data were analyzed by a multicategorial moderated mediation analysis and a multivariate analysis of covariance. Results reveal that environmental claims can stimulate perceived ecological benefits, which, in turn, positively affect carsharing usage intention. Interestingly, our research demonstrates that safety claims cannot decrease perceived physical risk in the context of Covid-19 and carsharing. Nevertheless, perceived physical risk has a (marginal) negative influence on carsharing usage intention and hence should not be discarded altogether. The findings of this article offer new insights into the mental processes that guide consumer decision-making during the coronavirus crisis and also offer important policy implications by highlighting the relevance of environmental claims during the Covid-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the negative influence of perceived physical risk on carsharing usage intention points to the need for alternative measures to reduce users' risk perceptions.</jats:p

US consumers’ mental associations with meat substitute products

Negative impacts of meat consumption on both consumers’ health and the environment call for alternative sources for protein intake. In the last decades, the development of meat substitute products has made enormous progress. Given the beneficial aspects of reduced meat consumption, meat substitutes might be a promising approach for a more plant-based diet. However, despite the continuous improvement of meat substitute products and their increasing market potential, meat consumption in the US is still at a high level. Extant literature acknowledges that meat substitute products prompt several negative thoughts and feelings in various European countries, while US consumers’ perceptions of meat substitute products have not been investigated so far. However, understanding consumers’ thoughts and feelings toward meat substitute products provides valuable insights which can help policymakers and marketers to efficiently promote meat substitute products. Against this background, the current research investigates US consumers’ mental associations (i.e., connections of information and prior experiences with the product category stored in memory) with meat substitute products and explores if there are any differences between women and men. A sample of 175 US citizens acquired through an online panel provider completed a free word association technique resulting in 824 mental associations that qualified for the subsequent analysis. In a deductive-inductive content analysis, we assigned the mental associations to 20 categories (e.g., taste, health, environment) and determined their valence (i.e., positive, neutral, or negative). Frequencies and relationships among the categories were analyzed by employing frequency analyses, Chi-square difference tests, and multidimensional correspondence analysis. The findings reveal that meat substitute products elicit more negative mental associations than positive ones. Results validate categories identified in existing literature, but also reveal new categories of mental associations. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate that mental associations differ between women and men, with women tending to perceive meat substitutes more negatively than men. The multiple correspondence analysis resulted in four different consumer profiles (skeptics, innovators, health-oriented consumers, and avoiders) which can guide policymakers and brand managers on the effective promotion of meat substitute products.</jats:p

Anthropomorphism as a Differentiation Strategy for Standardized Reusable Glass Containers

The steadily increasing amount of waste requires new strategies for package waste reduction. One strategy is to switch from single-use plastic packaging to glass packaging; however, this strategy is only beneficial from an environmental perspective when complemented with a multi-use deposit refund system with standardized glass containers. This implies the loss of package shape as a differentiation criterion, which has been considered a highly relevant marketing instrument in the fast-moving consumer goods markets. Against this background, the current research investigates in an online experiment the suitability of anthropomorphized label designs on prompting purchase intentions in the context of reusable glass jars. The study further investigates the mediating roles of brand attitude and brand interest. Contrary to the postulated hypotheses, anthropomorphized labels negatively impact brand attitude, and the sequential mediation of anthropomorphism on brand interest and brand attitude on purchase intention was significant. Our findings reveal that anthropomorphized labels stimulate brand interest, which in turn positively affects purchase intention. The results emphasize the relevance of brand interest in package design and guides manufacturers, brand managers, and policymakers to effective differentiation strategies for standardized multi-use packages

Confusion in internet retailing: causes and consequences

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to introduce the new construct online shopper confusion and to identify online confusion causes and consequences. Design/methodology/approach Data obtained from a projective technique and a quantitative study were analyzed to identify online shopper confusion causes. Two experiments employing different stimulus materials tested the conceptualized consequences of online shopper confusion. Findings Confusing online store elements are classified into three online confusion causes. Data yielded from two experiments using fictitious and real shopping scenarios as stimulus material show that a confusing internet retail process leads to negative consumer reactions. Research limitations/implications The resulting taxonomy of confusing online store elements offers guidance on the creation of non-confusing online shopping trips, and highlights the relevance of a non-confusing internet retail process. Online shopper confusion is linked to negative behavioral reactions. Consequently, this research offers an explanation for undesirable consumer reactions in internet retailing. Practical implications The findings provide practitioners with concrete insights into how the internet retail process confuses shoppers which help to assess the confusion potential of their existing online stores and consider confusion issues in the development of new online stores. Originality/value This research is the first to explore confusion during the internet retail process. The multi-method approach offers highly valid insights into the causes and consequences of online shopper confusion. </jats:sec