PhD, DBA, and MSc by research theses (SoM)

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Open Access
The relationship between decision-making uncertainty and information integration in FMCG supply chains.
(Cranfield University, 2023-02) Xue, Yufei; Yates, Nicky; Ghadge, Abhijeet
The relationship between decision-making uncertainty and information integration is important for supply chain stakeholders. However, the detailed interactions in this relationship have received limited explanation. This study empirically identifies the key factors in the relationship and investigates their interactions. Based on three papers, the thesis captures the relationships and interactions between decision-making uncertainty and information integration, offering empirical evidence on the nature of these relationships. The first paper develops a theory-based relational framework for the relationship between decision-making uncertainty and information integration. A systematic literature review (SLR) approach is conducted, and 86 articles published between 2001–2022 are reviewed. The findings support the concept of fit in information processing theory (IPT), demonstrating that information processing needs and capabilities must match to positively impact supply chain performance. The paper also indicates that the high level of environmental and industry uncertainty in decision-making uncertainty increases supply chain stakeholders’ willingness to implement information integration. Simultaneously, supply chain stakeholders implement Industry 4.0 information and communication technologies (ICTs) to support technology-based information integration and to reduce the impact of decision-making uncertainty in the supply chain. The relationship between decision-making uncertainty and information integration has also been shown to impact supply chain performance. The second paper uses the Internet of Things (IoT) to represent ICTs in Industry 4.0. The study conducted a multiple-case study in the fast fashion industry in China to investigate the relationship between decision-making uncertainty and information integration affected by the implementation of the IoT. Consequently, environmental complexity, richness, and the bullwhip effect are identified as the key factors in decision-making uncertainty; information accuracy, quality, efficiency, and security are identified as the key factors in information integration; and management cost and asset utilisation in supply chain costs, alongside response speed, product flexibility, and efficiency in production operations, are identified as supply chain performance. Moreover, the findings highlight that the alignment between decision-making uncertainty and information integration is important and consists of several interactions among environmental complexity, environmental richness, the bullwhip effect, and information accuracy, quality, and efficiency. This research elaborates on the theory-based relational framework developed in Paper 1 and it provides empirical support to several conceptual studies on implementing IoT applications. The third paper assesses the interactions identified in Paper 2 and their impact on supply chain performance. After analysing the data collected from the supply chain stakeholders of the fast fashion industry in China through structural equation modelling (SEM), the analysis results confirm the importance of key factors in decision-making uncertainty (environmental complexity, environmental richness, and bullwhip effect) and IoT-based information integration (information quality, information accuracy, and information efficiency). The interactions between information accuracy and environmental complexity, information accuracy and environmental richness, information quality and the bullwhip effect, and information efficiency and the bullwhip effect are identified as the key interactions in the alignment between decision-making uncertainty and information integration. The study also emphasises decision-making uncertainty’s direct impact on supply chain performance. It concludes that the interactions between decision-making uncertainty and IoT-based information integration partially mediate the relationship. This paper is the first empirical study to explain the detailed interactions between information integration and decision- making uncertainty, and it provides empirical evidence for theoretical associations.
Open Access
Re-examining dynamic capabilities in the context of digital transformation.
(Cranfield University, 2023-10) Gao, Yanjun; Theoharakis, Vasilis; Maklan, Stan
While digital transformation is often a necessity to allow incumbent firms to remain competitive in a fast-changing world, it suffers from high failure rates in practice. The dynamic capability perspective was developed to address rapidly changing environments, so it can be utilised as a theoretical foundation to improve our understanding of digital transformation. With dynamic capabilities often disaggregated into three capability clusters: sensing, seizing, and transforming, these clusters are mostly presented in a static sequence and evolve independently, which is a practice challenged by this thesis. To explore the possible reasons hindering digital transformation, a longitudinal case study is conducted, exploring the evolution of dynamic capability clusters over time. It is observed that sensing, seizing, and transforming, rather than being sequential, coexist and coevolve during digital transformation. When they evolve at different speeds, mismatches can occur, which can act as bottlenecks slowing down the transformation but at the same time can act as catalysts improving underdeveloped capabilities. This finding contributes to the theory by demonstrating how mismatches arise during the coevolution of dynamic capability clusters and discussing their consequences for digital transformation. This finding also contributes to practice by arguing that the way in which firms orchestrate the coevolution of these dynamic capabilities over time holds a key to successful digital transformation, providing a more dynamic approach for emergent strategy development. It is therefore suggested that managers embrace the tensions caused by these mismatches and adopt a mindset that allows them to concurrently improve different dynamic capability clusters supporting digital transformation. While dynamic capabilities were introduced to address the static nature of the resource-based view (RBV), as previously described, the sensing, seizing, and transforming clusters are often applied in a sequential fashion, ignoring their possible interdependencies and evolutionary paths, and thus failing to capture the essential dynamism of the underlying phenomenon, which is particularly important in a high-velocity digital context. Therefore, this study further developed the conceptualisation of dynamic capability from an evolutionary perspective, better serving the current digital environment, which is changing faster than ever. As regards future research, firstly, since this thesis advances the conceptualisation of sensing, seizing, and transforming capabilities from an evolutionary perspective, it needs to be validated by more empirical studies. Secondly, the context is a limitation of this thesis. While this thesis provides deep insights through a single longitudinal case study in the retail sector, more studies are called for in diverse industries and national contexts to examine the coevolution of dynamic capabilities over time. Thirdly, while this thesis observes the mismatches during the coevolution of dynamic capabilities, further research is needed to explore the fundamental reasons behind this observation. The potential reasoning assumptions proposed by this thesis in attempting to explain the fundamental mechanism of dynamic capability mismatches require further examination via empirical research. Fourthly, an evolutionary underpinning indicates the methodological implications, calling for a longitudinal research design that moves away from a serial view in order to further advance and validate the framework of sensing, seizing, and transforming.
Open Access
Sustainable customer solutions: an institutional theory approach to link resource integration and value creation.
(Cranfield University, 2023-02) Widmer, Tobias; Bourlakis, Michael; Prior, Daniel; Aktas, Emel
Alternatives to current resource intensive ways of production and consumption are required to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Transitioning from product sales to providing customer solutions (CS) has the potential to enhance sustainability. This transition, however, leads to managerial complexity, which increases further when trying to simultaneously become more sustainable. To succeed, manufacturers must ensure that their customers create economic, social, and environmental value with the CS. However, pursuing multiple goals may lead to tensions or require trade-offs. Informed by literature from Institutional Theory, industrial marketing, and sustainability, two studies were conducted. First, a multiple-case study investigated under which conditions resource integration (RI) is sustainable. By using ideal type logics, the study identified practices, values, and beliefs of business logics, as well as occurrences of conflicting, competing, and compatible logics which must be navigated collaboratively with customers to overcome barriers. Second, a single-case study investigated how RI translates into customers achieving their economic, social, and environmental goals. The study identified resources, value proposition components, and value-in-use constructs which were used in a means-end chain analysis, identifying multiple internal and external enablers and catalysts to stewardship practice in CS. The study found that CS can enhance sustainability compared to product sales, though it is not inherently guaranteed. The development of value propositions (VP) in CS is triggered internally or through the customers. Customers’ goals and the assessment thereof are continuously changing, requiring the VP to be dynamic and adapting by introducing and removing resources. A proposed framework of a value creation cycle establishes stewardship practice as a means to empirically explore and theoretically explain value creation in sustainable CS with institutional arrangements that manifest at multiple levels of a service-ecosystem. Along the value creation cycle, novel operational and cultural enablers and catalysts as well as challenges were identified, and are added to the body of knowledge which helps managers understand the requirements for successfully developing and implementing sustainable CS.
Open Access
Exploring the potential of impact investing to catalyse transitioning to a circular economy.
(Cranfield University, 2023-03) Bilewu, Omotayo; Nellis, Joe; Angus, Andrew
There is an overwhelming need to address global social and environmental challenges, alongside an increasing recognition that ‘good business’ is intertwined with ‘doing good’. The emergence of impact investing as an investment vehicle to ‘intentionally’ tackle societal challenges, such as those captured within the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, alongside generating financial returns is proving attractive to investors and asset managers. This doctoral thesis seeks to provide insights in response to calls for rigorous academic studies towards building institutional legitimacy that should increase market confidence and capital allocation. It starts by investigating the connections between impact investing and the circular economy - two concepts that have generated increased interest in parallel over the last decade. The review reveals that the attributes of impact investing suggest it could play a pivotal role in accelerating the transition to a circular economy. Using a social exchange theory lens, the evolving exchange modalities between investors, intermediaries, and investee companies in the impact investing ecosystem is examined. The results show that a nexus of activities influenced by formal and informal norms govern behaviours and expectations. These norms are crucial in the relational exchange between impact investors, intermediaries and investee companies. A conceptual framework emerges from the study to guide impact investing practice. Furthermore, a single embedded case study is conducted to explore how the exchange partners engage with behaviour change interventions that substitute trust with a mutual opportunity to incorporate sustainable development initiatives in the delivery of an affordable housing development. The findings indicate that mutual goals increase collaboration and cooperation, but are curtailed by the outcome of cost benefit analysis which impinges on trust. Nevertheless, there is scope for impact investors to encourage the uptake of circular economy principles through education and awareness with learning reinforced in project specific facilitated workshop settings.
Open Access
Blockchain technology for food supply chain: an investigation of the implementation process and impact on supply chain performance.
(Cranfield University, 2023-03) Vu, Nam; Ghadge, Abhijeet; Bourlakis, Michael
The food supply chain (FSC) plays a vital role in sustaining human life and achieving economic growth. Food and agricultural products are inherently perishable, sensitive to temperature, dependent on nature for production, and seasonal. As the result, businesses have to face specific and persistent challenges in monitoring food quality and safety, and reducing waste. Moreover, the globalization and complexity of the modern FSC can lead to pressing issues such as information asymmetry, low transparency, and food adulteration. Businesses and academics have explored Blockchain technology as a potential remedy for the hurdles of managing the FSC. While the technology has grown at an impressive pace, the knowledge regarding Blockchain adoption and its impact is yet fully explored. Therefore, there is a compelling need for researching the Blockchain phenomenon in the FSC setting, contributing to both literature and practice, and ultimately to better management of food products. To close the gap, this thesis particularly aims to investigate the adoption process of Blockchain and its impact on operational performance. Through a series of three studies, this thesis provided a literature review of the subject, developed an evidence-driven model for Blockchain integration, evaluated the relationships between important determinants to the Blockchain implementation stages, and specified the effects of adopting Blockchain on key performance metrics of the FSC. The key findings of this thesis are three-fold. First, the thesis provided an extensive and scientific systematic literature review about the current state of Blockchain adoption research in the area of food supply chain management. Specifically, the literature review synthesized four main themes from relevant literature, including the Blockchain adoption process, drivers and barriers to the adoption, and applications of Blockchain in food management. Second, the thesis constituted a holistic model of Blockchain implementation in the specific context of the FSC. Started with combining insights from the literature review and Innovation Adoption theoretical lenses to develop a conceptual model for iii Blockchain implementation in the FSC, the thesis then employed a mixed- methods approach to develop the conceptual model further. First, interviews were conducted to explore the process of adopting Blockchain in the FSC. Then, quantitative data was gathered by a survey to statistically assess the key relationships in the implementation model. The result is an evidence-based and feasible model of Blockchain adoption for organizations in the FSC. This model details Blockchain implementation activities and critical determinants of the process (implications from interviews findings), as well as analyses the most important determinants of each adoption stage (implications from the survey findings), all in the FSC setting. Third, this thesis evaluates the impact of a successful Blockchain adoption on the operational performances of an FSC. Using the System Dynamics modelling approach and simulations, the thesis illustrates holistically how Blockchain technology can affect key performance metrics, including inventory level, service level, lead time, and cost, at a supply chain level. Findings in this thesis subsequently make several key contributions to literature, practice, and policy. The thesis extended the current knowledge of the Blockchain phenomenon in the context of FSC, especially how to implement the technology and what impacts it can have on supply chain performance. Moreover, the thesis provided valid attempts at elaborating Innovation Adoption theories and models to better explain the particular context of Blockchain in the FSC and bringing System thinking and System Dynamics approach to examine supply chain phenomenon. The results of this thesis inform managers in the field about the approach to implementing Blockchain technologies, and what factors they need to understand for successful adoption. The System Dynamics models in this thesis further provide a useful tool for businesses to experiment and explore the impacts of the technology on their operations. Moreover, the findings in this thesis suggest several important implications for policymakers. Particularly, they highlight the important role of regulators in advocating for the industry-wide adoption of Blockchain, provide an in-depth understanding of Blockchain roadmap and impacts for promoting the technology among businesses, and suggest regulatory bodies direct more efforts into onboarding the lesser iv technologically capable entities in the FSC (farmers, SMEs, etc) to a Blockchain network.
Open Access
Project-to-project learning in global new product development.
(Cranfield University, 2023-06) Cecchi, Michele Angelo; Goffin, Keith; Turner, Neil
This thesis deals with project-to-project learning in global new product development (NPD). Based on a Systematic Literature Review on knowledge management and NPD management, it shows that limited empirical research exists to explain the factors that influence project-to-project learning and that limited guidance is provided to NPD practitioners wanting to implement knowledge management initiatives in global NPD. An in-depth case study is presented of three global NPD project teams in a large multinational organization active in the design and manufacture of complex systems for the automotive sector. Three research questions and five research propositions are built to guide empirical research on project-to-project learning. Case study methodology using data from observations, surveys, interviews and reviews of documents are used to uncover the project-to-project learning behaviour of global NDP teams. A three-step approach to data analysis is used to review the case study with the help of knowledge flow mapping, thematic coding and survey data analysis. The research shows that radical, global NPD project teams need high volumes of both internal and external knowledge to be successful and that an intrinsic bias exists at different seniority levels, impacting on knowledge management. The research also shows that both social and structured knowledge management initiatives are effective and are used for project-to-project learning in global NPD. Finally, the implications of research findings for NPD practitioners and researchers are discussed.
Open Access
Navigating non-family CEO succession in family businesses.
(Cranfield University, 2023-10) Singh, Manish; Hussels, Stephanie; Reinmoeller, Patrick
Succession in family businesses poses unique challenges due to the overlap of ownership and leadership roles. The complexity of such challenges is heightened when considering a non-family member as a successor for leading the business. This thesis explores why family businesses hire non-family CEOs. The investigation unfolds across three papers, a systematic literature review and two empirical papers, each contributing to a comprehensive understanding of non- family leadership succession. The literature review paper presents that existing research primarily examines the outcomes of leadership successions and largely ignores the decisions behind these. The paper lays the foundation with a conceptual framework derived from a systematic review of 53 articles, which reveals a knowledge gap on non-family CEO succession decisions through a non-family CEO succession framework. This framework guides the subsequent empirical inquiry. The two empirical papers address this gap by adopting an interpretivist approach. The second and third papers draw on qualitative data from 29 interviews with UK-based family business owners. The second paper provides an in-depth examination of the factors influencing the non-family CEO succession decision and presents that it is not one but two decisions: (1) a decision to consider non-family candidates and (2) a decision to select a non- family CEO amongst the candidate pool. The third paper identifies and focuses on the influences of four distinct roles family owners play in making the decision to consider non-family CEO candidates for the CEO position. The conceptual and empirically grounded models developed in this thesis open the black box of non- family CEO succession and allow family businesses to explore non-family CEO succession opportunities.
Open Access
The influence of supply network structure on firm sustainability.
(Cranfield University, 2023-03) Qiu, Jilin; Alinaghian, Leila; Razmdoost, Kamran
Firms are facing increased pressure from various stakeholders to incorporate social and environmental considerations into their strategies and operations. Yet, the successful realisation and achievement of social and environmental objectives extend beyond the boundaries of one single firm. Firms more and more engage in relationships with various upstream and downstream actors across their supply chains to achieve these sustainability goals. Whilst the literature has highlighted the cruciality of the broader supply networks in driving firms’ sustainability, present literatures as a whole lacks both a synthesis of major findings and a reflection of the current development of this area. Adopting a Systematic Literature Review approach, the thesis extends the understanding of the role of network in supply chain sustainability by identifying distinct network attributes that influence the sustainability performance in the supply chain. Specifically, relational and structural network attributes are distinguished and their individual and interactive effects on both environmental and social dimensions of sustainability in supply chains are examined. The study further adds contributions to the current discussion on the cruciality of broader supply networks in driving sustainability by investigating the interfirm connectivity patterns of a real-world and large-scale Automotive supply network. The findings demonstrate a positive relationship between the interconnectedness of supply networks and firms’ sustainability performance. The study also determines the moderating role of firms’ supply network structural properties in the relationship between their sustainability efforts and sustainability performance; the study shows that whereas firms’ in-degree centrality weakens the relationship between their commitment to sustainability and the extent of sustainability performance, out-degree centrality strengthens this association. The thesis further adds to the existing literature examining the role of supply network structural properties by investigating the structural properties of firms’ neighbours. Particularly, the study distinguishes between two neighbours’ structural properties: neighbours’ interconnectedness and neighbours’ centrality. Moreover, the study determines the moderating effect of firms’ bridging in sustainability controversies. In addition to the sustainability outcome, the study examines firms’ sustainability controversies as an alternative indicator of sustainability performance capturing the importance and significance of the sustainability outcomes through market sensitivities (i.e. market reactions to sustainability conflicts).
Open Access
Commodity reference price transparency: conceptualization, measurement instrument development, and influence on commodity price management.
(Cranfield University, 2023-03) Vašek, Jan; Saghiri, Soroosh; Bourlakis, Michael
Commodity reference price (CRP) is potentially an important commodity price management influencing factor. However, despite its importance, it remains under-researched and poorly understood. Anchored in contingency theory and building on previous studies, this study (a) conceptualizes CRP contingency as CRP transparency, (b) creates a CRP transparency index as a tool for classifying and evaluating CRP, and (c) demonstrates the CRP transparency impact on CRP functions and CPM practices. Intuitive and interpretive literature reviews are combined with nine directed expert interviews to uncover the CRP transparency attributes. Subsequently, 111 interviews with purchasing managers explore a purposive sample of 22 CRP to construct and populate the CRP transparency index and to explore its theoretical and practical relevance, in particular, how individual CRP transparency levels shape CRP functions and impact the availability, choice and performance of commodity price management practices. The main contributions of this thesis to theory are (a) conceptualizing CRP transparency as a multi-dimensional construct composed of four measured attributes: accuracy, completeness, publication frequency, and methodology, (b) operationalizing these measured attributes into five transparency levels, (c) constructing CRP transparency index divided into five distinct and meaningful levels following a geological metaphor: black hole, opaque, translucent, transparent, dazzle. From a practitioner standpoint, this thesis provides actionable insights into (i) CRP transparency assessment and comparison with alternative CRP, (ii) how CRP transparency shapes the commodity price management practices and CRP functions and, (iii) offers an empirical toolbox for assessing, comparing, and configuring CRP to regulators and CRP issuers.
Open Access
The effects of supply chain disruptions due to hurricanes on stock price.
(Cranfield University, 2022-04) Schelp, Priscilla; Skipworth, Heather; Aktas, Emel
Purpose and Rationale: It is known that supply chain disruptions have a negative stock price effect and that the effect is stronger if these are caused by catastrophes. However, these effects of hurricane-induced supply chain disruptions on stock price remain unexplored, even though the annual average hurricane damage in the US due to hurricanes is $54bn, of which $9bn is to commercial businesses. This thesis aims to: 1. Explore, classify and connect the three concepts of natural disasters, supply chain disruption (SCD) and firm financial performance in one framework. 2. Identify potentially influencing factors and test if, and in which way, these influence the effect of hurricanes on stock price. 3. Define a statistical model to evaluate the effect of hurricanes on stock price. The main focus is on manufacturing firms. Design/Methodology/Approach: This research is quantitative. The daily closing value of 625 manufacturing companies that were listed on the NYSE between 2014 and 2018 was analysed. Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) was applied in combination with intervention analysis to model the stock price time series. In total six deduced hypotheses were tested. The statistical interruptions in stock prices due to hurricane announcements and hurricane incident announcements were investigated. The method allowed estimation of the magnitude and temporal patterns of change by applying transfer functions. Multiple factors that potentially influence the magnitude or pattern of the stock price reaction were tested, including details of damage. Findings: Both hurricane incident announcements and hurricane announcements negatively affect a firm’s stock price, mostly in the form of a transitory change. Industry moderates the stock price reaction to hurricane announcements. Minor supply chain disruptions are the only impacts resulting in a positive reaction. Providing details on actual damage leads to less negative and mostly positive reactions. Companies providing information on preventive closures are unlikely to suffer a negative reaction. Practical Implications: Hurricane risk needs to be actively managed by firms in all sectors; however, the preparation needs to be sector-specific. Firms should focus their efforts on managing supply chain disruptions. Additionally, firms need to communicate in a transparent way to reduce shareholders’ uncertainty and increase trust, so that the stock prices reactions are less negative. Originality: This thesis provides a single framework connecting disasters, supply chain disruptions and firm performance, thereby bridging supply chain management and financial economics literature. The thesis evaluates the effect of hurricane-induced supply chain disruptions for the first time. It does not analyse just the effect of hurricane incident announcements but also hurricane announcements and compares both. Autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) in combination with an intervention model was applied as an alternative to the frequently used event study methodology. This approach is chosen to evaluate the effect of hurricane announcements and hurricane incident announcements on the daily stock price time series of the firms in scope. Longer term effects can be evaluated, and the best fitting transfer functions are assessed. The model accounts for autocorrelation, trend, seasonality, and drift patterns. Additionally, the effect of the following potentially influencing factors was tested as these have only been touched on in the existing literature so far: impact type, impact extent, detailed damage, and preventive closure.
Open Access
A qualitative inquiry into the accrual process of entrepreneurs’ social capital through their use of social media.
(Cranfield University, 2022-11) Yaqzan, Syed; Hussels, Stephanie; Koryak, Oksana
Aim: To explore the accrual process of entrepreneurs’ social capital through their use of social media. Method: This study adopts a critical realist ontological position and applies a multi-method approach. Empirical data for the study is collected from 35 semi-structured interviews conducted with entrepreneurs in Pakistan. The qualitative data from the interviews was analysed using the Gioia methodology (Gioia et al., 2010). To triangulate the data and to bring additional rigor to the findings, netnography (Kozinets, 2015) was used to collect real-time data from the social media accounts (Facebook and LinkedIn) of respondents for a period of four months after the interviews. Findings: This study identified two key potential antecedents of accrual process of entrepreneur’s social capital that may influence their user behaviour: “privacy concerns” and “context of audiences”. The relationship between the two potential antecedents, privacy concerns and user behaviour, is likely moderated by the context of the audience on social media. If the audience is “targeted” (i.e., the entrepreneurs are aware of who the audience is), they will likely opt for a higher degree of self-presentation, self-disclosure, thereby positively influencing the accrual of social capital. Furthermore, this research finds that in the online context, large and diverse networks of entrepreneurs tend to comprise collapsed audiences. This is likely to limit the expressive behaviour of entrepreneurs, which possibly limit the overall accrual process of social capital in social media. Hence, a large and diverse online network may become a “vanity fair”, with limited mobility of resources between the connections. Moreover, this research highlights the difference between entrepreneurs’ reported privacy concerns and their actual user behaviour to protect their privacy online. Although, participants reported interest in protecting their privacy and maintaining a positive attitude towards privacy-protection behaviour during the interviews. But the findings from the netnography suggested that this reported interest rarely translates into actual privacy- protective behaviour. Finally, this research underlines the importance of "engagement with others' content" in social media for the accrual of bridging social capital. Such engagement with others in public plays a role of "reaching out to new people" by publicly engaging with others' content; likely help generate visibility for entrepreneurs to ties outside their network. Hence, the findings of the study may help entrepreneurs connect with weak ties which are source of bridging social capital. Avenues for future research: This research paves the way for a better understanding of the interplay of entrepreneurs' social capital online and offline. Do network development and management efforts that include offline and online social networks foster the accrual of social capital for entrepreneurs? The second avenue for the future research may pursue an in-depth understanding of the social capital accrual on different social networking platforms. For example, do interplay between antecedents is different on Facebook or LinkedIn than Instagram and Twitter?
Open Access
Examining shared perceptions and awareness of gendered organisational political climates in male-dominated organisations: a power base model.
(Cranfield University, 2022-09) King, Michelle; Denyer, David; Parry, Emma
Organisational politics and political behaviour are gendered, and this contributes to gender differences in building and maintaining power at work. This research utilises a systematic review to elicit mechanisms from the extant literature relating to organisational political climate (OPC) and power sources and their bases. Adopting semi-structured interviews and an abductive reasoning process, this research then examines how and why OPC and political behaviours are gendered by examining how power sources and bases are activated in two organisations (renamed EnergyCo and FinanceCo to ensure anonymity), where women make up less than 10% of senior positions at the time of undertaking the interviews. Examining how OPC and political behaviours are gendered within male-dominated organisations is important, as the gendered nature of these constructs is more likely to be heightened within this environment. The findings reveal that perceptions of OPC and political behaviours are gendered through the perceptions individuals form of the ideal worker, which is both gendered and political. The gendered nature of both OPC and political behaviours results in differential outcomes for men and women at work, reinforcing the gender power gap.
Open Access
What attracts executives to move from large to medium-sized enterprises?
(Cranfield University, 2023-02) Borg Cardona, Etienne; Parry, Emma
Various studies have highlighted the importance of talented human capital to organisations in their quest for commercial success and competitive advantage. Studies in diverse fields including HRM, organisational attractiveness and, more recently, employer branding, have sought to address the important question: how can organisations attract high calibre management? At the same time, mounting evidence indicates that SMEs experience unique difficulties in attracting senior executive talent, and that this problem is the major limiting factor to their growth, development, and ultimately, survival. A systematic review of the literature revealed that no research exists on what attracts executives to SMEs, therefore it was necessary to return to the wider attraction literature to synthesise existing theoretical frameworks into an integrated model. This provided a basis for a qualitative study using interviews with executives who had left large organisations to join medium-sized enterprises. This study makes three contributions to theory. Firstly, it proposes a model that describes attraction of executives to medium-sized enterprises. The model integrates both organisational-related and employer-related attraction factors, sheds light on which job and organisational attributes are seen as important attraction factors by executives, and introduces novel attributes that positively impact attraction in the research context. Secondly, in explaining what attracts executives to medium-sized enterprises, this study lends support to the emerging compensatory theory of employer attractiveness. Thirdly, this research reveals the existence of three distinct profiles of executive job seekers who take up jobs in medium- sized enterprises.
Open Access
An explanatory theory of power in inter-organisation relationships: evidence from the aerospace and defence industry.
(Cranfield University, 2022-01) Simpson, Deborah Catherine; Wilding, Richard D.; Bourlakis, Michael
This thesis concerns the phenomenon power, heralded the most fundamental yet contested phenomenon / concept in social science. The focus is establishing the essential qualities that describe, characterize, and explain power in inter- organisation relationships (IOR-power) to inform debates on the significance of IOR-power to supply chain performance. The thesis is founded on an iterative and critical synthesis of core academic perspectives spanning 50 years and 27 practitioner perspectives obtained from three field studies, unearthing meanings and experiences attributed to IOR-power. It is argued that IOR-power standing replete with unresolved contestations has been under-theorised and under- valued in the literature and in practice. An imbued distain for IOR-power is fuelled by an untenable dichotomisation of consensual IOR-influence and coercive IOR- power – unnecessarily stripping IOR-power of much of its potency – leaving both precariously sharing the burden of explaining IOR-behaviour wherein accounts thus far are insufficient to explain IOR-outcomes of interest. Underpinned by a dialectical critical realism perspective, the main contribution is a plausible theory of IOR-power, a fundamental explanatory process building block complemented by a conceptual framework supported by evidence from the aerospace and defence industry. Advancing alignment with natural-based power, IOR-power is more comprehensively claimed to be the combination of embedded individual behaviour, human creations, and Nature, at work exploiting resources in pursuit of goal attainment – an emergent, downwardly inclusive social and natural-based process governing IOR-outcomes. Accordingly, IOR-influence is distinct from but wholly integral to IOR-power that is rendered situated, negotiated, and indeterminate. IOR-power is conferred its full weight in explaining IOR-performance across economic, social, and environmental domains rendering adopted perspective and attribution salient in IOR-power accounts. The only antithesis of IOR-power is IOR-powerlessness wherein empowerment and disempowerment stand as theoretical bridges.
Open Access
Sustainable entrepreneurship as a community of practice.
(Cranfield University, 2022-12) Mera, Christine Elena; Adams, Richard; Wilson, Hugh; Macdonald, Emma K.
Sustainable entrepreneurship literature at the micro-level of individual enterprises identifies several issues hampering their growth, such as lack of funding and other resources, and psychological and/or geographical isolation. Macro-level research identifies attempts at supportive policy, such as new enterprise funding and incubation hubs; however, sustainable entrepreneurs often find these resources inaccessible or insufficient. There is very limited research, however, examining the impact of the meso-level context of sustainable entrepreneurs, and whether this level can help address their challenges. This study’s motivating objective is therefore: To examine the phenomenon of sustainable entrepreneurship at the meso-level, in order to better understand how it can be enabled. Initial field immersion in an EU-funded research project led abductively to the observation that actors in the sustainable entrepreneurship field appear to interact at the meso-level to address issues collaboratively. This led to the overarching research question: Does a community of practice form around sustainable entrepreneurship, and if so, what does it look like? Three more specific questions were: RQ1: What drives the formation of a sustainable entrepreneurship community of practice? RQ2: What shared practices does the sustainable entrepreneurship community of practice enact? And RQ3: What outcomes arise from these practices, and for whom? These questions were explored through analysis of data-collection episodes over a three-year period that the author attended as a participant observer alongside sustainable entrepreneurs and allied stakeholders. A key finding is that a sustainable-entrepreneurship community of practice exists: actors with a shared commitment to the domain of sustainable entrepreneurship collaborate as part of a community to solve problems by sharing practice and learning from one another. Four drivers for this community of practice are identified: perceived isolation, a lack of resources, reduced government, and prosocial motivation. The community participates in four high-level practices: network building, resource sharing, evolving business models, and re-shaping the sustainable entrepreneurship infrastructure. Four categories of outcome from the community of practice emerge: individual empowerment, enterprise scaling and proliferating, civil society strengthening, and mainstreaming sustainable entrepreneurship. Collectively, these practices can reduce some of the issues facing sustainable entrepreneurs, such as limited funding and resources. This thesis contributes to communities of practice theory by demonstrating that the feature of situated learning (Lave and Wenger, 2011) via the four shared practices creates social capital, highlighted in the entrepreneurship literature as a key factor for success (Honig and Davidsson, 2003). In this way, this thesis provides a novel contribution to theory by indicating how participation in the community of practice can help sustainable entrepreneurs address the issues identified and thereby develop, scale and replicate triple-bottom-line business models. They do so, not just solving problems but supporting the wider multistakeholder members to maximise opportunities and positively influence the societal and political environment for SE. It also shows how situated learning about the domain more widely is both a motivation and desired outcome of CoP membership. Through the social capital generated, this community can influence the macro-level and thereby further mainstream the phenomenon of sustainable entrepreneurship.
Open Access
On the relationship between fiscal consolidation (austerity) and income inequality. Novel empirical evidence.
(Cranfield University, 2023-02) Okeke, Angela Ifunanya; Alexiou, Constantinos; Nellis, Joe
Equity concerns regarding increases and persistence of adverse distributional outcomes tend to rear up during instances of austerity consideration since increasing inequality levels tend to have material significances on a people’s way of life as well as a nation’s economic growth by disproportionately affecting economic opportunities for the lower and median incomes. Motivated by the lack of empirical clarity and conflicting evidence in the extant austerity-inequality nexus literature this thesis enriches our understanding of the effect of fiscal consolidation programmes on output and income inequality. More specifically, by engaging in a systematic literature review, this study explores the relationship between austerity and income inequality. Furthermore, by employing different empirical model specifications1 for a panel of 16 OECD countries for the period 1980 to 2019, this research work explores the dynamic distributional effects of fiscal consolidation programmes as well the role of public debt in determining distributional outcomes during austerity implementation. The novel evidence obtained suggests that: adverse distributional effects persist for 15 years following adjustment implementation through both revenue and expenditure channels; furthermore – point estimates for the Bottom 40% of the income distribution are higher by the 15th year than previous peak periods; distributional impacts arising from influences of public debt levels are amplified during instances of fiscal adjustment with adverse distributional effects on average, manifesting from medium debt levels.
Open Access
Essays on contemporary issues in the South Korean economy.
(Cranfield University, 2023-02) Saade, Ahmed J.; Alexiou, Constantinos; Belghitar, Yacine
This doctoral thesis sheds light on some issues that are characteristic of the South Korean socioeconomic landscape today. In a series of three papers, I empirically address important questions faced by policy makers of this country, whilst also contributing to major debates currently taking place within the Economics discipline. In the first chapter, I investigate the effects of robotization on Korean workers’ labor supply from the lens of dynamic monopsony. I show that an increase in the density of industrial robots is associated with manufacturing workers becoming more responsive to a change in wages in their decision to quit to non-employment, and that the opposite is true for non-manufacturing workers. The second chapter contributes to the discussion on youth unemployment in South Korea, in tandem with the question of the high turnover rate within the nation’s Nursing profession. I find that the unemployment rate at time of graduation has scarring effects on Nurses’ wages, workhours, and subjective wellbeing. The final chapter of this dissertation tackles the problem of social isolation among Korean elders and contributes to the very small literature on the economic determinants of this phenomenon. I offer the first set of causal evidence linking the social isolation of elders with their adult children’s inheritance expectations.
Open Access
Narrative Finance - The use of narrative to inform investment judgement. How stories move markets - the system behind the Boeing 737 MAX shock news.
(Cranfield University, 2023-07) Harris, Richard; Moro, Andrea; Belghitar, Yacine
NARRATIVE FINANCE: The use of narrative to inform investment judgement Narrative Finance is the term coined for research into this new sub-discipline of financial economics - for it is the “voice of the market.” The information embedded within text and speech is pervasive in determining asset prices. This contribution to financial research highlights ways to use financial narratives to inform investment judgement. Financial narrative is modelled as a disruptive force by uniquely applying General System Theory to illustrate the complex architecture of the financial system. The energy budget of a material narrative is seen to be expended in the work carried out to adjust asset prices. Investors can use the departure and recovery of prices from the dynamic equilibrium upon the receipt of news as an investment indicator; described herein as Decoupling Theory. The signal of a narrative is mapped as it travels through the non- linear financial system (and back as feedback). Narrative nomenclature is devised to describe dominant, dormant, and legacy narratives, the Narrative Cycle, Narrative Signal, Narrative Phases, and the Narrative Tree. This theory was tested against the shock news of the two Boeing 737 MAX 8 accidents, which provided two proxy narrative signals and investment outcomes from a single event cause. The empirical output includes the proof of theory for the narrative morphology and phases, the extraction of fast and frugal investment narrative indicators, the importance of feedback, and the matching of narrative frequency to market movements. These metrics can help investors make better judgements and decisions by narrowing the probabilities in nowcasting and forecasting models. Narrative Finance is an intellectual descendant of classical finance and behavioural economics and contributes an alternative method of valuing investments to the toolbox of investors, academics, and securities regulators.
Open Access
Analysing the impact of corporate governance on corporate sustainability at board level.
(Cranfield University, 2021-06) Bolourian, Soudabeh; Angus, Andrew; Alinaghian, Leila
Stakeholders are increasingly holding companies accountable for their environmental and social conduct. Organisations are engaging in, and incorporating, social and environmental issues in their business models, organisational structures and processes. The board of directors are responsible for the overall achievement and oversight of the organisation’s aims and objectives. However, there is little detail on the board’s role in monitoring and overseeing social and environmental issues in the corporate governance realm. This thesis addresses this void in several ways. First a systematic literature review provides a comprehensive synthesis of the extant literature investigating the board of director’s role as a core element of corporate governance in corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance. Critical assessment of a sample of 67 studies from 18 highly regarded scholarly journals published between 1992 and 2020 uncovers similarities and inconsistencies regarding the effects of various board attributes on CSR-performance. The review reveals these attributes do not work in isolation, but interact with each other and the context in which they are embedded in shaping CSR-performance. Second, empirical analysis of a cross-industry sample of 2891 firm-year observations from 789 FTSE350 and S&P500 listed companies during a 4-year period (2013-2016) investigates the role of the board attributes in driving CSR-performance. The influence of the board-level CSR-committee – a board attribute that despite the increased prevalence of such committees on the board is largely understudied – in driving CSR-performance is explored. This contributes to the growing literature on CSR-committees by investigating their presence, composition and interactive effects with various board attributes in driving CSR-performance. Additionally, contributing to the recent call for investigating interactions among board attributes and their impact on CSR-performance. Finally a configurational approach is used to further explore board attribute interactions and combined impacts on CSR- performance. The results of a Qualitative Comparative Analysis reveals nine board configurations leading to high CSR-performance. This contributes to the argument that “one-size” does not fit all, and different boards can achieve the same results via unique configurations of attributes.
Open Access
The role of the social system in the diffusion of innovation in low to middle income countries: the case of be he@lthy, be mobile.
(Cranfield University, 2021-07) Ihasz, Orsolya; Adams, Richard; Vyakarnam, Shailendra
Actors across the private, public and third sector are increasingly embracing the idea of promoting the use of externally developed social innovations to address important social challenges globally. Successful diffusion of these types of innovations has the potential to offer long term solutions to grand challenges. However, when diffusing innovations into low to middle income countries (LMICs), significant problems arise, particularly due to lack of cross-sectoral alignment in financial and technical resource deployment. This thesis contributes to the understanding of how multiple actors engage in activities to support the diffusion of externally developed social innovations into LMICs. We argue that through purpose-led alignment around a mission-orientated goal that is focused on solving social challenges and through the combining resources and knowledge across all sectors, through the active empowerment of civil society in creating value and continuous feedback loops, externally developed social innovations can contribute greatly to the emergence of new innovation ecosystems in LMICs. A systematic literature review illuminates the role of the social system in successfully enabling widespread diffusion, especially in creating value from the use of the innovation. We propose that the social system perspective, which conceptualise diverse actors engaged in a dynamic process, permits a systems view of diffusion in which long term collaborations and the integration of indigenous knowledge into communication processes are associated with successful diffusion. The role of social systems in value creation is been further investigated through an in-depth case study of the World Health Organization’s Be He@lthy, Be Mobile initiative across three different countries (Senegal, Sudan and India). The case highlights how civil society drives the diffusion process through its ability to manoeuvre across the social system and to actively search for innovative solutions. While our research has implications for the introduction of improved strategic investment across sectors it also contributes to the theory of innovation diffusion by moving away from an innovation- centric view and instead adopting a systems-centric view. It hence allows us both to view diffusion as a co-creation process and to reconfigure adopter and diffuser communities into one conceptual field.