Leonard Bierman

Direct and Moderating Effects of Human Capital on Strategy and Performance in Professional Service Firms: A Resource-Based Perspective

The current study examines the direct and moderating effects of human capital on professional service firm performance. The results show that human capital exhibits a curvilinear (U-shaped) effect and the leveraging of human capital a positive effect on performance. Furthermore, the results show that human capital moderates the relationship between strategy and firm performance, thereby supporting a resource-strategy contingency fit. The results contribute to knowledge on the resource-based view of the firm and the strategic importance of human capital.

Dynamic creation: extending the radical Austrian approach to entrepreneurship

We develop a new perspective on entrepreneurship as a dynamic, complex, subjective process of creative organizing. Our approach, which we call ‘dynamic creation’, synthesizes core ideas from Austrian ‘radical subjectivism’ with complementary ideas from psychology (empathy), strategy and organization theory (modularity), and complexity theory (self-organization). We articulate conjectures at multiple levels about how such dynamic creative processes as empathizing, modularizing, and self-organizing help organize subjectively imagined novel ideas in entrepreneurs’ minds, heterogeneous resources in their firms, and disequilibrium markets in their environments. In our most provocative claim, we argue that entrepreneurs, by imagining divergent futures and (re)combining heterogeneous resources to create novel products, drive far-from-equilibrium market processes to create not market anarchy but market order. We conclude our exposition of each dynamic creative process by offering one possible direction for future research and articulating additional conjectures that help point the way. Throughout, we draw examples from CareerBuilder—a firm that has played a major role in creating and shaping the online model in the job search/recruiting industry—and its industry rivals (e.g. Monster, Yahoo’s HotJobs) to illustrate selected concepts and relationships in dynamic entrepreneurial creation.

The development of legal professionalism in Russia: an institutional perspective

Purpose – The rule of law and an efficient legal system are the core factors that ensure growth in BRIC economies. Weak institutions and failures with respect to the rule of law in Russia call into question its position as one of the BRIC countries. The purpose of this paper is to propose that the legitimization of newly created formal legal institutions in Russia is impossible without a new set of values that reflect the ideals of professionalism. It aims to explore the role institutional stakeholders play in establishment of the new set of professional values.Design/methodology/approach – A survey of existing legislation and academic research on professionalism and the development of the legal profession in Russia was undertaken to determine the state of the development of its formal and informal legal institutions. The role of stakeholders in the development of new professional institutions was also examined.Findings – The paper finds that the creation of formal institutions supporting the rule of law ...

Employment-at-Will and the South Carolina Experiment

Thefollowing article addresses the doctrine of employment-at-will, in the context of one states attempt to mitigate the doctrines effects by the use of mediation. The authors discuss the early development of the at-will doctrine, and examine various judicially developed exceptions to it. They note the disadvantages of challenging atwill dismissals by litigation. They then proceed to examine the success of the South Carolina Labor Man agement Services Division of the State Department of Labor, which en gages in the mediation of at-will discharges. The authors find that the mediation of at-will discharges results in the reinstatement of a high number of discharged employees, at considerably less cost than litigation. The authors conclude that mediation is a viable alternative to the litigation of at-will discharges, and suggest that the statutory authorization for the establishment of agencies like that of South Carolina presently exists in many states.

Personal lives? The effects of nonwork behaviors on organizational image

Organizational leaders may respond to employee nonwork behaviors because of the possible influence on organizational image. We describe a typology of nonwork behaviors and discuss their potential implications for organizational image. We explore conditions under which organizational leaders may attempt to control employee nonwork behaviors and review the available alternatives for organizational control. We conclude by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of research on nonwork behavior.