Roxanne Zolin

Interpersonal trust in cross-functional, geographically distributed work: A longitudinal study

With increasing globalization and the proliferation of communication technologies, more people are working in cross-functional, geographically distributed teams. Although trust is clearly an important ingredient in these collaborations, little is known about the challenges this new work and social environment creates for the development of trust. Different disciplinary perspectives, different regional or national cultures, and the lack of face-to-face interaction when working at a distance raise significant barriers to developing trust between distant co-workers. We, therefore, posit that traditional models of trust need to be adapted to describe the development of trust between cross-functional, geographically distributed partners. To test our hypotheses, we conducted a longitudinal study of architecture, engineering and construction management students engaged in designing and planning a

Forecasting Success on Large Projects: Developing Reliable Scales to Predict Multiple Perspectives by Multiple Stakeholders Over Multiple Time Frames

5 million construction project in distributed teams. Our results suggest that cross-functional, geographically distributed workers may rely on early impressions of perceived trustworthiness when evaluating how their distant partners are delivering on commitments, because reliable information about actual follow-through is lacking or difficult to interpret. Consistent with this, we found that perceived trustworthiness, perceived follow-through and trust were relatively stable over time. We conclude that initial perceptions of trustworthiness are particularly important in cross-functional, geographically distributed work, although research is needed to draw comparisons with traditional work environments. # 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Ties that Blind? How Strong Ties Affect Small Business Owner-Managers' Perceived Trustworthiness of Their Advisors

Our aim is to develop a set of leading performance indicators to enable managers of large projects to forecast during project execution how various stakeholders will perceive success months or even years into the operation of the output. Large projects have many stakeholders who have different objectives for the project, its output, and the business objectives they will deliver. The output of a large project may have a lifetime that lasts for years, or even decades, and ultimate impacts that go beyond its immediate operation. How different stakeholders perceive success can change with time, and so the project manager needs leading performance indicators that go beyond the traditional triple constraint to forecast how key stakeholders will perceive success months or even years later. In this article, we develop a model for project success that identifies how project stakeholders might perceive success in the months and years following a project. We identify success or failure factors that will facilitate or mitigate against achievement of those success criteria, and a set of potential leading performance indicators that forecast how stakeholders will perceive success during the life of the projects output. We conducted a scale development study with 152 managers of large projects and identified two project success factor scales and seven stakeholder satisfaction scales that can be used by project managers to predict stakeholder satisfaction on projects and so may be used by the managers of large projects for the basis of project control.

Rule-Bending: Can Prudential Judgment Affect Rule Compliance and Values in the Workplace?

This research investigates how a strong personal relationship (strong tie) between a small business owner-manager and his professional or informal advisor affects the relationship between the advisors recent performance and the owner-managers perceptions of the advisors trustworthiness in terms of ability, benevolence and integrity. A negative moderating effect could point to a ‘tie that blinds’: the owner-manager may be less critical in evaluating the advisors perceived trustworthiness in light of their recent performance, because of the existing personal relationship. A conceptual model is constructed and examined with survey data comprising 153 young Finnish businesses. The results show that strong ties increase the owner-managers perception of the advisors integrity, disregarding their recent performance. For professional advisors, strong ties reduce the impact of recent performance in the owner-managers evaluation of their ability. For informal advisors, a strong tie makes it more likely that their benevolence will be evaluated highly in light of their recent performance. While the results show that ‘ties can blind’ under certain circumstances, the limitations of the study raise the need for further research to specify these contextual factors and examine the causal link between the choice of advisor and business performance.

Guanxi as a Complex Adaptive System: Definition, Description and Underlying Principals

With increased pressure to perform, fewer resources, and more regulation, employees may justify a lack of compliance by calling it rule-bending rather than rule-breaking. The present study addresses this concern by analyzing situations where personnel decide to bend the rules, including an examination of motives, prudential judgment, and perceived threat to the organization. Qualitative analysis shows that when rule-bending was considered necessary, the perceived threat of this behavior to the organization was reduced, except when officials applied prudential judgment in their decision-making. Implications and future research are discussed.

The perceptions of Australian senior entrepreneurs on the drivers of their entrepreneurial activity

Guanxi has become a common term in the wider business community and has attracted an increasing attention of researchers. However, a consistent understanding of the concept continues to be elusive. We critically review the extant guanxi literature to identify the major inconsistencies in the way guanxi is currently conceptualized and develop a conceptualization of guanxi which views guanxi as a complex adaptive system formed by the strategic establishing, evolving, utilizing, and maintaining of personal relationships based upon social norms of trust and reciprocal obligation unique to the Chinese culture. This study contributes to research of guanxi and to the field of Chinese management in several ways. First, we identify four levels of inconsistency surrounding the conceptualization of guanxi in the literature, thus clarifying the current common sources of confusion. Second, this study deconstructs the level and core values of guanxi to provide a more transparent picture, enabling researchers to develop more robust measures of guanxi. Finally, we made progress towards a more comprehensive understanding of guanxi by introducing the complex adaptive system perspective into the guanxi research.

Innovation in the Australian Spatial Information Industry

Purpose Why is self-employment an attractive option for certain seniors and what drives seniors into business start-ups? In this study, the motivations and preferences of senior entrepreneurs in Australia, to become self-employed, by means of business start-ups, are explored. The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical basis for policy implications. Design/methodology/approach A mixed methods study is conducted. Members of the National Senior’s Association in Australia were interviewed and surveyed. The semi-structured interviews identified the key factors influencing senior entrepreneurs in relation to self-employment and entrepreneurial choices at a later career stage. The survey collected information on intentionality, motivation, skills, opportunities, success, satisfaction, participation, barriers, benefits, education and training, and perceptions of policy support for senior entrepreneurs. Findings Respondents gave an account of the prevalence of pull factors motivating their choice of an entrepreneurial career. Multivariate statistical analysis of survey responses showed that senior entrepreneurs are more driven by opportunity than necessity and are primarily internally motivated. Research limitations/implications Results of this study suggest a weak link between motivation by others and the act of start-up, but this may also imply that those seniors who are more likely to become entrepreneurs are more likely to ignore the impulses from their social context. This requires further investigation to ensure a robust identification of drivers and an elimination of contextual effects. Further research is suggested to compose a relevant model structure in different contexts and a representative sample to confirm the model outcomes. Originality/value This is the first mixed methods study of the antecedents of senior entrepreneurs’ start-up intentions in Australia. The study also uses entrepreneurial activity as opposed to intention as its dependent variable, which allows for a more accurate evaluation of antecedents to the senior entrepreneurship phenomenon.

Identifying and implementing adaptive strategy in the U.S. military

Abstract Business literature reveals the importance of generating innovative products and services, but much of the innovation research has been conducted in large firms and not replicated in small firms. These firms are likely to have different perspectives on innovation, which means that they will probably behave differently to large firms. Our study aims to unpack how firms in Spatial Information perceive and engage in innovation as a part of their business operation. To investigate these questions we conduct 20 in-depth interviews of top management team members in Spatial Information firms in Australia. We find that small firms define innovation very broadly and measure innovation by its effect on productivity or market success. Innovation is seen as crucial to survival and success in a competitive environment. Most firms engage in product and/or service innovations, while some also mentioned marketing, process and organisational innovations. Most innovations were more exploitative rather than exploratory with only a few being radical innovations. Innovation barriers include time and money constraints, corporate culture and Government tendering practices. Our study sheds a light on our understanding of innovation in an under-researched sector; that is Spatial Information industry.

Entrepreneurship Education Pedagogy: Teacher-Student-Centred Paradox.

Changes in the environment, including increased environmental complexity, require military supply units to employ a more adaptive strategy in order to enhance military agility. We extend the Lumpkin and Dess (1996) model and develop propositions that explore the interrelationships between/amongst entrepreneurial orientation (EO); opportunity recognition, evaluation and exploitation; environmental and organizational factors; and organizational performance. We propose that the innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk-taking dimensions of EO are of primary importance in identifying adaptive solutions and that these relationships are moderated by environmental factors. The autonomy and competitive aggressiveness dimensions of EO are important in implementing solutions as adaptive strategies, especially in a military context, and these relationships are moderated by organizational factors. This chapter extends existing theory developed primarily for the civilian sector to the military. Military organizations are more rigid hierarchical structures, and have different measures of performance. At an applied level, this research provides insights for military commanders that can potentially enhance agility and adaptability.

Female underperformance or goal orientated behavior

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to answer the research question: “Do different pedagogies used in teaching entrepreneurship education influence individual skill development, which then in turn translates into a likelihood of entrepreneurial implementation intention?” Design/methodology/approach The number of total participants for the quasi-experiment was 308 undergraduate students in Malaysia, in which pre- and post-test (n=203) and control (n=105) groups are included. Students who enroled in the entrepreneurship course were randomly allocated into a class employing teacher-centred pedagogy or student-centred pedagogy. Learning outcomes are measured by objective and subjective measures. Findings Both pedagogical approaches had a positive effect on the development of the learning outcomes. However, the students who learned using the teacher-centred approach statistically developed a higher level of objective and subjective learning outcomes compared to the students who learned using the student-centred approach. The findings also suggest that the relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention mediates by learned skills. Originality/value The quasi-experimental design greatly improves the ability to make accurate claims about the impact of entrepreneurial education on entrepreneurship-related outcomes. Further, the study uses the implementation intention strategy in measuring the entrepreneurial intention. Thus, the study strongly supports for the view that implementation intention improves predictive validity of the behavioural intention within the framework of theory of planned behaviour by setting out in advance when, where, and how the goal will be achieved.