Rüdiger Kabst

Organizational adoption of e‐HRM in Europe

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine which factors influence the cross‐national organizational adoption of electronic human resource management (e‐HRM) in Europe.Design/methodology/approach – Major general and contextual influence factors are derived and tested based on a large‐scale survey with a sample of 2,336 organizations in 23 European countries using logistic regression.Findings – The findings first reveal that e‐HRM is a common practice throughout Europe since two‐thirds of all organizations have already adopted e‐HRM. Major general determinants of e‐HRM adoption are size, work organization, and configuration of HRM. In addition, there are major cross‐national differences in e‐HRM adoption, unexpectedly revealing Eastern post‐communist countries to lead e‐HRM adoption.Research limitations/implications – Abundance of general and scarcity of contextual factors imply that there should be further important factors of adoption not considered in this paper. Owing to its cross‐sectional char...

A Typology of International New Ventures: Empirical Evidence from High‐Technology Industries

We examine determinants of different types of International New Ventures (INVs), namely Export Start‐up, Geographically Focused Start‐up, Multinational Trader, and Global Start‐up. Whereas this typology of INVs has been widely accepted in the literature, empirical testing of the determinants of INV types is largely missing. Our arguments build on the International New Venture Theory (INVT). Hypotheses generated from our framework are tested on 195 German high‐tech enterprises. Results show that growth orientation, prior international experience, knowledge intensity, product differentiation, and learning orientation distinguish significantly between the different INV types.

Gender effects on entrepreneurial intention: a meta‐analytical structural equation model

Purpose – Although the percentage of female entrepreneurs has increased over the past several years, it is far below the level of males. Drawing on the theory of planned behaviour and role congruity theory, the purpose of this paper is to specify a model in which the relationship between gender and entrepreneurial intention (EI) is mediated by three essential motivational constructs (i.e. attitude toward starting a business, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control (PBC)).Design/methodology/approach – The study specifies and tests a meta‐analytical structural equation model. The study aggregates the results of 30 studies (n=52,367).Findings – The study reveals a higher average EI for men compared to women. However, although significant, the gender differences in EI and the motivational constructs were small and cannot sufficiently explain the substantial differences in actually starting a business. Furthermore, moderator analyses show differences in the gender‐EI relationship between Europe and t...

Functional flexibility: merely reacting or acting strategically?

This article raises the question of to what extent functional flexibility is an operatively designed approach with which European companies confront current short‐term changes in their environment, and whether functional flexibility is integrated into long‐term human resource strategies. The proposition is tested that organisations with a strategic human resource management in the sense of a coordinated, objective‐oriented personnel management pattern, show a higher probability of using job rotation than organisations lacking a strategic‐oriented human resource management approach.

Financial Participation in Europe-Determinants and Outcomes

This articles objective is to analyse determinants and outcomes of financial participation in Europe. It starts off with a definition of the instruments, a review of the literature in the field of financial participation and a discussion on the relevance of financial participation in selected European countries. Choosing a rather inductive approach, the authors develop a model for financial participation. Based on the Cranfield data, the significance of the variables used in the model is tested. Union density, number of employees, public limited company status, geographical market and policy regarding pay and benefits came out as significant determinants for financial participation at company level. The environment, however, also bears influence. Organizations in Germany, France, Great Britain and Sweden show significantly different practices. Employee share ownership and profit sharing cannot only increase financial performance but also allow for efficient human resource management. Profit sharing increases profits and decreases absenteeism as well as staff turnover. The findings for employee share ownership are not that straightforward.

Evidence-Based Entrepreneurship: Cumulative Science, Action Principles, and Bridging the Gap between Science and Practice

The concept and desiderata of an evidence-based entrepreneurship (EBE) is discussed as a strategy to overcome the gap between knowledge developed in the field of entrepreneurship and its use in practice. Evidence constitutes the best summary of knowledge based on several sources of information (several studies, several different research groups, several different methodological approaches, among them the best methods available) which clearly goes beyond individual experience and a few isolated studies. We argue that meta-analyses can and should be used in entrepreneurship research (and that they should also be used to review qualitative studies). Meta-analyses establish certain relationships; these should then be summarized in well-founded models and theories that can be translated into action principles. These action principles can then be used by various users of EBE. Users of EBE can be scientists, professionals who regularly deal with entrepreneurs (bankers, consultants, venture capital providers), policy makers (e.g., government), students of entrepreneurship, and last but not least the entrepreneurs themselves. Once a set of action principles has been developed from science, their application can be tested with the help of further evidence on the efficacy of interventions (including meta-analyses on the interventions). Evidence-based entrepreneurship (EBE) has the potential to change research, teaching, and practice.

Human resource management for international joint ventures: expatriation and selective control

It often can be witnessed that companies as a matter of principle assign expatriates into key joint venture positions. However, that basic attitude may be one of the fundamental reasons for human resource problems. Building on transaction cost economics it can be argued that selective control via functional gatekeepers instead of overall control offers an efficient mechanism to reduce opportunistic behaviour in joint-venture relationships.

The influence of cultural context on the relationship between gender diversity and team performance: a meta-analysis

The impact of gender diversity on team performance has become a central topic in the field of human resource management for researchers and practitioners alike. Extant research provides conflicting evidence on the relationship between gender diversity and team performance. To resolve these contradictory findings, we meta-analyze the relationship between gender diversity and two performance outcomes, namely task performance and contextual performance. Grounded in categorization-elaboration model, we simultaneously consider the positive and negative aspects of gender diversity. We further examine the effect of cultural context as a moderator on the relationship between gender diversity and team performance. Based on 71 independent samples from 68 studies published between 1996 and 2013, we find a significant negative relationship ( − 0.10) between gender diversity and contextual performance. Additionally, we find that the cultural dimensions gender egalitarianism and collectivism have significant moderating influences on the relationship between gender diversity and task performance.

Internationalisierung im Mittelstand

Internationalisierung im Mittelstand : Chancen Risiken Erfolgsfaktoren. Gerhardund-Lore-Kienbaum-Stiftung. Joachim Gutmann (Hrsg.) 16. Apr. 2015 April 2015 um 19:00 Uhr in der IHK Saarland eine Kooperationsveranstaltung zum Thema „Internationalisierung im Mittelstand“ an. 1.3 Adäquate Marktauswahl. 1.4 Motive, Erfolgsfaktoren und Hürden bei der Internationalisierung. 2. Strukturen der Internationalisierung im mittleren Ruhrgebiet.

High-involvement information sharing practices: an international perspective

The type of information shared within organizations is a key aspect of strategic human resources management. In this exploratory study, we expand our understanding of high-performance work systems (HPWSs) by examining the information sharing practices of firms operating in different countries to assess the extent that high-involvement-oriented information sharing in organizations is influenced by home-country economic structures and national cultural factors. We assess firm-level data from a 12-country sample to evaluate the use of formal information sharing practices for non-managerial employees. The results of our analysis support the contention that information sharing practices varies by country, and that cultural similarities based on geographical region exist within the three information content areas of business strategy, financial performance, and organization of work. Specifically, we found significant variance in information sharing practices of firms based in different countries but homogeneity of practices among geographical neighbors. There is a modest positive relationship between sharing business strategy information and perceived firm performance that is significantly stronger in North America compared to other regions. These results have important implications for the ongoing theoretical development of mechanisms underlying the use of HPWS practices in an international context.