The prior literature on role congruity theory has revolved around demographic-based expectations, emphasizing role incongruity derived from a mismatch between prescriptive expectations of distinct roles. In this study, we depart from this traditional focus on between-role incongruity and explore an alternative source of role incongruity by examining how language can trigger the within-role incongruity of function-based expectations. Through an analysis of conference call transcripts and contracts for 7,649 deals during 2003–2018, we show that the incongruity of function-based expectations manifested through the language of the CFO leads banks to employ more debt contract covenants. This takes place because such incongruity increases banks’ perceived hazards. In addition, by investigating the moderating effects of corresponding CEO language and media sentiment, we show how the social context and sentiment toward the firm weaken this incongruity effect. We discuss the theoretical implications of our study for future research on the sources of role incongruity and the antecedents of contract design.
Fabrice Lumineau is a Professor in Strategic Management at HKU Business School, The University of Hong Kong.
His research examines inter-organizational partnerships, the interplay of contracts and trust in collaborative strategies, and blockchain governance. He has over 60 publications, including in the top management journals, such as Academy of Management Annals, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management, Journal of Management Studies, Journal of Operations Management, Organization Science, Organization Studies, Production and Operations Management, Research Policy, and Strategic Management Journal. He has delivered over 250 presentations across five continents and ranks in Clarivate’s ESI top 1% most-cited scholars worldwide.
Prof. Lumineau serves as an associate editor at the Journal of Management and on the editorial board of Strategic Management Journal, Organization Science, and Strategic Organization. He has held elected leadership roles with the AOM STR Executive Committee and chaired the Cooperative Strategies Interest Group at the Strategic Management Society. His distinctions include the Best Paper Award from the Business Policy and Strategy division and the Most Influential Article Award from the Conflict Management division at the Academy of Management Conference, the Discovery Early Career Research Award from the Australian Research Council, the Jay Ross Faculty Scholar Award at Purdue University, and multiple competitive grants, notably several Hong Kong RGC GRF awards.
He has held visiting appointments at INSEAD, the University of Cambridge, and the University of Toronto, and serves as an Affiliated Researcher at the Center for Security and Resilience (Stockholm School of Economics) and an External Advisory Board Member at the Center of Trust Studies (University of Arizona).
An award-winning educator across PhD, MBA/EMBA, MSc, BBA, and executive programs, he was named by Poets & Quants as one of the “40 Under 40 Most Outstanding Business School Professors.” A former project manager in insurance and investment banking, he earned his PhD from HEC Paris and has lived in France, the USA, Germany, Canada, Switzerland, Australia, and China.
- Lumineau, F. & Keller, A. 2025. “War as a Phenomenon of Inquiry in Management Studies.” Journal of Management Studies. Forthcoming.
- Lumineau, F., Shang, G., Swaminathan, J., Tsoukalas, G., Wagner, S., & Zhao, L. 2025. “Charting the Future of Blockchain in Operations and Supply Chain Management: Opportunities and Challenges.” Journal of Operations Management. Forthcoming.
- Lumineau, F., Kong, T., & Dries, N. 2025. “A Roadmap for Navigating Phenomenon-Based Research in Management.”Journal of Management, 51(2): 505-517.
- Argyres, N., Lumineau, F., & Zanarone, G. 2025. “Strategic Management Meets the Economics of Relational Contracts.” Strategic Management Review. Forthcoming.
- Oliveira, N., Schilke, O., Lumineau, F., & Huo, B. 2025. “The Influence of Power on Trust in Buyer-Supplier Relationships: An Actor-Partner Interdependence Approach” Production and Operations Management. Forthcoming.
- Schilke, O. & Lumineau, F. 2024. “How Organizational Is Interorganizational Trust?” Academy of Management Review. Forthcoming.
- Lumineau, F., Wang, W., & Schilke. O. 2024. “Reframing Blockchain’s Promise: A Commentary on Gregory, Beck, Henfridsson, and Yaraghi’s ‘Cooperation Among Strangers’” Academy of Management Review. Forthcoming.
- Schilke, O. & Lumineau, F. 2024. ““Unpacking the Role of Organizational Actorhood in Interorganizational Trust: A Reply to “Looking Behind the Continuum: An Institutional Economics Perspective on Schilke and Lumineau’s ‘How Organizational Is Interorganizational Trust?” ?” Academy of Management Review. Forthcoming.
- Lumineau, F., Long, C., Sitkin, S., Argyres, N., & Gideon, M. 2023. “Rethinking Control and Trust Dynamics in and between Organizations.” Journal of Management Studies, 60(8): 1937-1961.
- Diestre, L., Lumineau, F., & Durand, R. 2023. “Litigate or Let it Go? Multimarket Contact and IP Infringement-Litigation Dynamics.” Research Policy, 52(6): 104784.
- Oliveira, N., Lumineau, F., & Ariño, A. 2023. “Time in International Strategic Alliances: Progress and Prospect.” Journal of World Business, 58(4): 101456.
- Lumineau, F., Schilke, O., & Wang, W. 2023. “Organizational Trust in the Age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Shifts in the Nature, Production, and Targets of Trust.” Journal of Management Inquiry, 32(1): 21-34.
- Um T., Guo S.L., Lumineau F., Shi W., & Song, R. 2022. “The Downside of CFO Function-Based Language Incongruity.” Academy of Management Journal, 65(6): 1984-2013.
- Oliveira N., Argyres N., & Lumineau F. 2022. “The Role of Communication Style in Adaptation to Interorganizational Project Disruptions.” Journal of Operations Management, 68(4): 353-384.
- Eckerd S., Handley S., & Lumineau F. 2022. “Trust Violations in Buyer–Supplier Relationships: Spillovers and the Contingent Role of Governance Structures.” Journal of Supply Chain Management, 58(3): 47-70.
- Lumineau F., Jin L., Sheng S., & Zhou K. 2022. “The Influence of Transaction Asset Asymmetry in Buyer-Supplier Relationships.” Journal of Business Research, 149: 85-100.
- Keller A., Lumineau F., Mellewigt T., & Ariño 2021. “Alliance Governance Mechanisms in the Face of Disruption.” Organization Science, 32(6): 1542-1570.
- Lumineau F., Wang W., & Schilke O. 2021. “Blockchain Governance—A New Way of Organizing Collaborations?” Organization Science. 32(2): 500-521.
- Lumineau F., Wang W., Schilke O., & Huang L. 2021. “How Blockchain Can Simplify Partnerships.” Harvard Business Review.
- Lumineau F., Hanisch M., & Wurtz O. 2021. “International Management as Management of Diversity: Reconceptualizing Distance as Diversity.” Journal of Management Studies, 32(6): 1391-1596.
- Lumineau F. & Oliveira N. 2020. “Reinvigorating the Analysis of Opportunism in Supply Chain Management.” Journal of Supply Chain Management, 56(1): 73-87.
- Graebner M., Lumineau F., & Fudge-Kamal D. 2020. “Unrequited: Asymmetry in Interorganizational Trust.” Strategic Organization, 18(2): 362-374.
- Wilden R., Hohberger J., Devinney T.M., & Lumineau F. 2019. “60 Years of March and Simon’s Organizations: An Empirical Examination of Its Impact and Influence on Subsequent Research.” Journal of Management Studies, 56(8): 1570-1604.
- Oliveira N. & Lumineau F. 2019. “The Dark Side of Interorganizational Relationships: An Integrative Review and Research Agenda.” Journal of Management, 45(1): 231-261.
- Lumineau F. & Mulotte L. 2019. “How Governance Modes Intertwine Over Time: Beyond an Embeddedness-Based Approach to Post-Acquisition Divestitures.” Academy of Management Discoveries, 5(2): 201-204.
- Cao Z., Li Y., Jayaram J., Liu Y., & Lumineau F. 2018. “A Meta-Analysis of the Exchange Hazards – Interfirm Governance Relationship: An Informal Institutions Perspective.” Journal of International Business Studies, 49(3): 303-323.
- Lumineau F. & Oliveira O. 2018. “A Pluralistic Perspective to Overcome Major Blind Spots in Research on Interorganizational Relationships.” Academy of Management Annals, 12(1): 440-465.
- Schilke O. & Lumineau F. 2018. “The Double-Edged Effect of Contracts on Alliance Performance.” Journal of Management, 44(7): 2827-2858.
- Lumineau F. & Schilke O. 2018. “Trust Development across Levels of Analysis: An Embedded-Agency Perspective.” Journal of Trust Research, 8(2): 238-248.
- Oliveira N. & Lumineau F. 2017. “How Coordination Trajectories Influence the Performance of Interorganizational Project Networks.” Organization Science, 28(6): 1029-1060.
- Lumineau F. 2017. “How Contracts Influence Trust and Distrust.” Journal of Management, 43(5): 1553-1577.
- Guo S.L., Lumineau F., & Lewicki R.J. 2017. “Revisiting the Foundations of Organizational Distrust.” Foundations and Trends in Management, 1(1): 1-88.
- Bertrand O. & Lumineau F. 2016. “Partners in Crime: The Effects of Diversity on the Longevity of Cartels.” Academy of Management Journal, 59(3): 1-26.
- Lumineau F. & Verbeke A. 2016. “Let’s Give Opportunism the Proper Back Seat.” Academy of Management Review, 41(4): 739-741.
- Duplat V. & Lumineau F. 2016. “Third Parties and Contract Design: The Case of Contracts for Technology Transfer.” Managerial and Decision Economics, 37: 424-444.
- Cao Z. & Lumineau F. 2015. “Revisiting the Interplay between Contractual and Relational Governance: A Qualitative and Meta-Analytic Investigation.” Journal of Operations Management, 33: 15-42.
- Lumineau F., Eckerd S,, & Handley S. 2015. “Interorganizational Conflict: Overview, Challenges, and Opportunities.” Journal of Strategic Contracting and Negotiation, 1(1): 42-64.
- Bertrand O., Lumineau F., & Fedorova E. 2014. “The Supportive Factors of Firms’ Collusive Behavior: Empirical Evidence from Cartels in the European Union.” Organization Studies, 35(6): 881-908.
- Lumineau F. & Oxley J. 2012. “Let’s Work It Out (Or We’ll See You in Court): Litigation and Private Dispute Resolution in Vertical Exchange Relationships.” Organization Science, May/June 23: 820-834.
- Lumineau F. & Henderson J. 2012. “The Influence of Relational Experience and Contractual Governance on the Negotiation Strategy in Buyer-Supplier Disputes.” Journal of Operations Management, 30(5): 382-395.
- Lumineau F. & Quélin B. 2012. “An Empirical Investigation of Interorganizational Opportunism and Contracting Mechanisms.” Strategic Organization, 10(1): 55-84.
- Malhotra D. & Lumineau F. 2011. “Trust and Collaboration in the Aftermath of Conflict: The Effects of Contract Structure.” Academy of Management Journal, 54(5): 981-998.
- Lumineau F. & Malhotra D. 2011. “Shadow of the Contract: How Contract Structure Shapes Inter-Firm Dispute Resolution.” Strategic Management Journal, 32(5): 532-555.
- Lumineau F., Fréchet M., & Puthod D. 2011. “An Organizational Learning Perspective on Contract Design.” Strategic Organization, 9(1): 8-32.
- 2024 Doris Zimmern HKU–Cambridge Hughes Hall Fellowships
- 2023 Outstanding ERB Reviewer Award – Organization Science
- 2021 Journal of Supply Chain Management’s Harold E. Fearon Best Paper Award
- 2019 Conflict Management Division’s Most Influential Article Award – Academy of Management
- 2019 Journal of Operations Management’s Ambassador Award
- 2019 Finalist for the International Management Division Best Paper Award – Academy of Management
- 2019 Blake Ethics Research Grant – Purdue University
- 2017 40 Under 40 Most Outstanding Business School Professors – Poets & Quants
- 2017 University Faculty Scholar for outstanding mid-career faculty – Purdue University
- 2016 Jay Ross Faculty Scholar Award – Purdue University
- 2016 Journal of Strategic Contracting and Negotiation’s Best Paper Award
- 2014 Honorary Member – Pi Delta Phi, Purdue University
- 2013 Finalist for the Emerald Best International Symposium Award – Academy of Management
- 2013 Nominated for the Practice Implications Award – Strategic Management Society
- 2012 Discovery Early Career Research Award – Australian Research Council
- 2011 Nominated for the Best Conference Paper Award – Strategic Management Society
- 2011 Nominated for the Practice Implications Award – Strategic Management Society
- 2011 Finalist for the Early Career Research Excellence Award – University of Technology Sydney
- 2009 Distinguished Paper Award – BPS Division – Academy of Management
- 2009 Nominated for the Carolyn Dexter Award – Academy of Management
- 2008 Nominated for the HEC Foundation Best Dissertation Award
- Wang W., Lumineau F., & Schilke O. 2022. Blockchains: Strategic Implications for Contracting, Trust, and Organizational Design. Cambridge University Press.
Interorganizational projects often suffer disruptions that require participating organizations to adapt in order to restore project operations. We study the role of communication style in facilitating adaptation to such disruptions. Whereas the literature on interorganizational communication has emphasized communication mode and frequency, we study the content and features of written communication in seven U.K. construction projects. Communication style mattered for adaptation quality in these projects, and we found that several properties of communication style were particularly important for adaptation: cost and information orientation, as well as informality, precision and authenticity. Moreover, managerial slack and organizational reputation were important precursors of communication style. These results provide novel insights into the role of communication style in adaptation to interorganizational project disruptions. We discuss the implications of these insights for research on interorganizational projects in operations and supply chain management.
“I had once came to HKU as a visiting scholar and was impressed by the high level research , and more so by the hardworking attitude of students. I look forward to teaching soon, and engage in exciting knowledge exchange with the young generation.”
Professor Lumineau had once came to HKU as a visiting scholar. He was impressed by the high level research our scholars have produced, and more so by the hardworking attitude of HKU students. He looks forward to teaching soon, and engage in exciting knowledge exchange with the young generation.