SPEAKER

Ms. Yiduo Shao
Ph. D. Candidate in Business Administration
University of Florida

ABSTRACT

The aging population across the globe is driving substantial changes in workforce demographics. Accordingly, engaging the aging workforce becomes an important mission for organizations. However, empirical findings regarding the age-work engagement relationship remain elusive and theoretical explanations have been equivocal and disjointed, suggesting both age-related advantages and challenges in staying engaged at work. Additionally, it remains unclear how organizations may implement age-related HR practices to leverage the age-related advantages while mitigating the challenges. Guided by lifespan development theories and the workplace aging literature, I take a two-study, multi-method approach to address these research questions in my dissertation. In Study 1 (a meta-analytic study), I examine multiple theory-based countervailing mechanisms (i.e., occupational future time perspective; the use of selection, optimization, and compensation [SOC] strategies; physical health; and age discrimination experience) that simultaneously link age to work engagement. In Study 2 (a field investigation), I propose and test a multilevel research model to probe how these mechanisms are shaped by age-specific HR practices (i.e., older worker-specific HR practices) and age-neutral HR practices (i.e., age-inclusive HR practices). Taken together, my dissertation will further scholarly understanding of the complex and multifaceted nature of aging processes at work and provide implications for organizations to design age-wise HR practices in managing the aging workforce.

SPEAKER

Dr. Andy Wu
Assistant Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business School

ABSTRACT

We study how learning by experience across projects affects an entrepreneur’s strategic foresight. In a quantitative study of 314 entrepreneurs across 722 crowdfunded projects supplemented with a program of qualitative interviews, we counterintuitively find that entrepreneurs make less accurate predictions as they gain experience executing projects: they miss their predicted timeline to bring a product to market by nearly six additional weeks on each successive project. Although learning should improve prediction accuracy in principle, we argue that entrepreneurs also learn of opportunities to augment each successive product, which drastically expands the interdependencies beyond what an entrepreneur can anticipate. We find that entrepreneurs encounter more unforeseen interdependencies in their subsequent projects, and they sacrifice on-time delivery to address these interdependencies.

SPEAKER

Mr. Jack H. Zhang
Ph. D. Candidate in Organizational Behavior
Washington University in St. Louis

ABSTRACT

In my dissertation, I study employment uncertainty (inability to predict the future of the employment relationship)’s psychological and behavioral impacts on furloughed workers along with factors that could affect the strengths of these impacts. Through a qualitative study with 28 employees who were furloughed in 2020, I found that employment uncertainty could bring higher intensities of negative emotions and lower occupational commitment. The occupational commitment could then positively associate with hedging behaviors (preparing for a permanent job loss) and negatively associate with “live like working” behaviors (living one’s life during furlough as if one is still working). Moreover, work orientations might moderate these impacts, with a job orientation (seeing one’s work as a way to make money) strengthening uncertainty’s impacts, whereas a calling orientation (seeing one’s work as personal enjoyment and socially meaningful experience) weakening uncertainty’s impacts. Results of a quantitative survey study with 141 furloughed workers generally supported the hypotheses from the emergent theory. These results reveal the particular harm that employment uncertainty can do to furloughed workers and how employees’ perceived meaning of their work may affect their coping with uncertainty.

SPEAKER

Dr. Liwen Zhang
Assistant professor of Management
School of Management and Governance
University of New South Wales

ABSTRACT

Human capital resources (HCRs) are thought to be one of the most important resources for organizations. However, surprisingly little attention has been devoted to the degree to which extant HCR measures capture the construct. This two-study paper aims to better understand the measurement and effects of HCRs. In Study 1, we use recent theoretical frameworks (e.g., Ployhart & Moliterno, 2011) to conduct a content analysis of HCR measures (k = 126). Results revealed that only 29% of measures actually focused on HCRs. Most measures focused on other constructs, such as variables that theoretically are antecedents of HCRs (e.g., education, high-performance work practices) or other types of resources (e.g., physical resources), rather than on HCRs. Further, of the measures that did focus on HCRs, most assessed only a portion of the construct domain (e.g., collective knowledge but not collective skills). In Study 2, we tested whether direct measures of HCRs have a stronger relationship with collective performance than proxy measures that prior research has frequently used to assess HCRs (e.g., education, work experience). A meta-analysis of 93 independent samples and 22,065 units/firms suggested a positive and moderate relationship between HCRs and collective performance (ρ = .29). Further, HCRs have a stronger relation with collective outcomes than constructs such as collective education (ρ = .08) and work experience (ρ = .15). Overall, these findings suggest that researchers often are using contaminated or deficient measures of HCRs and that doing so underestimates the potential value of this key resource to organizations.

SPEAKER

Mr. Haoying (Howie) Xu
Ph. D. Candidate in Organizational Behavior/Human Resource Management
Department of Managerial Studies
University of Illinois at Chicago

ABSTRACT

This research develops a theoretical model that explains how and when perception of being envied by the supervisor is associated with the focal employee’s approach and avoidanceoriented interpersonal behaviors toward the supervisor, and in extension, elucidates the downstream relational consequences of the divergent interpersonal behaviors. Drawing on cognitive-motivational-relational theory of emotion, this research explores two discrete emotions—relationship hope and relationship anxiety—as key mechanisms in translating perception of being envied by the supervisor into organizational citizenship behavior toward the supervisor (OCB-S; a form of approach-oriented interpersonal behavior) and interaction avoidance behavior toward the supervisor (IAB-S; a form of avoidance-oriented interpersonal behavior), respectively. Integrating cognitive-motivational-relational theory of emotion with approach-inhibition theory of power, this research suggests that the positive indirect effect of perception of being envied by the supervisor on OCB-S via relationship hope is stronger when the employee’s sense of power with respect to the supervisor is higher, whereas the positive indirect effect of perception of being envied by the supervisor on IAB-S via relationship anxiety is stronger when the employee’s sense of power with respect to the supervisor is lower. In turn,the impact of these two forms of interpersonal behaviors on the supervisor’s perception of leader-member exchange (LMX) is examined. The research model will be tested with a vignette experimental study and a two-source, three-phase time lagged field study.

SPEAKER

Ms. Hyesook Chung
Ph.D. Candidate in Human Resource Studies
Cornell University

ABSTRACT

The use of variable work schedules – altering the numbers and timing of employees’ work hours from week to week – is one of the widely used HR practices to increase staffing flexibility. However, little research has examined whether and how the use of variable work schedules influences unit-level financial performance. Despite the common assumption that the use of variable work schedules can help firms achieve higher performance (by allowing for timely response to demand fluctuations), especially during a crisis such as COVID-19, this study demonstrates otherwise. I propose that greater use of variable schedules can lead to higher employee turnover at the unit level and the effect is stronger during the pandemic. I also argue that managerial reliance on variable work schedules can decrease not only the level of unit performance but also its recovery during the pandemic via employee turnover. Using data from 1,678 units of a quick service restaurant chain in the US across periods spanning different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, I find support for these predictions. The findings suggest that scholars and practitioners should reconsider the general assumption that organizations are better able to adapt to uncertain environments through staffing flexibility.

SPEAKER

Ms. Hyoju Jeong
Ph.D. Candidate in Business Administration
Carlson School of Management
University of Minnesota

ABSTRACT

This study investigates how the ownership structure of entrants affects incumbents’ reaction to entry. Consumer cooperatives internalize consumer surplus and community externalities; thus, they are incentivized to maximize them, leading to high-quality service provision, greater consumer trust and loyalty. Moreover, formed to serve consumers/members and often to countervail existing market power, cooperatives are unlikely to have a mutual understanding with incumbents. Therefore, I argue that cooperative entry may be a bigger threat than investor-owned firm entry, forcing incumbents to react more competitively to cooperative entry than to investor-owned firm entry. I test and find support for these arguments in the US broadband industry from 2014 to 2018, showing that incumbents are more likely to upgrade their internet deployment technology to high-tech when facing cooperative entry than when facing investor-owned firm entry. Such an effect is stronger in markets with only one or two high-quality internet provider(s) and stronger for big national incumbents than for small local incumbents.

SPEAKER

Mr. Jung H. Kwon
Ph.D. Candidate in International Management Studies
Jindal School of Management
University of Texas at Dallas

ABSTRACT

Drawing on the Coase theorem, we consider a firm’s decision to transfer patent ownership to another firm in the markets for innovation. We deem that the proximity of a patent’s technology structure to that of a firm’s patent portfolio will generally result in greater marginal productivity of the patent, leading to enhanced prospects for the firm’s economic return. We thus predict that firms are more likely to trade patents when the technology structure of a patent is closer to the technology stock of a potential buyer compared with that of its original assignee. However, such a relationship will be weaker when a potential buyer and the original assignee have greater product-market overlap or when the assignee has superior technological capability. We test these predictions by employing a dyad-level analysis of transactional decisions during the 1987−2016 period on 40,110 U.S. patents assigned to 57 major biopharmaceutical firms. Our study provides novel insights on factors that facilitate or inhibit patent trade in the markets for innovation.

SPEAKER

Ms.Young Eun Lee
Ph. D. Candidate in Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management
Mays Business School
Texas A&M University

Miss Lee plans to present two studies :

Employee See, Employee Do. Or Employee Don’t? Unpacking When And Why Employees Mimic (Or Don’t) Coworkers’ Helping Behavior

ABSTRACT

The literature on helping behaviors has focused on the episode as a dyadic event. Yet, helping in organizations does not occur in a vacuum—there are third party individuals who may be witnessing the event without being directly involved in it. Indeed, other literatures have acknowledged the impact third parties may experience upon observing certain behavior. Thus, I draw from four theories that explain the witnessing effect as a social phenomenon to find out if third party observers of helping behaviors are affected. Two theories (social learning theory and social exchange theory) suggest that individuals would engage in helping behaviors upon observing others engage in it, and the other two theories (moral licensing theory and social loafing theory) suggest that individuals would be less likely to engage in helping behaviors upon observing others engage in it. I conduct a competitive test of these theories to find out if observers are affected by the observed event, and if so, which mechanism would be the cause. In addition, I also adopt self-perception theory to suggest a moderator (relational identity) which would strengthen each of the paths such that the stronger the identification with one’s group, the stronger the activated path (engaging in helping vs. not engaging in helping). I test the hypothesized model across two field studies and two experimental studies. Study 1 will be an experiment where participants will be asked to read a short vignette and answer a survey. Study 2 will be a critical incident recall study, and study 3 will be a two wave study where participants are asked to answer surveys twice sent two weeks apart. Study 4 will be a two wave study where participants answer the first survey and their colleagues provide observational ratings of the focal employee in the second survey.

 When, Why, and For Whom is Receiving Help Actually Helpful?  Differential Effects of Received Help Based on Recipient Gender

ABSTRACT

Helping is a foundational aspect of organizational life and the prototypical organizational citizenship behavior. Most research on helping implicitly assumes that helping benefits its recipients. Comparatively, the literature on helping recipients is relatively small, and in contrast depicts receiving help as something that may reduce recipient perceptions of competence. Thus, a disconnect exists in the helping literature, with an assumption that help benefits recipients, and evidence seeming to suggest the opposite. We submit that instead of questioning whether receiving help is beneficial, we should instead investigate when and for whom this may be the case. Regarding when, we differentiate between receiving help that is empowering (i.e., offers tools to empower recipients to become more self-reliant) or non-empowering (i.e., offers only immediate, short-term solutions). With regard to whom, drawing from research on receiving help, as well as theory and research on stereotype threat and benevolent sexism, we expect both types of help to benefit men in terms of increasing felt competence, but only empowering help to benefit women. We present data from three studies (a preliminary study in which we provide validity evidence for measures of receiving empowering and non-empowering help, a critical incident study, and a daily experience-sampling study) to support our hypotheses.

SPEAKER

Mr. Tommy Pan Fang
PhD Candidate in Business Administration
Harvard Business School

ABSTRACT

A considerable body of work has examined how platforms govern complementors—third-party firms who offer complementary products and services that enhance the overall ecosystem value. Yet, platform owners need to capture a share of the ecosystem value to remain viable. Platform owners, thus, face a conundrum in governance design: encouraging complementor value creation for the platform ecosystem, while finding ways to capture value simultaneously. In this paper, I capture this critical tradeoff that platform owners face by examining how platforms govern complementors’ business models—the value creation activities and value capture methods of a complementor. I conduct a large-scale quantitative study of 15,604 mobile applications in 2021, supplemented with a program of qualitative interviews. I leverage an unexpected Apple policy impairing in-app advertising business models of complementors, and find that these applications are more likely to exit from the platform after the policy change. Moreover, impacted applications shift effort from developing new features to fixing existing issues, diminishing the overall value creation. While this change negatively affected the revenues that Apple received from third-party applications, Apple was able to increase value capture from its own applications and advertising network. These findings enrich our understanding of how platform owners use governance to balance between value creation and value capture in an ecosystem.