Little research has been done on female board representation in emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs). Our paper considers the role of female board representation and its impact on open innovation (OI) in the unique context of emerging markets. We draw on upper echelons and institutional theories to understand how female board representation and cross-country institutional contexts influence coupled OI. Combining a 10-year (2009–2019) dataset with a rich in-depth content analysis of 183 (EMNEs) engaged in OI, our results reveal a significant positive association between female board representation and a firm's commitment to coupled OI initiatives. We also find that country-level institutional factors affect and positively moderate the relationship between female board representation and coupled OI. In emerging market environments where managerial perception and cultural beliefs sometimes hinder the promotion of females into top positions, our work has implications for EMNEs regarding how they harness diversity. We contribute to the OI literature by showing that female board representation enhances corporate OI investment within EMNEs. © 2023 The Authors

Financial analysts’ role as information intermediaries between management teams and investors is vital for the efficient allocation of resources on the stock market. The increased focus on sustainability information in corporate reports has affected financial analysts in their important work of interpreting, assessing and communicating value-added information to their clients, i.e. the investors. The challenges they face relate to the ambiguous nature of sustainability information and its difference from traditional financial information. How do analysts reach through this smokescreen? How do analysts make sense of sustainability information, and how do they give sense to this information when they provide investment advices to their investors? In this chapter, these challenges are addressed from a cognitive-frame perspective. We argue that the first part of 2000s was characterized by cognitive dissonance due to both a low social legitimacy and a low cognitive legitimacy, i.e. sustainability was not yet requested by the investors to be attended to and it was regarded too ambiguous to be relevant for being considered in a valuation context. In the latter part of 2010s, we argue that there is only a partial cognitive dissonance. At this time, sustainability information is beginning to be socially legitimate and requested by investors. However, the complexity of the situation remains. This type of information is still not considered as cognitive legitimate due to the ambiguous nature, which renders difficulties for the sense-making and sense-giving processes. The findings have implications not the least in the ongoing quest of developing frameworks, standards and legislation (e.g. the EU directive (2014/EU/95)), that opt for improving the relevance, credibility and comparability of sustainability information. © The Authors 2019

Using data from world-leading digital-driven/technology multinational enterprises (DTMNEs), we draw from the resource orchestration theory to investigate the associations between business model (BM) drivers and firm performance during crisis periods. Drawing on data from the COVID-19 pandemic period, we deploy diverse analytical approaches including multivariate linear regressions and aggregated composite index statistical methods in examining how the BMs of our sampled DTMNEs drive firm performance. Our study highlights six methodological approaches that can be utilised by decision-makers in examining which variables in their BM drive better firm performance. Our findings revealed that the principal component analysis and multicriteria decision analysis (PROMETHEE methods) that espouse the use of aggregate composite index can provide significant and consistent predictive results in comparison to the traditional linear methods when examining the association between BM and firm performance during crisis periods. The paper provides policy and managerial implications on how firms and decision-makers can bolster business continuity, resilience, and plasticity by using analytical lenses that identify optimum resource orchestration during crises. © 2023 The Authors

Managers’ use of auditors in decision processes are well known in the accounting literature but little is known on managers in innovative firms and their acquisition of accounting knowledge through direct contacts with auditors. We conducted a multiple embedded study of exploratory character based on 19 interviews with managers and auditors connected to six innovative firms. We show that managers in innovative firms apply informal management control in early phases and thus also rely to a high extent on external auditors for such purposes. Management acquisition of accounting knowledge may however stepwise contribute to a more formalized control system as management competence increase. This study suggests that competence based view may be useful for understanding the role of accounting and auditors.

Managers’ use of auditors in decision processes is well known in the accounting literature, but little is known about owner-managers in innovative firms and their acquisition of accounting knowledge through direct contacts with external auditors. We conducted a multiple embedded study of exploratory character based on 21 interviews with owner-managers and external auditors connected to six innovative firms. We show that owner-managers in innovative firms apply informal management control in early phases of the innovation process and thus also rely heavily on external auditors for such purposes. However, management’s acquisition of accounting knowledge may contribute over time to the development of a more formalised control system as their competence increases. This study suggests that a competence-based view may be useful for understanding the role of accounting and external auditors in innovative firms’ management control systems. Copyright © 2016 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

This study focuses on knowledge management and entrepreneurs’ perceptions in terms of knowledge sharing, the use of financial statement information and how these impact on their strategic business judgments and decision choices in innovative SME firms. Using a strategic decision making process model we test our assumptions regarding entrepreneurs´ knowledge routines implemented by non-Gazelle companies in strategic business decision. Combining survey data and financial data from a unique archival database we test our propositions on Swedish SMEs. The results of the structural equation analysis implied that non-Gazelle companies are propelled primarily by non-financial information captured by the expertise of managers and investors. Traditional financial information does not include entrepreneurs´ decision making however, the results indicate that entrepreneurs risk awareness is reported as a part of the frame why entrepreneurs´ make decisions.

This article contributes to the debate on entrepreneurs’ role in societies as well as the consequences of rural embeddedness and engagement, or the role of farmers in rural development and entrepreneurship. A contextualized view of farmers embedded—both spatially and positionally— in the entrepreneurial ecosystems is applied. The study, based on interviews with 24 farmers, 6 observations, and 8 interviews with actors within the agricultural support system, uses the Gioia methodology for analysis, thus enabling inductive theorizing. We find that farmers’ multifunctional role and their impact on societal development are central to understanding farmers’ entrepreneurial endeavours as well as their engagement in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Hence, this article discusses farmers’ embeddedness in rural society and development processes. It highlights the multifunctional role of farmers in society, which we argue make them enablers for rural development, an important role that has been overlooked in both entrepreneurship research and policy work.

Agricultural advisors have recently received much critique both in practice and in the literature for not answering agricultural entrepreneurs’ need for support in the ongoing industry transformation. Advisors expect to guide highly pressured agricultural entrepreneurs operating in complex settings towards sustainable businesses in highly competitive markets. The current study using complexity leadership theory goes beyond the surface of the agricultural advisors’ everyday work by exploring challenges faced by the advisors and considering how to overcome them. The advisors’ genuine intentions and common mission guiding the development of sustainable agricultural businesses and a vibrant countryside is not enough to achieve the goals. We identify an emergent need for innovation in the leadership of advisory work and conceptualize enabling mechanisms to accomplish such change. We suggest that the creation of adaptive space as a lubricant gives innovation the opportunity to flourish through enabling leadership.

We propose that technological, service-dominant and design logics must interplay for an IT artefact to succeed. Based on data from a project aiming at a B2B platform for manufacturing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Europe, we explore these three logics in an agile software design context. By using an inductive approach, we theorise about what is needed for the alignment of the three logics. We contribute with a novel theoretical lens, the Framework for Adaptive Space. We offer insights into the importance of continuously reflecting on all three logics during the agile software design process to ensure mutual understanding among the agile team and the B2B platform end-users involved. Copyright © The Author(s) 2024. Published by Inderscience Publishers Ltd.

Low anterior resection for rectal cancer often includes a diverting loop-ileostomy to avoid the severe consequences of anastomotic leakage. Reversal of the stoma is often delayed, which can incur health-care costs on different levels. The aim is to, on population basis, determine stoma-related costs, and to investigate habitual and socioeconomic factors associated to the level of cost. Multi-register design with data from the Swedish Rectal Cancer Registry, the National Prescribed Drug Register, Statistics Sweden and cost-administrative data from the National Board of Health and Welfare. Data was gathered for 3564 patients with rectal cancer surgery 2007 to 2013, for 3 years following the surgery. Factors influencing the cost of inpatient care and stoma-related consumables were assessed with linear regression analyses. All monthly costs were higher for females (consumables P <.001 and in-patient care P =.031). Post-secondary education (P =.003) and younger age (P =.020) was associated with a higher cost for consumables while suffering a surgical complication was associated with increased cost for inpatient care (P <.001). Patients who had their stoma longer had lower monthly costs (consumables P <.001 and in-patient care P <.001). Female gender, longer duration of stoma, young age, and higher education are associated with higher costs for the care of a diverting stoma after rectal cancer surgery. This study does not allow for analyses of causality but the results together with deepened analyses of underlying reasons form a proper basis for decisions in health care planning and allocation of resources. These findings may have implications on the debate of equal care for all. © The Author(s) 2023.

Improving sustainability performance and adapting to circular economy principles in operational business strategies are becoming increasingly prioritized. In this pursuit, the concept of industrial symbiosis (IS) has become increasingly relevant. IS represents a collaborative approach where the interplay of material, residual waste, energy, and infrastructure exchanges aims to yield not only economic and environmental advantages for the participating companies but also substantial societal benefits by using resources more efficiently. Biogas production is such an example, it can reduce greenhouse gas emissions since it can produce heat and electricity, replace renewable fuel for vehicles, or be used as input material for industrial use. The digestate from biogas production can also be used as an effective agricultural fertilizer to replace chemical fertilizers which are produced using fossil energy.

Digital tools and platforms in IS can be used to different extent depending on businesses levels of digital maturity (the extent to which businesses adapt to ongoing digital change and integrate digitalization). Digital tools and platforms hold a central role for developing various advantages in biogas-based IS, but since the digital maturity for IS focusing on biogas production is uncertain, the current efficiency obtained by tools and platforms is unknown. Therefore, through semi-structured interviews and study visits, this study assesses stakeholder collaboration and use of digital tools at five IS sites with biogas production in Sweden. It explores (i) current digital maturity and collaboration characteristics amongst established biogas-based IS, and (ii) needs amongst stakeholders for development of digital tools and platforms to promote digital maturity, monitoring, collaboration, and knowledge exchange in current and future IS structures.

Preliminary results of the on-going study show that the use of digital tools varies depending on the character and size of resource flows that are included in the collaboration, and due to the internal digital maturity of the involved companies. In general, the use of digital tools for stakeholder interaction is on low or medium level, in which manual handling is required and little is automated. This complies with the sites being relatively small, and the number of stakeholders involved are relatively few. Moreover, the preliminary results show that the interest of future development of digital tools is found to be related to business development and expanded market opportunities through diversified raw material use, increased production, and new distribution channels. In addition, a demand of digital platforms for exchange of experience and competence supply has been identified.

Remote patient monitoring (RPM) of chronic diseases represents a care modality with great potential to substantially improve outcomes and reduce hospital admission and costs to society. Empirical research has examined the processes of RPM adoption and implementation; however, implementation of RPM–a complex technological and health service innovation–remains challenging. Various analytical frameworks have tried to understand the conditions for successful adoption and implementation of RPM and other complex healthcare innovations. This conceptual study argues that incorporation of lessons from literature on institutional logics could enrich these frameworks. Healthcare is a domain influenced by multiple competing, collaborating or co-existing institutional logics such as professional, state, market, corporate and increasingly a community logic, expressed in patient-centred care principles. We outline the concept of patient-centred care as an emerging institutional logic and explore how to incorporate it into two widely used analytical frameworks, NASSS (‘non-adoption, abandonment, scale-up, spread, and sustainability’) and normalisation process theory (NPT). The main benefit of adding an institutional logics approach to the NPT framework is primarily to increase awareness of how institutional logics at meso-and macro-levels may affect the scope of implementation at a micro-level. In the case of the NASSS framework institutional logics provides a rationale for achieving cross-level alignment between domains. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Stress-related illness is a common and increasing cause for sick leave in Sweden. Spending time in nature reduces stress and promotes health and well-being. Accordingly, nature-based interventions (NBI) for people with stress-related illness have been developed and implemented in southern Scandinavia; however, such interventions are uncommon in the Circumpolar North. Previous studies have examined the effects and experiences of participating in NBI, but research about different stakeholders’ perspectives on NBI is lacking. The aim of this study was to explore different key stakeholders’ perceptions of the value of NBI in promoting health in people with stress-related illness. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 11 persons with stress-related illness experience, 14 healthcare professionals, and 11 entrepreneurs offering NBI. Qualitative content analysis resulted in four categories: Providing opportunity for recovery, Offering new perspectives and opportunity for reflection, Empowering balance and control in life, and Enabling one to overcome barriers. Although the study was conducted in a region where NBI is not widely implemented, the different stakeholders expressed similar perceptions of the value of NBI, indicating that NBI may be a valuable complement to health care which reaches people with stress-related illness needs and promotes their health. © 2024 Lulea university of technology. Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Syftet med detta kapitel är att fördjupa förståelsen av social innovation i form av naturbaserade interventioner och nya samverkansmodeller för att främja psykisk hälsa. Vi inleder kapitlet med att kort beskriva hälsoläget hos befolkningen och kopplingen till Agenda 2030. Därefter beskriver vi naturbaserade interventioner och dess betydelse för hälsan, för att sedan komma in på behovet av nya samverkansmodeller där nyckelaktörer arbetar tillsammans för att kunna implementera naturbaserade interventioner i praktiken. Baserat på resultat från projektet New Nordic Nature Based Service Models (Nordic NaBS) utvecklas en konceptuell modell med sex samverkansmekanismer, som möjliggörare för naturbaserade interventioner som social innovation.

This study, rooted in the context of ICBR 2023, delves into the Scandinavian health innovation and healthcare sector, renowned for its progressive approaches to societal well-being. We examine value creation through business model innovation in the digital health sector, aligning with the forward-thinking nature of Scandinavian healthcare within the project MetaRoad funded by the financier KK-foundation. Navigating the complex journey of healthcare innovation, we address challenges posed by the integration of information-driven care and precision health. Information-driven care, emphasizing data and technology for enhanced patient outcomes. Precision health, tailoring treatment to individual characteristics, presents implementation challenges requiring careful consideration of resource allocation and accessibility.

Building on recent literature, we contribute by focusing on how business model innovation unfolds in practice within the Scandinavian health innovation sector. We emphasize the role of institutional arrangements, the rules shaping resource integration, and the value-creation processes. Applying an institutional logic perspective, we investigate MedTech firms grappling with information-driven care and precision health in their business model innovations. Historical contexts and established institutional structures in the region play a pivotal role, offering nuanced insights into the collaborative approach needed for successful innovation.

Through a multi-case study involving early-stage MedTech companies and healthcare organizations in the Scandinavian healthcare landscape, we employ a grounded theory building approach. Interviews and workshops with company representatives and healthcare organization aligns with the conference theme's emphasis on research and development.

This study contributes to the discourse on value creation through innovation by unravelling coping mechanisms for misalignments in institutional logics during business model innovation in the Scandinavian health innovation sector. Our findings, rooted in the micro foundations of these misalignments, offer valuable insights for the evolving landscape of digital health solutions, contributing to collaborative efforts driving wealth creation at both organizational and national levels. 

We introduce Personal Construct Theory (PCT) and the Repertory Grid methodology to investigate deeper differences in the way government venture capital financiers cognitively process to evaluate 77 investment proposals from women and men entrepreneurs. In our study of financiers’ who are by law forbidden to discriminate, we reveal an underlying cognitive bias when evaluating women entrepreneurs. We find that the difficulty when assessing women's venture potential, as indicated by the greater thought complexity and the excessive weight financiers place on the person rather than the full business case, can be considered to represent the underlying thought mechanism that affect women's chances of securing financing. This finding suggests women entrepreneurs are looked upon as being role incongruent: misdirecting attention in evaluations. Evaluating women entrepreneurs is a cognitive challenge, because they deviate from the stereotype of an entrepreneur. © 2020 Elsevier Inc.

Researchers question the impact of governmental venture capitalists (GVC) compared to private venture capitalists (PVC), but we know little about why this difference occurs and if this criticism is justified. We observed a group of GVCs and developed a new model that describes the way that GVCs process signals pre- and post-decisions. Certain macro level factors severely undermine micro level performance, causing GVCs to financially underperform with respect to PVCs. This helped us to understand that GVCs do not make investment decisions in the same way as PVCs, and what undermines the performance of GVCs' decision-making processes. The main goals of GVCs are to promote investments in responsible SMEs, mobilizing societal impact. We discuss that the criticism of GVC needs to be more nuanced, as they have a different role than PVC in the financial system as providers of sustainable investments in responsible SMEs.

This paper explores how government venture capitalists approve or reject financing applications. Based on longitudinal observations, complemented by interviews, documentation, and secondary data, the findings show the limited influence of the regulative and normative logics (e.g., formal guidelines and accepted behavior) on government venture capitalists’ decisions. Instead, individual decisions are observed to be largely overshadowed by cognitions and heuristics, which dominate formal regulations and socially constructed group-level norms. Although official decision communications state that regulations have been followed, the evidence suggests that the cognitive logic dominates the funding decision-making process through a set of overshadowing forces that restrict the influence of the normative and regulative logics on funding decisions. This research has implications for venture financing and highlights the importance of cognitions in shaping venture capital decisions. © 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG. Part of Springer Nature.

Strukturella förutsättningar för landsbygdens entreprenörskap: Institutionella logiker och naturbaserade sociala innovationer 

Studien behandlar utveckling av landsbygdens entreprenörskap; hälsofrämjande tjänster med avstamp i djur och natur. Sociala innovationer krävs för att lösa utmaningarna med tillgången till personcentrerad och kostnadseffektiv vård samt att främja hälsa och social integration. Studier pekar på naturbaserade innovationer (NBI) som möjlighet för förbättrat välbefinnande, återhämtning och förmåga att hantera stress. Landsbygdens entreprenörskap har här en roll att fylla. De sociala innovationerna syftar till implementering av nya affärsmodeller, idéer, processer och tillvägagångssätt med avsikt att öka möjligheten att hantera hälsorelaterade samhällsproblem kopplat till psykisk ohälsa. 

Entreprenörskapet omgärdas av möjliggörande och hindrande strukturer för implementering och skalning. Denna studie syftar därmed till att öka förståelsen för ett hållbart entreprenörskap och de strukturella förutsättningarna som möter NBU-entreprenörer på landsbygden. Hur kan möjligheter tillvaratas, hinder överbryggas och nya strukturer utvecklas inom ramen för NBI- som sociala innovationer?

Studien baseras på intervjuer med NBI-entreprenörer på landsbygden och tar sin utgångspunkt i teoribildningen institutionella logiker för att förstå rådande strukturella förutsättningar. Ett flertal olika nyckelaktörer finns representerade inom ekosystemet för NBI exempelvis entreprenörer, hälso- och sjukvårdsorganisationer (kunder/ användare av tjänster) samt patienter (slutanvändare). Olika nyckelaktörer har olika behov och olika målbild. Agerande baseras på olika institutionella logiker. I studien identifieras entreprenörers upplevelse av olika institutionella logiker och hur det påverkar de strukturella förutsättningarna.

Detta tvärvetenskapliga projekt med forskare från Entreprenörskap och innovation, Redovisning- och styrning samt Omvårdnad förväntas bidra med kunskap om strukturella förutsättningar från olika perspektiv. Centrala strukturella förutsättningar identifieras på makronivå, mesonivå och mikronivå samt relateras till sociala och ekonomiska dimensioner. 

Strukturella förutsättningar för NBI konceptualiseras och bidrar med kunskap till det vetenskapliga fältet med social innovation. Kunskap kring institutionella logiker förväntas bidra till förståelse av ekosystemets strukturer, praktiker och relationer vilket kan främja nyckelaktörers samverkan samt utveckling av sociala innovationer.

This paper explores institutional forces in sustainability reporting (SR) practice, adopting an institutional field approach to an emerging field of sustainable real estate reporting of sustainable investments through the EU taxonomy, over-layering the mature exchange field of the real estate business. We study 29 listed real estate companies in Sweden and their process towards the first taxonomy reporting spring 2022. Three companies are obliged to report their future coverage of the legislation, while 14 report voluntary and 3 choose to report their degree of sustainability, thus showing clear elements of an emerging institutional field, and its active dynamics even where law is not obligatory. Similarly, the companies’ status of sustainability was evaluated from 2022 and previous years’ annual reports, shows that 16 appear to follow each other closely, 9 companies attempt to take a leading position while only 2 appear to attempt to downplay sustainability. Annual reports tend to have a character of mechanical compliance where new insight produced by taxonomy reporting is merely juxtaposed to other reporting standards, such as Greenhouse Gas Protocol. Only one company appear to attempt to establish crosscutting learning from the many sources of evaluation the different standards and legislation represent. Moreover, legislation is likely to have limited effect as the real estate companies are only limited dependent of Bank loans, having a series of other financial means at their disposal. Many companies also had their strongest financial year in 2021 and the timing of the arrival of a financial control instrument is less opportune. 

In the present study, we conduct a discourse analysis on a set of longitudinal observations of government venture capitalists' decisions to identify how gender stereotypes are socially constructed and activated when assessing entrepreneurs' potential in the financial distribution of venture support. The present study finds that female entrepreneurs risk receiving significantly less venture capital, which is caused by the language and rhetoric used that relates to gender differences when funding decisions are made. We consider and discuss the implications of our results for related research about distributing venture capital and the social constructions of female and male entrepreneurs. © 2017 The Authors

This study shows that women may be at a disadvantage when signaling that they are “entrepreneurial” to venture capitalists. We demonstrate how gender-based disadvantages may arise from role incongruence in entrepreneurship by analyzing multi-source data from 131 venture capital applications, venture capitalists’ cognitions, and their funding decisions. Our analysis indicates that women who signal an entrepreneurial attitude are more likely to elicit prevention considerations from venture capitalists, whereas men who signal such an attitude are more likely to elicit promotion considerations. We also find that promotion considerations increase the amount of financing, whereas prevention considerations decrease the amount of financing. Our study increases knowledge about the gendered cognitions that underlie implicit bias among investors and knowledge about the effects of regulatory focus on funding outcomes by exploring the interaction between gender and entrepreneurial attitude. © 2019 Elsevier Inc.

Male entrepreneurs are the beneficiaries of the overwhelming majority of venture capital investments. But are their ideas really better investment opportunities for VCs than those pitched by women? Not necessarily. In a two-part study, researchers observed that venture capitalists adopt markedly different stereotypical notions of female and male entrepreneurs during their decision-making processes. These stereotypical notions, which cast men as having traits better suited to starting successful companies, don’t hold up when compared with venture performance data from annual reports. In other words, there is no statistical evidence that many myths about female entrepreneurs are true.

Although often discussed, there has been limited effort to match venture capitalists’ construction of gender notions with specific facts about the entrepreneurs’ venturing activities. This study shows how stereotypical gender notions of both men and women entrepreneurs are embedded in venture capitalists’ assessments and analyses as well as explores whether or not these notions have substance based on actual performance. Drawing on interview data and statistical analysis of objective key performance information from accounting reports, we identify four myths in the evaluations of 126 venture capital applications for governmental capital that do not have any significant empirical substance. We discuss these findings’ implications for the study of myths in women's entrepreneurship. © 2018 The Authors

This paper is an exploratory paper that examines and suggests controls for patient flows in the Swedish medical system. A multi-study critical approach is used to first generate a better understanding of the relationship between the number of patients encountered by doctors and work related exhaustion. A number of theoretical concepts are developed from the interviews. Furthermore, as this area of research contains an abundance of flaws that have not truly been tested, we also tested such flaws by means of a small separate study (Study 2). This study focuses on if administration should absorb all the time of medical doctors. We expected a negative correlation, but found a positive one. Finally, we used constructs from Study 1 (i.e., interviews) to develop and test theoretical constructs. The proposed constructs reported a high validity. A final structural equation modeling approach confirmed that a greater work recognition is negatively correlated with patient performance, but that a high patient performance is also negatively associated with work-related exhaustion. Our results support a study found in another context suggesting that a lack of patient contact may create stress for both medical doctors and patients.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of sustainability (environmental, social and governance or ESG) practices on the financial performance (FP) of the Nordic financial industry. Design/methodology/approach: The study covers a sample selection of observations for a total of 152 firm-years for 39 financial companies within the Nordic region (Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway) for the business years including 2015–2019. Data regarding ESG and FP indicators were extracted from the Thomson Reuters Eikon database in July 2020. This is a quantitative study using regression and a generalized method of moments. Findings: Using static and dynamic estimators, the authors found both positive and negative impacts of sustainability practice on FP. The authors identified a negative relationship between ESG practices and FP (return on invested capital, return on equity and earnings per share). The authors identified a positive relationship between governance and return on assets. Originality/value: A key contribution to the accounting literature is the finding that there is a risk for financial firms in adopting sustainability practices, as they follow a logic that contradicts the purely economic rationale. On the other hand, the positive relationship between governance and FP helps not only companies but also regulators and researchers to understand the positive impact of a good governance structure. © 2021, ABM Fazle Rahi, Ruzlin Akter and Jeaneth Johansson.

By analysing 796 companies' data from 21 European countries, this research uncovered the nexus between institutional quality (IQ) and corporate sustainable performance (CSP). The relationship was theoretically examined with the lens of institutional theory and then empirically tested. The findings show that IQ has a positive and significant impact in safeguarding CSP, and firms’ characteristics play an essential preamble in this regard. We additionally found the heterogeneous impact of IQ on CSP. To come to a conclusion, we have applied random effect, two-step system GMM and quantile regression models. Our findings are consistent and empirically robust; therefore, the study disseminates key messages to policymakers and practitioners about the role of IQ in safeguarding CSP. © 2022 The Authors

The discussion of “whether it pays to be green” is ongoing. This review does not intend to solve the debate, rather it soothes it by contributing to the concept of “when it pays to be green.” By focusing on the shortcomings of existing literature reviews on the topic of corporate sustainability and financial performance (CSFP) in this hybrid review, issues were identified that had been overlooked earlier. In general, CSFP holds a positive relationship but in a time lag. Nonconclusive results about the relationship within CSFP are due to self-selection bias, endogeneity issues, and the use of multiple datasets and industry categories. Surprisingly, we also discovered that the impact of sustainability on financial performance is elusive in capitalist countries considered to be economically rational. Institutional and legitimacy requirements are a good starting point for shaping corporate behaviors in the short term; however, they might not be equally appropriate in the long term in cases when corporations shift operations to pollution havens. A multifaceted, synergistic interaction between governmental institutions, corporations, and other stakeholders is required—without imposing authority—to ensure durable sustainable development. © 2023 The Authors. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management published by ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the management accounting literature by reviewing how previous studies conceptualised the relationship between sustainability reporting and management control systems, analysing the main themes and discussing potential future developments of the sustainability reporting and management control systems (SRMCS) research agenda. This study builds on the structured literature review method by categorising and synthesising 15 years of research into the topic “sustainability reporting and management control”. Approximately 500 relevant articles were identified in the first round of searching Google Scholar and Scopus with the selected keywords, but after filtering and manual assessment, 45 articles were selected for the full review. Coding reliability was maintained with the K-alpha test. Our findings divulge that the researcher looks at the management control and the sustainability reporting agenda with just one eye. They either focus on management control or sustainability reporting. Very little research focuses on relationships. In addition, from the methodological point of view, we found that qualitative case studies and interviews dominate the field, together with commentary papers. We proposed a framework showing a complex and multifaceted relationship (a spider diagram) to conceptualise the synthesis of the literature. This framework is intended as a blueprint for the relationship between sustainability reporting and management control in order to design and redesign a company’s internal strategies on management control systems (MCS).

Purpose: This study aims to examine the factors that influence the relationship between sustainability and financial performance (FP) of the European listed companies.Design/methodology/approachThis study analyzed data from 795 companies in 21 European countries by applying linear mixed-effects multilevel regressions, a two steps system generalized method of moments and quantile regression models to uncover the links between sustainability and FP.

Findings: The past four decades have witnessed abundant research to determine the relationship between corporate sustainability and FP. Thus, conducting further research in 2023 could be seen as “reinventing the wheel.” Yet, earlier research considered firms as isolated entities with sustainability and FP being dependent only on that firm’s actions. By contrast, with the help of network governance theory, this study shows that a firm’s sustainability and FP depend on an interplay among interorganizational actors, such as institutional qualities, macroeconomic factors and an embrace of sustainability. Here, large firms play an essential role. Three significant findings are drawn. First, sustainability performance has a significant impact on FP in the European context. Second, the institutional quality (IQ) of the rule of law and control of corruption plays a crucial role in enhancing sustainability and FP, and finally the interaction of IQ and economic growth helps to increase companies’ market value (Tobin’s Q). The consistent and empirically robust findings offer key lessons to policymakers and practitioners on the interplay among multiple actors in corporate sustainability and FP.

Practical implications: A synergetic multifaced relationship between governmental institutions and corporations is inevitable for ensuring sustainable development. The degree of intimacy in the relationship, of course, will be determined by the macroeconomic environment.

Originality/value: In this research, this study theoretically and empirically identified that corporate sustainability and FP are not solely dependent on corporate operation. Rather, it is transformed, modified and shaped through an interaction of multiple actors’ trajectories in the macro business environment. © 2023, ABM Fazle Rahi, Jeaneth Johansson and Catherine Lions.

This conceptual paper provides a decision-making framework that enhances our understanding of how Do-It-Yourself (DIY) laboratory entrepreneurs execute ethical standards by dismissing fraud. Although our theory assumes that most DIY entrepreneurs are by nature ‘ethical’, we discuss how the unique nature of DIY laboratory entrepreneurship provides risks for fraud. Drawing on three ethical theoretical lenses, utilitarianism, deontology and egoism, our paper proposes different potential causes of fraud and motivates further analysis about why DIY laboratory entrepreneurship is an important context for the study of fraud. We contribute to theory and government policy by providing a conceptual framework that explains how entrepreneurial choices lead to three main types of fraud based on the dominant decision pathways. Further research and practical implications are discussed. © 2020 Elsevier Inc.

Sustainability Reporting (SR) has become an essential task for accounting scholars where over the last 30 years, substantial developments in the academic literature on SR have been seen However, the research on SR in the Construction and Real Estate (CRE) sector is in a nascent stage. To develop insights into current academic work and future research dimensions of SR, this study conducts a conceptual literature review for the CRE sector. The search and selection phase were performed in April 2024 yielding 49 articles from Scopus and Web of Science. The focus is on identifying dominant and unexplored perspectives; identifying key concepts, and connections between them, as well as the theoretical lenses applied. The contributions of this study are sixfold, as follows. First, it reveals that the literature on SR in the CRE sector is interdisciplinary and publishing in both accounting and non-accounting journals. Second, prior literature on SR of CRE, includes four dominant perspectives; disclosure diversity, practical barriers, rationales, and drivers of SR. Third, only a few links between these perspectives are outlined. However, it is argued to explore the interrelated links in all four perspectives. Fourth, the studies utilize few theoretical lenses, usually combining two or more theories, whilst most studies do not use any theoretical lens. Fifth, the institutional perspective is neglected in the literature. The studies address what, why, and how questions while there is a need for further investigation of when, where, and who. Finally, the outcomes of this literature review contribute to existing knowledge on accounting for sustainability. This study illuminates the views of how accountability drives sustainability accounting and how formal and informal institutions, may have a mutually reinforcing effect. The results of this review shed light on the critical concepts and perspectives relevant to SR in the CRE sector, hence contributing fresh insights into current studies and providing valuable guidance for future research and practice. © 2024 The Authors.

Critical to top management’s organizing efforts are the formal rules for how organizational members are to make decisions. However, employees can break top management’s decision‐making rules. Although scholars have investigated rule breaking at the individual and group levels of analysis, research is needed into how members come together as a group to break an organization’s decision‐making rules, and how groups’ rule breaking persists. To address this important research gap, we draw from a real‐time qualitative investigation of both the breaking and following of decision‐making rules to develop a group model that: (1) explains how an individual can trigger his or her group to break decision‐making rules to generate perceived benefits for the group and/or others external to the organization, (2) provides insights into the mechanisms by which rule breaking persists, and (3) highlights the norms of developing and perpetuating groups’ breaking decision‐making rules. © 2020 Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Our study uses cognitive mapping techniques to take into account how the same/opposite gender influences the cognitive evaluations of venture capitalists (VCs). Contrary to what has often been discussed in previous entrepreneurship literature, our results report women VCs evaluate women entrepreneurs more critically, and men VCs evaluate men entrepreneurs more critically. However, overall, the VCs' vaguer processing and lower rating of women's venturing compared to men's indicate a general structure of subordinating women's venturing compared to men's venturing. Ultimately, this contributes with an alternative view to explain what we see on the VC scene: women entrepreneurs are more likely to be rejected. We discuss implications of these results as well as implications for future study. © 2019 Elsevier Inc. 

Sustainable servitisation for organisations, as an indispensable part of their sustainable development, has increasingly come to the attention of both academics and practitioners. Whilst the servitisation literature is diverse and growing, our understanding of what sustainable servitisation is and a holistic view of how it is developed and implemented is limited. To address these gaps, we provide a systematic literature review enabled by an active machine-learning tool using 66 journal articles on sustainable servitisation. We have redefined the term sustainable servitisation based on an in-depth literature analysis. From the purview of sustainable servitisation as a mechanism for organisational change, we also synthesised what is known about sustainable servitisation into a holistic framework. Notably, rather than focusing on how sustainable servitisation can be better designed, as most existing studies have done, we argue that a dynamic and processual view of sustainable servitisation is required to advance theoretical and practical knowledge. © 2024

This chapter researches the reconfiguration of business models and ecosystems in relation to decoupling and resilience in the context of data-driven technologies via conducting a systematic literature review (SLR). New data-driven technologies have been largely introduced to different sectors. Digitalisation may lead to disruptive changes in any industry, including creating or entering new business models, lowering or changing entry barriers into markets and enabling the breakup of sectorial silos. Although the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated significantly the digitalisation of the healthcare sector, innovation adoption in the sector proceeds slower than in most other industries. This chapter reviews systematically the existing literature on this area and develops a research agenda aiming at answering the pre-set research question: To address the research question, an SLR methodology has been applied to provide insights, critical reflections, managerial implications and research road maps for future research. The chapter identifies the potential benefits of the use of data-driven technology in healthcare at organisational, institutional, ethical and macro-level dimensions. It discusses the adoption of digitalisation and healthcare management practices to enhance data-driven outcomes. Based on the conducted literature review and the bibliometric analysis of articles included in the chapter, an integrative conceptual framework for digital healthcare is suggested. © 2023 selection and editorial matter, Svetla T. Marinova and Marin A. Marinov; individual chapters, the contributors