Department of Strategy and Entrepreneurship

Academy of Management Journal Doi: https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2024.0294

Creating a compelling organizational purpose that motivates employees and resonates with stakeholders is a key responsibility of top management teams (TMTs). While much is known about how TMTs seek employee commitment, little is understood about the exact process through which TMTs develop and commit to an organizational purpose themselves. In this ethnographic study, we examine and theorize the mechanisms that promote the emergence of commitment to an organizational purpose for those who craft it. Through analysis of both successful and failed instances of facilitated purpose creation in companies across various industries, we show that emotional dynamics play a central role in the process. Diverging from traditional perspectives, we highlight the importance of negative emotions and the crucial role of coexisting conflicting positive and negative emotions. We also demonstrate that maintaining discomfort by preventing premature closure, carefully managing emotional transitions, and strategically using timing, spacing, and materiality can significantly enhance the emergence of commitment.

Research Policy 55(9) Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2026.105597

International Review of Economics and Finance 111 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iref.2026.105725

Journal of Management Studies Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.70141

Abstract This Counterpoint advances the study of organizational attention by proposing an ‘expansive’ rather than a ‘substitutive’ development of the attention‐based view (ABV) as proposed in the Point . While endorsing a richer understanding of attention, we caution against reinforcing unhelpful dichotomies between quality and quantity of attention. We argue that the ABV's perceived limitations, especially its treatment of attention as scarce and quantifiable, reflect Simon's legacy more than flaws in the ABV itself. We propose three directions for future research: rethinking resource allocation as emerging from competition among attentional sources; developing a thicker view of situatedness in which social dynamics shape attention beyond intentionality; and revisiting scarcity by examining why attention is limited, what kind of scarcity is involved, and when abundance rather than scarcity becomes problematic. By articulating a dialectical position that transcends the thesis of a complete turn to the quality of attending, as in the Point and the antithesis in Counterpoint 2 – stick to quantity and persevere in normal science, we offer a way forward that preserves the strengths of attentional research while enabling a more nuanced account of organizational attention.

Industrial Marketing Management 136 p. 99-115 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2026.06.004