Institutt for strategi og entreprenør­skap

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

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.

Socio-Economic Review

Economic sociologists have long emphasized a positive but loose coupling between status and quality, prompting scholars to rule out quality in the status research. However, limited attention is paid to the implications of their loose coupling per se. We underscore that the loose coupling implies a status-quality discrepancy: some actors’ status positions are over-ranked relative to their quality (status inflation), while others are under-ranked (status deflation). The status-quality discrepancy warrants attention because it can place important constraints on actors’ behavior. Specifically, we maintain that status-inflated actors may avoid unconventional, aspirational behavior to shield themselves from potential scrutiny and loss, whereas status-deflated actors embrace it to seek market recognition. Supporting this, our study of fine wineries in Bordeaux shows that wineries with deflated status engage more in aspirational pricing behavior, while those with inflated status tend to shy away from it. Our emphasis on the status-quality discrepancy makes important contributions to the literature on status and aspirational behavior.

Journal of International Management 32(6) s. 101430-101430 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intman.2026.101430

Prior literature has long established that firm performance depends on competitive positioning. While plausible, most studies on competitive positioning conceptualize that firms compete within a single, bounded marketspace (e.g., a country or industry). This approach, however, downplays firms' heterogeneous market expansion, which can largely reshape the returns to competitive positioning. To underscore the important role of market expansion, we specifically examine how firms' international expansion moderates the relationship between competitive similarity and performance. Analyzing a large sample of US firms from 1997 to 2017, we find support for our core claim: The adverse impact of competitive similarity on firm performance is alleviated when a firm has a greater level of international presence. We further observe that the negative impact is mitigated (albeit more marginally) when a firm's competitors are more international. These findings make important contributions to research on competitive positioning and international business.