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Existing research on resilience varies across fields on analysis and presents scattered and diverse definitions. For example, the literature suggests that resilience in organisations is influenced by factors of various levels, occurring at both the individual and organisational level. However, there are currently few insights into how these different levels of analysis interact with each other. Therefore, focusing on resilience in the context of entrepreneurship, this paper aims to explore the relationship between the employee-level resilience dimensions (cognitive, behavioural and contextual) and entrepreneurs’ perceived performance, and the moderating role of entrepreneur resilience. A survey has been conducted with 195 entrepreneurs managing small family firms. Results confirm the hypothesis that the dimensions of employee-level resilience affect performance positively when the entrepreneur has a strong propensity towards personal resilience. Entrepreneurs may use these insights to increase awareness of their actions towards achieving organisational resilience and to implement practices aimed at increasing employee-level resilience.

The authors highlight the need for and develop a framework for engagement by reviewing the relevant literature and analyzing popularpress articles. They discuss the definitions of the focal constructs—customer engagement (CE) and employee engagement (EE)—in the engagement framework, capture these constructs' multidimensionality, and develop and refine items for measuring CE and EE. They validate the proposed framework with data from 120 companies over two time periods, and they develop strategies to help firms raise their levels of CE and EE to improve performance. They also observe that the influence of EE on CE is moderated by employee empowerment, type of firm (business-to-business [B2B] vs. business-to-consumer [B2C]), and nature of industry (manufacturing vs. service); in particular, this effect is stronger for B2B (vs. B2C) firms and service (vs. manufacturing) firms. The authors find that although both CE and EE positively influence firm performance, the effect of CE on firm performance is stronger. Furthermore, the effect of CE and EE on performance is enhanced for B2B (vs. B2C) and for service (vs. manufacturing) firms.

This study examines how firms’ decision-making logics and entrepreneurial resourcing behaviors combine to create value. We conduct a qualitative comparative analysis investigating configurations of effectuation, causation, and bricolage that are associated with firm performance. We consider firm size and development stage as contextual factors that differentiate the effectiveness of ways in which firms combine effectuation, causation, and bricolage. Using a sample of 305 Chinese firms, we find six solutions explaining entrepreneurial processes in high-performing firms. Based on a comparison of effective configurations across firm size and development stages, we theorize three paths along which small early-stage firms can evolve into large late-stage firms while maintaining high performance.

Using two national culture dimensions, we show that the influence of firms' corporate social performance (CSP) on corporate financial performance (CFP) hinges on culture. Specifically, CFP is higher in those firms where CSR initiatives are congruent with the cultural environment. CSP has a negative impact on CFP for those firms domiciled in countries which are individualistic and favor flexibility. These findings are amplified for those firms with low levels of foreign influence in terms of institutional ownership and sales. Using a dataset covering 5334 firms from 41 different countries, our results indicate that culture and CSR initiatives have a powerful interaction effect in determining CFP, suggesting that CSP's impact is dependent upon the culture of the country where the firm resides.

We study the role of individual CEOs in explaining corporate social responsibility (CSR) scores. We find that CEO fixed effects explain 59 percent of the variation in CSR scores, whereas firm fixed effects explain 23 percent of the variation in CSR scores. Specifically, firms led by materialistic CEOs have lower CSR scores, fewer strengths, and more weaknesses. Finally, we document that CSR scores in firms with non-materialistic CEOs are positively associated with accounting and stock price performance. In contrast, CSR scores in firms with materialistic CEOs are unrelated to profitability.

We analyze whether gender interactions at the top of the corporate hierarchy affect corporate performance. Using a comprehensive data set of family-controlled firms in Italy, we find that female directors significantly improve the operating profitability of female-led companies. To mitigate endogeneity concerns, we assess executive transitions using a triple-difference approach complemented by propensity score matching and instrumental variables. Finally, we show that the positive effect of female interactions on profitability is reduced when the firm is located in geographic areas characterized by gender prejudices and when the firm is large. This paper was accepted by Brad Barber, finance .

PurposeOver the past two decades, the topics of Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) have attracted an increasing amount of interest, reflecting a growing sensitivity of investors and corporations towards environmental, social and governance issues.Design/methodology/approachThis survey offers an overview of the academic literature on ESG/CSR through the lens of investors, institutions and firms. We first discuss the definitions of ESG and CSR and their relationship to each other.FindingsWe next describe how ESG is measured and note problems with the measurement of and quality of ESG data and discrepancies between different measures of ESG. We then turn our attention to investors, examining what types of investors invest in ESG and the role of institutional investors in ESG. From the firm's perspective, we discuss why firms themselves conduct ESG. We also summarize the literature on the impact of ESG on firms: how ESG affects firms' financing, disclosure and reporting activities and firm performance. Finally, we describe other consequences of the focus of ESG and CSR on firms and investors.Originality/valueThis survey offers an overview of the academic literature on ESG/CSR through the lens of investors, institutions and firms.

As public firms exploit their growth opportunities following their initial public offering, their assets in place increase, and they organize themselves optimally to operate these assets efficiently, which requires a more formal and less flexible organization than to generate new growth opportunities. Our theory predicts that, as a result of these inflexibilities, firms fail to fully replace their growth opportunities, so that their Tobin’s q falls with age and they invest less as they grow older. With our theory, competition in the market for corporate control and capital markets monitoring increase the rate of decrease in Tobin’s q , while product and labor market competition slow it down. We find empirical support for these predictions. We also find evidence that the decline in q is related to firm rigidities. The Internet appendix is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2016.2478 . This paper was accepted by Gustavo Manso, finance .

There is a growing body of evidence that customer satisfaction is predictive of firms' future financial performance. However, studies of this relationship have been limited to competitive markets, and monopolistic markets have been largely ignored. This study explores the large and important utilities market and exploits its unique regulatory requirements that generate detailed and reliable operating and accounting data to examine the overall relationship between customer satisfaction and utility profit and establish the causal mechanisms involved. Using data from U.S. public utility firms, the authors show that even when customer satisfaction does not affect future revenues, it does positively predict future profitability by reducing utility firm operating costs. More specifically, they find that higher satisfaction reduces the costs of utility firm distribution, customer service, and sales and general administration expenses. These findings and additional post hoc evidence are consistent with the notion that customer satisfaction (1) generates efficiency-enhancing benefits for utility firms by lowering the direct and employee engagement costs of dealing with dissatisfied customers and (2) fosters greater trust and cooperation from customers. This study has important implications for both managers and regulators and provides important new insights for market-based asset theory and regulatory economic theory.

Organizations have to strive in an uncertain and challenging environment. Hence, the role resilience played at work has been of special interest in the last decade, although empirical research is still scant, especially regarding the antecedents and the consequences resilience has. In this study we analyse the role corporate social responsibility plays towards employees (CSRE) in the promotion of resilience at work, and how resilience results in organizational learning capability (OLC) and firm performance. Structural equation modelling was used to test our model with a sample of 296 companies from different sectors. Results show that CSRE had a positive influence on organizational resilience, which in turn affected firm performance via OLC. Therefore, we tested the antecedents and consequences resilience had empirically, whose practical implications in terms of further human resource management activities are also discussed.