Businesses, Volume 1, Issue 3 (December 2021) – 6 articles

This study focuses on the intersection of power and gender in negotiations, which is seldom challenged in previous research. In an experiment with 72 negotiators, we consider issue authority as a proxy of power in negotiations and investigate how different power allocations affect the negotiation success. We learn that an increase in issue authority for one of the two parties does not necessarily lead to an increase in success. Especially, female negotiators rely on their negotiation power, rather than systematically improving mutual utilities. This article contributes to Emerson’s power-dependence theory, social role theory, role congruity theory, and gender role conflict theory by combining analyzing the impact of gender differences and power on the success. This study attempts to close the gap in the literature by focusing on the prospective function of gender role orientation in explaining gender differences in negotiation. The theoretical contribution is that females are not per se inferior in negotiations, but their performance decreases in scenarios of power asymmetries. On the contrary, unbalanced power decreases the likelihood of success. Negotiators cannot rely on a power advantage to increase their success. Full article

Abusing psychoactive substances has been a popular sport in the business world since the mid-19th century. First, they were appreciated for their stimulating or tonic effects, but later with psychedelics on the scene, their importance in subculture matured. In the last decade, it has become very popular to use LSD and cocaine in subtle doses, which provides users with a high that is enough to feel their psychoactive potential, but not as high that significant behavioral changes can be seen. Unlike regular use, microdosing is usually sufficient to affect a few without undue finish and withdrawal symptoms. It allows for abuse in the regular mode of the working week with a rest phase on the weekend. The diametric difference between the abuse of standard dosing and micro-dosing is also in the decreasing tolerance of the organism. Over time, an organism permanently exposed to microdosing of stimulants is sufficient to achieve a gradually decreasing dose effect that psychedelics develop resistance to. Case studies of such prolonged use were described and analyzed to show the role of microdosing in the creative world and for business managers. Initial field research, funded by the Newton University internal grant, focused on contamination mapping in office spaces for employees in target positions. Further research continues on the investigation of microdosing in conditions of corporate reality. Full article

During the COVID-19 pandemic, several issues have emerged as important in evaluating firm value and investment-oriented decision making. These issues include supply chain management, human rights, climate change, safety, and environmental risks. This study analyzed the sustainability reports of four business firms, each in four different countries, covering 2005/2006, 2013, and 2020. The analysis revealed similar factors and their dimensions that are critical for effective supply chain management: environmental and public sector issues, collaboration and cooperation with partner organizations, environmentally friendly production and development systems, human-centered operation plans, and risk management. While the study results delineated several key categories, there were variations among the four firms’ sustainability reports, indicating a need for global standards for comparative analysis. This study highlights the importance of sustainability, its effective measurement, and global standards for sustainability reports. As governments put pressure on businesses to demonstrate their commitments to environmental issues, many firms have embraced the concept of corporate social responsibility by practicing socially responsible codes of conduct throughout their supply chains. Full article

Prior literature finds that earnings management is negatively correlated with institutional ownership. The question is whether institutional investors drive down earnings management of the firms they invest in, or they choose firms with lower earnings management. In this paper, we use the instrument variable design of the Russell 1000 and 2000 indices reconstruction to obtain an exogenous variation in institutional ownership. We find that institutional investors do not drive down earnings management. Instead, institutions choose firms with lower earnings management when they make investment decisions. To further support the preference hypothesis, we add measures of institution preference in the panel regression and find that the negative relation between institutional ownership and earnings management disappears. Full article

Entrepreneurship usually takes place in innovative systems, mostly in cities. Cities, with unique features, may alter the impact of entrepreneurship. This paper employs multiple regression models to assess the impact of entrepreneurship on economic growth, considering the moderation effect of the city context. We use Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as the dependent variable and government spending, labor, fixed and financial capital and entrepreneurship as the independent variables. The data are from the 2003–2017 yearbooks of Zhaoqing, Shantou and Meizhou (three cities with distinct cultural and geographic features in Guangdong, China). We conclude that (1) the three cities’ GDPs highly rely on traditional factors of production (i.e., government spending, labor and fixed and financial capital) rather than entrepreneurship and (2) the city context of Meizhou is relatively unsupportive of its entrepreneurship contributing to the GDP, in comparison with that of Zhaoqing and Shantou. This study adds to the literature by empirically assessing and comparing three cities’ entrepreneurship development in China; it also informs scholars and practitioners of the moderation effect of the city context. Full article

The detrimental transboundary effect of COVID-19 exhibits an unprecedented circumstance for organizational resilience. This proposed research paper aims to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on small businesses (SBs) worldwide towards developing a strategic resilience framework. This framework enables the development of resilient strategies that SBs can utilize to survive and sustain their livelihood post-COVID-19. It is profoundly challenging to cope with the consequences of a devastating global pandemic with enormous negative economic side-effects and survive given reduced income, jobs lost, etc. This paper utilizes different models, such as Meyer’s Model, the PESTEL model, and the Comprehensive Organizational Model, to discuss the process of adaptations to market shocks. This adaptation methodology consists of different anticipatory, responsive, and rehabilitation phases, leading to organizational resilience. A conceptual framework is proposed through a qualitative analysis of existing academic literature concerning strategic resilience for small businesses facing environmental jolts such as COVID-19. By developing the proposed strategic resilience framework, other methods and theories, including the adaptability of small- and medium-sized organizations, will be addressed. Full article