RCAAP Repository

ABSTRACT Objective: This article proposes the study of leadership as cultural practice, adding the cultural dimension to research on leadership as practice. Originality/Value: While the advances of practice-based studies are considerable in organizational learning and strategy, research on leadership as practice is scarce. Within the field of leadership as practice, in which no research has integrated the cultural dimension, this article formulates and discusses leadership as cultural practice, because it understands that culture is a fundamental element in not only orienting how organizational practices are constructed, but also in how leaders make and base their decisions, as well as act and interact. Design/methodology/approach: The first step of this research is the review of the studies on leadership as practice. The second is to bring these studies closer to those dealing with cultural leadership and culture as practice. The third step is to discuss the implications of the proposal of leadership as cultural practice. Findings: The results of the research allow to enlarge and improve the study of leadership, considering it not only as practice, but also as cultural practice. Implications for future research are discussed.

ABSTRACT Purpose: This study proposes to map the barriers to scaling the microfinance industry in the U.S., as it pertains to home maintenance and improvement for low-income households. The selected context of analysis is the American city of Baltimore, due to the city’s high need for housing repair and large percentage of residents with limited access to finance. Originality/Value: Most research has discarded microfinance as a viable option for a housing market solution in the U.S. This paper discusses how the market of microfinance for housing repair could improve its financial sustainability seizing the smaller dollar value of repair loans, relative to housing purchase, and the high and recurring need for repair. Design/methodology/approach: Qualitative research was conducted on how microfinance for housing repair works in Baltimore City, leveraging secondary government and private research, along with interviews with lenders and borrowers. Data were analyzed through PESTEL framework, describing the macro-environmental context. Findings: The market for Housing Microfinance (HM) loan products in Baltimore matches the academic literature. Similar market demands exist as they relate to an increasingly aging housing stock. Lender supply of financing seems “healthy”, but it is mostly from philanthropic or government sources favoring “affordability” over financial sustainability.

ABSTRACT Purpose: Exploring the fit of employee roles and market dynamism, related to performance. Originality/value: In ecology the term ‘fit’ is used for the relation between organisms and their environment. Similarly, we conceptualized the relation between employee roles and markets: the employee-market connection, which may enhance SME’s strategic fit and performance. Design/methodology/approach: The empirical research was conducted at 48 SMEs with 221 respondents from the manufacturing industry (53%) and the service industry (47%) and applied a mixed model analysis. Findings: The employee role-mix is moderated by market dynamism: when market dynamism increases, the impact on performance of internal process roles decreases and the impact of rational goal roles increases. The results enrich the resource-based view with the employee-market-connection: the system is resilient, the roles adapt. A fit between market dynamism and employee roles is positively related to performance.

ABSTRACT Purpose: The objective of this study is to analyze the stimuli that lead women to leave formal jobs and seek self-employment. Originality/value: Changes in the social patterns and lifestyle of the population have made research aimed at career and gender gain relevance. There is, however, a lack of research on women who have left their organizations and the main stimuli of this movement, exogenously and endogenously driven, which are relevant as result of social and cultural factors intrinsic to the family environment that leads to a career change. Design/methodology/approach: The qualitative methodology of narrative analysis was used, adequate to the examination of the phenomenon in question. Findings: The following stimuli were highlighted: self-fulfillment and search for flexibility; professional achievement; personal challenges; high level of career ambition; and search for a feminine identity. The results diverged in relation to the existing literature, mainly focused on exogenous factors. Although mentioning difficulties in reconciling work with domestic activities, the professionals under study, previously occupying formal positions in companies, did not perceive or did not undergo any type of limitation at work, such as the phenomenon of glass ceiling, difficulties in working on the masculinized leadership model, family pressures, and fear of misuse of sexuality. Entrepreneurship emerged mainly as a career option as a form of personal self-actualization and not through imposition arising from social, family or labor difficulties.

ABSTRACT Purpose: The general objective is to critically analyze the ideologies and constructions of management ideology in the Internet blog called Geração de Valor (Generation of Value), behind the discourse of success. Originality/value: The pop-management phenomenon has been widespread in the Brazilian context. It leads individuals to look for formulas of excel and achieve success as entrepreneurs. One of the disseminators of this ideology has been Geração de Valor. This article innovates when dealing with thematic without prima donna behaviors or fanciful romanticism. Design/methodology/approach: This article aims to analyze texts available on Geração de Valor through critical discourse analysis (CDA). Findings: We conclude that the voice of the businessman and blogger Flávio Augusto da Silva is nothing more than one of several voices, including in administration, that seek to defend the cult of personal victory and disdain for the collectivist practices of social organization. This kind of analysis is still scarce in this field of study, as they require enriched readings of the text in terms of context and intertextuality. Critical analyses contradict hegemonic visions and sharpen the reader's critical sense. Also, they are useful in highlighting the cult following that Administration has been receiving by the media.

ABSTRACT Purpose: This work seeks to achieve two central goals: 1. identifying entrepreneurial praxis and understanding how they promote the involvement of different individuals in the certification of alembic cachaça and; 2. understanding how those praxis may entail changes in the strategies of an organization. Originality/value: The present discussion contributes to the debate regarding the fields of Entrepreneurship as Practice and Strategy as Practice, especially by exploring the gaps in both approaches through the theories of practice. Furthermore, the results serve as a reference for business development in the field of alembic cachaça. Design/methodology/approach: A case study was performed in an organization that manufactures alembic cachaça located in the state of Minas Gerais. For that matter, data were collected through interviews, observation rounds and documental sources that presented information on the dynamics of the actors involved (practitioners) regarding their engagement in cachaça certification practices. The data were collected through the method of thematic analysis. Findings: Results show that the practitioners in this organization were engaged in entrepreneurial practices for cachaça certification. Those activities also promoted significant changes in the productive and commercial practices previously established. Through the case studied, it was possible to understand the relationship between the webs of entrepreneurial praxis and the practices performed by the practitioners inside the organization as well as the engagement in other strategic practices, especially through the process of cachaça certification.

ABSTRACT Purpose: The self-evaluation of management training had the objective of verifying the influence of the learning support and of the management training offered to managers of a Brazilian federal autarchy on the expression of competences required for the performance of their duties. Originality/value: To reach this objective, the hypothesized theoretical model of research was elaborated having as variables the criteria of training impacts in the labor, measured both in depth and in amplitude, measured on what was the importance and contribution of two evaluated courses for the acquisition and expression of management-labor skills. Design/methodology/approach: Regarding the methodology, two courses were offered in the distance modality, in this autarchy, which dealt with strategic management and teams. Data collection was performed at a distance. The final sample (N = 291) was predominantly male, between 31 and 50 years old, and with complete graduate education. Findings: The results showed a valid and construct evidence for the used measures, as well as pointed out that learning support was an important predictor in the final empirical models. Having a constant investment in actions to improve learning support in the organizational environment, such managers can apply in their routines the skills acquired in a training situation, in a more persistent, impactful and aligned with the strategic objectives of the autarchy.

ABSTRACT Purpose: To analyze how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) coordinate collaborative research and development (R&D) projects through an open innovation strategy. Originality/value: This research was motivated by a theoretical gap in the management of collaborative R&D projects in open innovation strategies. The originality of the paper is to advance the understanding of coordination mechanisms that SMEs can use to manage open innovation and obtain more effective results. Design/methodology/approach: The research followed a qualitative approach, through three case studies of collaborative projects. Data were collected by means of in-depth interviews with eleven managers directly involved in collaborative R&D projects. Findings: Results demonstrate that the use of coordination mechanisms depends on the applicability of each project’s results, i.e., the higher the chances of a certain R&D project becoming a real product, the higher the importance given to the coordination mechanisms. On the cases observed, the coordination mechanisms were defined by the enterprise, not by external partners. In addition, it was observed that open innovation projects that the enterprise seeks for external knowledge to complement internal resources (outside-in) were considered more important than transferring internal knowledge to external partners (inside-out). The paper contributes to organizational theory by highlighting the relation between the characteristics of collaborative R&D projects and the coordination mechanisms used. Regarding the managerial contribution, results serve as a guide for entrepreneurs and managers of SMEs interested in coordinating collaborative projects based on open innovation processes.

ABSTRACT Purpose: To identify the influence of physical and psychosocial stress and health-related factors on the occurrence of work-related accidents, based on the National Health Survey (NHS) conducted in Brazil in 2013, through the execution of a retest in the Brazilian context, according to the model elaborated by Rommel, Varnaccia, Lahmann, Kottner, and Kroll (2016). Originality/value: Brazil has a high rate of workplace accidents. This retest, applied to the Brazilian context based on the German model of Rommel et al. (2016), allows obtaining information concerning the factors that may increase the chances of workplace accidents. Design/methodology/approach: Study with secondary data collected from the National Health Survey (Fiocruz, 2013). The model of Rommel et al. (2016) was used with the set of four blocks of variable factors. Logistic regression explored the physical, psychosocial, and health-related stress factors that may be more likely to occur in the workplace. Findings: 2.8% of the individuals have been involved in some work accident. Model 5 is the most explanatory of occupational accidents and factors such as high school level of education (OR = 2.082), full-time work (OR = 4.814), having three or more jobs (OR = 2.593), exposure to radiation, asthma (OR = 4.880), and alcohol consumption (OR = 4.620), according to each block typified, which most significantly increase the chances for the occurrence of work accidents. Managers and legislators should observe the factors that increase the chances of an accident occurring in order to develop prevention policies or actions.

ABSTRACT Purpose: To discuss how individuals working in public organizations may deal with individual and organizational values in their action, based on a dialogue among a contemporary notion of values, the concept of rationality and the parenthetical attitude. Originality/value: The possibility of a reflexive attitude triggers a discussion about concrete possibilities for human behaviors to be aligned according to instrumental patterns. Based on such assumptions, this work contributes to the discussion about action in the face of conflicts of values that emerge in public administration. Design/methodology/approach: This work refers to a theoretical article, that is, a reflection based on the consulting and interpretation of bibliographic material related to values and rationality, especially in the context of public organizations. Findings: The parenthetical attitude, which characterizes the rational agent, individuals can distance themselves from their own circumstances, guide their action according to their own judgment of values, and to bear the inherent tension of the life of reasoning. This argument is presented as a possibility to deal and to act responsibly in the face of conflicting values that emerge in public administration.

ABSTRACT Purpose: The objective of this research is to analyze the job satisfaction of public servants through career anchors. Originality/value: The contribution of this research is to apply a collection instrument in reduced version for the analysis of job satisfaction in the public service in the search of subsidies for proposals of improvements in work processes related to people management. Design/methodology/approach: We conducted the research with 671 public servants from the public education area. As an instrument of collection, we sent questionnaires using the electronic survey method and on paper. We based the questionnaire on the “Career Anchor Inventory” - adapted by Igbaria and Baroudi (1993) and the work by Netemeyer, Boles, and McMurrian (1996), termed as “Global Job Satisfaction”. Findings: The Security/Stability anchor obtained significant explanatory power with job satisfaction, but its representativeness was not the largest in the sample. Our practical contribution will be in the support to the construction of policies of people management, since the results indicated lower rates of satisfaction with regard to the aspects of promotion and with respect to the relationship with senior management.

ABSTRACT Purpose: To propose a classification of the different types of motivators, barriers and benefits existing in the processes of adoption of collaborative initiatives between companies within the supply chain. Originality/value: The results achieved assist managers to know the different types of motivators that drive the adoption of these initiatives, the benefits that can be achieved and the barriers that can be encountered, hence avoiding unsuccessful implementations. Researchers provide a better theoretical understanding of the different types of components present in these initiatives, paving the way for the search for empirical evidence. Design/methodology/approach: A systematic review of the literature, focusing on five initiatives: Quick Response (QR), Efficient Consumer Response (ECR), Continuous Replenishment Program (CRP), Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI), and Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR). Findings: The motivators for adopting these initiatives are related to the economic or market changes and/or the organization of these companies. The barriers are classified as cultural, behavioral and physical and the benefits are classified as primary and secondary; showing that the primary benefits must be achieved in order for the secondary benefits to appear. The work shows that despite the use of similar nomenclatures, the concepts used may be different for various contexts. In addition, the work shows that information and communication technologies cease to be a barrier and become a facilitator for companies interested in collaborating in their supply chain. The importance of human resources is also highlighted.

ABSTRACT Purpose: Our study compares methodological procedures of Brazilian papers with those of papers published in AMJ, OS, ASQ, JMS and SMJ in field of strategy from 2006 to 2015. Originality/value: Our study 1. identifies and describes methodological differences, offering a benchmark to improve future studies; 2. starts a discussion about the reasons those differences exist and their implications towards advancing the field of strategy; and 3. suggests forms of overcoming the current constraints and improving the quality of our research. Design/methodology/approach: Based on a systematic review, we analyzed ten Brazilian journals with the highest impact factor and five top journals. The search yielded a final sample of 1294 empirical papers. The data was analyzed through content analysis, for which our coding schema contained three dimensions: research design, measurement, and analytic approach. Findings: We found some methodological differences that may characterize Brazilian papers as testers and top journals as expanders, reinforcing results found by other studies, concerning the necessity of developing the Brazilian strategy field to be more competitive with the international field at large. Therefore, we concluded that it is desirable to improve our research methods as a field and possibly to overcome methodological differences, helping not only to develop theories but also to consider the Brazilian reality.

ABSTRACT Purpose: This article aims at explaining how a decision is made in the first management level, within five different organizations, from different origins - American, Brazilian and Chinese - in different branches of activity. Originality/value: This is an original work, since it goes beyond the frontiers of knowledge about the subject researched, both for its approach and for its practical usefulness in the day-to-day of the decision makers, being useful for both professionals - and decision making - and for companies - on how to improve the decision-making capacity of their managers. Design/methodology/approach: Fifty managers were interviewed, through the application of a qualitative exploratory research, with the collection of data through semi-structured interviews and content analysis as data analysis and treatment technique. Findings: One may conclude that the decision-making of the first level decision-making managers is more rational. Also, the organizational culture, among the studied variables is the one with the greater impact in the way this management level makes the decisions. This influence of the organizational culture contains three important elements: 1. the need of the manager to act procedurally, using the rules and standards of the company, 2. the use of supporting tools for the decision-making and 3. the learning from the current relationship - or from the past one - with their peers. To go deeper in the theme, we suggest the analysis of the influence of gender in decision-making, under the focus of rationality or intuition, in the first level of the managerial function of the organizations.

ABSTRACT Purpose: To understand how Embrapa Forestry Unit structure its business model to manage better the issues inherent to open innovation, oriented to the management of technology, science delimiting the elements of business models, and inbound and outbound open innovation and their aspects related to impact model. Originality/value: Embrapa Forestry is a research unit focused on technological research in the commercial and non-commercial forestry sector. The central objective of this work was to evaluate how a public company manages its business model in the practical exercise of open innovation. Design/methodology/approach: In order to understand the company’s business model, we adopted the perspective of triangulated single case study between semi-structured interviews and secondary data review based on reports and memos. This is all due to the technological relevance that used open innovation to design a model that today we understand as business models and impact business model, with the data collected and analyzed using the Atlas.ti software. Findings: The results indicate that the importance of Embrapa in the technological scenario in Brazilian agriculture has a significant socioeconomic impact. As a variant, we recognize that, for future research, other theoretical models could be used or adapted to the Brazilian empirical context to understand other organizational elements not addressed in the present study, which can explore cultural relations of the organization and the constitution of sense and meanings in the context of the innovation in public research companies.

ABSTRACT Purpose: The study presents a dynamic and complex procedural experience performed by small microbreweries in a cluster in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Thus, this article aims to establish theoretical propositions about coopetition strategies in this context. Originality/value: One of the gaps in the organizational studies is an understanding of how the process of developing a new strategic dynamic takes place. We consider coopetition to be a process that involves narrow strategies of simultaneous coopetition and cooperation between competing firms, in different areas and levels of interaction. Design/methodology/approach: Qualitative, exploratory research was conducted, using data triangulation and multiple methods. The case study technique was adopted to perform an in-depth examination of the phenomenon of secondary data collection, participant observations, and semi-structured interviews. Findings: The results showed that microbreweries are developing a strategic process of coopetition through greater sharing of resources, information, interactions, learning, and inter-organizational and intra-organizational knowledge, essentially in the stages of distribution and sales. The reports and evidence of the research showed synergy between the mechanisms and common goals found, thus demonstrating the dynamic of these small businesses.

ABSTRACT Purpose: The purpose of this writing is to analyze the activities of the retail supermarket in order to propose value to its clients, describing and associating them in their respective sources of value identified by a Value Creation Activities Model-Supermarket (VCAM-S). Additionally, we seek to identify the words that best represent the meaning of “proposing value” and the product categories of the supermarket that most clients value. Originality/value: The development and implementation of VCAM-S works to identify new value activities in the supermarket. Based on this application, it is intended to suggest activities that enhance the delivery of value to the client. Design/methodology/approach: Bibliographical research and field research were carried out. Twelve retail supermarket specialists were interviewed, including managers, entrepreneurs and consultants with at least eight years of experience in the supermarket sector. Through the qualitative approach, a script of semi-structured interviews with open questions was used. Later, the statements were transcribed and analyzed through the technique of content analysis. Findings: The VCAM-S identified 8 value proposition activities, 71 subactivities and five value sources. It was found that the product categories “FFV”, “Butcher” and “Bakery” were the sections that most proposed value to customers. The words that best represent the meaning of “proposing value” are service, convenience, location, variety and price. The results of the research contribute to the current debate on value and adapt the traditional VCAM to the retail supermarket. The VCAM-S allows for the identification and prospection of value propositions from the perspective of companies, associating them with valuable sources and activities.

ABSTRACT Purpose: To understand the boundary dynamics between organizational and individual identities that are negotiated in mergers. Originality/value: This was the first study to explore the interface of the boundaries between individual and organizational identities in merger contexts. Design/methodology/approach: The results are presented as a grounded theory based on interviews with 64 individuals from 16 different companies that have undergone mergers. Findings: We analyzed conflict, intrusion, distance and balance as consequences of internal and external identity boundaries’ (in) congruence between organizations and discussed how companies can minimize individual and organizational (of the merged company) identity conflicts through boundary work. Furthermore, we discussed the relationships between organizational and individual identity boundaries. The grounded theory we developed held that the degree of permeability between the internal and external boundaries between the organizations involved in a merger determines the types of episodic events and permanent states of conflict between organizational identities. In general, our study contributes to a holistic and comprehensive vision of how the boundaries between identities at the organizational and individual levels contribute to identity formation and the retention of individuals in the new merged organization. Suggestions for practice and for future researches are provided.

ABSTRACT Purpose: The study seeks to verify the influence of the board of directors’ independence on the performance of BM&FBOVESPA listed companies and to analyse which agency conflicts influence the performance of the board of directors. Originality/value: The factor of Brazil being an emerging country which lacks a strict legal system and control factors against corruption in these environments and the public sectors emphasizes the importance of applying the best corporate governance practice code in the main developed countries, reflecting the need for effective supervisory bodies that contribute to better financial performance of companies. Design/methodology/approach: The study involved a quantitative survey using a sample of 33 companies in the highway operating segment and 220 reports from 2010 to 2016. A fixed-effects regression model with panel data was used for analysis. Findings: The results were statistically significant for the board’s independence variables, which confirm the theory that the presence of independents as members of the board positively influences financial management and the company that holds the executive member and chairman of the board positions has a negative effect. The size of the board did not present statistical significance.

ABSTRACT Purpose: Under the assumption that managers have incentives to practice earnings management in optimistic moments, this paper aims to analyze whether analysts’ monitoring affects the relation between the discretionary accumulations (accruals) and investor sentiment in the Brazilian capital market. Originality/value: The mediating role of analysts in the relation between investor sentiment and earnings management was not identified in the literature establishing an important gap to be investigated, given the relevance of the reported earnings for the decision-making process of market participants. Design/methodology/approach: Fixed effects regressions (industry and quarter) were estimated from 2010 to 2016, using all data and the subsetting sample according to whether or not companies were monitored by analysts. Findings: The results showed a reduction of earnings management after optimistic moments, which differs from the initial expectation and such behavior is attributed to the presence of analysts following companies. The results were robust to alternative proxies for earnings management and investor sentiment. Analysts have an influence on accounting earnings supporting the best disclosure, so inhibiting the practice of earnings management in optimistic moments. Therefore, although previous studies suggest that earnings management practices increase during optimistic moments, market participants may consider, even in such moments, a better earnings quality when firms are monitored by analysts.