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Perceived project transition support and employees' assessments of entrepreneurial project performance
... To successfully engage in corporate entrepreneurship-"the process whereby an individual or a group of individuals, in association with an existing organization, create a new organization or instigate renewal or innovation within that organization" (Sharma and Chrisman, 1999: 18)-firms must continuously evaluate their portfolios of corporate entrepreneurship projects and stop those projects that show low probability of success (Li and Chi, 2013;McGrath, 1999;Patzelt et al., 2020). Such project failure-"the termination of an initiative to create organizational value that has fallen short of its goals" (Shepherd et al., 2011(Shepherd et al., : 1230-can lead employees to identify possible roots of that failure, adjust their approaches to future projects accordingly (McGrath, 2001;Petrovski, 1985), and so potentially improve their individual performance. ...
... At the same time, the failure of entrepreneurial projects can instill substantial, longlasting negative emotions in the employees involved in them, which may decrease not only their motivation at work but also their affective commitment to their organizations Shepherd et al., 2011; for a review see Ucbasaran et al., 2013). Employees are better able to manage negative emotions from entrepreneurial project failure when their cognitive orientation oscillates between working through the failure experience and distracting themselves from this experience (Shepherd et al., 2011) and when they work in an organizational environment that accepts failure as a possible outcome of entrepreneurial projects (Edmondson, 2004;Farson and Keyes, 2002;Patzelt et al., 2020). ...
... First, extant research on managing entrepreneurial projects emphasizes the importance of individuals in leadership roles creating psychologically safe climates that tolerate failure (Edmondson, 2004;Farson and Keyes, 2002) and are socially supportive of employees (Patzelt et al., 2020;Shepherd, 2009). However, these studies do not explain when such leadership is particularly effective. ...
Drawing on Affective Events Theory and a sample of 112 matched manager-employee
dyads involved in failed corporate entrepreneurial projects, we develop and test a
model of when and how managerial leadership can foster high employee performance
in their subsequent endeavors. Through path analysis modeling, we show that
perceptions of supportive managerial leadership behaviors can limit the detrimental
effects of recalled negative emotions from prior project failures on employees’ job
satisfaction, and through job satisfaction, on their performance. However, the benefits
of supportive managerial leadership behaviors dissipate with more time since the
project has failed.
... Second, figures can be used to illustrate entrepreneurial processes, or the sequencing of decisions, activities, and/or events. Third, figures are vital in helping readers understand non-linear relationships, including curvilinear (e.g., Patzelt et al., 2020;Shepherd et al., 2003), contingent (e.g., Wiklund & Shepherd, 2003), and configurational relationships (e.g., Tryba et al., 2022;Wiklund & Shepherd, 2005). An additional advantage of offering such figures is that readers can more fully comprehend the effect sizes of different relationships (when the scale is provided on both axes). ...
... In addition to explaining how we measured each variable, we either describe each measure's source (if it is someone else's measure) and any changes we made to it or validate a new measure. These descriptions can be rather long at times, for instance, when detailing why we opted for a certain operationalization (e.g., ADHD ) or how we created and validated a new measure to test our hypotheses (e.g., Covin et al., 2015;Patzelt et al., 2020;Shepherd et al., 2011Shepherd et al., , 2013. ...
There are several excellent “From the Editor” notes, but in this chapter, we offer something more hands-on with a perspective directly applicable to entrepreneurship. We believe that sometimes papers are rejected, not because the research is fundamentally flawed but because authors miss some of the fundamentals of a strong paper. Therefore, this chapter aims to offer some advice on writing entrepreneurship papers. We offer (1) 11 simple rules for constructing an entrepreneurship paper; (2) six templates for what is to be included in each section of an entrepreneurship paper and provide illustrations of how we have previously executed these tasks; and (3) five heuristics for improving one’s writing quality.
... Second, figures can be used to illustrate entrepreneurial processes, or the sequencing of decisions, activities, and/or events. Third, figures are vital in helping readers understand non-linear relationships, including curvilinear (e.g., Patzelt et al., 2020;Shepherd et al., 2003), contingent (e.g., Wiklund & Shepherd, 2003), and configurational relationships (e.g., Tryba et al., 2022;). An additional advantage of offering such figures is that readers can more fully comprehend the effect sizes of different relationships (when the scale is provided on both axes). ...
... In addition to explaining how we measured each variable, we either describe each measure's source (if it is someone else's measure) and any changes we made to it or validate a new measure. These descriptions can be rather long at times, for instance, when detailing why we opted for a certain operationalization (e.g., ADHD ) or how we created and validated a new measure to test our hypotheses (e.g., Covin et al., 2015;Patzelt et al., 2020;Shepherd et al., , 2013. ...
... Entrepreneurial projects are efforts of entrepreneurs to identify, evaluate and develop potential opportunities (Patzelt et al., 2020). Pickernell et al. (2011) has studied the performance of entrepreneurial projects in terms of their funding, public support, and other external resources. ...
Due to the economic trends around the world and the strong support and guidance of relevant governments, the number of entrepreneurial projects has soared in China. It is necessary to construct a standard assessment system for entrepreneurial projects that is comprehensive and effective. This study extracted six dimensions and 23 criteria for evaluating entrepreneurial projects. This study applies the best and worst methods to obtain the weights of the dimensions and criteria. Then, the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution method was used to evaluate the entrepreneurial projects in an entrepreneurial competition. The results show that team quality, the business model and entrepreneurship ability are the three most important dimensions for evaluating entrepreneurial projects. The improvement of the innovating ability, the training of the team and the value proposition are the three keys to successful implementation of the entrepreneurial projects.
A review of the intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship literature suggests that there may be consistent organizational and Individual characteristics that lead to intrapreneurial behavior. To date, very little research exists which attempts to establish a theoretical framework or model that outlines the various components, Including Individual and organizational characteristics that affect the corporate entrepreneurship process. This paper proposes a model that explains the intrapreneurial process based on a review of past theoretical and empirical research.
Research Summary: U- and inverted U-shaped relationships are increasingly explored in strategy research, with 11 percent of all articles published in Strategic Management Journal (SMJ) in 2008–2012 investigating such quadratic relationships. Moreover, a movement towards introducing moderation to quadratic relationships has emerged. By reviewing 110 articles published in SMJ from 1980 to 2012, we identify several critical issues in theorizing and testing of these relationships for which current practice falls short. These include insufficient causal argumentation, incorrect testing, mixing up two different types of moderation, and not realizing that the curve can flip completely. For these and other issues, a guideline is provided which, when followed, may bring clarity to theoretical motivation and rigor to empirical testing.
Managerial Summary: Too much can be as bad as too little. Many relationships in strategic management follow an inverted U-shaped pattern, where moderate levels of a strategy lead to optimal performance. To gain deeper insights into the conventional wisdom that too much of a good thing can be harmful to performance, we discuss how such relationships can be better theorized and tested based on a review of articles exploring U-shaped relationships in Strategic Management Journal during 1980–2012. We identify several critical issues that require close attention and provide a guideline to further develop and validate this important managerial intuition.
Integrating research on the Pygmalion and Galatea effects with a group socialization model and theories of work motivation and interpersonal leadership, we delineated and tested a model of newcomer role performance in work teams. A two-month field study of 70 newcomers, 70 team leaders, and 102 teammates in high-tech project teams supported the model. In particular, newcomer general self-efficacy and experience predicted newcomer and team expectations, and motivational and interpersonal processes (captured by work characteristics, social exchanges, and empowerment) helped link expectations and newcomer role performance.
Organizational support theory (OST) proposes that employees form a generalized perception concerning the extent to which the organization values their contributions and cares about their well-being (perceived organizational support, or POS). Based on hypotheses involving social exchange, attribution, and self-enhancement, we carried out a meta-analytic assessment of OST using results from 558 studies. OST was generally successful in its predictions concerning both the antecedents of POS (leadership, employee-organization context, human resource practices, and working conditions) and its consequences (employee’s orientation toward the organization and work, employee performance, and well-being). Notably, OST successfully predicted the relative magnitudes of different relationships, influences of process variables, and mediational effects. General implications of the findings for OST and research on POS are discussed.
Current theory and research suggest a positive linear relationship between perceived organizational support (POS) and employees’ taking charge, or change-suggesting, behaviors. Via a sample of 89 subordinate-supervisor dyads, we hypothesize and test an inverted U-shaped relationship between employees’ POS and their taking charge behaviors and the likelihood that this curvilinear pattern is accentuated when employees anticipate costs related to their taking charge. Results support both of these patterns. We conclude by discussing our findings’ implications regarding future needed sensitivity on the part of managers as well as management scholars regarding how to gauge optimal levels of POS.
Team-based structures have become more widely used in organizations. Therefore, it is important for team members to perform well in their current team and to build skills and enthusiasm for working on future teams. This study examined team debriefing, an intervention in which team members reflect on recent experiences to prepare for subsequent tasks. Prior researchers have shown that facilitated team debriefs work, but they have not examined how to enable teams to conduct their own debriefs or studied how debriefs affect individual level outcomes. Therefore, we compared 2 team-led debriefing techniques: (a) an unguided debrief and (b) a guided debrief designed to incorporate lessons learned from prior debriefs. We collected data from 174 business students who were members of 35 teams from 9 sections of a Strategic Management course. Class sections were randomly assigned to one of the debriefing conditions, and teams completed 4 business cases over 10 weeks. A multilevel design was employed and a multistage model building approach was used to test the hypotheses using hierarchical linear modeling techniques. Results of this cluster randomized, quasi-experimental design suggest that the team-led guided debrief intervention resulted in superior team processes as compared to the unguided debriefing method. Team processes, in turn, related significantly to greater team performance and increased individual readiness for teamwork and enthusiasm for teaming. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.
Although extant studies have increased our understanding of the decision of when to terminate a project and its organizational implications, they do not explore the contextual mechanisms underlying the link between the speed at which a project is terminated and the learning of those directly working on the project. This is surprising because perceptions of project failure likely differ between those who own the option (i.e., the decision maker) and those who are the option (i.e., project team members). In this multiple case study, we explored research and development (R&D) subsidiaries within a large multinational parent organization and generated several new insights: (1) rather than alleviate negative emotions, delayed termination was perceived as creeping death thwarting new career opportunities and generating negative emotions; (2) rather than obstructing learning from project experience, negative emotions motivated sensemaking efforts; and (3) rather than emphasizing learning after project termination, in the context of rapid redeployment of team members after project termination, delayed termination provided employees the time to reflect on, articulate, and codify lessons learned. We discuss the implications of these findings.
Research examining the relationship between work stress and well-being has flourished over the past 20 years. At the same time, research on physiological stress processes has also advanced significantly. One of the major advances in this literature has been the emergence of the Allostatic Load model as a central organizing theory for understanding the physiology of stress. In this article, the Allostatic Load model is used as an organizing framework for reviewing the vast literature that has considered health outcomes that are associated with exposure to psychosocial stressors at work. This review spans multiple disciplines and includes a critical discussion of management and applied psychology research, epidemiological studies, and recent developments in biology, neuroendocrinology, and physiology that provide insight into how workplace experiences affect well-being. The authors critically review the literature within an Allostatic Load framework, with a focus on primary (e.g., stress hormones, anxiety and tension) and secondary (e.g., resting blood pressure, cholesterol, body mass index) mediators, as well as tertiary disease end points (e.g., cardiovascular disease, depression, mortality). Recommendations are provided for how future research can offer deeper insight into primary Allostatic Load processes that explain the effects of workplace experiences on mental and physical well-being.
Employees in many jobs encounter novel, ill-defined problems, and finding creative solutions to these problems may be the critical factor that allows their organization to maintain a competitive advantage. Solving problems creatively requires extensive and effortful cognitive processing. This requirement is magnified further by the complex, ambiguous situations in which most organizational problems occur. Employees must define and construct a problem, search and retrieve problem-relevant information, and generate and evaluate a diverse set of alternative solutions. Creativity necessitates that all these activities are completed effectively. It is unlikely, therefore, that creative outcomes will be realized without a large degree of support from organizations and organizational leaders. To provide this support, leaders must understand the cognitive requirements of creative problem solving. To this end, this article reviews the cognitive processes underlying creative problem solving and suggests avenues through which organizational leaders can facilitate these processes in an effort to enhance the creative problem solving of their employees.
Project failures are common. We theorized and found that although time heals wounds (reduces the negative emotions from project failure), it heals differently depending on the strength of individuals' specific coping orientations. Further, wounds are shallower for those who perceive that their organization normalizes failure. We conjointly consider learning from failure and affective commitment to an organization as determining how individuals move forward from project failure. Findings suggest that studies framing moving forward solely as learning from failure will likely overstate the benefits of a "loss orientation" and understate the benefits of both a "restoration" and an "oscillation orientation."
The study of firm-level entrepreneurship Is fast becoming a central Issue In the literature. Research on the topicshows Increased vitality and rigor. Recently, Covin and Slevin (1991) have suggested an Integrative model that explains the association between a company's entrepreneurial posture and Its external environment, strategy, Internal factors, and organizational performance. This article highlights several areas wherethe Covin-Slevin model should be revised and extended to better capture the nature of entrepreneurial behavior as well as Its antecedents and consequences.
We combine theory and research on alliance networks and on new firms to investigate the impact of variation in startups’ alliance network composition on their early performance. We hypothesize that startups can enhance their early performance by 1) establishing alliances, 2) configuring them into an efficient network that provides access to diverse information and capabilities with minimum costs of redundancy, conflict, and complexity, and 3) judiciously allying with potential rivals that provide more opportunity for learning and less risk of intra‐alliance rivalry. An analysis of Canadian biotech startups’ performance provides broad support for our hypotheses, especially as they relate to innovative performance. Overall, our findings show how variation in the alliance networks startups configure at the time of their founding produces significant differences in their early performance, contributing directly to an explanation of how and why firm age and size affect firm performance. We discuss some clear, but challenging, implications for managers of startups. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The authors reviewed more than 70 studies concerning employees' general belief that their work organization values their contribution and cares about their well-being (perceived organizational support; POS). A meta-analysis indicated that 3 major categories of beneficial treatment received by employees (i.e., fairness, supervisor support, and organizational rewards and favorable job conditions) were associated with POS. POS, in turn, was related to outcomes favorable to employees (e.g., job satisfaction, positive mood) and the organization (e.g., affective commitment, performance, and lessened withdrawal behavior). These relationships depended on processes assumed by organizational support theory: employees' belief that the organization's actions were discretionary, feeling of obligation to aid the organization, fulfillment of socioemotional needs, and performance-reward expectancies.
Four hundred thirteen postal employees were surveyed to investigate reciprocation's role in the relationships of perceived organizational support (POS) with employees' affective organizational commitment and job performance. The authors found that (a) POS was positively related to employees' felt obligation to care about the organization's welfare and to help the organization reach its objectives; (b) felt obligation mediated the associations of POS with affective commitment, organizational spontaneity, and in-role performance; and (c) the relationship between POS and felt obligation increased with employees' acceptance of the reciprocity norm as applied to work organizations. Positive mood also mediated the relationships of POS with affective commitment and organizational spontaneity. The pattern of findings is consistent with organizational support theory's assumption that POS strengthens affective commitment and performance by a reciprocation process.
Advances in causal modeling techniques have made it possible for researchers to simultaneously examine theory and measures. However, researchers must use these new techniques appropriately. In addition to dealing with the methodological concerns associated with more traditional methods of analysis, researchers using causal modeling approaches must understand their underlying assumptions and limitations.
The statistical tests used in the analysis of structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error are examined. A drawback of the commonly applied chi square test, in addition to the known problems related to sample size and power, is that it may indicate an increasing correspondence between the hypothesized model and the observed data as both the measurement properties and the relationship between constructs decline. Further, and contrary to common assertion, the risk of making a Type II error can be substantial even when the sample size is large. Moreover, the present testing methods are unable to assess a model's explanatory power. To overcome these problems, the authors develop and apply a testing system based on measures of shared variance within the structural model, measurement model, and overall model.
Based on the job-crafting perspective, we theorized a serial curvilinear mediated moderation model that links underemployment to two outcomes that benefit the organization: creativity and organizational citizenship behavior. A three-waved time-lagged survey of teachers and a field study of technical workers provided convergent support for this model. In Study 1, using data from 327 teachers and their immediate supervisors, we found support for our hypotheses that perceived underemployment had an inverted U-shaped relationship with task crafting and that this relationship was moderated by organizational identification. When the teachers' organizational identification was high, they engaged in more task crafting for the organization at intermediate levels of perceived underemployment. We also found that task crafting was positively related to creativity and organizational citizenship behavior. In Study 2, the simulation tasks for 297 technical workers provided convergent evidence for the idea that objective underemployment indirectly influences objective task crafting through perceived underemployment with the inverted U-shaped path from perceived underemployment to task crafting. We discussed the theoretical and practical implications of this research.
This study examined the differences between full-time self-employed and organizationally employed Canadians in a large metropolitan city on the East Coast with regard to their work and nonwork experiences. Data were collected by means of a structured mail-back questionnaire (n = 235). One-way ANOVA, MANOVA, and two-way ANOVA were used to analyze the data. The self-employed experienced higher job stress, nonwork satisfaction, and psychosomatic health problems, and spent more time in voluntary organizations than non-self-employed. No significant differences were found between self-employed and non-self-employed in job satisfaction and mental health. Limited support was found for age, gender, education, and martial status as moderators of employment-type and dependent variables. Results are discussed in light of the previous empirical evidence on self-employment and the quality of work and nonwork life.
Despite the widespread interest in the topic of organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs), little empirical research has tested the fundamental assumption that these forms of behavior improve the effectiveness of work groups or organizations in which they are exhibited. In the present study, the effects of OCBs on the quantity and quality of the performance of 218 people working in 40 machine crews in a paper mill located in the Northeastern United States were examined. The results indicate that helping behavior and sportsmanship had significant effects on performance quantity and that helping behavior had a significant impact on performance quality. However, civic virtue had no effect on either performance measure. In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the topic of organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs).
Effectively capturing opportunities requires rapid decision-making. We investigate the speed of opportunity evaluation decisions by focusing on firms' venture termination and venture advancement decisions. Experience, standard operating procedures, and confidence allow firms to make opportunity evaluation decisions faster; we propose that a firm's attentional orientation, as reflected in its venture portfolio, limits the number of domains in which these speed-enhancing mechanisms can be developed. Hence firms' decision speed is likely to vary between different types of decisions. Using unique data on 3,269 mineral exploration ventures in the Australian mining industry, we find that firms with a higher degree of attention toward earlier-stage exploration activities are quicker to abandon potential opportunities in early development but slower to do so later, and that such firms are also slower to advance on potential opportunities at all stages compared to firms that focus their attention differently. Market dynamism moderates these relationships, but only with regard to initial evaluation decisions. Our study extends research on decision speed by showing that firms are not necessarily fast or slow regarding all the decisions they make, and by offering an opportunity evaluation framework that recognizes that decision makers can, in fact often do, pursue multiple potential opportunities simultaneously.
We examine the relationships between bank branch employees' felt job stress, organizational commitment, job experience, and performance. Our findings are consistent with the attention view of stress. Employees with higher levels of affective commitment and higher levels of job experience channeled felt stress more effectively into sales performance. Felt stress had neutral to negative effects on performance for employees with lower levels of commitment and job experience. Commitment, like stress, was more strongly related to performance when employees had more job experience. The results suggest that consideration of moderators of the stress-performance relationship is important both theoretically and practically.
Contents: A.P. Brief, J.P. Walsh, Series Editors' Foreword. Preface. Roles and Role Transitions. Role Identities. Psychological Motives Aroused by Role Transitions. Attributes of Role Transitions. Role Exit. Role Entry: Situational Context. Role Entry: Individual Dynamics. With M. Fugate, Role Transitions and the Life Span. With G.E. Kreiner, M. Fugate, S.A. Johnson, Micro Role Transitions. Epilogue: Summary and Major Themes.
Research about transformational CEOs' impact on firm-level outcomes, particularly corporate entrepreneurship, has been equivocal, partially because the underlying mechanisms remain largely unexplored. Given that the individuals most closely influenced by a firm's CEO are its top management team (TMT) members, we focus on the CEO-TMT interface as a salient intervening mechanism. We posit that transformational CEOs influence TMTs' behavioral integration, risk propensity, decentralization of responsibilities, and long-term compensation and that these TMT characteristics impact corporate entrepreneurship. Data from 152 firms supported most of our hypothesized links, underscoring how the CEO-TMT interface helps explain transformational CEOs' role in promoting corporate entrepreneurship.
Knowledge creation is the key source of innovation in any company. However, it is a fragile process fraught with uncertainty and conflict of interest. The effective creation of new knowledge (especially tacit social knowledge) hinges on strong caring among organization members. Managers have several means to facilitate caring relations, including new incentive systems, mentoring programs, care as an articulated value, project debriefings, and training programs in care-based behavior.
This article presents a model which identifies entrepreneurial activity as a natural and integral part of the strategic process in large, established firms and offers a conceptual framework to help top management assess entrepreneurial business proposals. It also examines various organization designs for structuring the relationship between entrepreneurial endeavors and the corporation.
Corporate entrepreneurship managers often need to terminate projects to maximize their innovation portfolios' commercial prospects. Drawing on the attention-based view of the firm, we develop a model for how past project failure experience, the firm's growth rate, and their hierarchical level impact managers' attention to a project's fit with the corporate portfolio strategy and the balance of the portfolio when terminating projects. Using data from a conjoint study with 6,944 assessments of project terminations made by 217 managers, we provide insights into corporate entrepreneurship decision making and how portfolio-level, individual-level, and firm-level aspects interact in explaining project termination.
The concept of reciprocation, which focuses attention on the relationship between a man and the organization in which he works, offers the possibility of integrating a wide range of data and concepts from industrial psychology, sociology, and clinical psychology. It explains the psychological meaning of the organization to the man and vice versa, an area so far almost untouched by psychological investigation in industry. It therefore provides the basis for better psychological understanding of morale and motivation studies, of leadership and training problems, of job evaluation and personnel selection, and of research on role performance. It also offers the clinical psychologist the possibility of access to a wide range of data, which, heretofore without a dynamic base and unrelated to the psychology of the individual, had little relevance for him.
In this paper, we consider an organizational paradox inherent to corporate entrepreneurship; that is, the pursuit of entrepreneurial projects is necessary for organizational rejuvenation, renewal, and/or organic growth; however, the high failure rate of entrepreneurial projects likely has enduring implications for the project team members and, by extension, the organization. Drawing on the psychology and emotion literatures, we model the human capital costs of corporate entrepreneurship arising from the multiple failures of entrepreneurial projects. Specifically, we explore how and with what consequence negative emotions can accumulate across multiple failures; when this accumulation is most likely to occur; and what the nature of this accumulation is across organizational contexts, employee differences, and time. This theorizing complements extant scholarship focused on the financial benefits and costs of corporate entrepreneurship by investigating the negative impact of multiple project failures on employees.
Superior entrepreneurial creativity arises when teams are effective at both generating diverse alternatives and culling them to select the best solution. We develop theory about how the optimal group mood varies for the generation and selection stages of creativity. Using data from an entrepreneurial creativity task, we find that these stages require distinct collective moods. While an activated-pleasant mood promotes variance generation, idea selection requires a very different mood. Findings suggest that some teams fail to make transitions to the appropriate mood. We conclude by discussing implications for promoting entrepreneurial creativity. Copyright © 2011 Strategic Management Society.
This qualitative study of innovators in the superyacht industry blends longitudinal content analysis with narrative case vignettes to extend nascent theorizing about the antecedents and consequences associated with the arousal of entrepreneurial emotion. The empirically grounded framework induced through our research offers two key theoretical elaborations. First, it extends the existing set of theorized antecedents by highlighting the overlooked roles played by dramatic performances (staged or improvised) and ambient conditions (project, actor and venue considerations). Second, it calls attention to the consequences of emotional arousal for such entrepreneurial outcomes as generating novel solutions to specific problems encountered during the creation process, developing innovative end products, and fostering a general context for innovation.
Research and development (R&D) generates projects, but the question often remains: which projects should be exploited? Building on the innovation, strategy, and managerial cognition literatures, we use a conjoint field experiment to collect data on 4032 decisions made by 126 R&D managers to test how project attributes, strategic context, and managers' characteristics influence innovation exploitation decisions. Using hierarchical linear modeling, we find that (1) experience impacts project exploitation decision policies of middle managers more than senior managers, (2) divergent thinking across middle and senior managers increases with experience, and (3) experienced middle managers diverge from experienced senior managers in their decisions to exploit opportunities by placing greater emphasis on strategic context (relative to competitors and fit within the portfolio) and lesser emphasis on uncertainty (technological and demand). These findings have implications for the strategy and innovation literature.
A growing body of empirical evidence in the management literature suggests that antecedent variables widely accepted as leading to desirable consequences actually lead to negative outcomes. These increasingly pervasive and often countertheoretical findings permeate levels of analysis (i.e., from micro to macro) and management subfields (e.g., organizational behavior, strategic management). Although seemingly unrelated, the authors contend that this body of empirical research can be accounted for by a meta-theoretical principle they call the too-much-of-a-good-thing effect (TMGT effect). The authors posit that, due to the TMGT effect, all seemingly monotonic positive relations reach context-specific inflection points after which the relations turn asymptotic and often negative, resulting in an overall pattern of curvilinearity. They illustrate how the TMGT effect provides a meta-theoretical explanation for a host of seemingly puzzling results in key areas of organizational behavior (e.g., leadership, personality), human resource management (e.g., job design, personnel selection), entrepreneurship (e.g., new venture planning, firm growth rate), and strategic management (e.g., diversification, organizational slack). Finally, the authors discuss implications of the TMGT effect for theory development, theory testing, and management practice.
Obsessive passion is when people have a strong inclination toward an activity that they like, find important, and in which they spend significant time, but also feel internal pressure to engage in. Prior research has demonstrated that obsessive passion typically brings several negative consequences. The present study nuances the picture by showing that there are indeed conditions when obsessive passion can be beneficial and that it has an important role for project management. It develops and tests hypotheses on the role of project leaders' obsessive passion for project goals. Results support that challenging goals are attained to a greater extent if the project leader scores high on obsessive passion. Such obsessive passion, in turn, is a result of the project leader's competence (positive relationship) and the team's competence (inverted U-shaped relationship). These results have important implications for theory and future research on passion, goal theory, and competence in projects.