Journal of General Management

Journal of General Management, Ahead of Print. <br/>This study examines the linkage between the ESG performance of firms and managerial decision-making. It uses 8 years of ESG performance data of 110 Indian firms collected from the Thomson Reuters database. The study finds that high ESG performance mitigates a firm’s cost of debt more than equity cost. Furthermore, increases in ESG performance are associated with higher capital expenditures, lower investment cash flow sensitivity, higher cash holdings, and lesser payout of increased cash flows to shareholders. The findings are in sync with the Slack resources view, suggesting that the requirement of financial Slack for ESG-related innovations and risk-bearing is large and impacts the major managerial decisions of firms. While the effects of environmental and social performance on these decisions are similar to that of the composite ESG performance, governance performance shows an independent impact on the payout decisions of firms. The Granger Causality test reveals a bi-directional association between debt issues and ESG performance. The main results obtained from the multiple panel regressions are robust to additional tests involving lead-lag analysis. The overall findings of this study highlight the importance of ESG performance screening in the managerial decision-making process of investors who would not like to risk growth potential for a short-term increase in dividends.

Journal of General Management, Ahead of Print. <br/>Organizational growth has been studied extensively, leading to a growing reference to the concept of entrepreneurial growth (EG). However, the construct of EG is unclear, leading us to conduct a systematic literature review. Utilizing Organizational Change Framework, we reviewed and categorized articles on this subject. Aligning with the Four Disciplines of Execution, we found that when EG is used as a process, it is unique and robust for building a strategy used by both new and established firms and facilitating future entrepreneurship research. Implications and future research directions are discussed.

Journal of General Management, Ahead of Print. <br/>Unethical behavior within organizations is a very prevalent and costly problem. This study investigates employees’ unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB), which is unethical behavior with the intention to help the organization. Leveraging social identity theory and social exchange theory, this research evaluates the direct relationship between organizational commitment and UPB and the indirect relationship through employee work engagement. The theoretical model was tested using structural equation modeling based on a sample of 499 U.S. service sector employees. Results indicate that organizational commitment can motivate employees to engage in UPB. However, channeling the commitment into work engagement can reduce employees’ motivation to engage in UPB. As such, the findings extend the UPB literature while providing practitioners with a clearer understanding of the importance of monitoring organizational commitment alongside work engagement.

Journal of General Management, Ahead of Print. <br/>The outsourcing sector continues to experience significant growth but is still experiencing rising voluntary turnover due to loss of employees’ engagement. This systematic mixed-method illustrative case study focuses on how leaders can stimulate employees’ work engagement in outsourcing companies. This research is the result of 1 year of intensive fieldwork in an outsourcing organization and includes quantitative data from an online survey and qualitative data from focus group discussions. The results show that employees who have a higher level of work engagement also have higher intrinsic motivation, and the strength of this prototypical autonomous motivation in predicting work engagement is higher than that of other predictors. Leadership practices and relevant behaviors were identified that can be used in interventions in outsourcing companies to stimulate employees’ intrinsic motivation and work engagement.

Journal of General Management, Ahead of Print. <br/>The present study aimed to investigate the impact of two of the most commonly used strategies (i.e., cost leadership strategy and differentiation strategy) on the supply chain management efficiency (SCME) of companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE). The data about 215 companies were analyzed during 2014–2021. The sale per inventory ratio was used to calculate SCME. The study focused on cost leadership strategy and differentiation strategy. The results showed that cost leadership strategy and differentiation strategy have a significant and positive effect on SCME. Hypothesis testing based on the robustness checks confirmed these findings. In spite of the growing interest in supply chain management, there is little research on emerging economies compared to developed economies. There is also a significant gap of research on how business strategy could influence the performance of supply chains. The present findings will not only help company managers in developing countries, but due to the lack of similar research, they are of great help to managers in developed countries and the global community.