Emotions play a critical role in shaping workplace experiences, influencing both individual behavior and organizational outcomes. One particularly intriguing emotion is schadenfreude, the pleasure derived from others’ misfortune, which influences workplace behaviors. Although workplace schadenfreude plays a significant role, research on this phenomenon is limited, resulting in unanswered questions regarding its influencing factors, development process, and impacts. To address this gap and advance research in management and organizational behavior, we draw on insights from psychology and social psychology to inform the study of workplace schadenfreude. Using this cross-disciplinary approach, we develop an appraisal-based framework and conceptualize propositions to explain how schadenfreude emerges and operates in organizational settings. The framework proposes that employees’ negative attitudes towards others and individual differences of employees, such as antisocial and dominance orientation, self-related vulnerabilities, and moral differences, lead to schadenfreude through cognitive appraisals across justice-based, social comparison-based, and identity-based dimensions, establishing a mechanism that explains why and how this emotion arises in organizational contexts. Also, the paper broadens the understanding of schadenfreude’s effects by emphasizing behavioral, motor, and psychological outcomes. This conceptual work provides a foundation for future empirical research and offers theoretical and practical insights.
Scholars have long suggested that time horizons profoundly influence and shape organizations. We conduct a systematic review of 136 articles on organizational time horizons across 40 years to synthesize this fragmented field. Our analysis identifies three perspectives—time horizons as (1) intertemporal trade-off, (2) embedded temporal frame, and (3) pluralities—and shows how they cluster into two broader views: dominant or multiple time horizons. Building on this synthesis, we introduce a multi-level framework that links antecedents, outcomes, and contingencies of organizational time horizons. Our analysis reveals a research focus on a dominant organizational time horizon, a shift from shareholder- to stakeholder-oriented approaches, and a static, unidirectional view of time horizons. In response, we propose a future research agenda organized around studying time horizons at levels and across levels. We highlight the need to investigate how organizations manage horizon portfolios, navigate fluctuations between dominant and multiple horizons, and address the temporal complexity that integrates different perspectives across organizational levels. By reframing time horizons through the lens of dominant and multiple horizons, our review provides a foundation for advancing temporality research in management and organization studies.
Economic downturns, technological change, and increasing cost pressure are shaping a business environment marked by uncertainty, which manifests in various ways, including extensive downsizing measures in the form of headcount reductions. Given the far-reaching social and economic implications of these measures—extending well beyond the boundaries of the implementing firms—an in-depth analysis of the downsizing phenomenon is essential and remains the subject of ongoing academic debate. While existing literature has comprehensively analyzed investor- and workforce-related perspectives on downsizing, research on other stakeholder groups remains fragmented. Considering the increasing interconnectedness of companies and their non-investor, non-workforce stakeholders, this gap has led scholars from several research streams to raise the question: Who else cares? Our systematic literature review of 82 studies addresses this question by providing a comprehensive integration of so-far neglected stakeholder perspectives on downsizing. Building on stakeholder theory, we develop a novel theoretical lens to analyze the existing research systematically. Subsequently, applying a concept development approach, we identify a five-fold stakeholder typology, shaping the downsizing process: (1) Contextual Shapers, (2) Gatekeeping Negotiators, (3) Reputational Sanctioners, (4) Adaptive Responders, and (5) Disempowered Actors. These stakeholder types are thoroughly examined and conceptualized in a Phased Downsizing Stakeholder Engagement model. Our model extends existing downsizing frameworks by incorporating the perspectives of previously underrepresented stakeholders. It offers a promising foundation for research on stakeholder participation and interactions in downsizing processes and provides practitioners with valuable insights into the dynamics of stakeholder involvement in the downsizing context.
Flexible work arrangements (FWA) have gained momentum in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, prompting debates on whether employees should return to the office or continue working remotely. At the centre of this discussion lies innovative work behaviour (IWB), which involves generating, introducing, and applying novel ideas within organisations. Although many studies explore IWB, none has explicitly synthesised how IWB unfolds across office-based, hybrid, and remote working environments in the post-pandemic era. This paper addresses this gap through a systematic literature review of 60 peer-reviewed studies spanning organisational behaviour, information systems, and human resource management. The synthesis identifies key infrastructural factors (spatial and technological) and human-organisational factors (institutional, social, cognitive, and organisational) that drive or hinder IWB in working environments. Building on these insights, a framework of innovation-enabling work environments integrates the six factors with the three stages of IWB (idea generation, idea introduction, and idea application). The framework reframes the office-versus-remote debate as a question of proximity configurations, articulates a stage-differentiated logic in which cognitive and organisational dimensions emerge as the dominant direct drivers of IWB at specific stages while institutional and social dimensions operate predominantly as enabling conditions. It further extends Boschma’s (2005) proximity framework through technological proximity as an analytically distinct sixth dimension. Practical implications and a future research agenda anchored in these three contributions are discussed.
Access to sufficient and high-quality data has become a critical driver of innovation and competitiveness in today’s data-driven economy. However, many organizations, particularly smaller companies without an established user base, struggle to build or access adequately sized datasets. Yet, often a sufficiently large data base is not available. In this context, the concept of data ecosystems gained traction. Data ecosystems describe a distinct form of digital ecosystems in which data takes the role of the central product. Data ecosystems provide a potential solution to the need for data by facilitating the access. However, these ecosystems need to maintain the sovereignty of the data-generating, private consumer. It is of utmost importance to use or distribute data only with the consumers’ consent. Therefore, motivating users to share actively data with a data ecosystem is a relevant topic. For this reason, the aim of our work is to enable a more comprehensive understanding of the subject of incentive mechanisms fostering data sharing in data ecosystems. The study employs an extended systematic literature review to aggregate prior research in this domain, developing an extensive overview on the subject and highlighting future research avenues. We inductively identify five key dimensions of incentive mechanisms and five categories of influencing factors that may shape their effectiveness and users’ data sharing behavior. Building on these insights, we propose a conceptually grounded typology comprising eight ideal types of incentive mechanisms.
Literature reviews play a central role in shaping scholarly understanding and guiding future research. Ensuring the credibility of the reviewed literature is thus essential to maintaining the reliability of findings and to avoid inadvertently legitimize fraudulent academic practices such as predatory journals. This study illustrates the development of sample credibility considerations in business research based on 1329 literature reviews published between 2010 and 2025. While transparency and methodological rigor have improved over time, many reviews still apply sample credibility safeguards inconsistently or fail to report them clearly. The applied approaches, from the peer-review considerations to journal-level approaches and article-based assessments, are critically discussed. This study proposes a step-by-step guide that helps researchers select and justify appropriate sample credibility considerations based on their review’s scope and purpose. This approach offers a systematic foundation for improving the trustworthiness of literature reviews and contribute to advancing methodological standards.
Organizational Cronyism (OC) refers to the preferential treatment of individuals based on personal relationships rather than merit and is often considered a harmful form of workplace favouritism. However, existing research presents a more complex and fragmented picture, with OC exerting a differential impact on cronies and non-cronies across different leadership, cultural, organizational and governance contexts. Through a hybrid systematic review and thematic analysis of 61 studies, this paper clarifies how OC has been conceptualized, distinguishes it from adjacent constructs and develops a configurational understanding of its multifaceted nature. The central contribution of the review is a typology that repositions OC from a single phenomenon with mixed effects to a configurational construct with three analytically distinct faces: corrupt favouritism, social capital cronyism and adaptive coping cronyism. This typology demonstrates that OC’s consequences depend on combinations of leadership styles, cultural legitimacy, institutional safeguards, and actors’ positions as cronies or non-cronies. By integrating six themes from the literature, the review highlights how OC can simultaneously operate as a source of injustice, exclusion, and performance loss; as a relational resource that generates trust and coordination; and as a coping mechanism in contexts marked by weak support, uncertainty, or structural disadvantage. This paper contributes to HRM and OB scholarship by sharpening the conceptual boundaries of OC, explaining the conflicting findings in the literature through a configurational lens, and offering a theory-driven agenda for future research on OC as a dynamic, multilevel, and context-sensitive phenomenon.
Influencer marketing has evolved into a dynamic marketing strategy, yet rising consumer scepticism toward sponsored content highlights the importance of influencer authenticity. Though there has been considerable academic focus on the topic, the literature remains fragmented, lacking a unified conceptualisation, theoretical synthesis, and comprehensive framework. This study addresses this critical gap through a two-stage study. Study 1 conducted a domain-based systematic literature review of 211 research articles, using the TCCM framework to synthesise the fragmented existing literature. This study provides a thorough understanding of the influencer authenticity literature over the last sixteen years (2010–2026), including dominant theoretical frameworks, methodological approaches, key variables, and their relationships. Specifically, through thematic analysis, this study identified 9 research themes related to influencer authenticity. Study 2 incorporated 15 expert interviews to capture academic, industry, regulatory, and platform-specific perspectives that offer a nuanced understanding and managerial implications for authenticity’s role in influencer marketing. Insights from expert interviews validated the findings from the literature review, with significant thematic convergence. Integrating SLR findings with expert perspectives, the study proposes a holistic conceptual framework that positions authenticity as an embodiment of an alignment and interaction between the influencer, the brand, and their audience. This study also highlights detailed future research directions in the integration of new theories, cultural contexts, emerging technologies, and innovative methodologies. The study offers a robust foundation for advancing research on influencer authenticity in an evolving digital marketplace.
This systematic literature review examines how prudential regulation is associated with changes in bank management, with a particular focus on European small and medium-sized (SME) banks. Based on 105 publications, we synthesize evidence across strategy, profitability and performance, information systems and data governance, reporting, and regulatory technology (RegTech). The review suggests that regulatory requirements are discussed not only in terms of compliance costs; they change how banks allocate resources, design control infrastructures, and build digital compliance capabilities. For smaller institutions, these effects are amplified by fixed-cost burdens, legacy IT, limited governance capacity, funding constraints, and dependence on external providers. We contribute by integrating fragmented finance, accounting, and information systems research into a mechanism-based framework that organises regulatory pressure, managerial responses, and organisational outcomes. The key take-away is that regulation is increasingly discussed as a pressure associated with both economic constraints and socio-technical capability demand.
Accrual models have been central to the earnings management literature to measure the extent of earnings smoothing, yet consensus on the relationship between earnings and discretionary accruals remains limited. This systematic review investigates the statistical relationship between discretionary accruals and earnings to identify which accrual types are used to smooth earnings. In total, the study analyzes 85 accrual regression models reported in 13 accrual-modeling studies that report both an earnings proxy and discretionary accruals in the same regression model. The results reveal a mixed relationship between discretionary accruals and earnings due to the diverse nature of discretionary accrual types, indicating that all types of accruals are used to manage earnings. The results indicate that the modified Jones model of Dechow et al. (1995) and the performance matched model of Kothari et al. (2005) are most frequently used, whereas more recent work highlights the advantages of cash-flow-based models (e.g., McNichols 2002) in addressing accrual reversals and revenue-related discretionary accruals. The review concludes that methodological differences across all residual-based accrual models are small and that all models remain vulnerable to similar conceptual limitations. Future research should prioritize models that analyze accrual components directly rather than relying on residuals as proxies.
The rapid diffusion of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has triggered a transformative shift in how organizations approach decision-making. Despite growing enthusiasm and widespread adoption across industries, GenAI’s specific tasks and roles, and the ways in which they shape the interplay of human cognition and algorithmic enhancement in organizational decision-making, remain insufficiently understood. Addressing this gap, this study conducts a systematic literature review that identifies 68 relevant publications to synthesize and advance current knowledge on the integration of GenAI into decision-making. The study identifies 53 tasks performed by generative applications, aggregates them into 18 task categories, and maps these tasks and categories onto six recursive decision-making components: attention, intelligence, design, choice, implementation, and feedback. Building on the harmonization and translation of these tasks, we propose a typology comprising six active GenAI roles and one collaborative human-AI role. We then develop a processual framework that specifies how and when GenAI is embedded within organizational decision-making processes, delineating how generative applications support, augment, or co-perform decision-making activities. Our findings reveal a fragmented application landscape and highlight the limited integration of GenAI in the choice phase of organizational decision-making. By offering a structured typology and a processual conceptual framework, this study clarifies the evolving interplay between human decision-makers and generative technologies. In doing so, it provides a foundation for theory-advancing research and for more explicit and actionable managerial practice.
In this research, we aimed to explore the often-overlooked role of follower’s occupation in leadership behavior studies. Through a scoping review of 1,083 articles, we found that 23
In the context of accelerating digital transformation and mounting sustainability pressures, digital technologies (DTs) are frequently portrayed as neutral efficiency-enhancing tools capable of delivering environmental, economic, and social improvements across agri-food supply chains. However, the sustainability outcomes of digitalisation remain uneven and theoretically underexplained. Focusing on the wine industry as a structurally complex and stakeholder-intensive setting, this study reconceptualises digital transformation as a stakeholder-embedded phenomenon that redistributes power and legitimacy across supply-chain actors. Drawing on stakeholder theory and following a systematic literature review (PRISMA) of 35 peer-reviewed articles, we analyse how DTs reshape stakeholder relationships across grape production, harvesting, wine production, purchasing, and logistics. The findings reveal that digitalisation systematically reinforces the influence of actors who control data infrastructures and compliance mechanisms, leading to asymmetric sustainability outcomes. Environmental and economic sustainability are predominantly strengthened where digital monitoring enhances regulatory alignment and operational efficiency, while social sustainability remains comparatively mediated through transparency and reputational logics rather than structural labour improvements. By integrating digital transformation and stakeholder theory within a phenomenon-focused review, this study advances a relational explanation for the uneven sustainability effects of digitalisation and develops a theory-driven research agenda for digitally enabled sustainability governance in agri-food supply chains.
The scholarly discourse on political risks faced by Emerging Market Multinational Enterprises (EMNEs) has recently gained significant attention. Political risks include expropriation, corruption, breach of contract, sectoral salience, and several others. Therefore, the direction of the discourse needs to be shaped from the conceptualization to the exact nature and source of these risks. The study contributes by mapping the extant literature into three key themes and provides new avenues for future research. Through an interpretive literature review blended with both theory and a phenomenon, we examine the studies carried out over four decades, from March 1980 to December 2025, through Scopus and Web of Science databases, and we narrowed down to systematically reviewing 122 papers. Further, we have categorized and synthesized the existing literature on critical themes. The broad themes are firm internationalization, regulatory and legitimacy concerns, and mitigation and strategic foresight.We have also outlined various sub-themes within the three identified themes. Our study contributes to the discourse in two ways. First, we classify the discourse into timelines, emergent themes, and consequent sub-themes. Second, we look beyond the traditional International Business (IB) theories and try to decipher political risk from the perspective of Political Science and International Relations (PSIR) frameworks. This is one of the initial studies to provide a thorough understanding of the discourse on EMNEs and Political risk.
This study critically examines how eco-innovation is conceptualized and measured in the business and management literature, addressing persistent conceptual and methodological ambiguities that call into question its status as a genuinely distinct paradigm. Drawing on a systematic literature review of 313 peer-reviewed studies indexed in the Web of Science, the analysis evaluates dominant definitions and empirical approaches to assess whether eco-innovation reflects an ecocentric orientation or merely rearticulates earlier human-centered innovation frameworks under a greener label. The findings reveal substantial conceptual overlap between eco-innovation and related constructs such as green, environmental, and sustainable innovation, resulting in blurred conceptual boundaries and limited theoretical distinctiveness. Moreover, eco-innovation is predominantly defined in terms of relative reductions in environmental harm and assessed using firm-centered economic and operational indicators, reinforcing an anthropocentric orientation that prioritizes efficiency, competitiveness, and compliance over ecological integrity. Existing measurement approaches—ranging from surveys and patent data to secondary databases—rarely capture whether innovations contribute meaningfully to ecosystem restoration, regeneration, or respect for nature’s intrinsic value. To address these limitations, this study advances an ecocentric framework for conceptualizing and measuring eco-innovation grounded in strong ecological ethics. The framework is structured around three interrelated dimensions—Restoration, Regeneration, and Respect—and is supported by outcome-oriented ecological and governance-based indicators. By integrating critical conceptual analysis with practical measurement guidance, this research enhances theoretical clarity and empirical rigor and provides scholars, sustainability managers, and policymakers with a robust basis for evaluating innovation based on its ecological consequences rather than solely on its economic returns.
The rise of the term “quiet quitting” has generated growing scholarly and practitioner attention to a set of workplace behaviors in the post-pandemic workforce. These behaviors are commonly characterized by reduced discretionary effort and role-bound performance. Rather than reviewing disengagement-related behaviors broadly, this study systematically examines research that explicitly adopts the label “quiet quitting”. The aim is to understand how this concept has been defined, operationalized, and discussed in contemporary literature. Although the terminology is recent, quiet quitting (QQ) overlaps with established withdrawal-related behaviors such as disengagement, reduced organizational citizenship behavior, and burnout. However, literature distinguishes QQ in important ways: it is typically portrayed as intentional and self-regulatory, involving boundary-setting around work effort, whereas traditional withdrawal behaviors are often conceptualized as involuntary or symptomatic. Employees engaging in QQ maintain core task performance and organizational membership while limiting discretionary or extra-role effort. This pattern reflects a post-pandemic shift in subjective norms around work and greater emphasis on mental health, work-life balance, and rejection of overwork. This paper presents a systematic review of 50 empirical studies published between 2023 and 2025 that explicitly use the quiet quitting label. The review consolidated insights across multiple sectors and global contexts. Using the PRISMA methodology, this review identified key antecedents of quiet quitting at the micro (individual), meso (organizational), and macro (societal) levels. It further highlighted sector-specific patterns in healthcare, hospitality, and information technology, and synthesized the outcomes of quiet quitting in these sectors. A critical finding is that only a handful of studies explicitly applied established theoretical frameworks, such as Conservation of Resources (COR), Social Exchange Theory (SET), and Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) model. This fragmentation suggests a significant theoretical gap in current literature. By focusing specifically on the quiet quitting discourse, this study offers the first comprehensive, sector-wide review in the QQ domain. It mapped thematic developments since 2022 and proposes an integrative multi-level framework grounded in TPB, SDT, JD-R, and COR theories. Finally, the review outlines targeted organizational interventions to re-engage the workforce and concludes by offering practical implications and directions for future research in this area.
As organizations face increasing pressure for digital agility, Low-Code and No-Code Platforms (LCP/NCP) have emerged as a primary drivers for the democratization of software development. However, the current lack of terminological consensus complicates the synthesis of research findings and obscures strategic decision-making in practice. This paper addresses this conceptual fragmentation by conducting a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) and graph-based analysis of 383 definitions from 306 publications published between 2014 and 2025. Through word frequency and conceptual synthesis, the study establishes a consistent conceptual foundation for the field. It characterizes LCPs as process-oriented environments that enable both professional and citizen developers to leverage model-based approaches and minimal coding. Conversely, NCPs are defined as platforms that empower users without programming knowledge by eliminating code-based programming entirely through visual, drag-and-drop interfaces. The analysis further identifies a shift from instruction-based to intent-based development, influenced by emerging trends such as agentic-AI and “vibe coding”. By mapping 10 identified system classes across a functional taxonomy, this research offers a strategic framework for researchers to build a cumulative body of knowledge and for practitioners to mitigate the risks of shadow IT and technical debt in the era of hyperautomation.
Although research has explored the concepts of “governance” and “sustainability” in the context of permanent organizations, there is a paucity of studies that have combined and addressed them in the context of “temporary” organizations, such as projects. This article develops a taxonomic model and a measurement instrument for project governance in the context of sustainability based on a valuable but underutilized input: scientific natural language. The methodology comprises six stages, supported by text mining, natural language processing, and statistical analysis, to extract patterns from the scientific corpus (manuscript abstracts). The taxonomic model developed provides a more comprehensive conceptual framework for project governance in the context of sustainability, as it is based on four dimensions underlying the scientific discourse examined. Additionally, a measurement instrument that operationalizes the dimensions of the taxonomic model is provided; it comprises 26 empirical manifestations (items) that were content-validated for clarity and relevance. The model and the instrument facilitate the classification, evaluation, and adaptation of public, business, and educational policies in relation to projects from a sustainable perspective.
This short paper introduces a novel management concept, “Data Morgana,” to elaborate on cognitive and cultural influences of missteps and biases that can undermine data initiatives and lead to strategic errors. In addition to academic publications, the paper draws on eight real-world cases and uses an exploratory case study approach to support its arguments and managerial recommendations.
