Purpose Drawing on empowerment theory, this study addresses a gap in the literature on new ventures' scaling social impact by examining evidence from minority entrepreneurs. It explores how value circulates within entrepreneurial ecosystems by explaining how ecosystem support relates to entrepreneurs' ability to scale social impact and how, in turn, scaling social impact strengthens entrepreneurial resilience. Design/methodology/approach This research analyzes the relationships between ecosystem support and the scaling of social impact, using survey data from minority entrepreneurs. The study captures multiple forms of support from ecosystem actors and tests their effects on entrepreneurs' capacity to scale social impact and their resilience. Structural equation modeling is used to analyze data. Findings Evidence from minority entrepreneurs indicates that receiving diverse forms of support within the entrepreneurial ecosystem is positively associated with the ability to scale social impact. In turn, scaling social impact strengthens resilience in the face of entrepreneurial challenges. Results further suggest that the ability to scale social impact mediates the relationship between the multiplicity of support sources and entrepreneurial resilience. Originality/value This research contributes new insights into ecosystem-level dynamics by leveraging evidence from minority entrepreneurs. By integrating empowerment theory with entrepreneurial ecosystem perspectives, it advances understanding of how support mechanisms can be mobilized to promote both social impact scaling and entrepreneurial resilience.
Purpose We examine how types of secondary activities relate to primary job performance under bounded rationality and when managers should permit, encourage, or restrict them. Design/methodology/approach Using an archival dataset from professional baseball (1945–2018), we classify secondary activities as unrelated, teaching-related, or learning-related. We estimate Ordinary Least Squares and difference-in-differences models around the 1965 Major League Baseball (MLB) draft and measure performance with Wins Above Replacement Findings Unrelated and teaching-related secondary activities are associated with lower performance, whereas learning-related secondary activities are associated with higher performance than teaching-related secondary activities. When the job becomes more salient, these negative associations intensify, while the performance advantage of learning-related secondary activities widens. Research limitations/implications Evidence derives from a single industry and an observational setting. The cognitively aligned typology and boundary-condition logic refine Behavioral Theory of the Firm accounts of attention allocation and offer testable extensions. Practical implications Rather than adopting blanket rules, managers should evaluate secondary activities according to their cognitive demands, intensity, alignment with the focal role, and demonstrated performance consequences, and revisit these evaluations as the stakes of the primary role rise. Social implications Differentiated policies, coupled with equitable skill-building alternatives, can enhance worker wellbeing while protecting core performance. Originality/value We move beyond the “secondary activity versus no secondary activity” view by testing a cognitively aligned typology and its moderators, translating Behavioral Theory of the Firm into actionable policy guidance.
Purpose This paper examines how legal thresholds generate field-level coordination among organization-specific decision premises and how programmed compliance becomes politically consequential at industrial scale. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on Luhmann's systems theory, we analyse the US de minimis customs exemption ($800 threshold, 2016–2025) using aggregated public shipment data (1.36 billion packages by 2024), systematic patent searches across logistics firms and regulatory documents. We show how a legal rule operating within the conditional programming of customs determinations produces an exemption status that participating organizations reconstruct as linked, system-specific decision premises. These premises connect with purposive programmes through shared governmental and commercial infrastructure rather than firm-specific innovation. Findings Customs authorities processed the statutory criterion through Automated Commercial Environment and communicated an exempt or dutiable status; carriers, brokers and e-commerce platforms reconstructed that status within organizational programmes of the form IF exempt, THEN select routine n. No Section 321-specific patent was identified, corroborating parametric absorption into existing governmental and commercial systems. Entry Type 86 provides affirmative evidence of continual administrative and organizational adaptation. Parametric absorption reduced the salience of the legal distinction within individual operations while amplifying the political observability of its cumulative effects. Originality/value We advance the understanding of how legal thresholds become field-level decision premises through government infrastructure that no single organization controls. The absence of specialized patents suggests infrastructural invisibility: firms coordinate around convergent systems (government platforms, industry infrastructure, firm practices) rather than building proprietary threshold-processing technology. This creates commercial path dependencies that amplify disruption when premises are eliminated. While a policy may remain legally stable for years, this prolonged compliance does not protect it from sudden political scrutiny when operated at massive scale. Organizations operating through cross-border legal thresholds face political risk that neither compliance nor economic rationality fully controls.
Purpose The literature has attributed enterprise digital catering to corporate finance and corporate governance factors, including operational pressure and individual or organizational characteristics; however, the role played by enterprise strategy in this context has been overlooked. From the perspective of enterprise ownership, this study examines the heterogeneous effects of service-oriented transformation on digital catering and identifies the moderating roles played by public attention, equity incentives, and information transparency in this context. Design/methodology/approach This study employs a propensity score matching difference-in-differences method to examine how service-oriented transformation influences digital catering and explores the underlying mechanisms from the perspective of ownership. The study uses panel data obtained from Chinese listed manufacturing enterprises between 2010 and 2023. Findings The effect of service-oriented transformation on digital catering varies across different ownership structures. Service-oriented transformation stimulates digital catering among state-owned enterprises (SOEs) but has no statistically significant effect on non-SOEs. These findings indicate that SOEs have strong incentives to engage in digital catering because of their affiliation with the government administrative system. Further analysis reveals that, in the context of internal governance, both equity incentives and information transparency weaken the stimulating effect of service-oriented transformation on digital catering. In contrast, external public attention strengthens this effect. Social implications This study helps both policymakers and regulators understand the key drivers of enterprise digital catering in contexts involving policy-driven service-oriented transformation. These findings provide implications for regulating opportunistic disclosure practices and encouraging manufacturing enterprises to undertake substantive transformation. Originality/value This study addresses the gap in enterprise digital catering research related to strategic perspectives. It extends catering theory to the context of digitalization and deepens our understanding of how enterprises that exhibit different ownership structures respond differently to service-oriented transformation. The findings also provide empirical evidence to support a theoretical framework that links strategic transformation with noneconomic behavior. Additionally, this study has policy implications for efforts to implement service-oriented transformation and promote a sustainable digitalization.
Purpose This study examines how the literature has explained the relationship between enterprise risk management (ERM) and organizational performance (OP), seeking to understand not only whether ERM is associated with performance, but also how and under what conditions this association emerges. Design/methodology/approach Combining bibliometric and thematic analyses, this study examines 216 peer-reviewed articles published between 1999 and 2025 and indexed in Scopus and Web of Science. The bibliometric analysis maps scientific production, intellectual structure, and thematic evolution, whereas the thematic analysis examines quantitative studies that tested mediating and moderating effects in the relationship between ERM and OP. Findings The findings show a marked increase in the number of publications after 2017 and a shift in focus from firm value and financial performance toward governance, organizational culture, sustainability, emerging markets, capabilities, and measurement. The thematic analysis suggests that ERM tends to be associated with performance when risk information is converted into knowledge, governance routines, organizational capabilities, and strategic decisions. The relationship also depends on organizational, sectoral, institutional, and methodological contingencies. Research limitations/implications Reliance on Scopus and Web of Science, the exclusive use of English-language search terms, and the restriction of the thematic analysis to quantitative studies constitute the main limitations. Future research may broaden database and language coverage and incorporate additional methods, particularly qualitative and longitudinal designs. Practical implications The simplistic logic that “more ERM is better” does not appear to hold, since similar practices may be associated with different outcomes depending on available resources and capabilities, as well as organizational conditions. For policymakers and regulators, evidence from different institutional environments suggests that the formal adoption of ERM should not, by itself, be interpreted as evidence of its effective integration into the organization, particularly in settings characterized by greater institutional and resource constraints. Originality/value The article integrates bibliometric and thematic evidence within a multi-stage framework that conceptualizes ERM as a contingent and integrative organizational capability rather than simply as a formal risk management practice.
