Purpose This paper introduces the organizational immune architecture (OIA), a conceptual framework that explains how organizations detect threats, coordinate responses and develop resilience. Drawing on principles from immunology, this study aims to provide an integrative mechanism for understanding how organizations maintain stability and adapt under conditions of disruption and uncertainty. Design/methodology/approach This paper adopts a conceptual and interdisciplinary approach, systematically translating key immunological principles into organizational mechanisms. It integrates literature from immunology, organizational resilience and organizational behavior to develop a model consisting of structural defenses and dynamic processes. Findings The framework proposes that organizational resilience emerges from the interaction between two defensive layers: preexisting structural safeguards and adaptive learning systems. Across these layers, three core processes: detection, response and recovery and memory − enable organizations to monitor threats, coordinate action and institutionalize learning. The model also identifies three dysfunctions: hypersensitivity, autoimmunity and immune suppression, that explain common patterns of organizational breakdown. Originality/value This study advances resilience theory by offering a biologically grounded and interdisciplinary framework that links structural defenses, human agency and learning processes to explain how organizations sustain adaptive capacity.
Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate whether environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings are associated with analysts’ forecast accuracy and whether board gender diversity moderates the relationship between ESG ratings and analysts’ forecast accuracy. Design/methodology/approach The sample comprises 23,498 firm-year observations across 36 countries over the period 2011–2022, with data obtained from I/B/E/S, Thomson Reuters and Refinitiv. Generalized Least Squares with panel-specific heteroskedasticity is used as the baseline estimator, with model choice supported by a Wald test. Robustness checks include fixed-effects models with clustered standard errors, propensity score matching and a Heckman selection correction. Findings ESG ratings are associated with lower analyst forecast errors when board gender diversity remains below approximately 18.5% (or 20.7% for executive-level diversity). Beyond these levels, the relationship reverses, with higher diversity associated with reduced ESG informativeness. The interaction term (+0.0097***) reflects this pattern: ESG is associated with improved accuracy on less diverse boards, has limited net effect near the threshold and is associated with reduced accuracy on more diverse boards. This non-linearity is not captured under a standard linear specification and becomes apparent only through marginal effects analysis. Practical implications For firms, the findings suggest that board diversification efforts may be more effective when undertaken prior to large-scale ESG commitments. Analysts may benefit from considering board composition when interpreting ESG ratings. Regulators may wish to consider coordinating diversity-related requirements with ESG disclosure mandates rather than addressing them independently. Originality/value This study contributes evidence of a threshold-based relationship between board diversity and ESG informativeness using cross-country data spanning 36 countries. The identified threshold of approximately 18.5% may serve as a reference point for discussions on sustainability governance standards across different national contexts.
Purpose The managers working in volatile environments face an apparent paradox: coordination requires concise instructions and effective adaptation requires flexibility. In this paper, the authors introduce the concept of strategic ambiguity (SA) as a managerial intention that influences decision-making in uncertain situations. It analyzes the mediating indirect correlation between SA and firm performance by introducing dynamic managerial capabilities (DMCs) and analyzes digital transformation (DT) as a situational moderator. Design/methodology/approach The empirical test is conducted through a moderated mediation model tested using survey data collected from 393 Jordanian manufacturing small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), where analysis is done using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Findings Strategic ambiguity and DMCs are positively associated with each other and with firm performance. The SA-performance relationship has DMCs as its transmission mechanism. The DMC-performance connection is enhanced in digital transformation, thus acting as a situational amplifier, but not as a driver. The informal coordination practices explain how ambiguity is realized within the weak institutional setting of the emerging market conditions. Originality/value The research reconceptualizes strategic ambiguity as a choice by a manager and not a failure in communication. It builds on the body of existing literature on the topic of ambiguity tolerance by showing how ambiguity can lead to the activation of capability and clarifying the circumstances in which digital transformation can increase the effectiveness of managers in emerging-market SMEs.
Purpose This study aims to investigate the impact and underlying mechanisms of top management team (TMT) stability on firm digital development, addressing a significant gap in the literature regarding how stable leadership shapes corporate digital transformation. Design/methodology/approach Using panel data from Chinese A-share listed firms between 2012 and 2024, this research uses theoretical analysis and empirical modeling to examine the relationship between TMT stability and digital development. The study further tests mediating and moderating mechanisms, as well as contextual heterogeneity across ownership types, industries and regions. Findings The results indicate that TMT stability significantly promotes firm digital development; this effect operates through two key pathways – suppressing managerial myopia and enhancing resource acquisition capabilities – and is strengthened when executives possess an information technology background or operate in regions with higher government digital attention; the influence of TMT stability varies significantly across firm ownership structures, industry attributes and regional institutional environments. Originality/value This study contributes by systematically revealing the role of TMT stability in driving digital development – a previously underexplored area. It advances understanding of the micro-level mechanisms linking leadership continuity to strategic technological adaptation, while also highlighting important boundary conditions that shape this relationship in emerging economies.
Purpose This study aims to examine how sustainability initiatives are shaped under conditions of regulatory ambiguity and market turbulence, focusing on how executive paradoxical cognition influences the activation of dynamic capabilities and the translation of internal adaptation into externally recognized environmental, social and governance (ESG) legitimacy. Design/methodology/approach This study adopts a sequential mixed-methods design combining a sector-wide survey of banking institutions with in-depth qualitative interviews across diverse ownership forms. Structural relationships are examined using partial least squares structural equation modelling, while qualitative pattern matching is used to interpret the cognitive and organizational processes underlying the observed relationships. Findings The results of this study show that environmental uncertainty strengthens paradoxical cognition, which in turn supports the activation of dynamic capabilities related to sensing, seizing and reconfiguring. Capability development alone, however, does not translate directly into enhanced ESG legitimacy. When paradoxical cognition is more pronounced, internal adaptation becomes harder to stabilize as external legitimacy, as ongoing experimentation and reconfiguration increase interpretive complexity and stakeholder scrutiny. Qualitative evidence further indicates that while paradoxical thinking facilitates learning and innovation, it can complicate the articulation of coherent and externally legible ESG narratives. Originality/value This study advances Paradox Theory by foregrounding cognitive tension as a mechanism shaping sustainability-related legitimacy processes. It also extends Dynamic Capabilities Theory by showing how capability activation unfolds under institutional constraints rather than under conditions of regulatory coherence. In doing so, this study explains why executive adaptability may simultaneously enable organizational learning and constrain legitimacy formation under uncertainty.
