The ability to achieve ambidexterity is seen as an important prerequisite for sustaining competitive advantages in organizations. One means to this end is ambidextrous leadership, which, by definition, attempts to achieve an improved corporate outcome on the macro level through leadership behavior on the micro-level. We present here a meta-review of the field of ambidextrous leadership research that indicates that the studies therein lack explicit definition of the levels analyzed within this multi-level concept as well as links between these levels. We first address the development of static and dynamic multi-level models in management and sociological research. Second, we describe the multi-level characteristics of the concept of ambidextrous leadership. Third, we use the static and dynamic multi-level models to analyze how current research reflects different levels of ambidextrous leadership and the links between these levels. Based on our meta-review, we identify new areas for future investigation and we develop an agenda for systematizing leadership research by explicitly considering the micro and macro level of an organization.

PurposeMany industries are increasingly affected by or even invite the participation of external stakeholders in the innovation process. The concepts of open innovation use the ideas of external stakeholders to foster innovation and make the firms more competitive. However, little research has considered whether evaluations from external stakeholders also serve as a source for open innovation and, and if so, in which way they are integrated into the innovation process. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to explore how external evaluations influence the innovation process in the creative industries.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted an explorative qualitative study using a mixture of an inductive and deductive research design. The authors interviewed 14 artists in order to understand how external evaluations are integrated in the innovation process.FindingsThe paper formulates propositions on factors that influence whether and how external evaluations are a resource for the innovation process in micro-firms. The factors are the situation of the individual that is evaluated, the external evaluator’s credibility, the content of the evaluation, and the potential impact of the evaluation on the individual evaluated.Originality/valueThis paper provides exploratory insights into a so far neglected source of open innovation and its external evaluations in micro-firms in the creative industries.

Purpose - Many industries are increasingly affected by or even invite the participation of external stakeholders in the innovation process. The concepts of open innovation use the ideas of external stakeholders to foster innovation and make the firms more competitive. However, little research has considered whether evaluations from external stakeholders also serve as a source for open innovation and, and if so, in which way they are integrated into the innovation process. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to explore how external evaluations influence the innovation process in the creative industries. Design/methodology/approach - The authors conducted an explorative qualitative study using a mixture of an inductive and deductive research design. The authors interviewed 14 artists in order to understand how external evaluations are integrated in the innovation process. Findings - The paper formulates propositions on factors that influence whether and how external evaluations are a resource for the innovation process in micro-firms. The factors are the situation of the individual that is evaluated, the external evaluator's credibility, the content of the evaluation, and the potential impact of the evaluation on the individual evaluated. Originality/value - This paper provides exploratory insights into a so far neglected source of open innovation and its external evaluations in micro-firms in the creative industries.

Social networks are considered a contributing factor in the growth and performance of companies, especially in the context of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This paper examines how CEOs of SMEs perceive online social networks (OSNs) as beneficial for their companies. As CEOs strongly identify with their SME, the influence of the OSN on the SME is largely driven by the CEO's value perception of OSN utilisation. Results of a focus group discussion and survey among 181 owners and CEOs of Austrian SMEs, who are members of the OSN XING, revealed indeed that trust in the OSN and access to resources available only through OSN membership lead to satisfaction with the OSN. Although access to resources does not lead to growth itself, it is mediated by the perceived value of the OSN. Trust and perceived value of the OSN increase the intention of recommending the OSN to other business partners (i.e., word of mouth). These outcomes are largely mediated by company growth and the perceived value of OSN participation. Implications for the use of OSN are discussed from the customer's (i.e., SME's) perspective, as well as from the corporate OSN perspective.

This article investigates the process of knowledge sharing between project teams and uses a case study approach. This is especially relevant, as organizations face both the needs for separating work into projects and integrating knowledge created in projects into the organization. The results provided by the analysis technique of GABEK® indicate that, although projects create boundaries, employees and project team leaders use formal mechanisms and develop informal practices for knowledge sharing between project teams. Furthermore, the article identifies organizational cultural characteristics enacted in these practices that can stimulate the discussion in “knowledge culture research” regarding the relationship of organizational cultural characteristics and (specific) knowledge processes.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to provide insightful evidence of phenomena in organization and management theory. Textual data sets consist of two different elements, namely qualitative and quantitative aspects. Researchers often combine methods to harness both aspects. However, they frequently do this in a comparative, convergent, or sequential way.Design/methodology/approach– The paper illustrates and discusses a hybrid textual data analysis approach employing the qualitative software application GABEK-WinRelan in a case study of an Austrian retail bank.Findings– The paper argues that a hybrid analysis method, fully intertwining qualitative and quantitative analysis simultaneously on the same textual data set, can deliver new insight into more facets of a data set.Originality/value– A hybrid approach is not a universally applicable solution to approaching research and management problems. Rather, this paper aims at triggering and intensifying scientific discussion about stronger integration of qualitative and quantitative data and analysis methods in management research.

•Cultural antecedents may vary according to the specific knowledge process.•Knowledge sharing between project teams needs different cultural antecedents.•Time, structure, output orientation, and openness have positive impacts.

Knowledge sharing is a challenging process, especially in seasonal organizational settings, which are characterized by periodic and repetitive patterns in terms of business activity. As the literature provides little insight into knowledge sharing strategies in recurrently changing situations, the authors studied this process in an archetypal seasonal organization, the Colorado Music Festival (CMF), a classical music event. Festivals are characterized by (a) a limited number of staff who work year round and who need to develop and store relevant knowledge, and (b) seasonal staff who join for the festival season and who need to obtain and use knowledge quickly and efficiently. The authors content analyzed interviews with members of different organizational groups at the CMF. The results show that informal and flexible structures, depending on the level of participation of staff members based on their commitment, involvement, responsibility and seniority, are a promising approach to the sharing of knowledge with new and seasonal members. Informal ways of disseminating knowledge are discussed in the literature on "communities of practice"; using these strategies in a systematic way might provide a means for organizing knowledge sharing in seasonal settings such as festivals.

To keep up the pace of innovation organizations need to open the innovation process to all organizational members. Virtual worlds enable a new way to connect globally dispersed employees to jointly contribute to the company's innovation process. To explore the potential and current usage of virtual worlds as collaborative innovation platforms, we conducted a qualitative study at IBM. We interviewed IBM employees belonging to a special work group called "Web 2.0/virtual worlds" in order to gain experience in generating and exchanging knowledge, ideas and insights by virtually collaborating and interacting in SL. Our results show that SL bears the potential to connect organizational members as it provides media richness and facilitates social interaction. However, current virtual worlds still capture some problems. Improvements including platform stability, user interface, or security issues may be necessary to use virtual worlds more effectively and efficiently to improve the company's innovation process.

PurposeThe aim of this article is to provide insights into how knowledge sharing between project teams takes place (if formal channels are not provided) and which cultural antecedents influence this process.Design/methodology/approachThe author adopts a qualitative research design using a triangulation of methods (interviews, observations, company data and group discussions) to receive detailed results for one case study.FindingsThe findings show that knowledge sharing between project teams takes place even though top‐management did not include these processes in the formal work organization. Project team leaders as well as members share knowledge with other project teams by transferring boundary objects, interchanging team members and directly interacting. Furthermore, this study confirms some elements of a knowledge culture, but also discovers new cultural elements that are favorable and unfavorable to knowledge sharing between teams, such as personal responsibility, intrinsic motivation, top‐management's trust in employees, and output orientation.Research limitations/implicationsDespite the fact that only one case study could be researched with this level of detail, the results provide insights into a research area neglected thus far and show that not all knowledge processes depend on the same cultural antecedents.Practical implicationsManagers and team leaders learn that knowledge sharing between project teams enhances the efficiency of project work and organizational learning.Originality/valueThis study addresses a specific knowledge process, namely knowledge sharing between project teams, and discovers that specific cultural antecedents support and hinder this type of cross‐boundary knowledge sharing process.

Knowledge management and corporate culture are two managerial concepts that are often connected in articles, especially in knowledge management literature. It is, however, a rather complex relationship, as evidenced by the existence of various theoretical and empirical contributions as well as various implicit assumptions. This review therefore, aims at systemizing and clarifying different approaches towards the relationship between intraorganizational knowledge management and corporate culture. I identified three different perspectives on this topic. The first perspective regards cultural values as knowledge resources. The second approach deals with the characteristics of “knowledge cultures” that are regarded as a favorable antecedents for knowledge management. The third view assumes a different causal relationship because knowledge management initiatives can also modify cultural assumptions if employees are subject to positive experiences. This paper describes all three, discusses their underlying assumptions, and shows their implications for theory and practice. By comparing the three perspectives, this systematic review reveals that they are based on different theories and therefore, their results cannot be easily combined. Our conclusions show that being aware of these differences and providing a common theoretical basis opens up avenues for future research in this field.

Virtual worlds, as electronic environments where individuals can interact in a realistic manner in form of avatars, are increasingly used by gamers, consumers and employees. Therefore, they provide opportunities for reinventing business processes. Especially, effective knowledge management (KM) requires the use of appropriate information and communication technology (ICT) as well as social interaction. Emerging virtual worlds enable new ways to support knowledge and knowing processes because these virtual environments consider social aspects that are necessary for knowledge creating and knowledge sharing processes. Thus, collaboration in virtual worlds resembles real-life activities. In this paper, we shed light on the use of Second Life (SL) as a KM platform in a real-life setting. To explore the potential and current usage of virtual worlds for knowledge and knowing activities, we conducted a qualitative study at IBM. We interviewed IBM employees belonging to a special workgroup called 'Web 2.0/virtual worlds' in order to gain experience in generating and exchanging knowledge by virtually collaborating and interacting. Our results show that virtual worlds - if they are able to overcome problems like platform stability, user interface or security issues - bear the potential to serve as a KM platform. They facilitate global and simultaneous interaction, create a common context for collaboration, combine different tools for communication and enhance knowledge and knowing processes.

Corporate environmentalism has become a major topic in management research and practice. Despite extensive research on antecedents and consequences of corporate environmentalism, it still remains unclear why some firms engage voluntarily in environmental activities that go beyond regulatory compliance, whereas others barely meet existing regulations. In this paper, we study motivations and attitudes towards corporate environmentalism based on a qualitative content analysis of CEOs' letters to the shareholders. Using GABEK®, a new tool to analyse text based on the theory of linguistic gestalten, we explore country and industry differences. The results reveal remarkable differences between Germany and the USA, and between dirty and clean industries.

Following the concepts of crowdsourcing, co-creation or open innovation, companies are increasingly using contests to foster the generation of creative solutions. Currently, online idea and design contests are enjoying a resurgence through the usage of new information and communication technologies. These virtual platforms allow users both to competitively disclose their creative ideas to corporations and also to interact and collaborate with like-minded peers, communicating, discussing and sharing their insights and experiences, building social networks and establishing a sense of community. Little research has considered that contest communities both promote and benefit from simultaneous co-operation and competition and that both types of relationships need to be emphasized at the same time. In this article, it is argued that the firm-level concept of co-opetition might also be relevant for an innovation's success on the individual level within contest communities. Our concept of 'communitition' should include the elements of competitive participation without disabling the climate for co-operation, as numerous user discussions and comments improve the quality of submitted ideas and allow the future potential of an idea to shine through the so-called 'wisdom of the crowd'.

Understanding the dynamics of virtual communities has become an important issue for research. One concept that explains the participation in online communities is a sense of virtual community (SOVC), which is based on the offline equivalent sense of community (SOC) and describes a ''spirit of belonging together''. Although these two concepts are similar, their measurement is problematic. Inspired by earlier studies, which investigated whether traditional SOC measures are appropriate for measuring SOVC, we adopted the SOC index 2 (SCI2) recently developed by Chavis et al. in a virtual setting. Our aim was to determine whether the refined SOC measurement is more suitable for virtual communities than their forerunners. We tested the SCI2 in a popular German community on 312 respondents. Our results showed that a thorough measure of SOVC still needs further refinement. We also discuss possibilities for improvement.

Managerial influences on knowledge sharing and the importance of knowledge sharing in strategic success of firms have been well studied. Some research and theory have considered the effects of relatively malleable and situation-specific individual characteristics, such as motivation and the perception of vulnerability, on knowledge sharing. Insufficient research has considered the effects of enduring individual differences (i.e. personality traits) on knowledge sharing, although personality traits have been shown to be robust predictors of workplace behaviors, attitudes, and performance. We report a study linking two elemental personality traits, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness, to knowledge sharing via affective commitment and documentation of knowledge: Agreeableness influences an individual's affective commitment to the organization; both affective commitment and Conscientiousness predict the documentation of knowledge: and, affective commitment and the documentation of knowledge influence knowledge sharing. These findings integrate the extant, heretofore unrelated bodies of literature on knowledge sharing and on personality traits in personnel selection.

Companies focus on knowledge management initiatives to fully derive business value from their employees’ knowledge. However, they emphasize individual or organizational knowledge sharing processes leaving out the team focus. As many companies organize their processes around projects, knowledge sharing between teams becomes vital to ensure organization-wide learning. This study focuses on cultural elements that ensure that knowledge is shared across project boundaries. Therefore, an exploratory, qualitative study provides results that indicate that three manifestations and six values foster knowledge sharing across boundaries. These results are tested quantitatively (by means of structural equation modelling) in a broader setting. 1 Corresponding author

In order to fully derive business value from the knowledge of employees, companies introduced various knowledge management initiatives to overcome boundaries. However, knowledge sharing is still a delicate process because the willingness to share knowledge might be hindered by the lack of favorable cultural antecedents or functional and geographic distances between the persons involved. Existing studies concerning knowledge cultures have discovered isolated cultural values favorable for individual knowledge sharing. However, studies taking cultural elements and boundary spanning knowledge sharing into consideration are still missing. To close this gap, a qualitative and inductive study has been conducted in an Austrian engineering company. We researched cultural antecedents for knowledge sharing between project teams. The results provided by the analysis technique of GABEK indicate that there are several cultural elements that foster knowledge sharing across boundaries as well as starting points for managers and employees to develop a knowledge culture.

Knowledge sharing is an important process in creating competitive advantage. Previous literature mainly identifies environmental and organizational factors that influence the effective transfer of knowledge. However, the focus shifts to the analysis of personal determinants as antecedents for the individual’s engagement in knowledge sharing activities, like personality traits. In this paper, we introduce employees’ goal orientations (i.e. learning orientation or performance orientation) to the individual antecedents of knowledge sharing behavior. It is argued that learning orientation positively influences knowledge sharing, whereas performance orientation is a negative influence factor. As goal orientations are determined by personality traits, we can also confirm existing hypotheses regarding this relationship. The theoretical model developed in this paper is empirically tested on a sample of 124 engineers of an internationally operating engineering company, and significant relationships among the constructs were found.