本文精选了管理学国际顶刊《Academy of Management Review》近期发表的论文，提供管理学研究领域最新的学术动态。

Reflections on the 2021 AMR Decade Award: Navigating Paradox Is Paradoxical

原刊和作者：

Academy of Management Review Volume 47 Issue 4

Marianne W. Lewis （University of Cincinnati）

Wendy K. Smith （University of Delaware）

Abstract

Over the past decade, paradox theory has developed impressively. Such advances have been fueled by a rising collective experience of paradox—as change, scarcity and plurality intensify awareness of conflicting, interdependent and persistent forces—and by a global community of paradox scholars—notably creative, dedicated and mutually supportive. We are honored by the 2021 Decade Award. Our 2011 publication helped shape rigorous research while informing vexing challenges. In this manuscript, we reflect on factors contributing to this scholarly expansion, offering insights into how advances of paradox theory could generalize to the rise of fields more broadly. We then explore the accumulation of paradox scholarship, noting the convergence of key ideas and definitions, while recognizing the divergence of ontologies, methodologies, theories, and phenomena. Building upon expanding insights into how to navigate paradox, we categorize varied approaches into four sets of tools—assumptions (cognition), boundaries (structures), comfort (emotions), and dynamics (change)—presented within an integrative framework that we label the Paradox System. By doing so, we highlight the breadth of underlying research, depict interwoven and paradoxical relationships across categories, and surface a core insight that navigating paradox is paradoxical. Finally, we offer suggestions and provocations for future research.

Link: https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2022.0251

Synergy in Mergers and Acquisitions: Typology, Life Cycles, and Value

原刊和作者：

Academy of Management Review Volume 47 Issue 4

Emilie R. Feldman （The Wharton School）

Exequiel Hernandez （The Wharton School）

Abstract

Value in mergers and acquisitions derives from the synergistic combination of an acquirer and a target. We advance the existing conceptualization of synergy in three ways. First, we develop a theoretically motivated, parsimonious typology of five distinct sources of synergy based on two underlying dimensions: the level of analysis at which valuable activities occur and the orientation by which those activities are governed. The typology uncovers three novel synergy sources (relational, network, and nonmarket) arising from acquisition-induced changes in firms’ external cooperative environments and classifies two other well-known synergies (internal and market power). Second, we introduce the concept of synergy life cycles to explore how the timing of initial realization and the duration of gains vary across the five synergies based on differences in the post-merger integration required and in the control the acquirer has over the assets and activities combined by the merger. Third, we consider how the synergy types interact, yielding co-synergies when they complement each other and dis-synergies when they substitute for one another. This enables us to expand the traditional conceptualization of the total value created by mergers and acquisitions as the sum of each of the synergy types, their co-synergies, and their dis-synergies.

Link: https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2018.0345

Financial Reporting Choices, Governance Structures, and Strategic Assets: A Transaction Cost Perspective

原刊和作者：

Academy of Management Review Volume 47 Issue 4

Parthiban David （American University）

Ravi Dharwadkar （Syracuse University）

Augustine Duru （American University）

Abstract

We integrate the governance and measurement branches in transaction cost economics to highlight how differences in performance measurement choices influence the governance of strategic assets, thereby affecting transaction costs. We develop our theory in the context of corporate governance in firms. Financiers of debt and equity employ market and hierarchical governance to safeguard generic and specific assets, respectively. Financial reporting choices constitute credible commitments to generate performance reports that are used by financiers in exercising governance. We explain why conservatism (more timely information about potential losses) bolsters the market governance of debt to reduce transaction costs for generic assets, while smoothing (informative reports about future earnings) strengthens the hierarchical governance of equity to reduce transaction costs for specific assets. We outline a research agenda incorporating the implications of performance measurement from financial reporting choices for the governance of strategic investments.

Link: https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2019.0105

Nonprofit Organizations as Multisided Platforms

原刊和作者：

Academy of Management Review Volume 47 Issue 4

Jennifer Kuan （California State University Monterey Bay）

Jeremy Thornton （Samford University）

Abstract

Nonprofit organizations provide various important social goods and services. Consequently, management and strategy scholars are increasingly interested in the nonprofit sector. Existing theories of nonprofit organizations posit multiple profit-deviating objective functions to explain below-cost pricing but these theories raise problems for management and strategy. Importantly, the literature provides scant guidance on how nonprofit managers should select objectives. We propose that nonprofits can be modeled as profit-maximizers serving a two-sided market, also known as a multisided platform (MSP). We present a formal model to demonstrate how MSPs, so influential in the technology sector, can also explain nonprofit behavior. In our model of donative nonprofits, donors comprise one side of the market and recipients of services comprise the other side. This article addresses a long-standing theoretical question about what nonprofits optimize. Our approach also gives rivals the analytical tools to compete against nonprofits. The theory we propose can be used to explain nonprofit types and the differences between nonprofits and for-profits, addressing some of the important limitations of existing nonprofit theory.

Link: https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2019.0216

It’s All Fun and Games Until Someone Gets Hurt: An Interactional Framing Theory of Work Social Sexual Behavior

Academy of Management Review Volume 47 Issue 4

Shannon L. Rawski （Western University）

Anne M. O’Leary-Kelly （University of Arkansas）

Denise Breaux-Soignet （University of Arkansas）

Abstract

The #MeToo movement has brought increased interest and urgency to research on workplace sexual harassment (SH). Although previous SH research is rich, there remain unanswered questions about how SH is defined, how it develops, and how it can be mitigated. Further, recent research on social sexual behavior (SSB), which establishes potential workplace benefits of SSB, has posed the challenge of distinguishing between positive SSB and SH. In this paper, using an interactional framing approach, we present a theory examining the interactional process that determines the meaning of work SSB as either play or SH. Our proposed model is dynamic and helical, suggesting that social participants cycle through nonlinear phases of engrossment and sensemaking as they set, sustain, limit-test, and break frames around work SSB. This model is influenced by organizational culture (e.g., masculinity contest culture, organizational tolerance for SH) and individual motivations related to goal interconnections and interdependence. This model can be applied to explain how potentially serious SSB conduct comes to be interpreted as playful, how this interpretation is sustained and expanded, and how the meaning of the conduct may come to be reinterpreted as SH. The framework includes propositions to guide future research, and managerial implications to guide practice.

Link: https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2019.0316