Forged at Workforce Entry? CEO Imprinting, Information Uncertainty and Merger Wave Timing

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Abstract

We examine the imprinting effect of labour market conditions on a CEO's merger wave timing decisions. Based on a sample of 720 CEOs of US-based firms in merger waves between 1995 and 2018, we found that CEOs who started their careers during periods of poor labour market conditions tend to delay merger wave entry, while those who began under better conditions act earlier. We also found that the market uncertainty at the beginning of the merger wave decays this effect on CEOs whose workforce entry coincided with poor labour market conditions. This study contributes to the M&A literature by highlighting the long-term impact of early career experiences on CEO merger wave timing decisions and how those preferences may decay when faced with different conditions later in their careers.

‘Know when to fold ’em’: Policy uncertainty and acquisition abandonment

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Abstract

This study investigates how policy uncertainty affects the acquisition process during the post-announcement period. Utilising a sample of Australian mining project acquisitions over 1998–2017, we find that rising policy uncertainty after initial acquisition announcements is associated with delays in deal completion. In addition, prolonged high policy uncertainty plays an important role in triggering acquisition abandonment. Further, the stock market reacts less negatively to deal abandonment decisions made amid protracted policy uncertainty, and such reactions are associated with managers' explanations for terminating the deals. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of policy uncertainty as a ‘deal-breaker’ in acquisitions.

Attracted to the Hustle? An Impression Management Perspective on Entrepreneurial Hustle in New Venture Recruitment

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Abstract

Research has shown that impression management helps entrepreneurs access critical resources, but insights into applying concrete impression management techniques in new venture recruitment remain scarce. This knowledge gap represents a challenge for new ventures facing disadvantages in recruitment. We propose self-presentations of entrepreneurial hustle as an effective impression management technique for entrepreneurs. Such self-presentations to applicants increase the perceived competence and thereby the attractiveness of entrepreneurs' new ventures. We introduce applicants' individual entrepreneurial orientation and entrepreneurs' gender as factors influencing the relationship between entrepreneurial hustle and perceived entrepreneurial competence. Employing an experimental vignette methodology across three samples – a main sample drawn from mTurk (N = 613) and two additional samples from Prolific (N = 130) and German management students (N = 188) – we find that perceived competence mediates the relationship between entrepreneurial hustle and perceived organizational attractiveness. While individual entrepreneurial orientation weakens the effect of entrepreneurial hustle self-presentations on perceived competence, we do not find an influence of entrepreneurs' gender. This research indicates mechanisms and contingencies regarding the effect of entrepreneurial hustle self-presentations. Our results advance not only research on entrepreneurial hustle but also theory on interviewer-level impression management and new venture recruitment.

Eristic Legitimation of Controversial Managerial Decisions

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Abstract

This paper investigates the eristic legitimation of managerial decisions – managerial interactions to win without reasoned persuasion of the counterparty – in the context of career-advancement disputes. This mode of legitimation can be ethically questionable, particularly when powerful managers have the licence for it, while less powerful subordinates may have ‘no other choice’ than reasoned persuasion to address their concerns. The present study involves two sets of interviews to explore eristic legitimations and associated moral and political processes. The first involves former employees who had career advancement disputes with their former managers, and the second, HR professionals with expertise in dealing with employee complaints. Our analysis suggests that managing unfairness concerns can be destructive when managerial authorities argue eristically by exploiting ambiguities around performance, tasks, goals and moral principles. The novelty of this study is that it explores how ambiguities shape managerial handling of employees’ justice concerns and how eristic legitimations during ethical decision-making can have deleterious consequences for organizations and individual careers. While this study contributes to research on the rhetorical strategies of managers, it has important implications for interactional justice and ethical decision-making research.

HRM Knowledge and Practices in South Asia: It Is Time to Move Beyond US Centricity

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South Asian Journal of Human Resources Management, Volume 10, Issue 2, Page 204-223, December 2023.
The purpose of this article is to highlight the colonial/neo-colonial roots of most human resource management (HRM) knowledge in South Asia and urge scholars and practitioners in South Asia to develop and promote locally relevant indigenous knowledge and practices. We review the literature on decolonising management knowledge, particularly HRM, highlighting the continued tendency of HRM scholars to, knowingly or unknowingly, sustain colonial practices and promote neo-colonial knowledge and practices. While acknowledging that there may be some potential benefits of borrowing European/US HRM practices in South Asian contexts, we stress the limits of universality of such knowledge and argue for the need to develop alternate context-sensitive indigenous knowledge and practices. We encourage the creation of hybrid knowledge spaces for healthy interactions among diverse, even conflicting, perspectives with the hope of promoting pluriversality in the domain of HRM and management in general.