Systematic review techniques are about to become the “new normal” in reviews of management research. However, there is not yet much advice on how to organize the sample selection process as part of ...such reviews. This article addresses this void and analyzes this vital part of systematic reviews in more detail. In particular, it offers a critical review of systematic literature reviews published in the Academy of Management Annals and the International Journal of Management Reviews between 2004 and 2018. Based on this methodological literature review, the article presents issues to consider in the most critical choices during the sample selection process. Furthermore, this review identifies several descriptive features such as the mean number of research items included in systematic reviews, the mean number of databases used, and the mean coverage period of such reviews. These numbers may be used as benchmark figures in future reviews.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic literature review of available research evidence on risk management in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The authors aim to ...reveal ambiguities, gaps and contradictions in the literature, and to sketch avenues for further research.
Design/methodology/approach
– The authors follow the tenets of Tranfield
et al.
(2003) for conducting a systematic literature review. Following a key word search and an assessment of fit for this review, 27 papers were analyzed with respect to bibliographical information, research design and findings.
Findings
– The review identified various types of risks that may occur in SMEs. In addition, the publication analysis demonstrates the importance of a risk management process in SMEs and that the characteristics of SME owners have a significant impact on their business strategies.
Research limitations/implications
– Additional empirical research on risk identification, risk analysis, strategy implementation and control in the SME risk management process is needed.
Originality/value
– This paper is the first comprehensive review of the body of literature on risk management in SMEs.
With reference to recent debate about the increasing “an A is an A” mentality at business schools, I provide evidence on the prevalence of this mentality in North America versus other regions of the ...world (RoW). The evidence presented is derived from the data selection procedures employed in conducting systematic reviews of management research because a focus on specific journals in this selection can be seen as an artifact of the “an A is an A” mentality. My findings suggest that this mindset is more widespread in North American business schools and less so elsewhere. This implies that in order to find remedies against the detrimental effects of the “an A is an A” mentality, North American business school leaders and academics might find inspiration in other countries. In addition, I suggest that a part of the solution could also be directing PhD students toward a more inclusive selection of journals and articles in reviews of management research.
In recent years, non-family managers (NFMs) in family firms have received increased scholarly attention, and numerous papers related to this topic have been published. Since the last academic review ...of NFMs in family firms (Klein and Bell in Electron J Family Bus Stud 1(1):19–37,
2007
) was published a decade ago, an increasing number of relevant papers have been published. However, an integrative understanding of NFMs in family firms is still missing. An updated review in this area is useful for assessing the current state of the literature and for proposing fruitful directions for further research. For these reasons, this paper systematically reviews 118 papers relevant to the study of NFMs in family firms. The findings from the sample are organized, synthesized and analyzed with the help of an integrative framework we developed based on Gersick et al.’s (Generation to generation: life cycles of the family business. Harvard Business Press, Boston,
1997
) three-circle model separated into nine different clusters. In addition, we identify a broad array of important future research avenues.
Stable relationships with suppliers have been portrayed in the literature as having several economic and sustainability benefits. However, while a buyer firm's transformational leadership can be ...theorized to improve stable supplier relations, recent global business trends such as automation and globalization may endanger this stability. In this study, we therefore analyze the relationship between a buyer firm's transformational leadership and supplier relational stability and examine whether it is moderated by the buyer firm being affected by automation and globalization. We test our assumptions using data from a survey of German Mittelstand firms and confirm the moderating roles of automation and globalization. Our study therefore provides an updated and more nuanced understanding of how transformational leadership can affect supplier relational stability. Our findings also provide indications of how sustainable supplier relations can be achieved.
While stressing the relevance of context, the organizational resilience literature has so far not extensively examined resilience in times of healthcare crises such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. ...The Parasite Stress Theory of Values suggests that such pandemic crises have detrimental impacts on entrepreneurial activity due to social distancing and its effects on interaction, collaboration, and innovation. However, alternatives to personal contact now available thanks to digitalization, have not yet been examined. We expect entrepreneurial firms with more digitalized business models to show higher resilience to pandemic crises, especially those highly affected by globalization and more for non-family businesses than for family businesses. Based on a survey of German Mittelstand firms in the midst of the crisis induced by COVID-19, our findings broadly support our expectations and thus help qualify the Parasite Stress Theory of Values and contribute to a better understanding of organizational resilience in times of pandemic crises.
•The Parasite Stress Theory of Values states that pandemic crises reduce entrepreneurial activity due to social distancing.•Nowadays, however, there are alternatives to face-to-face contact thanks to digitalization.•We investigate whether companies with more digitalized business models exhibit higher resilience to pandemic crises.•We find that non-family firms and firms heavily affected by globalization exhibit higher levels of resilience to a pandemic if they had more digitalized business models before the crisis.•Our results help to qualify and extend the Parasite Stress Theory of Values to applications at the organizational level.
Purpose
Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) carry huge economic importance worldwide. At the same time, SMEs face specific challenges, some of which may be alleviated by employing accountants. ...However, research on the role and impact of accountants in SMEs has long remained fragmented and scarce. This paper aims to encourage more research on accountants in SMEs by providing the first comprehensive and systematic review of relevant research.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on systematic review methods, the authors critically examine 68 research articles dealing with accountants in SMEs.
Findings
The review identifies three dominant roles for accountants in SMEs: providers of reporting services, sources of SME owners’ self-validation and translators between capital providers and SMEs and advisors. Implicitly, many studies assume a value-enhancing effect of employing accountants in SMEs regardless of these specific roles. At the same time, available studies seldom make use of existing theoretical frameworks to more closely analyze the value-enhancing potential of human resources such as accountants. The authors, thus, propose the resource-based view as a robust theoretical framework to improve theory building in research on accountants in SMEs.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first systematic review of accountants in SMEs. In addition, the authors develop a resource-based model on accountants in SMEs to guide future research on this topic.
Purpose
This paper aims to identify specific challenges and opportunities when crafting literature reviews of qualitative accounting research. In addition, it offers potential remedies to frequent ...challenges when conducting such reviews.
Design/methodology/approach
This piece is based on recent methodological advice on conducting literature reviews and my own experience when conducting and publishing reviews that primarily cover qualitative accounting research.
Findings
The author chart three typical advantages and three typical use cases of literature reviews of qualitative accounting research, as well as the typical process steps and outputs of such reviews. Along with these process steps, The author identifies three overarching specific challenges when conducting such reviews and discusses potential remedies. Overall, this paper suggests that literature reviews of qualitative accounting research feature idiosyncratic challenges but offer specific opportunities at the same time.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is among the first to offer advice on the specific challenges and opportunities when conducting literature reviews of qualitative accounting research.
In this article, we aim to examine the responses of individual actors to the use of management controls during the hybridization of public-sector organizations. We draw on an institutional logics ...perspective and the literature regarding the role of management controls in hybridizing organizations to analyze findings derived from a single case study of a public university in Vietnam. We find that the partial hybridization of an organization is a factor that may explain individuals' responses toward competing institutional logics. In the Vietnamese university we studied, the management controls in use were not contested, unlike their contents and formulae. Similarly, the compartmentalization strategy by the organizational leaders was uncontested due to traditional institutional logics being left mostly untouched. To the literature on hybrid organizations, we add the notion of "partial hybridization" and offer an emerging markets case, as evidence of the role management controls play in hybridizing emerging-market public-sector organizations has thus far been scant.
ABSTRACT
Management accounting in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has been an issue of growing interest in the management accounting literature in recent years. However, published research ...is fragmented, spanning various fields such as accounting, small business and entrepreneurship, general management, and production and operations management. This paper aims to synthesize extant knowledge on management accounting in SMEs and provide concrete suggestions on how to proceed. We performed a systematic literature review, synthesized the results, and identified research gaps. Our findings show that usage of management accounting is not only lower but also different in SMEs compared to larger entities. Based on a comparison of SMEs, the review explains how environmental, staff, and organizational factors significantly influence the organization of management accounting in SMEs and that SME performance in general benefits from proper management accounting. We conclude with several concrete research questions and opportunities.
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