Trade associations are a form of business network distinguished by third party coordination and representation of sector-affiliated organisations. In New Zealand, a recent review found that trade associations have made increasing contributions to industry and business development. The possibility that New Zealand's associations benefit from a small country advantage in supporting collective activity is explored. This follows suggestions in the New Zealand survey and Nordic claims that small economies benefit from shared trust that facilitates business cooperation. A matched sample of 13 Australian and New Zealand trade associations reveals that New Zealand's associations tend to have higher levels of membership and are less troubled by ‘free riders’ than their Australian counterparts. There is weak evidence that support for trade associations reduces with increases in enterprise diversity (size and activity specialization) within an industry and that the organisation of industry value chains influences trade association activity. Any advantage in maintaining participation is reduced by the greater resource strength of Australian associations. Further investigations of Trans Tasman differences in business associability are justified.

Commercialisation activities combining the discoveries of one occupational group, such as scientists, with the commercial skills of managers involve interactions across occupational and organisational cultures. This article explores the challenges posed by working across occupational and organisational boundaries, and describes management techniques developed informally in four Australian organisations to address barriers to knowledge transfer. It identifies the existence of Knowledge-stewarding Communities of Practice (CoP) that span organisational boundaries and impact commercialisation outcomes. It also presents recommendations for management practice based upon diversity management and innovation theories. The context of the study is Australian hybrid industry-research organisations composed of academic, government and industry personnel. Semi-structured interviews with a total of twenty scientists, engineers and managers focused on their experiences of knowledge sharing across organisational and occupational cultures, and methods used to manage these boundaries. The existence and efficacy of boundary-crossing individuals and boundary object strategies are explored. A generic process management model of innovation is extended to acknowledge and accommodate occupational and organisational cultural proclivities towards exploration or exploitation, and to stimulate future research.

This study examined the individual and combined effects of the organisational-level variables of climate and task design, and the group-level variables of group citizenship behaviour (GCB), market orientation, group self-efficacy (GSE), and group climate for innovation (GCI) on work group service innovativeness. Specifically, this study theorised that work group service innovativeness is a product of both organisational (organisational climate and task design) and work group (GCB, market orientation, and GSE) contexts. Drawing upon the theories and literature, six hypotheses were derived. Data were collected through a 64-item questionnaire using a 7-point Likert scale from four hotels in Melbourne, Australia. Results indicated that organisational climate, task design, GCB, group self-efficacy, and group climate for innovation were significant predictors of work group service innovativeness, while market orientation was not. Limitations, future directions, managerial and research implications are explored.

Research reveals that emotional intelligence is an important factor in predicting performance in teams. In this article, we initially outline a theoretical model for examining emotional intelligence in teams. Using this model, we test a short version (16 items) of the self-report Workgroup Emotional Intelligence Profile (WEIP). Evidence from three studies supports this model. Two samples of 620 and 217 employees support the hypothesized structure of the WEIP-S. Four distinct constructs were derived: Awareness of own emotions; Management of own emotions; Awareness of others' emotions; and Management of others' emotions. The WEIP-Short Version (WEIP-S) scale, therefore, is based on abilities that are vital during the interaction of team members. Data from 99 employees provide evidence of test–retest stability for the WEIP-S across three time periods. Limitations and potential uses in management research for this short-version scale are discussed.

This research investigates whether the importance of information scope for decision making mediates the relations between dimensions of strategic orientation, perceived environmental uncertainty (PEU) and organisational effectiveness in the retail pharmacy industry. Data from a survey of NSW pharmacies was analysed using structural equation modelling. Although two dimensions of strategic orientation – product-market development and market scope – were positively associated with information scope, the direct organisational benefits and mediating role of broad scope information were disconfirmed and no link between information scope and PEU was found. The results suggest the need for rethinking theoretical models of information scope. Implications for retail pharmacies and organisations interested in the effectiveness of those businesses are discussed.

An entrepreneur's social capital can be important for their firm's growth. The creation of a network can be largely determined by strategy. This study makes a contribution by developing and testing a model of the firm growth driven by the entrepreneur's social capital that considers the entrepreneur's resource acquisition network ties. In the model a controversial combination of strong and weak tie arguments is proposed. Regression analysis was conducted using structured-questionnaire survey data from small firm entrepreneurs in Slovenia. The findings suggest that firm growth can be influenced by strategic utilization of the entrepreneur's resource-based social capital. In particular, resource network intensity can have a positive influence on firm growth, whereas the central resource ‘network person friendship’ can be negatively related to firm growth.

The use of information technology (IT) in the health sector is critically important for enhanced patient care and ultimately cost savings. However, the uptake of IT in health has been slow when compared with other industry sectors, due to the range of issues and IT inconsistencies associated with the needs of its stakeholders. This study explored the challenges experienced by 108 New Zealand medical practitioners in their IT interface with other key primary and secondary health providers. We found IT interface challenges were negatively related to e-business activity (receiving) but held no effect on e-business activity (sending). Further, we tested for and found significant moderating effects of practice size, based on patient numbers. Large practices were able to buffer the negative influence of IT interface challenges on e-business activity (receiving), while small practices were severely hampered by IT interface challenges. The implications of operating in a modular industry structure are discussed.

This paper calls on cultural studies as a resource for rethinking East and West management cultures. An analysis of East and West management cultures reveals that much of our prevailing knowledge of East and West management cultures is derived from cross-national comparisons of culture. These comparisons are predicated on assumptions of instrumental rationality and the cultural homogeneity of the self with social others, which effectively presume an ontology of the self as stable, enduring, and the same as social others. For promoting exchange between East and West management cultures, there is a need to move beyond this mistaken assumption of ontological ‘sameness’. To achieve this, the paper argues that at least two changes are required: (i) reversing the tendency to treat culture as an entity that is separate from the individual; and (ii) reversing the tendency to treat the narrative identity of the individual as stable and enduring. With a view to realising these changes, the paper proposes the notion of ‘dialogical encounter’ as a means of enabling individuals to be given a role in determining how their culture is ‘made known’ to others.

We explore whether differences in perceptions of diversity might emanate from the characteristics of perceivers themselves rather than from the characteristics of those observed. Grounding our arguments in self- and social-identity theory, we hypothesize that individuals respond differently to the same diversity stimuli because they differ in their ‘propensity to stereotype’ and ‘diversity experience.’ Since individuals tend to gravitate towards similar others, we also hypothesize that perceived diversity can predict an individual's ‘desire to group’ with others. Over 200 individuals – staff and students – from a university were exposed to diverse stimuli in an online experiment in a bid to test the hypotheses. Structural Equation Modeling of the data generally supported the hypothesized relationships.