One of the clearest lessons to emerge from decades of research on personnel selection is that the traditional face-to-face job interview is terrible for predicting future job performance. The sad truth is that no selection tool is perfect, and future performance cannot be predicted precisely, but the traditional interview is particularly bad. Fortunately, it is easy to improve the predictive validity of the job interview by structuring it around hard-to-fake tests of key skills and abilities that actually predict future performance. There are also other tools as accurate as a structured interview and substantially less expensive to administer.

In an era of fast-paced technological change, innovation has become a business imperative. But it is not easy to make experimentation and risk-taking an integral part of an organization's business practice. This article describes a model for motivating innovation based on probability theory and experimental evidence. This research indicates that corporate leaders should create a culture that tolerates early failure and rewards long-term performance, and employees from the CEO down must be given incentives to innovate. These lessons are broadly applicable in fields beyond business, such as scientific research and the academic world.

This article examines the extent to which current leaders from each of the three sectors (public, private, and nonprofit) have had meaningful cross-sector experience either through full-time employment or through service on boards/commissions or other forms of affiliation. Almost half of all leaders profiled had at least one multisector affiliation and about 15% had four or more. It also explores the costs and benefits of such experiences to them and their organization. Almost every leader interviewed described a logical, but serendipitous path that created a unique, unforeseeable, and often very rewarding set of opportunities and experiences. Their profiles also suggest the emergence of a new career path in which leaders garner developmentally rich, career-accelerating experiences, often in parallel, by virtue of part-time cross-sector affiliations in addition to traditional employment.

Culture is assumed to play a pivotal role in organizational success and failure. In contrast to prevailing top-down perspectives, this article proposes an approach to studying culture that accounts for myriad organizational subcultures, how individuals fit into those subcultures, and the causes and consequences of shifts in culture and cultural fit. The language through which people communicate with colleagues offers a powerful lens for studying cultural dynamics and its relationship to individual, group, and organizational success. This article describes a burgeoning stream of research that uses language as a window into culture and discusses its implications for managerial practice.

The reasons for women's relatively slow ascension in the workplace have been a matter of considerable debate. This article explores why so much remains misunderstood about the challenges women face and why negative stereotypes-specifically, the view that women are innately poor advocates for themselves-persist. In fact, women possess unique advantages as negotiators, including greater cooperativeness and stronger ethics. But often those strengths are overlooked or severely undervalued. This article presents practical strategies for managers and negotiators of both genders to close the performance gaps and calls for changing the narrative on what it means to be a successful negotiator.

People often believe that they do more than their fair share of work. This tendency plays out across daily life, from married couples to workplace collaborations. While the inclination to "over-claim" credit is pervasive and has potentially serious consequences, little is known about the factors that make it more or less likely to occur. This article considers two predictors-group size and the role of indirect participants, such as supervisors, teachers, coaches, and office assistants-on the phenomenon known as over-claiming. It offers practical steps for individuals, managers, and organizations to take to moderate the damaging effects of over-claiming.

New and existing companies are looking for ways to thrive in a competitive environment with innovative business models while respecting society and avoiding actions that harm the planet. Trends such as the circular economy, fair trade, lowsumerism, and the sharing economy are some of the many emerging entrepreneurial approaches that address this issue, but there is still a gap between what theory argues and the levels of environmental and social sustainability realized when theory is put into practice. In fact, most research on the topic of sustainable business models is still exploratory and does not fully acknowledge these emerging approaches, whose definitions, boundaries, and defining characteristics are still somewhat vague. This study seeks to contribute to the understanding of the inner entrepreneurial dynamics of innovative sustainable business models. In particular, we focus on the fashion business, a resource-intensive industry in which opportunities to reduce environmental impacts and to innovate business models abound. The aim of our research is to investigate innovative business models in the fashion industry that have sustainability as their defining characteristic, especially in terms of value proposition. In order to do that, we combine a systematic review of the literature with empirical research comprised of six interviews with specialists in sustainability, business model innovation, and the fashion industry, along with eight case studies on innovative fashion startups we define as 'born sustainable.' As a result, we propose a synthesizing framework that discloses trends and drivers of innovative and sustainable business models in the fashion industry. We also highlight opportunities and challenges for researchers and entrepreneurs interested in this topic.

The sharing economy is growing globally in terms of user numbers, service providers, and novel concepts. Peer-to-peer (P2P) asset sharing, or asset rental between private individuals, has attracted the attention of entrepreneurs and researchers alike. P2P asset-sharing networks need to focus on two distinct customer groups: (1) asset owners willing to rent out their assets, and (2) renters interested in renting others assets. Despite consumers' high interest in P2P asset sharing, participation rates lag projections, which is mainly attributable to lack of participating asset owners. This could be problematic for P2P networks as they do not own assets; instead, they rely on a sufficient number of asset owners to participate. Detailed indications on the participation motives of users are required to distinctly position P2P asset sharing and enhance communication of consumer-relevant benefits. To this end, we have engaged in a detailed investigation of participation motives in the P2P car-sharing context. We have conducted in-depth interviews with car owners and renters to derive usage types that represent consumer decision profiles that participate in P2P car-sharing services. Based on our findings, we provide extensive recommendations to entrepreneurs in the P2P asset-sharing market.

Maker technologies, including collaborative digital fabrication tools like 3-D printers, enable entrepreneurial opportunities and new business models. To date, relatively few highly successful maker startups have emerged, possibly due to the dominant mindset of the makers being one of cooperation and sharing. However, makers also strive for financial stability and many have profit motives. We use a multiple case study approach to explore makers' experiences regarding the tension between sharing and commercialization and their ways of dealing with it. We conducted interviews with maker initiatives across Europe including Fab Labs, a maker R&D center, and other networks of makers. We unpack and contextualize the concepts of sharing and commercialization. Our cross-case analysis leads to a new framework for understanding these entrepreneurs' position with respect to common-good versus commercial offerings. Using the framework, we describe archetypal trajectories that maker initiatives go through in the dynamic transition from makers to social enterprises and social entrepreneurs.

New business models harnessing the power of individuals have already revolutionized service industries and digital content production. In this study, we investigate whether a similar phenomenon is taking place in manufacturing industries. We start by conceptually defining two distinct forms of firm-individual collaboration in manufacturing industries: (1) social cloud manufacturing, in which firms outsource manufacturing to individuals, and (2) social platform manufacturing, in which firms provide manufacturing services to individuals. We then empirically investigate the nature of firm-individual collaboration within these forms, focusing on the role of individuals. We find that the individuals are often makers who view their participation primarily as a hobby and are driven mainly by nonmonetary benefits, that the design process often involves both parties, and that the two forms of collaboration exploit different enabling technologies. Our findings suggest that firms working with individuals can potentially reap multiple benefits, including fresh ideas, broader design support, and quick delivery times. This article contributes to an improved understanding of how firms can build potentially disruptive business models in manufacturing industries by leveraging individuals, thereby adding to the emerging stream of literature on social manufacturing.

The business models of digital maker-entrepreneurs in open design are inextricably linked to the broader open design community. Digital makers share designs on online platforms such as Thingiverse and use digital manufacturing technology such as 3-D printing as a generative mechanism for their entrepreneurial activities. There is a general understanding of how sharing works in that community and the basic design parameters that determine the business models of these digital maker-entrepreneurs, which are based on a portfolio of activities. This study is based on in-depth interviews with 11 digital maker-entrepreneurs from the open design community. We investigate the activities that constitute their business models using activity theory as a lens with which better to understand them. This study provides a perspective on the complexity of the relationships in which these activities are embedded and analyzes the activities related to the production, distribution, and consumption of value. Finally, we examine the exchanges between digital maker-entrepreneurs in the community, shedding light on how digital maker-entrepreneurs share and exchange goods, services, and knowledge as peers.

As the Internet of Things (IoT) begins to dominate the technology landscape, there will be new products and services that will become technically and financially feasible. Internet technologies and advancements in social interaction tools have led to an increase in the use of the crowd as a provider of business solutions. Yet we have just seen a fraction of the possibilities of crowdsourcing technologies. This is because most of the development, discussion, and research around crowdsourcing has focused on active-input crowdsourcing. However, the real transformative pressure will come from passive sources of data generated primarily by developing and growing sensor technologies. This next generation of crowdsourcing will be a game changer for entrepreneurial opportunities. As crowdsourcing systems proliferate, more input will be acquired from sensors, artificial intelligence, bots, and other devices. As a result of this explosion, the variety of product and service opportunities will swell as entrepreneurs become more aware of technologies merging, such as the combination of crowdsourcing, sensors, and big data into a new type of entrepreneurship-sensor-based entrepreneurship. The purpose of this research is to contribute by, first, clarifying the next generation of crowdsourcing and, second, developing and presenting a framework to help sensor-based entrepreneurs plan, develop, and map their new products and services.

Since the Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging phenomenon, there is a lack of holistic understanding of what IoT is and what business opportunities it can offer for entrepreneurs and existing companies. This article has three main parts. First, it introduces IoT as a broad, socio-technical phenomenon. As a part of this goal, the article covers various elements within the technological, physical, and socioeconomic environment that comprise IoT. Second, this article proposes two approaches for creating new business models using IoT: a sustaining approach and a disruptive approach. The article concludes with a brief reflection on the extent to which the future of IoT can be predicted. This discussion brings up the limitations of the approach for creating new business models outlined in this article and provides guidelines on how this approach should be used. The ultimate goal of this article is to stimulate thinking, creativity, and entrepreneurship in relation to the IoT.

Embedded between the broader fields of social and digital entrepreneurship, the concept of 'smart cities' can be conceptualized as a domain that is currently pre-paradigmatic-that is, one in which multiple yet unaligned models exist, marked by the absence of a single dominant one. Despite such shortcomings, there is a reflective similarity across ecosystems as the various players attempt to converge on a common understanding of the term smart city. The common objective of smart city implementation is to spark economic growth and social development, facilitated by collaborative dialogue and innovations in technology. We integrate theoretical lenses to explore the roles played by ecosystem actors, stakeholders, and socioeconomic and political agents in creating economic value and solving societal problems-particularly highlighting opportunities and challenges to bottom-up innovation from local entrepreneurs.

The automotive industry is experiencing a moment of innovation. With electronics gaining importance, the need to find sustainable solutions and the rampant availability of sharing platforms, the dynamics of this sector is witnessing a paradigm shift. A host of startups is colonizing every niche of what seems to be the new architecture: shared and self-driven electric vehicles. Old incumbents and emerging startups are interacting to control key technologies and the user interfaces of the future. The mechanical machine is being converted into a computer. The connected car is creating a new ecosystem for entrepreneurial opportunities. This study analyzes a set of 156 venture-backed startups: the nature of the firms, their founders' profiles, their origins, their technological capabilities, and their investors. Our findings and conclusions are: (1) a phase of instability and vibrancy is beginning wherein multiple emerging firms compete to impose their standards, (2) the competitive battle is conducted in the digital arena, (3) disruption is led by outsiders with entrepreneurial experience and deep knowledge of digital technologies, and (4) a final winning dominant design may emerge. Entrepreneurial outsiders and outsiders coming from consumer electronics, electrical companies, and/or digital platforms have a window of opportunity to enter this new market.

Two billion people in developing economies have limited or no access to formal financial services, creating cause for substantial research interest in financial inclusion as a complex multidimensional phenomenon. Digital finance technologies, including blockchain, have empowered a type of crescive entrepreneurship that seeks opportunities in relation to financially excluded individuals. This article hypothesizes that nonmonetary causal factors and informal financial practices play a major role in habits of the financially excluded, which would favor blockchain's disintermediation features over the incumbent approach. After applying fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to determine the conditions related to financial practice and motivations that explain the absence of a formal bank account, I prescribe five sensitivities that blockchain entrepreneurs need to consider when targeting this segment. The value of this article's approach extends well beyond traditional unisystemic views for financial inclusion, as blockchain-based entrepreneurial opportunities emerge to reveal alternative forms of disintermediated financial services, which we exemplify in startups modeling informal practices. Blockchain entrepreneurship can generate semi-formal financial services that bring financial aspirations closer to people. My perspective is relevant to blockchain entrepreneurs who aim to understand the practices of the unbanked as source information for the development of innovative solutions.

There is undoubtedly hype around drones and their applications for private and professional users. Based on a brief overview of the development of the drone industry in recent years, this article examines the co-evolution of drone technology and the entrepreneurial activity linked to it. Our results highlight the industry emergence described as concept validation, including product as well as market growth with different phases of technological meaning change. We argue that further steps are needed to develop drones from nice toys to professional tools-from photography and filming applications to inspection services and large cargo logistics. For innovation managers and entrepreneurs, we describe what triggers the emergence of a technology and attracts the needed actors to unleash its transformative potential. Our research is based on industry reports, news, and market studies as well as interviews with four industry actors.

As crowdsourcing evolves, new research finds a pitfall companies should be alert to: Consumer voting on the ideas submitted on open innovation platforms is often skewed by social bias, or people's tendency to like and vote for ideas whose progenitors have liked and voted for their own. A study of 87 crowdsourced projects suggests that when evaluating the ideas that are generated through open innovation, companies should rely less on consumer preference and more on their own evaluative criteria. And the right answer may come from tapping a small number of the right people--ones whose specialized expertise makes their views more relevant--rather than from polling a crowd of random idea generators.

In high-stakes games in professional tennis, women choke less than men do, new research shows. Does that mean that women come through in the clutch more often in business, too?

<p style="color: rgb(197, 183, 131);"><strong> AWARD WINNER - Emerging Chinese Global Competitors Award, European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) Case Writing Competition</strong></p><br>In 2012, the Chinese state-owned oil corporation China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) acquired Nexen, a Canadian oil exploration company, in what was the largest-ever acquisition abroad by a Chinese company. The Chinese economy had become increasingly dependent on imported energy and the aim of this acquisition was to secure access to natural resources around the world. The deal received intense media attention and its merits for Canada were widely discussed in the media. Eventually, it was approved by the Canadian government after CNOOC made substantial commitments regarding Nexen’s future operations. However, after the acquisition, Nexen experienced considerable challenges regarding its financial performance and its health, safety, and environment processes. Financial performance was undermined by a sharp drop in the price of oil from 2014 onward. Moreover, Nexen’s operations were disrupted by a pipeline leak, a closure of pipelines by the regulator, and a plant explosion. Each event challenged the Chinese and Canadian leadership of Nexen to face the media and minimize reputational damage and safeguard its health and safety record. How could the company cut its losses and downscale its engagement in Canada? Did it need to refocus its Canadian operations to use its assets in a different way?