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The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the obsolescence and vulnerability of many existing auditing practices. While some progressive practices have been implemented (e.g., remote audits using rudimentary information and communication technologies), a new paradigm is needed not only to account for the risk of repeated lockdowns but also to align practices with the level of digitalization, automation, and use of artificial intelligence in the current business environment. In this article, we argue that the adoption of new technologies requires a fundamental rethinking of how auditing services are delivered. We argue that new technological possibilities have implications for five other auditing elements that enable a shift from the old to the new paradigm of auditing, namely actors, processes, spaces, training and skills development, and services. We explain how nonfinancial audits conducted under the new paradigm are key enablers of a firm's ability to participate and to thrive in a competitive international marketplace.

Blockchain, a type of distributed ledger technology (DLT), can be used for supply chain and is commonly discussed among distribution giants and small players. Blockchain's actual and perceived benefits, in addition to track-and-trace mandates from regulatory bodies, have driven these discussions. However, there is no mention of how existing dispute resolution processes have been overhauled in favor of blockchain smart contracts, which can be used to manage and resolve disputes. This conversation gap is critical as trust will erode if supply chain partners cannot settle disputes adequately. We highlight the importance of supply chain DLT management and suggest tactics for resolving the inevitable disputes that arise with disparate information. These guidelines, including adopting portable and enforceable contractual terms and a standardized dispute resolution process, can have practical applications beyond blockchain.

Signaling how virtuous a brand is has become an ever more common strategy. Brands have recently outcompeted one another to align themselves with various causes. We explore the rise in virtue signaling and review prominent examples of brands that have linked themselves to social movements--some successfully, some unsuccessfully. We draw on evolutionary theory to develop a conceptual framework to think about brand virtue signaling. Armed with this framework, managers can assess whether their brands should adopt virtue signaling as a strategy and assess the short- and long-term implications of such a decision.

Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) are a record of ownership of primarily digital media, where the NFT is stored on a blockchain. According to the 2021 Gartner Hype Cycle for Key Technologies, NFTs may significantly transform marketing functions. Marketing managers wishing to adopt NFTs therefore need to know something about the marketing implications. This article explains NFTs in broad terms and discusses the marketing implications using a modified AIDA hierarchy. These implications can give marketing managers and executives guidelines on how to persuade consumers to purchase NFTs owing to their unique characteristics, such as scarcity, nonfungibility, proven authenticity, proof of ownership, royalties, and direct distribution infrastructure.

Though more than a decade has passed, there are compelling reasons to revisit the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the most expensive nonnuclear industrial disaster in history. It serves as an exemplar of what organizations should not do. Recent tragedies in Nigeria and Florida also demonstrate how organizations might avoid the risk of being overtaken by readily predictable events. In this article, we look to advance research on risk mitigation and decision-making as we create a more succinct view of how managers create--and might prevent--inaptitude. To this end, we look at how the evolving concept of stupidity is defined in recent research and how it manifested in the critical case of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. We present five proposals for organizations looking to address and avoid potentially unwise decisions that may lead to the next disaster.

The first communication an entrepreneur often has with a potential investor is submitting a one-page executive summary for consideration. Subsequently, the potential investor or investment group chooses which venture ideas to further consider by inviting a pitch deck or an actual business pitch. This investment funnel is competitive and, accordingly, anything we as scholars can share with entrepreneurs seeking advice about how to optimize that initial executive summary to increase chances of getting to the pitch would be immensely valuable. Unfortunately, scant research has focused on this opportunity-introduction stage, and there is precious little we can prescribe for entrepreneurs seeking investment. To address this, we developed four executive summaries that varied only in the type of capital mentioned. We found that executive summaries that mentioned human capital more prominently were viewed as more cognitively legitimate and as deserving of a higher opportunity-recognition valuation. Put succinctly, consistent both with our theorized findings from our Open Science Framework preregistered experiment (N Z 367) and with our qualitative follow-up study, we found that human capital signals have a greater positive influence on potential investors' decisions relative to social capital, intellectual capital, and financial capital. We discuss the practical and theoretical implications of this novel insight and include prescriptive recommendations for entrepreneurs.

Greening suppliers, or cultivating environmental responsibility throughout the supply chain, has become an important strategic issue for firms. While various approaches exist, green supplier development--that is, helping and collaborating with your suppliers to reduce their negative environmental impact--is a key method that can produce significant gains for both parties at multiple levels. Yet the benefits have not been sufficiently discussed and may therefore appear nebulous for managers. Focusing particularly on "What's in it for you, the buyer?", this article describes benefits at the intrafirm, interfirm, and market levels. Barriers to the realization of the benefits are also discussed, providing managerial guidance on supplier prioritization for green supplier development.

Family-owned Mittelstand firms have often been characterized as Janus-faced, meaning they can have two contrasting sides when it comes to innovation. On one side, they are technology leaders--especially in niche markets. On the other side, they can be slow adopters, deeply rooted in tradition. Digitalization is one of the biggest innovation challenges to firms of all sizes and ownership types. Research and observations in business practice show that while some family-owned Mittelstand firms master digitalization despite limited resources and traditional industries, others lag dangerously behind. So, how can family-owned Mittelstand firms prepare for a digital future, and which familial idiosyncrasies might help them? Based on current observations and interview data, we propose a framework for how these firms can use their unique resources to tackle challenges related to digitalization. To be successful in a digital world, they must leverage their family historical capital, family collaborative capital, and family venture capital. We highlight why and how these capital types should be linked to fully leverage their potential.

The mission of Business Horizons is to publish research that practitioners can understand to help them change their thoughts and actions. However, this mission remains an elusive ideal for many business school academics as they struggle to overcome the research-practice gap. To help scholars bridge this gap, we present social media as a boundary-spanning technology to be open to connecting with, learning from and working with academics and other stakeholders outside their field. Social media can be used as a boundary-spanning technology to help bridge the research-practice gap. To support this idea, we present a process model of five research activities--networking, framing, investigating, disseminating, and assessing--and describe how social media can make each activity more open. We present a framework of four social media-enabled open academic approaches--connector, observer, promoter, and influencer--and outline some do's and don'ts for engaging in each approach. We also discuss the potential dark side of openness through social media and offer some coping strategies. As per the mission and scope of Business Horizons, this article aims to help business academics rethink and change their practices so that our profession is more widely regarded for how our research positively impacts business practice and society in general.

Artificial intelligence has been applied successfully in thousands of ways, but one of the less visible and less dramatic ones is improving data management. The authors describe five common areas of data management classifying, cataloging, quality, security, and data integration where they see AI playing important roles. They also discuss the vendor landscape and the ways that humans are essential to data management.

Corporate giving exceeds $21 billion annually, but new research into the corporate foundations of the Fortune 100 reveals a significant lack of disclosure in their racial justice giving compared with other aspects of environmental, social, and governance spending. This negatively impacts the efficacy of spending, accountability, and the value it generates for companies or their stakeholders. Company leaders can take three steps to enhance transparency.

In a business environment characterized by accelerating change and growing uncertainty, teams whose orientation spans both the internal organization and the external business ecosystem are nimbler and drive more innovation and also serve to distribute leadership throughout the organization. The authors review the challenges of successfully implementing the x-team model of collaboration and describe the success factors common among high-performing x-teams.

When researchers asked employees what their supervisor could do to help alleviate the uncertainty that arose from the pandemic, the data revealed five categories of actions managers can take to help workers cope. The study also found that different employees want different kinds of support delivered in different ways during a crisis, including some that managers can't realistically provide. Consequently, managers must prioritize two behaviors: individualized consideration and building trust.

As many employees resist the call to return to the workplace from home offices established during the COVID-19 pandemic, managers worried about losing talent are accommodating them. The authors studied 20 global enterprises to gain insight into management concerns and emerging practices for managing hybrid work effectively.

This article presents a strategic decision-making tool to assist corporate management in analyzing the trajectory of their business model portfolio. The tool provides a robust means of assessing the trajectory of a business model portfolio through the evolution of inter-business model complementarity and intra-business model complexity. The article illustrates the use of the tool through the example of the radical restructuring of Hewlett Packard's (HP) business model portfolio in 2015, which resulted in two smaller, more adaptive corporate entities with distinct business models that could pursue redefined growth opportunities after the split.

The blockchain revolution has taken longer than expected to pick up steam. But now, says Ravi Sarathy, author of Enterprise Strategy for Blockchain, it has reached a maturity level that merits the attention of large incumbent companies. In this interview, Sarathy explains what has held blockchain back and why the time is right to start using it. He explores blockchain's most promising applications and explains how companies can develop and deploy it as a capability.

The signs say the global economy is headed for a recession, but downturns are not destiny. Companies that bolster their resilience, local agility, and portfolio agility now can improve their competitive position and enhance their future performance during the next recession. This article describes practical, evidence-based steps that leaders can take to help their companies capture the upside of the next downturn.

Organizations that aim to develop and deploy responsible AI systems must begin by considering what implicit and systemic biases reside in a technological system itself. Not doing so can result in catastrophic failures resulting from unintended consequences of the system's normal operations. The authors advise managers on how to mitigate the risk that algorithmic systems can cause organizational or social harm if left unchecked.

Being conscious of ambivalence and conflicting feelings of positive and negative emotions has great value: It helps decision makers suspend initial judgments, deflect biases, and integrate contradictory material. Recent studies have found that when people are aware of being ambivalent and understand the cause, they're spurred to consciously assess the moral aspects of their choices and are better able to resist distracting biases.

Business ethics has become too complex and is undermining the ability of companies to meet the ethical expectations of stakeholders. Simpler is better. Leaders need to stop outsourcing ethics and explain their company's value propositions in a clear, concise, nontechnical sentence or two that their least sophisticated stakeholder can understand. And they need to resist making big bets on visions for future social change instead of being transparent around current sources of profitability.