Passionate firms perform higher in terms of team progress, regardless of whether that passion is focused on one or multiple team activities, finds new research from Aalto University School of Business. According to Associate Professor Ewald Kibler, Head of the Entrepreneurship Unit at Aalto, and postdoctoral researcher Bernadetta A. Ginting-Szczesny, team entrepreneurial passion (TEP) plays an important role in business ventures as it can positively impact team outcomes and venture performance. Analysing survey data on 326 individuals from 107 teams at Finnish SMEs, they suggest having a shared passion helps teams work together toward a common goal while maintaining focus and motivation. More →

Men and women exhibit different behaviours in the ways they hide what they know at work, according to new research from academics at the UCL Global Business School for Health (UCL GBSH). The findings, published in the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, suggest men feel more entitled than women to conceal their knowledge: they hide it more often than women, specifically through rationalised hiding, while women use evasive hiding and playing dumb. Men also conceal knowledge more frequently in a female-dominated environment and are more likely to use the same methods as women, since they believe that women will sanction them less than men for this behaviour. More →

Most jobs involve tasks we don’t like. But should we complete these unpleasant tasks in one fell swoop or split them up into bite-sized portions and spread them out over time? According to new research from Trinity Business School, WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management and the University of Wuppertal, it is actually a good idea to do the tasks you don’t like in one go. More →

The UK has seen a significant dip in productivity growth since the Global Financial Crisis of 2007-8, according to a new report from PwC UK. However, this new analysis also highlights sectoral differences in productivity growth, with some sectors performing better than others in recent years. The slowdown in manufacturing productivity is also shown to have played a significant role in the fall in economy-wide productivity, but there is positive sentiment amongst manufacturers, with almost 1 in 5 expecting to see gains of 10-25 percent in the coming year. According to PwC UK’s new UK Productivity Tracker, a lack of sustained investment expenditure may be behind the UK’s weak performance. More →

For rival companies to successfully cooperate in the name of innovation, they need “ambidextrous” managers who can make the most of their pooled resources and exhibit strong multi-tasking skills, research from NEOMA Business School claims. Antony Paulraj, Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management at NEOMA, co-authored a study analysing the approach of over 300 companies that are collaborating with their competitors, known as “coopetition”. More →