Social media can help companies facilitate culture change by making the “invisible” aspects of culture more observable. But according to research by INSEAD faculty, this visibility can backfire if organisations aren’t careful. Another paper examines algorithmic pricing, now a norm in many industries, in relation to firms’ marketing strategies and regulatory frameworks.

Other studies offer insights into how individuals perceive the costs and benefits of shaping more sustainable societies; how competition across teams within an organisation impacts how workers proactively reshape their roles (i.e. job crafting); and the unique ways in which demand uncertainty affects manufacturers in less economically developed regions.

The role of social media in changing organisational culture

Organisations need cultures that support their work, and sometimes this means that the culture needs to change. But culture is often experienced as “invisible”. The solution? Enterprise social media, which can make culture visible and facilitate culture change by tracing activity (e.g. posts, group formation and comments). Yet, this introduces a conundrum: How do leaders and followers use the cultural visibility that social media offers in the course of change? 

In their research published in Academy of Management Discoveries, Spencer Harrison and his co-authors found that because enterprise social media makes culture visible, it makes it easy for leaders to attend to “big-C” changes in the culture while overlooking similarly visible “small-c” reactions that can undo the change. Ultimately, the very thing that makes social media a possible solution for cultural change also hampers leaders from sustaining the change, as visibility becomes a liability.

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What firms should keep in mind when implementing algorithmic pricing

Long before the AI boom, many firms – from the travel and entertainment industries to ride-sharing and retail – started delegating pricing decisions to algorithms, driven by advances in information technology and the increased availability of data. Firms adopt algorithmic-driven pricing strategies to optimise their prices in response to changing market conditions and to leverage the efficiency gains from automation. 

But beyond being a technical upgrade, algorithmic pricing is a strategic decision that must align with a company’s current and future marketing strategies. It can also raise regulatory concerns regarding competition and price discrimination. A paper by Maria Ana Vitorino and her collaborators, published in the International Journal of Research in Marketing, discusses algorithmic pricing in the context of firms’ marketing strategies and regulatory frameworks.

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What’s standing in the way of a more sustainable future?

A study by Alexis Du and his fellow researchers explores how individuals view eco-sustainable future scenarios and the role of perceived costs and benefits in shaping pro-environmental intentions. In the experiment, participants were exposed to written scenarios depicting eco-sufficiency or eco-efficiency as models for future societies. They were asked to identify environmental, social, financial and health-related benefits, alongside costs related to financial constraints, reduced comfort and perceived restrictions on freedom. 

The study, which is published in Society & Natural Resources, shows that perceived desirability of the scenarios significantly predicted pro-environmental intentions, with eco-sufficiency scenarios fostering stronger engagement. Additionally, age and the perceived psychological distance of climate change influenced participants’ evaluation of such future visions. These findings can enhance our understanding of how collective action for sustainability emerges, offering possible pathways to strengthen engagement in climate and biodiversity initiatives.

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The effect of inter-team competition on job crafting

What do inter-team competition and team leadership style have to do with whether workers proactively redesign their roles to better align with their personal motives, strengths and identities? In their study published in the Journal of Business and Psychology, Yanbo Song and Winnie Jiang hypothesised that job crafting in multi-team organisations peaks under moderate levels of inter-team competition but declines when competition becomes excessive.

The researchers tested their hypotheses in a restaurant chain in China during the Covid-19 pandemic and found support for their predictions. Notably, they also discovered that leadership style matters: task-oriented leadership influenced how employees responded to competitive environments, with the results suggesting that strong task structuring dampened rather than enhanced the motivational effects of competition. Taken together, the findings illustrate how competitive pressures and leadership behaviours dynamically shape employee proactivity.

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How manufacturers deal with uncertainty over demand

Manufacturing firms in less economically developed countries (LEDCs) face demand uncertainty under institutional conditions that affects their approaches to overcoming this uncertainty. In a working paper, Sameer Hasija and his collaborators examine whether demand uncertainty compels manufacturers in LEDCs to pull back resources for organisational support, if this affects productivity, and which operational levers could mitigate these consequences.

They found that in LEDCs, demand uncertainty is associated with lower selling, general and administrative expenditure per employee. This channel is also associated with lower productivity per employee, indicating consequences beyond labour-related adjustments. The researchers suggest that to preserve organisational support in the face of demand uncertainty, manufacturers in LEDCs may need to be more responsive by looking to regional sourcing instead of slack-based inventory buffers.

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