Browsing by Author "Wechtler, Heidi"

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Collaborative consumption as C2C trading: Analyzing the effects of materialism and price consciousness
(2018-09) Lindblom, Arto; Lindblom, Taru; Wechtler, Heidi
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
Our study aims to bring new critical knowledge on the two kinds of antecedents of collaborative consumption, namely materialism and price consciousness. We are especially interested in studying how materialism and price consciousness are related first, to consumers’ attitudes towards collaborative consumption, and second, to their intentions to engage in such behavior. Furthermore, we approach collaborative consumption as a mode of exchange that includes transfer of ownership, i.e. C2C trading. Five hypotheses were developed to be tested using structural equation modelling (SEM). Our sample consists of 752 Finnish consumers. Overall, our hypotheses are globally supported apart from the unexpected relationship between materialism and consumers’ intentions to engage in collaborative consumption. Based on our findings, it seems that although collaborative consumption is perceived as unfavorable behavior among materialistic consumers it is something that they are still ready to try in the future. Our study contributes the consumer research in general, and sharing economy and collaborative consumption literature in particular.
Expatriates on the run: The psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on expatriates’ host country withdrawal intentions
(2022-12) Koveshnikov, Alexei; Lehtonen, Miikka J.; Wechtler, Heidi
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
Extant research on expatriation in high-stress environments where stress is caused by ongoing and unexpected natural crises remains limited. Drawing on stress theory, in this study, we develop a model to examine the stress-inducing effects of intra-family concerns and workplace discrimination on the intentions to leave the host country among expatriates in the high-stress environment of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. We also explore whether gender and the level of work adjustment moderate the propensity of intra-family health concerns and workplace discrimination to induce psychological stress. Based on our analysis of 381 expatriates living and working in the United Arab Emirates, we find the model to be generally supported. We also reveal an intriguing moderating effect of work adjustment on the relationship between intra-family health concerns and psychological stress. Overall, the analysis is among the first ones to shed light on the role of natural crises’ stressors in defining expatriate outcomes.
Expatriates' Embeddedness and Host Country Withdrawal Intention : A Social Exchange Perspective
(2023-08-13) Lehtonen, Miikka J.; Koveshnikov, Alexei; Wechtler, Heidi
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
In this study, we conceptualize the thus far little explored relationship between expatriate and host country as a form of social exchange governed by the norm of reciprocity. Drawing from social exchange theory and our analysis of 451 self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) living and working in the United Arab Emirates, we examine whether the degree of SIEs' career and community embeddedness explains their host country withdrawal intention via enhanced perceived institutional trust and a more tolerant attitude toward workplace discrimination. Our results provide general support for our theoretical model and most of our hypotheses. In this way, our article makes three contributions. First, it suggests a novel way to conceptualize the relationship between SIEs and host country as a form of social exchange. Second, it differentiates between two dimensions of embeddedness and explicates how the two contribute to SIEs' intentions to stay in the host country. Finally, the analysis theorizes and empirically tests two previously little explored mechanisms of enhanced institutional trust and a more tolerant attitude toward workplace discrimination through which SIEs' host country embeddedness influences their host country withdrawal intentions.
High performance work system and transformational leadership: Revisiting and questioning their implications for health-related wellbeing
(2023-02-09) Ehrnrooth, Mats; Koveshnikov, Alexei; Wechtler, Heidi; Hauff, Sven
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
Employee wellbeing represents a profound management challenge for both leaders and HR professionals, and both transformational leadership (TL) and high performance work system (HPWS) are assumed to play important roles in tackling this challenge. However, we know little about their unique and relative importance in promoting wellbeing. To shed light on this methodologically, theoretically and practically important issue, we draw mainly on leadership substitutes theory. Based on a comprehensive mediation model we examine whether HPWS substitutes the assumed relationships between TL and employee emotional exhaustion. Our study answers to three important calls for research: to examine the joint effects of leadership and HPWS, to examine their health-related impact, and to pursue more theory contesting research in management studies. Based on data from 308 white collar employees working under 76 middle-managers in five Finnish organizations our study points to the incompleteness of previous siloed research on both TL and HPWS, sheds new light on their relationships with wellbeing, and suggests ways to develop both TL and HPWS theory, thus providing important guidance for future research on their effects.
High-performance work system and transformational leadership for employee constructive voice: unique and relative importance in a high-power distance context
(2023) Ehrnrooth, Mats; Koveshnikov, Alexei; Balabanova, Evgeniya; Wechtler, Heidi
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
Constructive employee voice is important but challenging to promote in high power distance contexts. The unique and relative importance of HRM systems and leadership in promoting it is more generally little understood. This study investigates the unique and relative importance of a high-performance work system (HPWS) and transformational leadership (TL) for constructive employee voice behavior, as well as how individual-level power distance orientation (PDO) moderates those relationships. The analyses are based on a sample of 403 subordinates of middle managers in 232 domestic Russian organizations. The results show that both TL and HPWS relate positively to employee voice, but most importantly that HPWS is more strongly so related, that it significantly substitutes the relationship between TL and voice, and that the relationship between HPWS and voice is further strengthened by employee PDO. We also conducted post-hoc qualitative interviews with 25 employees in domestic Russian organizations to triangulate our quantitative results. The study contributes to research on employee voice, in particular to research on the relative importance of its antecedents, and to the emerging body of research that simultaneously considers HRM and leadership.
Political skill and cross-cultural adjustment among self-initiated expatriates: the role of host employer's psychological contract fulfillment
(2022-07-22) Koveshnikov, Alexei; Wechtler, Heidi; Moeller, Miriam; Dejoux, Cecile
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
Purpose: Using social influence theory, this study examines the relationship between self-initiated expatriates' (SIE) political skill, as a measure of their social effectiveness, and cross-cultural adjustment (CCA). It also tests whether the host employer's psychological contract (PC) fulfillment mediates this relationship. Design/methodology/approach: Partial least square structural equation modeling (covariance-based SEM) technique is employed to analyze a sample of 209 SIEs. Findings: The study finds SIEs' political skill positively and significantly associated with SIEs' work-related adjustment. The relationship with interactional adjustment is only marginally significant. It also finds that SIEs' PC fulfillment mediates the relationship between SIEs' political skill and work-related adjustment. The mediation is marginally significant for the relationship between SIEs' political skill and general living adjustment. Originality/value: The study adds to the literature on expatriates' skills and CCA by theorizing and testing the hitherto unexplored role of SIEs' political skill in their work and non-work CCA. It also theorizes and examines the host employer's PC fulfillment as a mediating mechanism, through which SIEs' political skill facilitates their CCA. Finally, it advances the literature on political skill by testing the construct's application in the cross-cultural and non-work domain.
Retail entrepreneurs' exit intentions
(2020-05) Lindblom, Arto; Lindblom, Taru; Wechtler, Heidi
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
In this study we investigate retail entrepreneurs' exit intentions by focusing on their job satisfaction, job-related stress, customer orientation, and dispositional optimism. We develop and test four hypotheses with structural equation modelling on a sample of 365 retail entrepreneurs. Our results indicate that dispositional optimism is a substantial driver of retail entrepreneurs’ customer orientation and job satisfaction. Dispositional optimism also decreases their job-related stress. We also find that both customer orientation and job-related stress mediate the relationship between dispositional optimism and job satisfaction prior to exit intentions. Finally, we found that job satisfaction has a mediating effect on the relationship between job-related stress and exit intentions.
Western and non-western leadership styles and employee wellbeing : a case of a high-power distance context
(2024-01-19) Ehrnrooth, Mats; Koveshnikov, Alexei; Balabanova, Evgeniya; Wechtler, Heidi
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
The study combines an emic and etic perspective to test the relationships between three different (Western and non-Western) leadership styles, that is, transformational, authoritarian, and benevolent paternalistic, and follower emotional exhaustion in a high-power distance context of Russia. It employs hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to analyse a sample of 403 followers to middle-level managers in Russian organizations. The analysis finds only transformational leadership to be generally negatively associated with emotional exhaustion. However, under conditions of high individual-level power distance orientation among followers, this association diminishes whereas that of authoritarian leadership and exhaustion increases. Benevolent paternalistic leadership is unrelated to emotional exhaustion. The study extends research on the relative importance of Western and non-Western leadership behaviors for employee wellbeing in high-power distance contexts and on how this importance differs across followers, thus highlighting the role of follower expectations in determining the effectiveness of leadership. It points toward the need for future research to simultaneously test the contingencies and relative importance of paternalistic, authoritarian, transformational, as well as other leadership styles in various cultures as well as to continue exploring the moderating influence of various cultural value orientations on these leadership styles’ follower effects.
What drives retail entrepreneurs’ intentions to engage in CSR? : The effects of societal concern, social pressure and state anxiety
(2024) Wechtler, Heidi; Lindblom, Arto; Lindblom, Taru
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
In this study, we investigate what drives retail entrepreneurs' intentions to engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) across environmental, economic, and social domains. To be more specific, we aim to explore the extent to which retail entrepreneurs? societal concern and perceived social pressure are related to their CSR intentions both directly and indirectly through state anxiety. State anxiety refers to retail entrepreneurs? general and potentially excessive worry over societal problems. By applying the theory of reasoned action (TRA), we develop and test five hypotheses with structural equation modeling on a sample of 324 independent retail entrepreneurs. Our study showed that societal concern and social pressure have a direct effect on CSR intentions across all three studied domains. Furthermore, the results indicate that greater the anxiety, the stronger the impact of societal concern and social pressure on CSR intentions. Thus, state anxiety positively mediates the relationship between societal concern and CSR intentions and the relationship between social pressure and CSR intentions. However, our study revealed that the relationship between state anxiety and CSR intentions is non-linear, indicating that high levels of state anxiety can deter retail entrepreneurs from engaging in CSR. This is a significant finding that calls for further research.