Research

Conformity, Conflict and Organization Design

Conformity and conflict are two important social processes emerging from interactions among people with heterogeneous characteristics—either inherent ones (gender, race, etc.) or earned (education, goal, preference, cultural background.) While there is rich literature on conformity and conflict behavior, and on management practices to identify and handle these processes at the individual and group levels, we know little about how these behavioral patterns aggregate at the collective level and shape firm performance. Nor is much known about how leaders can design incentives and coordination mechanisms to influence these social processes and achieve desirable firm-level outcomes. Taking a micro-behavioral approach, I study this gap in literature, giving special attention to its implications for diversity and inclusion in organizations.

Working paper

Nghi Truong, Ingo Marquart, Richard Haynes and Matthew S. Bothner (2021) When does catalyzing social comparisons cause growth? Draft available, preparing for submission to Management Science.

Abstract: When does a manager’s choice to activate social comparisons among employees prompt organizational growth? When should a manager instead allow employees to set goals individually, based on their own past performance? To address these questions, we develop an agent-based network model that examines the growth-related effects of these two contrasting approaches. Our analyses reveal that activating social comparisons can be either beneficial or corrupting, depending on three features of organizational context drawn from performance feedback theory: (i) employees’ goal adaptation rates, (ii) employees’ tendencies to engage in self-improvement, self-assessment, or self-enhancement, and (iii) the skewness of the distribution of their initial goals. We find that whether this distribution is right-skewed (the highly ambitious constitute the right tail) or left-skewed (the un-ambitious comprise the left tail) acts as the governing contextual moderator. Under right skew, social comparisons promote growth. Under left-skew, this effect reverses, but not if employees self-improve or adapt slowly. Slow adaptation “purifies” the intrafirm monitoring network of otherwise corrupting stimuli and thus restores the link between social comparisons and growth. Implications for research in performance feedback theory and organizational design are discussed.

Nghi Truong (2021) Status similarity and conflict: Evidence from Charness et al. (2014). Draft available.

Abstract: We examine how the ambiguity of who dominates whom in social relationship results in conflicts among agents. Using data from the experiment by Charness et al. (2014), we empirically show that status similarity motivates people to compete more intensively, and results in more conflict among them. The study also highlights the moderation effect of gender norms in the relationship between status ambiguity and conflicts. We discuss different implications of our findings for conflict prevention and gender relations in organizations.

Work in progress

Status similarity and conflict between men and women.

Women’s voices in Bundestag (with Lukas Mergele and Rajshri Jayaraman.)

Conformity, diversity and organizational search.

Strategic Responses to Crises and Organizational Adaptation

Which types of resources are essential for organizations endeavoring to engage in strategic renewal, as they work to identify new opportunities in response to radical environmental change? How can firms develop ambidexterity--the ability of an organization to simultaneously exploit the core business and explore new businesses to compete in fast-paced environments? Which interventions can we use to support firms become more ambidextrous, especially SMEs in emerging economies? These are questions I pursue in this research line.

Working paper

Andrew Shipilov, Stan X Li, Matthew S. Bothner and Nghi Truong (2021) Network advantage: competition-free structural holes and firm performance in turbulent environments. Draft available, submitted to Strategic Management Journal.

Abstract: We examine how the benefits of structural holes for organizational performance vary with the onset of extreme, crisis conditions. Crises—natural disasters, economic downturns, disease outbreaks and other surprising, high-consequence events—are marked by change and uncertainty. Since brokerage positions afford access to heterogeneous information as well as arbitrage opportunities, it is straightforward to expect that the benefits of brokerage rise when market crises erupt. However, empirical evidence on the subject has been limited and inconclusive. Using longitudinal network data on investment banks—and exploiting the shocks of the dot.com market crash in 2000 as well as the housing crisis of 2008—we both develop a treatment-control design and estimate a difference-in-difference model to assess whether there is causal evidence in support of the hypothesis that crises amplify the favorable effect of brokerage on performance. Our results reveal that only monopolistic structural holes are advantageous for performance in crisis conditions. We provide further empirical tests for the mechanisms underlying this result and find that during the storm of crisis, the key strategy for organizations, which suffer from the crisis, is to compete for survival opportunities—new business information and activities—and thus, they need exclusive, uncontested access to structural holes.

Work in progress

Building knowledge graph for ambidexterity concept.

Human – machine collaboration.

Other research topics

Risk preference

Ferdinand M. Vieider, Peter Martinsson, Pham Khanh Nam, Nghi Truong (2019) Risk preferences and development revisited. Theory and Decision, 86 (1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11238-018-9674-8.

Abstract: We obtain rich measures of the risk preferences of a sample of Vietnamese farmers, and revisit the link between risk preferences and economic well-being. Far from being particularly risk averse, our farmers are on average risk neutral and, thus, more risk tolerant than typical Western subject populations. This generalises recent findings indicating that students in poorer countries are more risk tolerant than students in richer countries to a general population sample. Risk aversion is, furthermore, negatively correlated with income within our sample, but does not correlate with wealth. This also casts doubt on high levels of risk aversion causing failure to adopt new technologies, which we discuss.

Natural Language Processing Models

Ingo Marquart, Nghi Truong, and Matthew S. Bothner (2020) Using semantic networks to identify the meanings of leadership. Academy of Management Proceedings.

Abstract: We develop a novel method that integrates techniques from machine learning with canonical concepts from network analysis in order to examine how the meaning of leadership has evolved over time. Using articles in Harvard Business Review from 1990 through 2019, we induce yearly semantic networks comprised of roles structurally equivalent to the role of leader. Such roles, from which leader derives meaning, vary in content from coach and colleague to commander and dictator. Yearly shifts in the structural equivalence of leader to clusters of thematically-linked roles reveals a decline in the degree to which leadership is associated with consultative activities and a corresponding rise in the extent to which a leader is understood to occupy a hierarchical position. Our analyses further reveal that the role of leader comes to eclipse the role of manager, measured through changes in pagerank centrality as well as betweenness centrality over the course of our panel. Implications for new research on leadership, culture, and networks are discussed.

What we talk about when we talk about “manager” (with Ingo Marquart, Wonjae Lee and Matthew S. Bothner, Work in progress.)

Future of work

Hai Anh Vu, Thanh Nguyen, Tam Nguyen, Vu Vo, Tuan Tran, Hoang Bao Nguyen and Nghi Truong (2021) Preparing for the future: The impact of the “Coding for future with Google” program on students’ attitude and behavior toward coding in Vietnam. Draft available.