Management and health care literature is increasingly preoccupied with leadership as a collective social process, and related leadership concepts such as distributed leadership have therefore recently gained momentum. This paper investigates how formal, i.e. transformational, transactional and empowering, leadership styles affect employees’ perceived agency in distributed leadership, and whether these associations are mediated by employees’ perceived organizational efficacy. Based on large-scale survey data from a study at one of Scandinavia’s largest public hospitals (N = 1,147), our results show that all leadership styles had a significant positive impact on employees’ perceived agency in distributed leadership. Further, organizational efficacy related negatively to employees’ perceived agency in distributed leadership; however, a mediatory impact of this on the formal leadership styles-distributed leadership relationship was not detected. These results emphasize the importance of formal leaders to enhance employee involvement in various leadership functions; still, employees might prefer to participate in leadership functions when they perceive that the organization is struggling to achieve its goals.

Balancing social and economic missions in the pursuit of growth is one of the greatest challenges faced by social ventures. Although social ventures strive for growth to scale their social impact, pursuing growth often results in mission drift and the sacrifice of social objectives, which in turn eventually undermine the ventures’ raison d’être. In this study, we investigate how and with what outcomes social ventures that pursue growth can manage the balance of social and economic missions. Through a comparative case study of six for-profit social ventures, we find significant differences in how dual missions are selected, connected, and intertwined, leading to varying degrees of mission spillover effects between social and economic missions. Our findings show that two-sided mission spillover effects are a central mechanism in dual mission management, enabling social ventures to pursue balanced growth, avoid mission drift, and achieve social impact. With these findings, this study adds to the emergent literature on social entrepreneurship, dual mission management, and social venture growth.

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to highlight the key points for succeeding with the freemium business model in online digital business from a strategic point of view. The freemium business model has recently become one of the most dominant business models in online markets. However, entrepreneurs and managers still have a limited understanding of why some freemium business models become successful and sustainable while others do not. Design/methodology/approach: The findings and recommendations derive from the study of online digital companies and applications, which either succeeded or failed to develop a sustainable freemium model. These are LinkedIn, Spotify, Box, Eventbrite, Chargify, Gasketball and TravelCrony. Findings: The article describes the generic strategy and the key strategic choices that enable and support successful freemium business model execution in an online digital business. Research limitations/implications: The research is limited to digital companies applying a freemium business model and offering their products and services online. Practical implications: The findings and recommendations can help new and existing companies, first, to evaluate if the freemium business model is feasible for them, and second, to adjust strategies to develop a successful freemium business model and scale it up. Originality/value: The article extends the current understanding of the freemium business model logic.

International awareness and demands for sustainable development have pushed the sustainability narrative into the forefront of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As a result, the call for sustainable business practices has never been greater. While businesses are both needed and eager to contribute to sustainable development, current literature lacks insights into how businesses can practice sustainability. This paper aims to fill this gap and develop an understanding of the different categories of sustainability practices that firms adopt, and the potentials and challenges associated with them. Based on a qualitative multiple case study, we identify four categories of sustainability practices including inspiring and informing, productizing, co-creating and system building. We integrate these findings into a sustainability maturity typology, proposing that these four practices are associated with an increasing intensity of sustainability intention, so that firms realize increasing levels of sustainability in the focal business practices as they move from inspiring and informing through to system building. The article concludes by arguing that there is no generic “one size fits all” approach to support sustainability practices as approaches need to fit a firm’s sustainability maturity.