Purpose This study aims to assess the effect of peer evaluations on team-level effort, productivity, motivation and overall team performance. Design/methodology/approach This study explores the impact of a peer evaluation system on 895 multicultural and transnational global virtual teams (GVTs) composed of 5,852 university students from 130 different countries. The study uses a quasi-experiment in which the group project is implemented under two conditions over two sequential iterations. In the first condition, team members do not receive peer evaluation feedback during the project. In the second condition, participants completed detailed peer evaluations of their team members and received feedback weekly for eight consecutive weeks. Findings Results suggest that when peer evaluations are used in GVTs during the project, teams show: higher levels of group effort; lower levels of average productivity and motivation; and no clear evidence of improved team performance. Results cast doubts on the benefits of peer evaluation within GVTs as the practice fails to reach its main objective of improving team performance and generates some negative internal dynamics. Practical implications The major implication of the study for managers and educators using GVTs is that the use of peer evaluations during the course of a project does not appear to improve objective team performance and reduces team motivation and perception of productivity despite increases in teams’ perceptions of effort and performance. Originality/value This study contributes to the scanty literature regarding the impact of peer evaluation systems on group-level dynamics and performance outcomes.

Although the benefits of mentoring for protégés’ career-related outcomes have been largely confirmed, little research has examined whether this benefit can extend to the protégés’ life domains outside of work. In this study, we investigate the impact of the extent of workplace mentoring support on protégés’ subjective well-being (SWB). Based on data that were collected from a two-wave survey of 253 protégés in ongoing mentoring programs in China, the results showed that the extent of the mentoring support was significantly related to the protégés’ SWB (i.e., satisfaction with life, positive affect, and negative affect) through their psychological safety. Furthermore, the perceived mentor status of protégés moderated the relationship between the extent of mentoring support and the protégés’ psychological safety, such that the relationship was stronger when the perceived mentor status was higher rather than lower. The theoretical and managerial implications of our findings are also discussed.

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Purpose This study aims to investigate the determinants of herd behavior in online hotel service evaluations, focusing on the cultural and geographic distance characteristics of customers. Design/methodology/approach On the basis of 381,462 TripAdvisor reviews of hotels in the USA written by more than 100,000 customers from 92 countries, this study uses the empirical analysis to explore the collective roles of cultural distance, geographic distance and hospitality experience on herd behavior in online hotel ratings. Findings Cultural and geographic distances between customers and product and service locations positively affect herding and these two effects are substitutable. The hospitality experience of customers attenuates the impacts of distances on herding. These results are robust for multiple hotel service ratings. Practical implications Findings help hotels understand perceptual biases of customers on hotel services under the social influence and consequently develop effective marketing strategies to boost hotel revenues and increase profitability. Originality/value The research contributes to hospitality and online review literature by understanding how cultural and geographic distances shape online hotel service evaluations under the root of the uncertainty of decision-making and the observation of others’ behavior. The research also contributes to the distances in international business literature by deepening the understanding of the substitution and heterogeneity of distance effects. Methodologically, a time-varying and monotonously increasing variable is constructed to depict customers’ hospitality experience. The extensive data volume ensures the generalizability of our results.

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In a sample of 1,891 teams (8,556 students) who completed an eight-week international business consulting project, half of the teams developed a team charter, half did not. Teams with charters saw improved process performance metrics only at the forming stage of team development. They also reported higher conflict levels. However, more conflict did not negatively affect peer evaluations or team output quality, suggesting that such conflict was not entirely negative. Team charter use was not directly associated with output quality, measured as the final report's grade.However, team national diversity moderated the solution creativity presented in the team's final report. These findings suggest team charters may initially aid process improvement but not necessarily the quality of output. We propose that the difference between the two groups studied is essentially one of formal written contracting versus informal psychological contracting, defined as a set of unwritten expectations of team members with regard to team behaviors and goals. These two forms of contracting provide for equifinality (the same result) in performance over the lifecycle of a project. The study contributes to research on team charter use, particularly with respect to formal versus informal psychological contracting within the context of global virtual teams.

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