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Saiedi, Ed; Von Nitzsch, Jannis & Bird, Miriam
(2024)
The strategic role of owners in firm growth: Contextualizing ownership competence in private firms
Show summary
We integrate the emerging literature on the strategic role of firm owners in firms’ value creation with Penrosean growth theory to investigate how and under what conditions two experience-based competences among owners—matching competence and governance competence—influence firm growth. Employing a longitudinal sample of 2,509 owner-managed German firms, we find a positive relationship between owners’ experience-based competences and firm growth. Further, we find that in family firms, the positive relationship between owners’ experience-based governance competence and firm growth is weaker and that both experience-based competences matter more in younger firms compared to older firms. Our findings make important contributions to research on strategic ownership and Penrosean growth theory.
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Kratochvil, Renate & Langley, Ann
(2024)
Process Research and Strategy as Practice
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Pinnock, Susanna; Evers, Natasha & Hoholm, Thomas
(2024)
Customer search strategies of entrepreneurial telehealth firms - how effective is effectuation?
Show summary
Purpose – The demand for healthcare innovation is increasing, and not much is known about how entrepreneurial firms search for and sell to customers in the highly regulated and complex healthcare market. Drawing on effectuation perspectives, we explore how entrepreneurial digital healthcare firms with disruptive innovations search for early customers in the healthcare sector.
Study design/methodology/approach – This study uses a qualitative, longitudinal multiple-case design of four entrepreneurial Nordic telehealth firms. In-depth interviews were conducted with founders and senior managers over a period of 27 months.
Findings – We find that when customer buying conditions are highly flexible, case firms use effectual logic to generate customer demand for disruptive innovations. However, under constrained buying conditions firms adopt a more causal approach to customer search.
Originality/value: We contribute to effectuation literature by illustrating how customer buying conditions influence decision-making logics of entrepreneurial firms searching for customers in the healthcare sector. We contribute to entrepreneurial resource search literature by illustrating how entrepreneurial firms search for customers beyond their networks in the institutionally complex healthcare sector.
Practical implications – Managers need to gain a deep understanding of target buying environments when searching for customers. In healthcare sector markets, the degree of flexibility customers have over buying can constrain them from engaging in demand co-creation. In particular, healthcare customer access to funding streams can be a key determinant of customer flexibility.
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Veisdal, Jørgen
(2024)
Value perceptions of first-party content on multi-sided platforms: Findings from the Amazon Marketplace
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Schou, Peter Kalum
(2024)
Unpacking the myth of the entrepreneurial state
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Schou, Peter Kalum & Nesheim, Torstein
(2024)
What We Do in the Shadows: How expert workers reclaim control in digitalized and centralized organizations through ‘stealth work’
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Wessel, Michael; José Schmidt-Kessen, Maria & Hukal, Philipp
(2024)
Regulating short-term rental platforms: the effects of local regulatory responses on Airbnb’s operations in Europe
Show summary
Many digital platforms offer services that affect real-world socio-economic processes. One example is the impact of short-term rental platforms such as Airbnb or Wimdu on cities and neighborhoods. Because these platforms often operate in a regulatory void characterized by absent, unclear, or poorly enforced laws and regulations, local governments in affected cities have begun experimenting with a variety of instruments to regulate the operations of short-term rental platforms. In this paper, we report how such locally implemented regulatory responses have affected Airbnb’s operations across 13 European cities over the period from 2015 to 2019. Using a difference-in-difference specification with synthetic controls, we assess the impact of different regulatory responses by disaggregating them into motivations, actions, targets, and outcomes. We find that the effectiveness of regulatory responses differs by type of regulation (restricting or clarifying), type of host (professional or private), as well as the enforcement (with or without the cooperation of the platform operator). Through this work, we add to the ongoing debate on the regulation of digital platforms by presenting both empirical evidence as well as an analytical framework.
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Nicolini, Davide & Korica, Maja
(2024)
Structured shadowing as a pedagogy
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Lindelid, Lidia & Nair, Sujith
(2024)
Trading wage jobs for dreams: the interplay between entry modes into self-employment and the duration of subsequent self-employment stints
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Arnold, Laurin & Hukal, Philipp
(2024)
The varying effects of standardisation on digital platform innovation: evidence from OpenStreetmap
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Smith, Sheryl Winston; Garcia Herrera, Cristobal, thiel, jana, Perkmann, Markus & Giones, Ferran
(2023)
Corporate, Industrial And Wicked Acceleration: Tackling Grand Challenges Through Novel Approaches
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Andersson, Ulf; Benito, Gabriel R G, Lunnan, Randi & Tomassen, Sverre
(2023)
Why Some are Less Willing to Share:Competitive Domains and Knowledge Transfer in Multi-Unit Organizations
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Saiedi, Ed
(2023)
Are Constraints the Mother of Innovation? Innovation Effects of the Global Financial Crisis
Academy of Management Proceedings.
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Wang, Pengfei
(2023)
Rebirth from the ashes: Failure events and new venture creation in Norway
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Baraldi, Enrico; Harrison, Debbie, Kask, Johan & Ratajczak-Mrozek, Milena
(2023)
A network perspective on resource interaction: Past, present and future
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Wang, Pengfei; Hu, Jianhao & Liu, Jingjiang
(2023)
Out of the shadow? The effect of high-status employee departure on the performance of staying coworkers in financial brokerage firms
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Wiig, Heidi; Schou, Peter Kalum & Hansen, Birte Malene Tangeraas
(2023)
Scaling the great wall: how women entrepreneurs in China overcome cultural barriers through digital affordances
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Asmussen, Christian Geisler; Fosfuri, Andrea, Larsen, Marcus Møller & Santangelo, Grazia D.
(2023)
Corporate social responsibility in the global value chain: A bargaining perspective
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Lombardo, Sebastiano; Hindenes, Arve, Aslesen, Sigmund & Reff, Sigmund
(2023)
Sustainability as target value. A parametric approach.
Show summary
Our time is characterized by climate changes that impose sustainability in every industrial activity, an additional objective to our design and construction processes. The classic Lean Construction approach needs to be further developed to take sufficient care of the sustainability issue. The design of modern buildings is a work process that can be set up and run with tools that secure a more sustainable final product. This study proposes to extend the classic range of objectives pursued by the Lean construction approach, as to include sustainability in the design process, in a systematic and structured way. The case of a building project is analyzed. In the early design stages, advanced structural design tools are used to explore various alternative designs of the bearing structure. The structural design tools are combined with tools used to calculate embodied carbon in the construction. The levels of embodied carbon following each of the many possible, alternative, structural solutions are estimated. These insights are provided to the owner in a very early stage of the design process. Through these design practices owners and investors can add sustainability targets to the classical project targets (cost, quality, time), and include sustainability as a part of the fulfillment of the client’s functional needs.
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Colman, Helene Loe; Rouzies, Audrey & Lunnan, Randi
(2023)
Social integration in subsidiary-building acquisitions
Show summary
We identify and conceptualize the phenomenon of subsidiary-building acquisitions. International acquisitions provide a powerful means for multinational corporations (MNCs) to grow their existing subsidiaries. The integration of subsidiary-building acquisitions involves a triad of actors: the MNC, the existing subsidiary, and the target. However, extant research emphasizes international acquisitions as a cross-border phenomenon, focusing in a limited way on the foreign acquirer–local target dyad, thus ignoring the complexities of subsidiary-building acquisitions. Through a qualitative study of a Norwegian target acquired by a French MNC with an existing Norwegian subsidiary, we find that subsidiary-building acquisitions involve tensions between autonomy and integration in two distinct and interrelated integration processes: local integration and cross-border integration. We uncover how pressures for autonomy in one process counter-intuitively trigger pressures for integration in the other. These dynamics fuel headquarters–subsidiary relationships and subsidiary cohesion, the two components of social integration in subsidiary-building acquisitions. By unearthing the underexplored phenomenon of subsidiary-building acquisitions, we provide novel insights into the complexities of international acquisitions. We bridge the merger and acquisition (M&A) and MNC literatures, thus paving the way for research on international acquisitions to move beyond the acquirer–target dyad to understand their implications for MNCs.
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Aslesen, Sigmund; Hindenes, Arve, Reff, Sigmund, Stordal, Espen & Lombardo, Sebastiano
(2023)
Green is good: First Run Study of a sustainable building structure.
Show summary
The study made an account for in this paper is based on the hypothesis that introducing a climate-friendly building material to construction production may fundamentally impact project performance. In the paper, evidence is given for a prolonged, costlier process of erecting the building structure if an extremely low-carbon concrete combined with a 100 percent recycled aggregate is applied. Findings suggest various measures to be taken, to accelerate the hardening of the concrete. Otherwise, a positive environmental effect may easily diminish the overall project performance. The paper is based on a First Run Study (FRS) including a full-scale mock-up of a part of the building structure, including ground floor, wall, columns, and slab. As part of the study, data was collected about the temperature, firmness, and relative moisture of the concrete, and the effects of different actions applied to accelerate the hardening process. The impact of this study is an estimated risk reduction of 1,5 percent in the context of the project it was intended to support. The paper concludes that this type of experimentation should happen prior to actual performance to prevent construction projects from falling short of time and finances caused by unexpected results.
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Ubisch, Sverre Søyland & Wang, Pengfei
(2023)
Innovation on technological “islands”: domain contrast, boundary spanning, knowledge depth and breadth
Show summary
Prior literature has long examined innovation as a recombination process within or across the boundaries of technological domains. However, limited attention is paid to boundaries per se. Building upon recent development of categorical contrast, this study distinguishes domains with crisp boundaries from those with fuzzy boundaries and examines their effects on innovation outputs. Analyzing a large sample of US patents, we find that spanning crisp boundaries is more likely to generate impactful inventions but at the same time leads to significantly higher recombinant uncertainty. We continue to explore what types of inventors are better able to span such types of domain boundaries. Focusing specifically on the role of inventors’ knowledge expertise, we find that while both knowledge depth and breadth enhance the impact of technologies that span crisp boundaries, knowledge breadth is also found to escalate the associated uncertainty. Our emphasis on the contrast of technological domains contributes to the literature on recombinative innovation and boundary spanning.
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Schou, Peter Kalum & Adarkwah, Gilbert Kofi
(2023)
Digital communities of inquiry: How online communities support entrepreneurial opportunity development
Show summary
In recent years, scholars have argued that entrepreneurs develop opportunities through social engagement in communities of peers. These entrepreneurial communities of peers, so-called communities of inquiry, are moving from the physical to the virtual realm as digital technologies proliferate society and entrepreneurial processes. However, little is known about how entrepreneurs partake in online communities and how this partaking may affect opportunity development. To improve knowledge on this matter, we analyzed 18,670 comments from four different entrepreneurship communities on Reddit. We find that online communities support entrepreneurial opportunity development by providing feedback, emotional support, and models that reduce uncertainty. By unpacking how online communities may support opportunity development, the paper contributes to the nascent stream on the social aspects of opportunity development and to the growing interest in digital entrepreneurship.
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Sabel, Christopher Albert & Sasson, Amir
(2023)
Different people, different pathways: Human capital redeployment in multi-business firms
Show summary
Multi-business firms redeploy
human capital to strengthen individual business units.
However, we know little about the antecedents of such
redeployments and their effects on unit outcomes. Contributing
to the resource redeployment and strategic
human capital literatures, we test the relationships
between parent–unit industry relatedness, the direction
of redeployment (parent-to-unit and unit-to-parent),
the type of human capital, the likelihood of redeployment,
and post-redeployment unit closure. Using Norwegian
population-level microdata of spinouts, we find
that parent–unit industry relatedness increases the likelihood
of human capital redeployment and that this
effect is stronger for generalists than for specialists.
Further, we find that parent-to-unit and unit-to-parent
redeployment of generalists and specialists have distinct
effects on unit closure, largely because of differences
in post-redeployment unit performance.
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Håkansson, Håkan & Snehota, Ivan
(2023)
Economic effects of interaction. The neglected economy of connectivity
Show summary
Purpose
With a start in the observation that there is a large variation in how companies interact with each other, the paper aims to anlayse the economic consequences of this variation. As the more extensive interaction is costly, the variation also indicates a variation in the economic dimension.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a conceptual paper.
Findings
Three different economic streams can be identified. Firstly, the interaction costs can be reduced by taking advantage of time and scope. Interaction over time give opportunity to use some of the costs as investments through creation of relationships. By using the same counterpart for several products, scope can be used to reduce interaction costs. Secondly, developed business relationships can be used to create relation revenues. The counterparts can use each other for developing better solutions and for development of knowledge. Finally, the actors can also get positive network effects. One example is the joint development with third parties such as sub-suppliers or customer’s customer.
Research limitations/implications
The discussion ends in two major implications. One is the central role of managers and the other the crucial role of economic deals. Managers are crucial both to identify relevant cost and revenue items as well as to exploit them. Deals are important as it is only with direct counterparts where there are monetary streams. In all other relationships, there is only indirect consequences.
Originality/value
It is obvious that the type of cost and revenue streams identified above will require new and different economic tools. A base for this is given here.
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Galasso, Alberto; Luo, Hong & Zhu, Brooklynn
(2023)
Laboratory safety and research productivity
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Schou, Peter Kalum
(2023)
Coming Apart While Scaling Up – Adoption of Logics and the Fragmentation of Organizational Identity in Science-Based Ventures
Show summary
When trying to commercialize, science-based ventures often face contradicting institutional logics. While stakeholders appreciate scientific ability, they also increasingly demand concessions to a commercial logic focusing on efficiency and profit. To satisfy stakeholders, science-based ventures must adapt their organizational identity to include the commercial logic. The study investigates this challenge, relying on a 24-month in-depth study of a venture in the photonics industry. Based on the findings, I developed a process model that outlines how the logics shift from compatibility to incompatibility during the adoption process, thereby causing the organizational identity to fragment. The paper contributes to research streams on organizational identity processes, dynamics of institutional logics in organizations, and scaling of science-based ventures.
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Amdam, Rolv Petter Storvik; Benito, Gabriel R.G. & Grøgaard, Birgitte
(2023)
The untold story: Teaching cases and the rise of international business as a new academic field
Show summary
The dominant narrative about the rise of international business (IB) focuses on early research and the institutionalization of a new academic field. In this study, we explore the role of case writing in the field’s formative period from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s. Based on an analysis of teaching cases on IB topics, we demonstrate that case-based teaching, including the writing of cases, was an innovative pedagogical method that made a strong impact on the formation of the new academic field. Analyzing the cases and the background and affiliation of their authors offers new insights into the linkages to other disciplines from which the new academic field emerged. The analysis of the cases also provides new insight into how the case authors connected to the new practical experiences from an increasing number of multinational enterprises, particularly from the US, and conceptualized the experiences into a pedagogical language. The investigation covers 489 cases written by scholars located in 18 countries from the early 1950s to 1963, as well as archival studies of the business schools and institutions that initiated the production of cases.
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Rygh, Asmund & Benito, Gabriel R.G.
(2023)
Subsidiary Capital Structure in Multinational Enterprises: A New Internalization Theory Perspective
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Koval, Mariia; Iurkov, Viacheslav & Benito, Gabriel R.G.
(2023)
The interplay of international alliance and subsidiary portfolios: Implications for firms’ innovation and financial performance
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Kolbjørnsrud, Vegard
(2023)
Organizing intelligent digital actors
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Adarkwah, Gilbert Kofi & Benito, Gabriel R G
(2023)
Dealing with high-risk environments: Institutional-based tools to reduce political risk costs
Show summary
The international business (IB) literature on political risk mitigation has assigned explanatory preeminence to the organizational capabilities of multinational corporations (MNCs). The literature has assumed that political risk is avoidable for MNCs with specific political capabilities. We argue that political risk is inevitable. We posit that even if MNCs have political capabilities, host countries' political risk and its associated costs will not simply disappear. Extending the literature on political risk mitigation, we highlight the role of institutional-based tools in curbing political risk costs. Specifically, we posit that MNCs can reduce political risk costs through (i) international investment agreements, (ii) investment contracts with host governments, (iii) political risk insurance, and (iv) guarantees with binding enforcement mechanisms in unison with relying on political capabilities, thereby dampening the negative effect of uncontrollable host country political risk. We leverage the political-institutional approach to political risk and draw on relevant literature from law and IB to develop a framework to describe the conditions under which MNCs may use these institutional-based tools.
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Gadde, Lars-Erik & Håkansson, Håkan
(2023)
Network dynamics and action space
Show summary
Purpose
In today’s business settings, most firms strive to closely integrate their resources and activities with those of their business partners. However, these linkages tend to create lock-in effects when changes are needed. In such situations, firms need to generate new space for action. The purpose of this paper is twofold: analysis of potential action spaces for restructuring; and examination of how action spaces can be exploited and the consequences accompanying this implementation.
Design/methodology/approach
Network dynamics originate from changes in the network interdependencies. This paper is focused on the role of the three dual connections – actors–activities, actors–resources and activities–resources, identified as network vectors. In the framing of the study, these network vectors are combined with managerial action expressed in terms of networking and network outcome. This framework is then used for the analysis of major restructuring of the car industries in the USA and Europe at the end of the 1900s.
Findings
This study shows that the restructuring of the car industry can be explained by modifications in the three network vectors. Managerial action through changes of the vector features generated new action space contributing to the transition of the automotive network. The key to successful exploitation of action space was interaction – with individual business partners, in triadic constellations, as well as on the network level.
Originality/value
This paper presents a new view of network dynamics by relying on the three network vectors. These concepts were developed in the early 1990s. This far, however, they have been used only to a limited extent.
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Karimova, Guli-Sanam; Heidbrink, Ludger, Brinkmann, Johannes & LeMay, Stephen Arthur
(2023)
Global standards and the philosophy of consumption: Toward a consumer-driven governance of global value chains
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Veisdal, Jørgen
(2023)
A Definition of Platforms with Meaningful Policy Implications
Competition Policy International.
Show summary
While the term “platform” is ubiquitous in everyday language, its precise definition in the context of topics related to competition, policy and antitrust still remains ambiguous. This arguably for technical reasons which are trivial to grasp but seemingly difficult to communicate en masse. When political leaders take aim at regulating “platforms,” precisely which types of services are they talking about? Do Microsoft’s platforms warrant the same attention from regulators as Meta’s or Alphabet’s? Technically, what distinguishes one from the other and what are the implications of the differences for policy makers? This paper takes aim at clarifying what, technically, constitutes a “platform” that is interesting from the perspective of competition and policy.
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Zilja, Flladina; Benito, Gabriel R G, Boustanifar, Hamid & Zhang, Dan
(2023)
CEO wealth and cross-border acquisitions by SMEs
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Vaksvik, Tone; Støme, Linn Nathalie, Føllesdal, Jorunn, Tvedte, Kjersti Aabel, Melum, Linn, Wilhelmsen, Christian R. & Kvaerner, Kari Jorunn
(2023)
Early practice of use of video consultations in rehabilitation of hand injuries in children and adults: Content, acceptability, and cost-effectiveness
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Stensaker, Inger G.; Colman, Helene Loe & Grøgaard, Birgitte
(2023)
The dynamics of union-management collaboration during postmerger integration
Show summary
Collaboration between unions and management may facilitate postmerger integration, however collaboration can also be time-consuming and challenging. Using a qualitative case study, we examined union–management collaboration in the integration of two Norwegian firms. The integration was split into two processes, involving different business units. While both processes were designed according to similar principles of collaboration, we observed the emergence of two diverging integration trajectories. Whereas the first process was characterized by a virtuous cycle of trust and constructive collaboration that facilitated integration, the second process turned into a vicious cycle of mistrust and conflict, causing disruption, and impeding integration. Based on our inductive analysis, we identify four distinctive features characterizing the emerging mode of collaboration. We develop a model to illustrate the dynamics of union-management collaboration in postmerger integration. These findings expand the current understanding of merger and acquisition (M&A) dynamics to include a broader set of actors and potential conflict factors in the integration process. Furthermore, our study suggests that collaborative integration processes require careful management while also potentially posing challenges for unions, particularly in the context of historical conflicts.
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Teyi, Shelter Selorm; Larsen, Marcus Møller & Namatovu, Rebecca
(2023)
Entrepreneurial identity and response strategies in the informal economy
Show summary
While entrepreneurs generally confront many challenges in running their businesses, those in the informal economy must do so in a state of constant environmental change outside the boundaries and support of formal institutions. We explore how the identity of such underdog entrepreneurs shapes their response strategies to situations of adversity that characterize the informal economy. Through an exploratory study of informal entrepreneurs in Ghana, we uncover four entrepreneurial identities (guardians, survival entrepreneurs, canvassers, and growth-oriented entrepreneurs) and discuss how these are closely related to three key response strategies (succumb, improvise, and push new boundaries). These findings show how resource scarcity and uncertainty shape underdog entrepreneurial behavior. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.
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Larsen, Marcus Møller; Mkalama, Ben & Mol, Michael J.
(2023)
Outsourcing in Africa: How do the interactions between providers, multinationals, and the state lead to the evolution of the BPO industry?
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Larsen, Marcus Møller; Birkinshaw, Julian, Zhou, Yue Maggie & Benito, Gabriel R G
(2023)
Complexity and multinationals
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Bucher, Eliane; Schou, Peter Kalum & Waldkirch, Matthias
(2023)
Just Another Voice in the Crowd? Investigating Digital Voice Formation in the Gig Economy
Show summary
Voice is crucial for workers as it enables them to better their organizations and exert some degree of control over managerial decision-making. Yet, as workers increasingly find jobs on digital platforms in the gig economy, traditional channels of voice are being replaced by digital voice channels, such as online communities. To add knowledge on how voice takes form on such channels, we collected conversation data from two online communities, which function as official (Upwork community) and unofficial (Reddit community) digital voice channels for gig workers active on Upwork. Based on a qualitative analysis of both communities, we discovered that when gig workers voice in digital channels, they tend to frame their voice¸ including signals of status and group membership. This voice framing creates different factions, which then engage in voice modulation, amplifying in-group members and muting outgroup members. Thereby, our study teases out how voice takes form in digital channels and how it differs from voice in traditional organizations. Our study contributes to the growing research at the intersection of voice and digital platforms.
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Tunisini, Annalisa; Harrison, Debbie & Bocconcelli, Roberta
(2023)
Handling resource deficiencies through resource interaction in business networks
Show summary
This paper conceptualizes how to handle resource deficiencies due to disruption and turbulence in supply chains from an Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) perspective. A conceptual framework explores how three resource deficiencies, resource scarcity, resource quality, and lack of availability, impacts upon, and is mitigated via, resource interaction. There is a need for reconfiguring resources to cope with both temporary and permanent disruptions in handling resource deficiencies in complex, turbulent contexts. The three deficiencies can occur within a business network both separately and in combination. The paper outlines a dynamic capabilities perspective on resource deficiencies in business networks by linking resource interaction and capabilities. The reality of resource deficiencies requires a sense of urgency; they are disruptive and most likely unplanned. This challenges mainstream IMP understanding about the dynamics of resource development.
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Dzikowska, Marlena; Gammelgaard, Jens & Andersson, Ulf
(2023)
Subsidiary capability and charter change: Making Birkinshaw and Hood's framework actionable
Show summary
We provide a more granular and comprehensive approach to subsidiary evolution and enhance the understanding of the complexity of the subsidiary's evolution in the era of value chain fine-slicing. We extend Birkinshaw and Hood's model of general processes of subsidiary evolution into a model of functional evolutionary paths that represents nine configurations of charter and capability changes. We examine initiative, autonomy, and track record as determinants of 1455 functional evolutionary paths identified in 266 subsidiaries operating in the Polish and Swiss manufacturing sectors. Through a two-level multinomial logistic regression model, we learn that subsidiary initiative and track record are positively related to an increase in subsidiaries' charter and capability enhancement, respectively. Subsidiary autonomy though, is negatively related to charter increase and capability enhancement.
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O'Riordan, Niall; Ryan, Paul & Andersson, Ulf
(2023)
The subsidiary strategising process
for a competence-creating role
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Lunnan, Randi; Meyer, Klaus, Mudambi, Ram & Yang, Qin
(2023)
The impact of knowledge and financial resource flows for MNE strategy: A typology of subsidiary roles
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Evald, Majbritt R.; Hoholm, Thomas, Mainela, Tuija & Torvinen, Hannu
(2023)
Creating and maintaining momentum–relational work in public-private innovation partnerships
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Hamdali, Yanis; Skade, Lorenzo, Jarzabkowski, Paula, Nicolini, Davide, Reinecke, Juliane, Vaara, Eero & Zietsma, Charlene
(2023)
Practicing Impact and Impacting Practice? Creating Impact Through Practice-Based Scholarship
Show summary
This curated debate provides a discussion on impact and its relation to practice-based scholarship, i.e., scholarship grounded in the social theories of practice. Five experienced senior scholars reflect on conceptualizations of impact, how it can be created and disseminated, and on the role of practice-based scholarship in this process. The authors discuss the role of researchers as members of the academic system, their activities related to generating, developing, and challenging new theory, and their reflexive relation to the research context when explaining their research to stakeholders to create knowledge and thus, for impacting practice. To suggest ways of practicing impact, their contributions also conceptualize impactful theory and reflect on the relationship between the production and usage of knowledge. These insights are an important contribution to the debate on scholarly impact and provide critical guidance for impactful scholarly work beyond conventional concepts.
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Nicolini, Davide & Mengis, Jeanne
(2023)
Towards a Practice-Theoretical View of the Situated Nature of Attention
Show summary
In this paper, we examine how a practice-theoretical perspective may complement and expand the central tenet of the attention-based view (ABV) that attention is contextually situated. We put forward three main arguments. First, the components that make a practice possible and that locate it in history and context (practice architecture) also prefigure a situated horizon of relevance and possibilities (pragmatic field of attention). Attention thus often befalls organizational members outside the realm of discursive consciousness as a consequence of being engaged in socio-material practices. Second, attention is situated at the crossroads of multiple practices, each with its practice architecture and local pragmatic field of attention. Organizational attention implies tensions, conflict, and contradictions and emerges from the interaction and negotiation of multiple individual and group pragmatic fields of attention. Finally, attention is situated in the temporal dynamics of sustaining and turning attention. This allows us to distinguish between inattention, dysfunctional distraction, and potentially productive attention turning. We argue that by focusing on the ordinary and routinized nature of attention, a theoretical practice view complements and enriches the ABV by offering a less voluntarist and top-down view and proposing a richer view of situatedness. A practice-theoretical approach also distributes attention among a broader set of elements, offering resources to theorize how these elements are connected. The approach also establishes a link between paying attention and caring, thus bringing emotions back into the study of organizational attention. In turn, the ABV helps the practice-theoretical perspective to recognize the central role of attention in organizational matters and the importance of engaging in full with the organizational unit of analysis when dealing with attention-related issues.
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Kolbjørnsrud, Vegard
(2023)
Designing the Intelligent Organization: Six Principles for Human-AI Collaboration
Show summary
This article presents principles and practical guidelines for how managers can succeed in growing the intelligence of their organizations by harnessing the complementary strengths of humans and artificial intelligence (AI). Organizational intelligence is the ability of collectives of intelligent human and digital actors to solve problems and adapt. Six principles for human-AI collaboration in organizations are explored—addition, relevance, substitution, diversity, collaboration, and explanation—and how they play out in leading organizations is discussed. Finally, practical guidelines are outlined for how leaders can enable their organizations to successfully make the change.
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Gkeredakis, Emmanouil; Swan, Jacky, Nicolini, Davide & Tsoukas, Haridimos
(2023)
What is the right thing to do? The constitutive role of organizational ethical frameworks in collective ethical sensemaking
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Von Nitzsch, Jannis; Bird, Miriam & Saiedi, Ed
(2022)
Does Owners’ Experience Matter? The Influence of Matching and Governance Experience on Firm Growth
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Amdam, Rolv Petter Storvik & Benito, Gabriel R.G.
(2022)
Temporality and the first foreign direct investment
Show summary
This study examines the timing of the first foreign direct investment (FDI). It explores how the conceptualization and, hence, the understanding of time affects our insights into major internationalization decisions in organizations; specifically, that of navigating into the unknown waters associated with making a first FDI. We introduce a multitemporal approach by drawing on the different temporalities prevalent in history and in business and management to build a platform for analysis that provides a suitable combination of richness and contrast. By examining the process toward making a major internationalization decision in terms of clock, event, stages, and cyclical concepts of time, we gain valuable but also varied insights about a complex process. We conclude that to understand any organization's process of international strategy formation at a certain point (or period) in time, its particularities need to be appreciated in some detail. While the details in this study are unique to the case of Harvard Business School's decision in 1971 to make its first FDI, we argue that the main features of the process are common to conceptualizing the internationalization decision process. As such, the findings should apply more generally.
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Olsen, Per Ingvar & Abrahamsen, Morten H.
(2022)
The Oslo case: Agile and adaptive responses to Covid-19 challenges by actors in local and globally extended health technology clusters
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Prenkert, Frans; Huang, Lei, Huemer, Lars, Kask, Johan, Landquist, Maria, Pagano, Alessandro, Perna, Andrea, Poblete, León, Ratajczak-Mrozek, Milena, Wagrell, Sofia, Hedvall, Klas, Hasche, Nina, Eklinder Frick, Jens, Abrahamsen, Morten H., Aramo-Immonen, Heli, Baraldi, Enrico, Bocconcelli, Roberta & Harrison, Debbie
(2022)
Resource interaction: Key concepts, relations and representations
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Wang, Pengfei
(2022)
Looking into the past: Audience heterogeneity and the inconsistency of market signals
-
Fjeldstad, Øystein Devik & Wathne, Kenneth Henning
(2022)
Business models and B2B governance Research
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Lindemann, Beate Hildegard & Brinkmann, Johannes
(2022)
Per Mausklick in Berlin - Digitale Zugänglichkeit im Spagat zwischen Potential und DaF-Lehrer-Alltag
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Smith, Sheryl Winston; Giones, Ferran, Krishnan Shankar, Raj, Perkmann, Markus, Garcia Herrera, Cristobal, thiel, jana, basu, sandip & vandeweghe, laurens
(2022)
Corporate, Consortia & Moonshot Acceleration: Novel Approaches to Speed Up Entrepreneurial Innovation
Academy of Management Proceedings.
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Kratochvil, Renate; Gruenauer, Johanna, Friesl, Martin & Güttel, Wolfgang
(2022)
Deliberate simple rule creation and use: Activities and challenges
Show summary
Using ‘simple rules’ may enable managers to take organizational decisions more rapidly. While prior research presents advantages of simple rule use during strategy formation, we lack insights into how firms can deliberately create simple rules and mitigate the challenges therein. This is particularly interesting for established firms struggling to leverage their wealth of experience. We explore how managers of a multinational corporation deliberately create and use simple rules to implement the firm’s growth strategy. Drawing on interviews and secondary data, we reveal the activities through which managers ensure the relevance and legitimacy of codified simple rules, yet also establish causality between simple rules and outcomes. Simple rule creation is accomplished via bottom-up identification and lateral validation, its use via consistent top-down guiding and timely adaptation. Our findings contribute to the growing body of research on the evolution of simple rules and aspects of strategy implementation more generally.
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Reunamäki, Riku & Fey, Carl F.
(2022)
Remote agile: Problems, solutions, and pitfalls to avoid
Show summary
In response to the increasing uncertainty and rapid change around them, firms are looking to implement new management methods to become more flexible and less hierarchical. One of the most popular of these methods is agile, which aims for reactiveness, collaboration, decentralized decision-making, and increased autonomy. However, agile was designed to work best with teams where members are co-located, whereas during the COVID-19 pandemic and likely in the post-COVID world, many employees are working remotely from home at least part of the time. We explore how to adapt agile to remote work, drawing from an in-depth case study of OP Financial
Group, the largest bank in Finland. We highlight five problems and solutions to implementing agile in a remote setting and discuss the situations and types of teams in which the different aspects of remote agile are likely to work and not work. Our findings provide guidance for
companies looking to become agile in “the new normal.”
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Nicolini, Davide; Pyrko, Ivor, Omidvar, Omid & Spanelli, Agnessa
(2022)
Understanding Communities of Practice: Taking Stock and Moving Forward
Show summary
This paper provides a comprehensive, integrative conceptual review of work on communities of practice (CoPs), defined broadly as groups of people bound together by a common activity, shared expertise, a passion for a joint enterprise, and a desire to learn or improve their practice. We identify three divergent views on the intended purposes and expected effects of CoPs: as mechanisms for fostering learning and knowledge-sharing, as sources of innovation, and as mechanisms to defend interests and perpetuate control over expertise domains. We use these different lenses to make sense of the ways CoPs are conceptualized and to review scholarly work on this topic. We argue that current debate on the future of work and new methodological developments are challenging the received wisdom on CoPs and offer research opportunities and new conceptual combinations. We argue also that the interaction between the lenses and between CoP theory and adjacent literatures might result in new theory and conceptualizations.
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Colman, Helene Loe & Lunnan, Randi
(2022)
Pulling Together While Falling Apart: A Relational View on Integration in Serial Acquirers
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Måren, Inger Elisabeth; Wiig, Heidi, McNeal, Kathryn, Wang, Sally, Zu, Sebrina, Cao, Ren, Fürst, Kathinka & Marsh, Robin
(2022)
Diversified Farming Systems: Impacts and Adaptive Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States, Norway and China
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Ubisch, Sverre Søyland & Wang, Pengfei
(2022)
Typical Products for Outside Audiences: The Role of Typicality When Products Traverse Countries
Show summary
While organization theorists have established the importance of typicality, most studies examine situations where producers and audiences dwell within the same category system (e.g., a country, industry, or market). However, much less attention is paid to the role of typicality when products are introduced from one system to another. Since defining what is typical is commonly system-specific, typical products in one category system may be perceived as being atypical in others. It is therefore important to understand how typicality shapes market exchanges when products traverse category systems. To shed light on this, we introduce two key concepts—home typicality and host typicality—and examine specifically how they affect the performance of products distributed across countries. By analyzing a large sample of films, we find that films are more successful in international markets, when they are more typical of their home countries and/or more atypical of their host countries.
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Bygballe, Lena Elisabeth; Sand-Holm, Sanne, Pakoglu, Ceyda & Svalestuen, Fredrik
(2022)
Challenges of Performance Measurement in Lean Construction and the Last Planner System®: A Norwegian Case
Lean Construction Journal, 2022, p. 24-40.
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Larsen, Marcus Møller & Witte, Caroline
(2022)
Informal Legacy and Exporting Among Sub-Saharan African Firms
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Rygh, Asmund; Torgersen, Kristine & Benito, Gabriel R G
(2022)
Institutions and inward foreign direct investment in the primary sectors
Show summary
Purpose
Well-functioning institutions are repeatedly claimed to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) by reducing the costs and uncertainty of economic activity. Nonetheless, it has been argued that institutions may matter less for FDI in the primary sector. This study aims to theoretically and empirically investigate the role of institutions for attracting FDI in agricultural and in extractive activities.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses worldwide country and sector-level data on inward FDI for the period 1996–2007. The key independent variables, property rights protection, corruption and democracy, are measured using World Bank Governance Indicators and Polity IV as data sources. Fixed effect panel regression, Tobit regression and generalized method of moments are used for data analysis.
Findings
The authors corroborate the importance of institutions for aggregate FDI. Disaggregating by primary subsector, the authors find that agricultural FDI, like aggregate FDI, is attracted by institutional features such as rule of law and property rights protection and democracy, whereas extractive FDI is not. The authors also find some evidence that corruption deters FDI in both primary subsectors.
Originality/value
The authors take a first step toward linking the largely empirical institutions-FDI literature more closely with the economics-based theoretical discussions of FDI risk grounded on a property rights approach, to discuss issues such as effective control rights over investments, which may vary between sectors. The authors also explore a novel idea that extractive activities may be less sensitive to institutions because the time horizon is limited by the depletion of the resource, resulting in an inherently relatively short-term commitment to a host-country location.
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Colman, Helene Loe; Grøgaard, Birgitte & Stensaker, Inger G.
(2022)
Organizational identity work in MNE subsidiaries: Managing dual embeddedness
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Kolbjørnsrud, Vegard & Sannes, Ragnvald
(2022)
Problemløsing med kunstig intelligens: Bruk av Spacemaker i tidligfase eiendomsutvikling
Show summary
Intelligent teknologi brukes i stadig større grad til å støtte problemløsing i organisasjoner. I denne studien utforsker vi hva som skjer med komplekse problemløsingsprosesser når kunstig intelligens introduseres og hvordan samhandlingen menneske-maskin kan organiseres. Vi følger bruken av programvaren Spacemaker i tidligfase eiendomsutvikling i to store nordiske virksomheter; OBOS og Nordr. Programvaren brukes til å støtte, akselerere og forbedre design- og analysearbeidet. Konkret fører dette til flere og raskere iterasjoner, åpnere og mer involverende prosesser og grundigere vurderinger på et tidligere stadium. Dette øker den kollektive intelligensen i team av mennesker og maskiner utover det hver av partene kan klare på egen hånd. Vi diskuterer hvilke implikasjoner funnene våre har for innføring av teknologi, hvordan AI kan brukes til å åpne lukkede ekspertdrevne problemløsingsprosesser samt begrensingene slike systemer har og menneskers rolle i hybrid menneske-maskinsamhandling. I tillegg drøfter vi hva dette kan bety for norsk BAE-næring.
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Tvedt, Jostein
(2022)
Floating offshore wind and the real options to relocate
Show summary
Real options to relocate may improve the profitability of the floating offshore wind industry. Location and market switching can contribute to mitigating parts of the cost disadvantage of floating versus fixed-bottom offshore wind. The article derives optimal relocation strategies and real options values under uncertainty. Risk factors that may increase the value of relocation options include electricity prices, capacity factors, political uncertainty, collateral valuation, environmental issues and technological progress.
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Glass, Jacqueline; Bygballe, Lena Elisabeth & Hall, Daniel
(2022)
Transforming construction: the multi-scale challenges of changing and innovating in construction.
Construction Management and Economics.
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Sjøtun, Svein Gunnar; Fløysand, Arnt, Wiig, Heidi & Zenteno Hopp, Joaquin
(2022)
Multi-level agency and transformative capacity for environmental risk reduction in the Norwegian salmon farming industry
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Haarman, Amanda; Larsen, Marcus Møller & Namatovu, Rebecca
(2022)
Understanding the Firm in the Informal Economy: A Research Agenda
Show summary
Informal firms prevail and preoccupy a dominant share of the economic activity in many developing countries. Yet, few attempts have been made to systematically integrate dominant theories of the firm with the empirical importance of informal enterprises. The purpose of this paper is to review established theories of the informal economy and the firm, and to explore potential for cross-fertilization to better understand the nature of the firm in the informal economy. We seek to convey two basic points: First, as informal economy firms vary in form, structure, and strategies, a systematic inquiry of their heterogeneous and idiosyncratic nature is warranted. Second, significant opportunities for future development research reside at the interface between existing theoretical explanations of the informal economy (dualistic, structuralist legal, and voluntarist theories) and dominant theories of the firm (contractual and competence theories). We discuss in detail three main themes for future development research seeking to understand informal economy firms: (i) Contract mechanisms and enforcement; (ii) Learning strategies; and (iii) Resource and capability development.
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Grecu, Alina; Sofka, Wolfgang, Larsen, Marcus Møller & Pedersen, Torben
(2022)
Unintended signals: Why companies with a history of offshoring have to pay wage penalties for new hires
Show summary
We explore how companies with a history of offshoring attract their future employees. We reason that offshoring decisions send unintended signals about job insecurity to companies’ onshore labor markets. This signaling effect implies that offshoring companies must pay higher salaries for new hires than non-offshoring companies. We tested our predictions on a sample of 7971 matched managers and professionals recently hired by offshoring and non-offshoring companies. Our results indicate a 3–7% wage penalty for offshoring companies. Thus, we conclude that not only is offshoring challenging to implement, but it can also entail a number of general ramifications for the domestic labor market.
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Sgourev, Stoyan V. & Aadland, Erik
(2022)
“Burning the bridges”: escalation in the pursuit of authenticity
Show summary
We develop a process-based framework, articulating the escalation of difference between “private” self and “public” display as an alternative trajectory in the pursuit of authenticity to alignment and compromise. A parsimonious model presents an endogenous dynamic of binary choice that generates momentum toward polarization. The model is illustrated in the context of “black” metal – a branch of heavy metal music that appeared in Norway in the early 1990s, notorious for its involvement in criminal activities. Using fanzine data, we construct a narrative of how a process of escalation led to innovation and transgression through self-selection and exclusion. The analysis addresses two related theoretical problems – what motivates actors to challenge normative scripts and “burn the bridges” to social acceptance, and why such challenges may prove more effective in achieving recognition than compromise. Examples from politics, culture and sports reinforce the importance of these problems.
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Aleksin, Grigory & Kalbakk-Bøhler, Simen Christian
(2022)
Environmental entrepreneurship and inclusive growth: a three-fold approach to analysis
International Journal of Technological Learning, Innovation and Development (IJTLID), 14(1-2), p. 153-191.
Doi:
10.1504/IJTLID.2022.121479
Show summary
This article assesses the contribution of entrepreneurs to inclusive growth, and explores both the determinants and impact of environmental entrepreneurs on pollution emissions. Firstly, we use a dynamic linear panel model to quantify the impact of various types of entrepreneurship on inclusive growth proxied by real household expenditure growth. Though there is no significant direct effect on inclusive growth, entrepreneurship appears to be more important in developing countries. Secondly, using a random effects model, we consider entrepreneurs' role in pollution-reduction efforts. We find that entrepreneurs have contributed positively to carbon dioxide emissions. This effect, however, decreases with the level of development, suggesting that improving institutional quality is the key to promoting environmental entrepreneurship capable of making a difference to climate change. Finally, we use a hierarchical probit model to identify the key determinants of environmental entrepreneurship for individual entrepreneurs. Surprisingly, we find that high environmental pressure is associated with a lower probability of becoming an environmental entrepreneur.
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Gillmore, Edward; Andersson, Ulf & Dellestrand, Henrik
(2022)
Between a rock and a hard place: The consequences of complex headquarters configurations for subsidiary R&D activities
Show summary
Challenges related to the complexity of overlapping multiple partner headquarters configurations, the resulting power and political tensions between headquarters, and the consequent effects of multiple interventions in subsidiary value-creating activities remain an understudied phenomenon. We present a rich case study of how complex overlapping headquarters configurations develop. Then, we present the processes underlying power and political tensions that lead to parenting disadvantages between partner headquarters. We find that multiple and simultaneous headquarters interventions place the subsidiary between a rock and a hard place, as it becomes subject to conflicting headquarters voices. We contribute to the literature on parenting in multinational enterprises through an increased understanding of overlapping headquarters configurations and the power and political tensions between headquarters configurations that stimulate interventions in subsidiary R&D mandates.
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Jones, Marius & Schou, Peter Kalum
(2022)
Structuring the Start-up: How Coordination Emerges in Start-ups through Learning Sequencing
Show summary
To succeed in growing and scaling their organization, start-ups must establish roles, routines, rules, and plans that coordinate organizational activities. However, early-stage start-ups often lack such coordination mechanisms. Through a longitudinal qualitative multiple-case study of five start-ups, we develop an emergent theoretical framework for how start-ups develop and improve coordination over time. We find that start-ups establish coordination through a learning sequence consisting of four distinct learning styles. To develop coordination successfully, start-ups anticipate coordination problems before they escalate, steal ideas and frameworks from others, experimentally implement coordination, and combine and simplify coordination mechanisms. By providing a processual understanding of how start-ups develop coordination, we contribute to the literature on coordination in start-ups, which has tended towards static explanations. We also add to the literatures on emergent coordination and organizational learning, as we highlight the role of deliberate learning in developing coordination, and how different learning styles link together to create learning sequences.
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Bygballe, Lena Elisabeth; Dubois, Anna & Jahre, Marianne
(2022)
The importance of resource interaction in strategies for managing supply chain disruptions
Show summary
The turbulent business environment highlights the need for strategies for mitigating, responding to, and recovering from (that is, managing) supply chain disruptions. Resources are central in these strategies but remain unspecified in the literature. This paper shows how the resource interaction approach (RIA) can help understanding resources in this setting by acknowledging their interactive and networked nature. Based on a conceptual discussion that compares key assumptions within the supply chain risk management (SCRM) and supply chain risk resilience (SCRes) literatures with the RIA, we propose an alternative approach to strategies for managing supply chain disruptions. We challenge the SCRM and SCRes literatures by emphasizing interdependence (as opposed to independence) and pointing to relationships as key resources in strategies for managing supply chain disruptions. Collaboration relying on an interplay between temporary and permanent organizing is suggested as a starting point instead of being just one of several alternative strategies.
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Leiblein, Michael J.; Reuer, Jeffrey J., Larsen, Marcus Møller & Pedersen, Torben
(2022)
When are global decisions strategic?
Show summary
A robust academic field must set and revisit boundary conditions that define where, when, and to whom its insights apply. This is particularly true for a field such as global strategy where the ubiquity of the key terms invites indiscriminate use of the phrase. This essay argues that it is useful to define the field of global strategy as the subset of questions that meet the criteria for both “global” and “strategic” decisions. We offer an a priori approach to identifying and formulating problems that are unique to the global strategy field, suggest how our approach may help scholars better understand the “strategicness” of global decisions, and ultimately, offer a way for individuals with varied disciplinary or topical interests to connect with the field's core.
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Lu, Ren; Zong, Zhe, Reve, Torger & Song, Qing
(2022)
The mediating role of cash slack in the related variety and sales growth relationship: Evidence from Norway
Show summary
The purpose of the paper is to uncover how related industrial variety influences firms’ sales growth through firms’ cash slack. The authors applied a causal steps approach and causal mediation analysis to a very large number of observations covering more than three-quarters of Norway’s municipalities. They found that cash slack had a mediation effect in the negative relationship between related variety and sales growth, and that the regression results were robust. They conclude that the results of the study expand both related variety studies by providing a theoretical microlevel foundation, and firm growth theory by showing that cash slack is a concrete mechanism connecting external industrial environment and firm growth.
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Zilja, Flladina; Adarkwah, Gilbert Kofi & Christopher, Sabel
(2022)
Do Environmental Policies Affect MNEs’ Foreign Subsidiary Investments? An Empirical Investigation
Show summary
We build on institutional theory to examine the impact of countries’ environmental
policies on MNEs’ foreign subsidiary investments. We extend prior IB research that
finds both positive and negative associations between environmental policies and
MNE investments by showing that the relationship between environmental policy
and MNE subsidiary investments is mediated by the effectiveness with which host
countries enforce these policies. Specifically, we posit that environmental policies
are effective when countries align them with tangible institutional outcomes such
as actual reductions in emissions or increases in renewable energy production. This
reduces uncertainty by providing a reliable and efficient framework for economic
transactions. We test our arguments on a sample of 882 public US firms and their
subsidiaries in 102 countries from 2000 to 2015, in conjunction with the Kyoto
Protocol. We find that ratifying the Kyoto Protocol is associated with reductions in
countries’ emission levels and increased reliance on renewables. Further, increased
reliance on renewables positively mediates the relationship between the ratification
of the Kyoto Protocol and MNEs foreign subsidiary investments. For host countries,
this relationship is stronger when there are greater improvements in institutions’
quality. For MNEs, this relation is weaker for those MNEs associated with higher
pollution. We find no such relationships for greenhouse gas emissions. Our findings
contribute to the growing IB literature on environmental sustainability by highlight-
ing the importance of effective institutions and their interaction with country- and
firm-level heterogeneities.
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Lavie, Dovev; Lunnan, Randi & Truong, Binh Minh Thi
(2022)
How Does a Partner’s Acquisition Affect the Value of the Firm’s Alliance with That Partner?
Show summary
How does an acquisition initiated by a firm's alliance partner affect the value that the firm can create and capture from its alliance with that partner? We conjecture that the similarity between the businesses of the firm and its partner's acquisition target restricts the firm's ability to create and capture value from its alliance, whereas the complementarity between their businesses enhances the firm's gain from its alliance. We further expect relational embeddedness between the firm and its partner to mitigate the competitive tension associated with similarity while reinforcing synergies ascribed to complementarity. Our analysis of 361 firms and their 590 alliances with 91 partners that acquired 164 targets during 2000–2016 supports our predictions about business similarity and complementarity but refutes those concerning relational embeddedness.
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Schou, Peter Kalum & Bucher, Eliane
(2022)
Divided we fall: The breakdown of gig worker solidarity in online communities
Show summary
The ‘gig economy’ presents a contested new work arrangement where freelancers find work on digital platforms. Subsequently, previous research has investigated how gig workers develop solidarity and take collective action against the exploitative practices of the platforms. However, this research is limited by mostly focusing on solidarity in contexts of local gig worker communities. We investigate whether freelancers who work on a global platform, Upwork, which hires people for diverse and complex jobs, can build up solidarity in a global online community. Applying a mixed-methods research design, we analysed how gig workers responded to a policy change by Upwork that affected their working conditions negatively. In doing so, we outline how solidarity breaks down in an online community of gig workers, due to them realising different interests and identities. We contribute to recent discussions on solidarity in the gig economy, and online communities as tools for organising.
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Benito, Gabriel R.G.; Cuervo-Cazurra, Alvaro, Mudambi, Ram, Pedersen, Torben & Tallman, Steve
(2022)
The future of global strategy
Show summary
Global strategy, that is, the analysis of strategy in an international context, has co-evolved with the dramatic changes in the global economy in the 21st century. Research advances have enabled a more sophisticated understanding of how firms develop strategies in an increasingly turbulent global environment in which societal expectations, technological advances, and political decisions are all in a state of continuous change. In this article, we reflect and provide suggestions for how the field may evolve on five key themes of global strategy: cooperation, coordination, governance, politics, and innovation. We also outline suggestions for future research on global issues that are gaining increasing centrality in business decisions: climate change, artificial intelligence, and geopolitics.
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Benito, Gabriel R G & Fehlner, Corina
(2022)
Multinational enterprises and the circular economy
Show summary
In this chapter, we explore the role of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in the circular economy (CE). MNEs play a key role in reshaping business systems as they orchestrate a significant part of value activities in various locations across the globe. We argue that MNEs’ adoption of CE opportunities differs due to corporate and contextual influences. In particular, we suggest that MNEs’ corporate strategies regarding value activity integration, product diversification, and location choices influence how they approach CE. Industry and location factors also play roles in facilitating or impeding CE advancement. Regarding the international business ramifications of CE, we discuss the impact of MNEs’ geographical scope in terms of a local, multi-local/regional, or global focus and show how formal and informal institutional contexts influence the design and implementation of CE. Our analysis demonstrates that established conceptualizations in the international business field of MNEs and the business systems in which they operate are useful for understanding CE, but further international business research is needed about how MNEs can help implement the transition towards CE.
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Sgourev, Stoyan V.; Aadland, Erik & Formilan, Giovanni
(2022)
Relations in Aesthetic Space: How Color Enables Market Positioning
Show summary
Color is omnipresent, but organizational research features no systematic theory or established method for analyzing it. We develop a relational approach to color, conceptualizing it as a means of positioning relative to a reference group or style and validating it through a computational method for processing digital images. The research context is Norwegian black metal—a genre of extreme metal music that achieved notoriety in the early 1990s through band members’ criminal activity. Our analysis of 5,125 album covers between 1989 and 2019 confirms the alignment of aesthetic and music features and articulates the role of color in the construction of a relational identity based on forces of association and disassociation. Black metal bands associated with past color choices of non-black metal bands up to a point, after which they started to disassociate from them. The positioning is dynamic, pursuing adaptation to external events. Black metal bands reacted to their stigmatization in Norwegian society by increasing colorfulness and later returning to a darker aesthetic in defiance of the genre’s commercialization. Our analysis attests to color’s ability to organize producers’ exchange of information and attention, illustrating the interweaving of aesthetic features and relational processes in markets.
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Rognli, Eline B.; Støme, Linn Nathalie, Kvaerner, Kari Jorunn, Wilhelmsen, Christian & Arnevik, Espen Kristian Ajo
(2022)
The effect of employment support integrated in substance use treatment: A health economic cost-effectiveness simulation of three different interventions
Show summary
Background: Unemployment rates for individuals in treatment for substance use disorder (SUD) are high, with Norwegian estimates in the range of 81%–89%. Although Individual Placement and Support (IPS) represents a promising method to improved vocational outcome, cross-disciplinary investigations are needed to document implementation benefits and address reimbursements needs. The aim of this study was to model the potential socioeconomic value of employment support integrated in SUD treatment. Methods: Based on scientific publications, an ongoing randomised controlled trial (RCT) on employment support integrated in SUD treatment, and publicly available economy data, we made qualified assumptions about costs and socioeconomic gain for the different interventions targeting employment for patients with SUD: (1) treatment as usual (TAU); (2) TAU and a self-help guide and a workshop; and (3) TAU and IPS. For each intervention, we simulated three different outcome scenarios based on 100 patients. Results: Assuming a 40% employment rate and full-time employment (100%) for 10 years following IPS, we found a 10-year socioeconomic effect of €18,732,146. The corresponding effect for the more conservative TAU + IPS simulation assuming 40% part-time positions (25%) for five years, was €2,519,906. Compared to the two alternative interventions, IPS was cost-effective and more beneficial after six months to two years. Discussion: This concept evaluation study suggests that integrating employment support in the health services is socioeconomically beneficial. Our finding is relevant for decision makers within politics and health. Once employment rates from our ongoing RCT is available, real-life data will be applied to adjust model assumptions and socioeconomic value assumptions.
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Ryan, Paul; Buciuni, Giulio, Giblin, Majella & Andersson, Ulf
(2022)
Global Value Chain Governance in the MNE: A Dynamic Hierarchy Perspective
Show summary
The pandemic crisis caused a severe shock to global value chains and led to supply shortages for complex medical goods such as respiratory ventilators. What followed were calls to reshore production for security, and the loss of efficiencies from foreign global value chain (GVC) operations for the multinational enterprise. This article merges internalization and GVC theory to demonstrate a dynamic hierarchy managerial response to these crisis conditions. An optimally configured GVC under hierarchy governance can resiliently eliminate global supply line ruptures yet maintain the benefits of global efficiency.