Explicit and implicit corporate social responsibility: Differences in the approach to stakeholder engagement activities of U.S. and Japanese companies

This study uses the theoretical frameworks of institutional theory and comparative capitalism to demonstrate how cross‐cultural differences in national institutional frameworks are related to differences in the meaning and the nature of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and, as a result, how they create different incentives and opportunities for companies to engage in stakeholder management activities. More specifically, we draw upon the framework of “explicit” and “implicit” CSRs to investigate whether and how stakeholder management practices and programs differ between the United States and Japan. We first develop and validate a Stakeholder Engagement Activities (SEAs) scale, designed assess differences in the approach (explicit or implicit) that companies use to address a variety of common SEAs. Then we analyze data and present the results of surveys collected from 227 companies in the United States and Japan. We find that although the SEAs of American companies are characterized by strong “explicit CSR,” in contrast, the SEAs of Japanese companies exhibit strong “implicit CSR.” In the discussion that follows, we attribute these distinctions in the SEAs to differences in the configuration of political, economic, and market mechanisms in each country. The findings of this study contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the differences in prevailing CSR practices of American and Japanese companies than noted by previous researchers. From a practitioner's perspective, the findings of this study reveal that despite the global nature of CSR, stakeholder management practices are both interpreted and operationalized differently due to differences in national institutional frameworks.     

The CO‐City: Sharing,Collaborating, Cooperating,and Commoning in the City

This article introduces an innovative, experimental, adaptive, and iterative approach to creating legal and institutional frameworks based on urban polycentric governance to foster commons‐based urban policies. First, the theory of urban/local governance is introduced, based on an urban co‐governance matrix. A new type of regulatory system is then described that aims at transforming people in distributed nodes of collective action. Citizens and institutions can be myriad nodes of designing and problem solving in the public interest. Urban co‐governance aims at taking advantage of this galaxy of networks. I then examine design principles and a methodology to implement the urban co‐governance matrix. The concluding question concerns the need for a new research methodology to investigate the ongoing process of state transformation and institutional genesis at the urban level.     

The Market Concept: A Characterization from Institutional and Post‐Keynesian Economics

The neoclassical concept of the market is built on a number of assumptions that lead one to view it as a type of ether, devoid of any institutional content. In opposition to this point of view, this article proposes an alternative characterization of markets based on the fundamental principles of institutional and post‐Keynesian economics. After reviewing the main features that characterize the behavior of economic agents, we analyze the set of interrelations between these agents within markets and the role of institutions in the regulation of these interrelations. Finally, we discuss some of the consequences generated by the institutional dimensions of markets with regard to their origins and evolution, the justification for their existence, or the evaluation of their results.     

Expatriate management and national culture: a bibliometric study of prolific,productive, and most cited authors and institutions

Abstract

This is a bibliometric study of reference literature related to the influence of national culture issues on expatriate management. It is based on publications in elite Management, International Business, and Human Resource academic journals between 2000 and 2012. The database comprises 222 articles involving 368 authors and 223 academic institutions. The analysis uses a broad scoring procedure that includes: (I) scholars and institutions’ productivity in terms of number of publications (both, total and adjusted), (II) authors and institutions’ productivity in terms of potential impact based on journals’ performance (a wide spectrum of different metrics is used in order to allow for alternative perspectives), and (III) a citation analysis. The use of multiple and diverse scores provides a comprehensive understanding of the ranking of academic institutions and scholars within this particular subfield of research. In addition, the article analyzes collaborative research patterns, expected institutional influence in the near future, and main issues to be included in the field’s research agenda.     

Motivations and Barriers to Corporate Environmental Management

This paper integrates two conceptual frameworks, utility maximization and institutional theory, to analyze voluntary corporate environmental management. The utility maximization or economic approach centers on motivations to decrease cost, increase revenue and improve manager utility. Institutional theory emphasizes how external pressures from market and non‐market constituents shape the firm's environmental efforts. We view the two frameworks as complementary and postulate a model that includes both types of influences. Survey data from six major industries consisting of a diverse set of facilities are used to estimate the effects of economic and institutional factors on a facility's use of environmental practices and pollution‐prevention activities. Our results support the hypothesized model, and show that cost barriers, management attitudes toward environmental stewardship, company ownership and external institutional forces, including competitiveness, investor and regulatory pressures, all affect a facility's environmental practices and pollution prevention activities. Findings suggest that a multifaceted policy strategy is needed to advance corporate environmental management across diverse firms. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Sub‐National Institutional Contingencies,Network Positions,and IJV Partner Selection

The differences in sub‐national institutions within large and complex emerging economies have been increasingly noted. Drawing on social network theory and the institution‐based view, we argue that two network structural attributes of domestic firms – centrality and structural holes – have distinctive values in different sub‐national regions where institutional contexts differ widely. In addition, these sub‐national institutional contingencies influence the attractiveness of different network attributes to foreign entrants seeking international joint venture (IJV) partners. Specifically, in regions where the degree of marketization is high, centrally positioned domestic firms are more likely to be selected by foreign entrants as IJV partners. In regions where the degree of marketization is low, domestic broker firms are more attractive IJV partners. Results from the electrical and information technology industries in 18 provinces in China largely support our hypotheses.     

European Integration and the Feldstein–Horioka Puzzle

We apply the differences‐in‐differences method to study the effect of the European single market in 1993 and the euro in 1999 on the Feldstein–Horioka equation where countries outside the single market serve as a control group and those within as a treatment group. We find structural breaks that coincide with both events, in addition to the financial crisis in 2008. The results suggest that the correlation between investment and savings depends on institutions, exchange rate risk and credit risk. Furthermore, the pattern of capital flows within the single market leaves a significant part of the flows unexplained by fundamentals.     

‘You're Good with your Hands,Why Don't You Become an Auto Mechanic’: Neighborhood Context,Institutions and Career Development

Previous research has linked sociodemographic neighborhood characteristics with labor market outcomes for youth, but this research has provided little evidence of how these linkages work. In this article I examine practices of urban institutions and the career development of inner‐city minority youth in the United States. A comparative study of two Latino inner‐city neighborhoods in San Antonio, Texas, analyzes in‐depth interviews with seventeen administrative officers of community‐based institutions. The results reveal that institutional practices and administrators' interpretations of the cultural attributes of youth and neighborhoods differ between the two case study areas. In one neighborhood, cultural preconceptions among administrators, accompanied by the spatial and social isolation of youth, channel some youth towards secondary careers. Institutions in the other neighborhood focus on social and spatial integration strategies and thereby facilitate acculturation. The article explores institutional practices of cultural marginalization. Certaines recherches ont déjè lié les caractéristiques socio‐démographiques des quartiers aux débouchés du marché du travail pour les jeunes, mais elles ont apporté peu d'indications sur les modes de fonctionnement de ces liens. Cet article examine les usages d'institutions urbaines et le parcours professionnel de jeunes de minorités vivant dans des quartiers urbains déshérités aux Etats‐Unis. Une étude comparative de deux quartiers défavorisés latino‐américains de San Antonio (Texas) analyse les entretiens poussés réalisés avec dix‐sept agents administratifs d'institutions liées á la collectivité. Les résultats révélent que les usages institutionnels et les interprétations des administratifs quant aux attributs culturels de la jeunesse et des quartiers différent entre les deux zones d'étude. Dans l'une, les a priori culturels des administratifs, associés á l'isolement géographique et social des individus, canalisent les jeunes vers des carriéres de second ordre. Dans l'autre, les institutions se consacrent aux stratégies d'intégration sociale et spatiale, facilitant ainsi l'acculturation. Les pratiques institutionnelles de la marginalisation culturelle sont également examinées.     

How Institutional Identity Shapes College Student Recruitment: The Relationship Between Religious Distinctiveness and Market Demand

Institutional diversity has long been recognized as a signature strength of the American system of higher education, yet the sector contributing most to this remarkable feature—small and midsized private colleges—currently finds itself under significant financial pressure as a result of recent social and economic disruptions. To overcome such challenges, campus leaders must understand the market positioning of the institutions they serve. This article investigates the relationship between market demand and organizational distinctiveness within one segment of the diverse private sector—religiously affiliated colleges. It draws upon longitudinal data from the membership of one national professional association, the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities, to develop an empirical typology of institutional religious distinctiveness and examine patterns of market demand over time. Results suggest that religious distinctiveness has a medium effect on student demand at both the application and matriculation phases of the admissions process. The article concludes by considering appropriate recruitment strategies for faith‐based colleges and universities depending on their degree of religious distinctiveness.     

Innovation Offshoring,Institutional Context and Innovation Performance: A Meta‐Analysis

Innovation offshoring (IO) has become a widespread management practice. Yet, evidence on the performance implications is inconsistent, and scattered across disciplines and contexts. We argue that the benefits firms can derive from IO depend on the institutional environment at home. Drawing on recent work on institutional theory in international business, we explore institutions that facilitate reverse knowledge transfer and/or institutional arbitrage with respect to innovation‐related activities. The results of our meta‐analysis that synthesizes evidence from 48 samples show that IO is related positively to innovation performance. As predicted, this relationship is moderated by differences in the institutional environments across countries. Specifically, when national innovation systems are weak at home, IO appears to enable institutional arbitrage strategy whereas Confucian cultures enable more effective reverse knowledge transfer. However, contrary to our expectations, the beneficial effects of IO appear to have diminished over time.     

Managing low‐skill workers: a study of small UK food manufacturing firms

Low‐wage work is of growing significance in the UK. This article tests the model of the low‐skills equilibrium (LSE) through a study of 27 small firms in a sector, food manufacturing, widely identified as being in an LSE. Three hypotheses are tested. (1) There will be a single, fixed equilibrium. We find more variety, reflecting the specific circumstances of firms. (2) An equilibrium is sustained by weak support institutions and a product market dominated by low value‐added goods. The expectation about institutions is supported, but the product market permitted some, albeit weak, opportunities to escape the LSE. (3) Skills will be low, and workplace regimes will be characterised by work intensification. Some firms were developing employee skills. Work intensification was rare, reflecting the absence of Taylorisation and the importance of face‐to‐face relationships. Overall, some firms had the will to escape the LSE, but weak institutional support and a ready supply of labour substantially reduced the incentives to do so.     

Are some sectors more “youth friendly” than others? Employment regimes,sectors, and gender disparities in the Great Recession

Despite national differences in youth employment, many countries share striking similarities in the uneven sectoral distribution of job opportunities for young women and men in Europe. A shift‐share analysis of European Labour Force data identifies “youth‐friendly” sectors, how this varies between countries, and how this changed during the Great Recession. This reveals how youth job opportunities were lost because the sector shrank or because employers were less likely to offer full‐time, permanent contracts. New jobs for youth were more likely to be in part‐time and temporary employment. Youth vulnerability to unemployment is contingent not only on employers' engagement with institutions shaping school‐to‐work transitions but also on gender segregation and to the fact that some sectors have been particularly fragile during the economic crisis. Future research needs to link institutional effects with employers' business strategies to understand how these shape job opportunities for young women and men.     

Governance and stock market performance

This study uses international asset pricing models to investigate the link between the quality of government institutions and the performance of global stock markets. The results demonstrate a significant positive association between stock market performance measures and the quality of the institutional environment. Performance measures examined for the cross-section of countries were the average monthly stock index excess returns and the Sharpe ratio. All measures of performance were adjusted for global and local risk factors known to explain their international variation. The quality of governance is also found to be negatively associated with stock market total risk and idiosyncratic risk, consistent with the notion that stable institutions are linked to reduced variations in equity returns. These findings suggest countries with better-developed governance systems have stock markets with higher returns on equity and lower levels of risk. The results lend support for the view that a precondition for financial market development is the improvement of the institutions which govern the process of exchange.     

Cities and Climate Change Challenges: Institutions,Policy Style and Adaptation Capacity in Bogotá

While a growing awareness of climate change has marked the institutional agenda at the national level in Colombia, the capital city of Bogotá has not undertaken actions to include adaptation to climate change within its policies so far. Conceptualizing the central role of city‐level institutions in the successful realization of adaptation policies is a straightforward matter. This is not the case for actions and conditions that may foster adaptation capacity according to varying institutional and social geographies. Using secondary data and a selection of interviews with key stakeholders occupying leading planning roles in important departments of the local administration, this article explores why and how a framework based on incentives and obstacles should be complemented by recent developments in the analysis of policy implementation based on the differentiation between political and programmatic success and failure on the basis of existing local policy styles.     

Adjusting to the national minimum wage: constraints and incentives to change in six low‐paying sectors

Interest in the national minimum wage (NMW) includes not only its direct impact on employment and wages, but also its indirect impact on organisational performance resulting from a reorientation of employer behaviour with regard to employment practices and product market competition. Drawing on data from small firms in six low‐paying sectors, this article identifies three key constraints that have undermined the possible effect of the NMW in generating a virtuous cycle between employment practices and product market approach. These constraints relate to product market conditions, employer norms and labour market institutions (especially training).     

Business Groups in 20th‐Century Swedish Political Economy: A Sociological Perspective

Since the interwar period, the Swedish economy has been dominated by a few business groups that control practically all Swedish industry of any importance. This article provides a sociologically informed account of the existence and lasting dominance of business groups in Sweden. In challenging efficiency‐based accounts of business groups in Sweden offered by transaction‐cost economists, I adopt a historical and dynamic approach that understands economic institutions not as efficient responses to external circumstances, such as market conditions, but as “social constructions.” This approach emphasizes the role of contingency as well as agency in the formation and reproduction of institutions. The article demonstrates the historical contingencies of the emergence of the business groups—in the form of economic crises in the interwar period—and how the groups became institutionalized in the postwar period through a process of social exchange among the key actors in the Swedish political economy: the business elite, the trade unions, and the state.     

Markets, Culture and Institutions: The Emergence of Large Business Groups in Taiwan, 1950s–1970s

Business groups are a special type of enterprise system existing in almost every market economy. Member firms do not operate as isolated units in the markets but have institutionalized relationships with each other and work coherently as an entity. Groups play a central role in economies in which they operate. For Taiwan, the largest 100 groups produced one third of the GNP in the past 20 years. Why does this organizational form exist in the first place? This paper reviews three relevant theories, market‐centred theories, culturalist perspective, and the institutional approach, and employs the data of 150 Taiwanese groups for the answer. The market‐centred theories and the institutional arguments are examined statistically and the latter is supported by the data. Following this evidence, the Boolean comparison of group firms with non‐group firms confirms that lacking a coherent core in ownership and management makes firms unable to respond to institutional incentives promptly. Finally, the structure of family ownership network in business groups refutes the cultural perspective which argues that the equal inheritance pattern of family property drives entrepreneurs to establish separate firms rather than single hierarchies. While both markets and culture play a distinct part in the story, it is regulatory institutions that lead to group formation.     

Equilibrium Unemployment Dynamics in a Panel of OECD Countries

We focus on the equilibrium unemployment rate as a parameter implied by a dynamic aggregate model of wage and price setting. The equilibrium unemployment rate depends on institutional labour market institutions through mark‐up coefficients. Compared with existing studies, the resulting final equation for unemployment has a richer dynamic structure. The empirical investigation is conducted in a panel data framework and uses OECD data up to 2012. We propose to extend the standard estimation method with time dummies to control and capture the effects of common and national shocks by using impulse indicator saturation (WG‐IIS), which has not been previously used on panel data. WG‐IIS robustifies the estimators of the regression coefficients in the dynamic model, and it affects the estimated equilibrium unemployment rates. We find that wage co‐ordination stands out as the most important institutional variable in our data set, but there is also evidence pointing to the tax wedge and the degree of compensation in the unemployment insurance system as drivers of equilibrium unemployment.     

Non‐Economic Factors in Economic Geography and in ‘New Regionalism’: A Sympathetic Critique

In the current debate on local and regional development and after several ‘turns’, dominant critical models have found some security in institutional, cultural and evolutionary approaches. Interest today centres on success and competitiveness and how they are reproduced in a few paradigmatic regions. A distinctive feature of these regions and places is the embeddedness of certain non‐economic factors such as social capital, trust and reciprocity based on familiarity, face‐to‐face exchange, cooperation, embedded routines, habits and norms, local conventions of communication and interaction, all of which contribute to a region’s particular success. Although these approaches may not deny the forces of the capitalist space economy, they do not explicitly acknowledge them or take them on board and so they tend to discuss non‐economic factors and institutions as autonomous forces shaping development. This essay provides a critique of these concepts based on their (1) inadequate theorization, (2) depoliticized view of politics and de‐economized use of economics and (3) reduction of space to territory. The essay concludes that we need a far more penetrating renewal of radical critique of the current space economy of capitalism. Old concepts such as uneven development, the social and spatial division of labour, the geographical transfer of value, accumulation and imperialism must be combined with cultural and institutional issues, with those non‐economic factors mentioned above.