The big bug: The legitimation of the edible insect sector in the Netherlands

This study analyzes the legitimation process of an emerging novel food sector in the European Union (EU). Current EU policies are cautious with regard to new food sources and new food technology, and we aim to determine how the sector is addressing both this caution as well as a general public that may be skeptical of its products. By utilizing a legitimacy strategy framework and conducting 19 semi-structured interviews with actors and experts in the Dutch edible insect sector, we assess the sector’s progress and limitations with regard to its legitimacy journey. The findings show that sector focus has thus far been on organization, intraindustry, and interindustry legitimacy strategies, and that additional emphasis on institutional strategies will be imperative to securing more accommodating legislation. In addition, the lack of a common vision, a strategic communication plan, and interfirm linkages may also be hindering sector legitimation. The framework and conclusions presented here may prove useful to other sectors introducing novel foods.     

A discursive framework of B2B brand legitimacy

In a hyperconnected world, branding is moving away from single, organization-driven ownership to shared ownership. Motivated by the continuous advancements in digital technologies for B2B brands, this research uses a rhetorical and discursive approach to build a framework of B2B brands legitimacy. This conceptual framework integrates multiple levels of social discourse, from brand texts to stories and narratives, to illustrate how the connections between these and brand legitimacy are made through language. We describe how B2B brands can use the rhetorical elements of logos, pathos, and ethos to achieve an advantageous position within their field's discourse. We identify B2B brand reputation, awareness, and credibility among the benefits of having a brand legitimacy within a network of actors and provide propositions and empirical guides to substantiate the proposed framework.     

Research priority setting in food and health domain: European stakeholder beliefs about legitimacy criteria and processes

Dietary factors are the most important risk factors affecting health and well-being of population in every Member State of the European Region. Finding sustainable solutions to the food and health challenges is one of the key issues that today’s society urgently needs to address. Research prioritisation thus has an essential role in directing public resources to addressing these challenges. However, the processes of prioritisation among the food and health funders are rarely subject to scrutiny and the calls for democratizing science continue, as a means of enhancing both input legitimacy (with its focus on the processes of decision-making) and output legitimacy (the utility and impact of such decisions). The current study examines what conceptualisations of legitimacy (input and output) are held by the European stakeholders of the food and health research and innovation (R&I) process such as business organisations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and public sector organisations. We analyse stakeholder views from a series of European Awareness Scenario Workshops across nine EU countries (N = 295). The content and thematic analysis of the outputs identified six criteria determining conceptualisations of legitimacy: Influence; Representation; Procedural issues; Epistemic focus; Strategic vision; and Impact. The statistical analysis of the coded data highlighted stakeholder differences with business sector organisations being significantly less concerned about influence and representation than either NGO or public sector organisations. The results indicate that input legitimacy is of major concern to civil society and public sector actors. They reflect the wider debate about the way in which food and health R&I should be funded and policy decisions conducted, suggesting a need for better delineation of stakeholder roles and power differentials in this process. The findings are discussed with reference to the current discussions about Responsible Research and Innovation.     

产业国际竞争力的二维评价——全球价值链背景下的思考

全球价值链背景下。国际分工已从按产品分工转变为按要素分工，从产业间水平分工转变为价值链分工；产业边界超越国家边界，改变了国家参与国际分工的性质；企业与国家之间也呈现出我中有你、你中有我的局面；这些从根本上动摇了传统产业国际竞争力理论的假设基础。本研究将产业国际竞争力研究的焦点转移到企业，考察不同类型企业的竞争力贡献．据此构建了一个全球价值链背景下评价产业国际竞争力的二维评价模型．进而分析产业国际竞争力的典型模式和演化轨迹。     

Study of country-of-origin image from legitimacy theory perspective: Evidence from the USA and India

This study explored country-of-origin image (CoI) based on legitimacy theory. The comments and discussions about Chinese products' CoI from both Indian and American customers on public websites were collected and analyzed. The findings show that CoI is essentially a kind of recognition and judgment of a product's legitimacy. Customers judge a Chinese product's pragmatic legitimacy and social legitimacy through both a performance image and institution image aspect of the CoI, respectively. The findings can advance our understanding of CoI phenomena and provide guidance for international marketers in developing countries to manage country-related information more effectively.     

Power in a startup's relationships with its established partners: Interactions between structural and behavioural power

Power plays a key role in the relationships between startups and established organisations. Yet researchers have devoted little attention to the startup's perspective on power in such relationships. To study startups' view on power, a useful starting point is their structural power, but this also requires an investigation of their power behaviour. We explore how structural and behavioural power interrelate in a startup's relationships with its established partners in the medical device business. Our longitudinal, embedded case study reveals nine interaction episodes in which power plays a decisive role. The power episodes show that the case startup often uses hostile power use tactics because it overestimates its structural power. Since its established partners recognise its lack of power, they usually do not accept such behaviour. Thus, the case startup could not extract the intended benefits. Nonetheless, we find that the case startup could benefit from its relationships if it employs conciliatory power use tactics or power change tactics. With these insights, we contribute to the startup business relationship literature by providing a better understanding of startups' experience with power. We also extend the power literature by showing that it is the perception of power that determines power behaviour rather than the de facto structural potential.     

Global political economy of technology standardization: A case of the Korean mobile telecommunications market

This paper examines empirical cases of standardization in the Korean mobile market as vehicles for approaching the broader political and institutional context of standardization in telecommunications. A consideration of Korean standardization in the mobile telecommunications market is particularly interesting because it reveals how the state's political interests influence standards decisions, which are primarily driven by market and technological changes in telecommunications. Judged from the social construction of technology perspective which sheds light not only on technology itself but also on political, social and economic interests that surround transformations in technology, this paper highlights power relations among the major actors that have made technology standards decisions in Korea regarding second (2G) and third-generation (3G) mobile telephony. The paper also attempts to show how the Korean government has dealt with the diverse interests of various market actors while pursuing its own policy agenda.     

Firm responses to secondary stakeholder action

In this paper, we explore the conditions under which secondary stakeholder groups are likely to elicit positive firm responses. To this end, we build upon and advance Mitchell, Agle, and Wood's (1997) stakeholder saliency and identification framework by defining saliency in terms of actions, not perceptions, and by proposing that power, legitimacy, and urgency arise out of the nature of stakeholder–request–firm triplets. To test this framework, we build a unique dataset of over 600 secondary stakeholder actions within the United States, all concerning environmental issues over the period 1971–2003. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The role of epistemic communities in the “constitutionalization” of internet governance: The example of the European Commission High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence

In the last few years, digital constitutionalism has emerged as a novel, alternative, Internet Governance approach aiming at ordering and limiting the exercise of power by both states and private operators, as well as at promoting people's control over digital technology development.Although digital constitutionalism is encountering growing popularity, the prevalent non-binding nature of its initiatives, the discrepancy between the jurisdictional border and transnational digital processes, and the technological embedment of governance mechanisms, have hindered the effectiveness of its impact.This paper identifies epistemic communities as a crucial factor for the constitutionalization of the digital technologies since they have the necessary technical expertise and policy commitment to create norms and standards at transnational level, informing the policy choices of both state and non-state actors.In order to illustrate this nexus, the article performs an in-depth investigation on the case of the European Commission High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence (HLEG-AI). The analysis revealed that the HLEG-AI effectively gathered an epistemic community strongly committed with fundamental rights promotion and capable to influence the following policy-making activities of the European Commission, as well as of other non-state stakeholders, whose involvement is essential in order to embed digital constitutionalism principles within the design of AI systems.     

Do global firms increase their environmental disclosure and performance? Symbolic versus effective operations and the moderating role of liability of origin. Legitimation implications

This paper analyzes the debate regarding the implications of international firms' strategies for their environmental approaches across multiple regions by distinguishing between symbolic and effective environmental operations. Furthermore, we extend previous literature by considering the relevant moderating role of a firm's liability of origin on these relationships. Using panel data of 292 firms in the period from 2011 to 2018 in the energy and utility sectors, our results show that a firm's progressive globalization increases its environmental disclosure but does not affect its environmental performance. Interestingly, our results demonstrate that a weak home country institutional context reinforces a global firm's interest in gaining legitimation through both its environmental disclosure and performance; however, a strong level of home country institutional development reduces its interest in environmental sources of legitimation. Our results contribute to previous literature on how global firms may gain environmental legitimacy using diverse strategies.     

The Licensing of Market Development Rights within Technology Alliances: A Shareholder Value Perspective*

Technology alliances create market development rights that are shared between partners in an alliance relative to codeveloped product technology. Alliance partners will often manage the shared market development rights in a cooperative manner by forming an agreement in which one partner (i.e., the licensor) licenses its market development rights to the other partner in the alliance (i.e., the licensee). The real options and bargaining power literatures provide opposing recommendations regarding whether a licensor creates greater shareholder value by licensing its market development rights to the licensee on a more or less restrictive basis. Empirical analysis of technology alliance contracts reveals that the restrictiveness by which a licensor should license its market development rights to a licensee depends on the licensee's strategic marketing emphasis. Specifically, a licensee will create greater value by following a more restrictive distribution strategy when its partner's marketing strategy emphasizes value creation. Alternatively, a licensee will create greater value when its partner's marketing strategy emphasizes value appropriation by following a less restrictive distribution strategy. From a theoretical perspective, the paper's findings provide early evidence regarding the contribution of marketing strategy toward value creation in technology alliances and help resolve the differing expectations offered by the real options and bargaining power literatures. Managerially, the paper identifies an alliance partner's strategic marketing emphasis as a hitherto unrecognized factor determining when managers should follow a more or less restrictive distribution strategy when licensing marketing development rights within technology alliances.     

WHO在医药领域中推广善治的经验总结

世界卫生组织发起的药品善治计划，旨在通过善治原则的推广和应用，帮助其成员国确立透明公开的行政管理程序和卫生职业人员的伦理操守，以落实各国药品监管和采购中公共责任，并遏制医药部门中的腐败行为.本文从背号、目标、战略、步骤等方面，对药品善治计划实施经验进行总结，以期为我国药品监管体制的完善提供一定的借鉴。     

Between Fragmentation and Centralization: South Korean Industrial Relations in Transition

This study investigates profound changes in South Korean industrial relations after the Asian financial crisis of 1997. Korea's neoliberal labour reforms have produced a large number of non‐standard workers, deepening the union representation gap. Realizing that the fragmented enterprise unions could not adequately protect workers from this degradation of labour, trade union leaders began a major organizational drive at the industry level and tried to institutionalize sectoral bargaining. A political space for union centralization was partially opened because the state needed labour's co‐operation to implement neoliberal reform packages. However, disorganized centralization in Korea, where important decisions on wages and working conditions have been negotiated mainly at the company level, has faced limitations in achieving meaningful changes in the dualistic structure of the labour market. This study concludes with a review of changes in Korea's labour law in 2010 and a discussion on the effects of the law on bargaining rights of non‐standard workers and the incipient industry‐level bargaining. This trend towards union centralization may continue, but the notable gap between the formal bargaining structure and actual practice is expected to widen.     

Emerging Market Firms' Internationalization: How Do Firms' Inward Activities Affect Their Outward Activities?

Research summary : In this study we examine how an emerging market firm's inward international activities (“inward activities”) are related to its outward international activities (“outward activities”) by focusing on the role of the firm's gain from its inward activities. On the one hand, drawing upon the organizational learning perspective, we propose that a firm's gain from inward activities may facilitate its outward activities through improving its resource fungibility. On the other hand, we draw upon the prospect theory to propose that a firm's gain from inward activities may hinder its outward activities by discouraging the firm's top managers from taking risks that are inherent in outward activities. With detailed data from a sample of manufacturing firms in China, we find empirical support for both lines of arguments . Managerial summary : Are emerging market firms with higher inward gain more likely to engage in outward internationalization activities? We argue that it depends upon how a firm uses its gain from inward activities. If the firm can improve its resource fungibility (particularly organizational resource fungibility) from its inward gain, it is more likely to engage in outward activities. If the firm cannot improve its resource fungiblity, the answer is no. Our findings suggest that for emerging market firms, internationalization is not just a path toward new markets; instead, it reflects how these firms exploit and explore what they have learned from their interactions with foreign firms at home in foreign markets. Therefore, managers must think more strategically on developing (organizational) resource fungibility from their inward activities . Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Policy discourse and data retention: The technology politics of surveillance in the United Kingdom

This article presents an analysis of UK legislation on the retention of communications data that was introduced in the aftermath of the attacks of September 11, 2001. It presents a review of the discourses surrounding this legislation in parliament, in the wider international policy arena, in business and in terms of technology. The review of these discourses demonstrates that, in understanding policies involving a significant technological component such as communications data retention, policy alternatives may be evaluated only with an appreciation of technological characteristics alongside the traditional concerns of legislators, civil society and the business community. While academia has developed many forms of analysis for political, international, and regulatory discourses, the same must be undertaken for technological discourse, i.e. the interactions between the policies in question, the actors, and the technologies. Developing forms of analysis for technological discourses will likely lead to further understanding of both the policy problem and the actors’ interests. The paper also shows how current institutions are slowly developing the necessary skills to incorporate the technological aspects of policy into political debate, and calls for a similar development for the law.     

Addressing the Legitimacy Gap in the Israeli Corporatist Revival

Since the mid-1980s, Israel's labour law and industrial relations have transitioned from a Continental corporatist system to an Anglo-American pluralist system. The process has been characterized by greater fragmentation of the labour market and the system of interests' representation. However, in recent years, there have been several episodes of nationwide collective agreements and social pacts. These agreements resonate with a second generation of social corporatist bargaining that has been identified in some European countries. In this article, I question the legitimacy of the new agreements. The legitimacy gap evolves from the use of corporatist instruments against the backdrop of a pluralist system. I discuss the attempts to increase the legitimacy of the corporatist instruments, pointing to their limited success. Future attempts must consider solutions that track the hybrid nature of the industrial relations system and devise institutions that bring together the traditional corporatist social partners and the new pluralist agents. Of particular importance is the need to consider the role of the new associations in civil society that voice the interests of the growing segment of disadvantaged workers in the secondary labour market.     

Changing the rules of the game: Business responses to new regulation

This study investigates business responses to new regulation by focusing on the rearrangement of interactions in business relationships involving ‘NRG’, a large multinational energy company in the aviation industry. ‘NRG’ is confronted with new environmental rules resulting from the inclusion of the aviation industry in the European Emissions Trading Scheme as of 2012. We demonstrate that business actors do not simply comply with the rules of the game; instead they elaborate responses which impact on the creation of new rules. We argue that research on business responses to new regulation is highly relevant to industrial marketing because the increasing complexity of regulation in many industrial markets provides significant opportunities and threats to businesses. We propose three guiding principles which could be used by managers in understanding, influencing and responding to new regulation.     

Chinese industrial relations research: In search of a broader analytical framework and representation

The transformation of industrial relations (IR) in China over the last three decades has been (partially) captured by the growing number of scholarly studies in the English language literature. Despite the major contribution of these studies in advancing our understanding of contemporary IR in China and the (changing) roles of traditional institutional actors, significant research gaps remain. This review paper argues that research on Chinese IR needs to include a broader category of IR actors, including more categories of workers than the current focus, to examine the new role of traditional actors and the role of emerging actors in shaping the IR processes and outcomes, even if their role may be episodic and spatially confined. It also argues that Chinese IR research needs to embrace a wider range of disciplinary perspectives, for example cultural perspective and human resource management, to go beyond the radical-pluralist and structuralist approaches that have often been deployed. Equally, it argues that instead of focusing primarily on conflicts as IR issues for research, we should also examine forms of collectivism, sources of bargaining power, and scope for cooperation. Finally, this paper argues for a closer link between Chinese IR research and public policy.     

Prospects for Labour in Global Value Chains: Labour Standards in the Cut Flower and Banana Industries

Global value chain (GVC) governance is central to analyses of labour's strategic options. It frames the terrain on which labour campaigns and institutions — such as private social standards and international framework agreements — contribute to the social regulation of value chains. GVC concepts help to emphasize how power in the employment relationship transcends organizational boundaries, as well as how industrial power is shifting from the sphere of production to that of consumption. Based on extensive case studies of the banana and cut flower value chains, we explore the implications of GVC restructuring for the scope and form of labour rights strategies.     

Emerging issues confronting the renewable natural resources sector in sub-Saharan Africa

The renewable natural resources sector in Africa is highly important because of the relatively high proportion of livelihoods it supports relative to other developing regions. However, ongoing rapid population growth threatens the long-term survival of the sector. Key concerns include the need for agricultural intensification in the context of systems which are often located in marginal areas, the demands imposed by rapid urbanization, and access rights to essential resources such as water. The policy and institutional environment can make problems worse since trends toward greater democracy often prove destabilizing or deflect the political agenda toward short-term expediency instead of longer-term strategies essential to the renewable natural resources sector. Structural adjustment has yet to produce the expected benefits and it is clear that the private sector will be unable to meet growth and distributional objectives on its own. A broader-based strategy is needed which includes not only government institutions at national and local levels, but also nongovernmental organizations, community organizations, and regional and international bodies.