Embedded autonomy,political institutions,and access orders

We construct a model of “embedded autonomy,” the idea that the closeness of bureaucrats and business people may lead to growth-promoting policies by the government, though at the risk of leading to crony capitalism. We analyze how the level of monitoring to control corruption and the weight given to the future affect the nature of the possible outcomes. We explore possible tradeoffs between growth and inclusiveness and discuss how our model relates to more general concepts of inclusiveness of institutions, as framed by Acemoglu and Robinson, or the nature of “access orders,” as introduced by North, Wallis, and Weingast.     

Subsidiary staffing,cultural friction,and subsidiary performance: Evidence from Korean subsidiaries in 63 countries

Drawing from the notion of cultural friction and based on the agency theory rationalization of multinational enterprise (MNE) headquarter–subsidiary relationship, we examine the impact of cultural friction in foreign subsidiaries on subsidiary performance. We argue that cultural friction, arising due to a high presence of parent country nationals (PCNs) in culturally distant locations, has a detrimental effect on subsidiary performance. This effect is the strongest when the cultural friction is at the top management team (TMT) level and the weakest when friction is at the regular employee level. However, this relationship is contingent on factors that work as drags or lubricants for cultural friction between PCNs and host country nationals (HCNs). We identify governance mode and language differences between home and host countries as drag parameters and host country experience and subsidiary interdependence as lubricants that condition the effect of cultural friction on subsidiary performance. Empirical findings based on a longitudinal sample of 7,495 foreign subsidiary observations of 467 Korean MNEs in 63 countries during 1990–2014 provide robust support for our theoretical predictions.     

Motivators and barriers to sustainable food consumption: Qualitative inquiry about organic food consumers in a developing nation

The present research attempts to qualitatively explore the motivators and barriers of organic food consumption in the Indian context. The data were collected using semistructured in‐depth interviews and analyzed using grounded theory. The theoretical sampling technique was used to interview 34 consumers who have purchased organic food in the past. The findings reported health consciousness, environmental consciousness, social identity, consumer ethnocentrism, and concern for farmers as the factors that motivate organic food purchase among consumers. The factors such as high prices of organic food, unavailability, trust issues, and limited marketing communications from the firms were identified as major barriers to organic food purchase and consumption. The study is one of the initial attempts to qualitatively explore the consumers' motivation for organic food consumption in the Indian context. The findings will help policymakers to devise suitable strategies so that they can effectively target the organic food choices by understanding the motivators/barriers, and promote the sustainable lifestyle in the society, as food consumption plays a crucial role in achieving environmental sustainability.     

The e-integration dilemma: The linkages between Internet technology application, trading partner relationships and structural change

The evidence from an empirical study involving 281 Australian organizations suggests that the availability, open nature, and (comparative) ease of implementation of Internet technologies for integration with trading partners, whilst on the one hand providing the means by which organizations can integrate processes and systems in a cost effective way, can amplify the need for both structural change and closer collaboration with trading partners. The relationships proposed and tested in the model are justified and explained based on a number of theoretical perspectives. These include Transaction Cost Economics, Socio-technical Systems, Resource Dependency, Knowledge Based View, Stakeholder Theory and Organizational Learning. The implications of the findings for Transaction Cost Theory are noteworthy firstly because they support the appropriateness of the inter-organizational governance structure in the context of this study, and secondly because although application of these technologies may reduce information search and related costs, whether this necessarily leads to reduced coordination costs is problematic. The potential benefits from improved coordination may be constrained by the perceived costs, and risks, of transition to new structural forms. The implication for practice is that increased use of Internet technologies creates substantial pressure to invest in organizational change. The attractiveness of investing in technologies that place managers in a position where they need to promote organizational change in order to extract adequate returns creates a significant dilemma. On the one hand Internet technologies enable extensive sharing and integration of data among trading partners, but at the same time they create conditions requiring managers to embrace fundamental organizational change in order to leverage the potential of such integration.     

Human resource management in multinational and domestic enterprises: A comparative institutional analysis in Southeast Asia

This article looks at the relative impact of context on the role of senior managers. It compares HR directors of domestic enterprises (DEs) with those of multinational enterprises (MNEs), within an emerging market setting, based on a survey of HR directors in Brunei. We found that, with the exception of some aspects of selection and recruitment, HR directors of MNEs accorded a higher priority to strategic tasks but were more reluctant to delegate. This study confirms the importance of MNEs in pioneering more modern and integrated approaches to people management but also demonstrates the limitations to the extent where they might act as evangelists of new practices that are adopted by their local peers. In contrast, local firms were more likely to concentrate their attention on administrative, rather than strategic, issues. We draw out the implications of our findings for theory and practice.     

Competition or Comparative Advantage: What Drives Cross Border Mergers and Acquisitions?

The theory of comparative advantage explains the upsurge of cross border mergers and acquisitions (CBMAs) in the era of reform led trade liberalization. This paper tests the theory of comparative advantage for CBMAs by firms belonging to a developing country, viz. India. Using count data the paper also shows that CBMAs have occurred in country and sector specific waves. This implies in developing countries, it is competition rather than comparative advantage which drives CBMAs. However, the paper finds that occurrence of the country specific wave and sector specific wave are negatively affected by favourable outward FDI policy.

     

Farm earnings, educational attainment, and role of public policy: Some evidence from Mexico

Using real household survey data from Mexico, this study evaluates

• 1. 

  (a) the impact of schooling on farm earnings through the “direct” and “allocative” effects of human capital;

• 2. 

  (b) the household demand for children's schooling;

• 3. 

  (c) using macro-level data, the association between children's school-participation and some policy variables.

The overall rate of return to household heads' schooling is estimated at 25%, and for wives, 19%. The allocative effect of schooling of household heads dominates over the direct effect. Mother's schooling and farm size exercise significantly positive effects on household demand for schooling; while in the macro model, policy variables, government expenditure and pupil-teacher ratio appear strong determinants of children's attainment of primary schooling.     

Diversification and performance: evidence from East Asian firms

We examine the impact of diversification on performance for firms operating in different institutional environments during a relatively stable period and during a major economy‐wide shock. We locate our study in six Asian countries at different levels of institutional development. Results indicate that diversification negatively impacts performance in more developed institutional environments while improving performance only in the least developed environments. Even in the least developed institutional environments, diversification offers limited benefits when an economy‐wide shock strikes. Though successful diversifiers are sometimes affiliated with business groups, diversification is associated with poorer performance for both affiliated firms and independent firms. In sum, we find that the outcomes of diversification are influenced by institutional environments, economic stability and affiliation with business groups. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Does salesperson's customer orientation create value in B2B relationships? Empirical evidence from India

Although value creation in business relationships has taken an important position in the literature, yet scant attention has been paid to the precise nature of creation or destruction of value in b2b customer-oriented selling. Moreover, very few empirical studies in the b2b customer value research have focused on emerging markets, especially the BRIC countries. This study carried out in the context of small and medium sized firms in India, empirically examines from the SOCO perspective (Saxe and Weitz, 1982), value creation in customer-oriented selling, and value destruction in sales-oriented strategies. We model value creation, relationship development, and customer satisfaction as direct and indirect consequences of salesperson's customer orientation. Based on a sample of 249 small and medium sized Indian firms, we show that salesperson's customer orientation directly leads to value creation and relationship development with customers. On the other hand, a sales orientation destroys value, although it may lead to relationship development in the short-term. We also found that customer satisfaction was unrelated to both types of salesperson's orientations. Our study has considerable impact for small and medium sized businesses in emerging BRIC markets such as India, as it throws light on how supplier firms can leverage their salesforce to create value creation with their customers.