Global virtual teams: a human resource capital architecture

As organizations continue to globalize their operations, it will become evident that most organizations do not have the resources to ‘fully man’ operations throughout the world. Therefore, management will be examining organizational options that reduce the demand on an already depleted pool of global managers. One of the options being examined by companies is the global virtual team (GVT). These complex teams are being considered as a bridge mechanism to allow multinational organizations to expand rapidly without taxing present global managerial skills. This paper uses a theoretical foundation based upon competency theory as the motivation for the formation of GVTs and to explain how they function. Four critical capitals (i.e. human, social, political and cross-cultural) are deemed to be essential for effectiveness of GVT and are discussed in the paper. In addition, a process for assessing the stock of capital in a GVT team is also developed in the paper.     

Changes in psychological contracts during the global financial crisis: the manager's perspective

The employee–organisation relationship is dynamic and arguably affected by contextual factors, such as a change in the economic environment. This study uses data collected from managers in Australia before and after the beginning of the global financial crisis (GFC) to examine the changes in psychological contract (PC) terms from the manager's perspective. In particular, as industries can be affected differently by economic crisis and gender discrimination can increase in tough economic conditions, we examined if any changes in PC terms were contingent on industry and employee gender. The study's results show that the terms of the employment relationship deteriorated in Australia only for employees working in industries affected by the GFC. Further, we found that some gender differences in the terms of the PC exist independent of the state of the economy. In addition, a three-way interaction indicates that managers working in industries not affected by the GFC are allocating a greater proportion of their resources to their female employees than to their male employees. Ongoing labour shortages and gender inequities in Australia might have prompted managers in non-affected industries to use their relative ‘resource-rich’ advantage to positively influence the employee–organisation relationship for female employees, a traditionally disadvantaged group.     

Short-term cross-cultural study tours: impact on cultural intelligence

This paper examines whether short-term cross-cultural study tours enhance the four factors of cultural intelligence (CQ): metacognition, cognition, motivation and behavior. CQ has exhibited high correlations between higher levels of CQ and positive attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. As a capability, CQ appears malleable and, thus, open to change and improvement. Data were collected from working professionals in an MBA program both before and after participating in an experientially oriented 11- or 12-day short-term cross-cultural study tour. Results supported three of the four hypotheses, suggesting that short-term cross-cultural study tours exhibited a significant relationship with enhanced metacognitive CQ, cognitive CQ and motivational CQ. The results did not reveal a significant relationship between the study tours and behavioral CQ.     

Exploring the motives of company-backed and self-initiated expatriates

Few studies have investigated the range of issues considered important to the decision to move abroad for expatriates, particularly comparing the company-backed and self-initiated expatriate experiences. This study contributes to an important gap in current research about the drivers of both company-backed and self-initiated expatriation. It reveals details about the diverse motivations to undertake an expatriation and the similarities and differences between these two groups. Through a web-based study, the structure of the motivational components considered influential to the decision to move abroad was explored and quantitatively assessed. Principal component analysis (PCA) suggested an eight-factor model. Scales developed from the model highlighted significant differences between the motivations of the self-initiated and company-backed across three key areas. Location and host reputation motives were significantly more important to the self-initiated suggesting that the desire to move to a particular country and characteristics of that country were primary drivers. Company-backed individuals placed significantly more emphasis on specific career motives including job, skills and career impact. Discussion focuses on the motivational gestalt of the two groups providing a better understanding of the underlying attitudes and actual vocational choices of self-initiated and company-backed individuals. The paper poses a theoretical distinction between the self-initiated and company-backed expatriate, exploring the implications for career and international management theory. Practical implications are rehearsed, exposing areas for further research.     

An integration of the multi-component DEA and GAR models to the measurement of hotel performance

The aim of this paper is to identify how well each hotel performs in each of its room and food and beverage divisions. To this end, this paper develops a multi-component data envelopment analysis/global assurance region (MDEA/GAR) model to fully gauge hotel performance where each hotel has its specific inputs and outputs for both divisions as well as shared inputs and common outputs between the two divisions. The application shows how the MDEA/GAR model can incorporate preferable hotels among the efficient ones with higher profit earning ratios when evaluating hotel performance. The results show that members of international chain-managed hotels perform significantly better than local chain-managed and independently managed hotels.     

Firms' efficiency and global value chains: An empirical investigation on Italian industry

This paper investigates the effect of participation in global value chains (GVCs) on firms' efficiency and explores heterogeneity in this impact across different firms, according to GVC governance, positioning in the chain and time length of participation. Our analysis takes advantage of survey data providing information on involvement in GVCs for a large set of Italian industrial SMEs between 2008 and 2012. We employ Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to retrieve a measure of firms' technical efficiency (i.e., DEA efficiency scores) and estimate the impact of involvement in GVCs on firms' efficiency through propensity-score matching techniques and truncated regression. Our results show that participation in GVCs induces significant efficiency premia, especially for suppliers, with stronger effects in the case of relational modes of participation.     

Narratives of global convergence and the power of choosing a measure

ABSTRACT

Research into the use of indicators in global governance emphasises the importance of which types of quantitative measurements of social phenomena are chosen, how they are chosen, and by whom. I contribute to this literature by applying these concepts to inequality measurements in the context of global income distribution. Any discussion of inequality includes an implicit normative comparison of distributions and the choice of measure will affect these comparisons. I argue that these seemingly technical methodological choices are actually value-laden, and may have effects on public perceptions and even policy outcomes. In particular, I focus on some influential research results concerning global income distribution and illustrate how a change in measurement choice can put these familiar findings in a new light. I also make a contribution by applying the concepts used to evaluate pro-poor growth – usually reserved for within country studies – to the question of global between-country convergence.     

Foreign sourcing and exporting

The aim of this paper was analysing the role of sourcing intermediate inputs internationally on export decisions and distinguishing whether intermediates are sourced from firms belonging to the same business group or from independent suppliers. To analyse firms' export decisions, we use a specification that also accounts for sunk costs and accumulated experience in export markets (i.e., export market learning). We consider that importing intermediates might have direct and indirect effects (operating through enhanced productivity) on the export participation decision. The direct effects on exporting are isolated once we control for productivity and the effects of belonging to an international group. We use a manufacturing panel data set drawn from the Spanish Survey on Business Strategies (ESEE) for the period 2006–14. Both productivity and inward or outward FDI increase the probability of exporting. Moreover, our results uncover the existence of sunk costs and export market learning, and also the relevant role played by intermediate imports in firms' export choices. Their effects act both through the (indirect) channel of enhancing firms' productivity and through a direct effect related to product upgrading, more competitive selling prices or learning from the firm's import experience.     

How does consumers' Perception of Sports Stars' Personal Brand Promote Consumers’ brand love? A mediation model of global brand equity

Previous research on the sports marketing of global brands has focused mainly on the sponsorship of sporting events and the endorsement of products by athletes. This study reveals the unexamined effect of the impact of sports stars' personal brand on global brand equity and consumers' brand love. Based on global consumer culture (GCC) theory and self-expansion theory, this paper examines the influence of sports celebrities' personal brand on consumers' perceptions of global brand equity and brand love. Using survey data from 372 users of “HUPU”, our results revealed that the use of sports stars' personal brand (attractiveness, expertise, and congruence) was positively related to global brand equity and brand love. Belief in global brand citizenship has a full mediating effect between attractiveness and brand love but a partial mediating effect between expertise, congruence and brand love. Product quality partially mediates the relationship between expertise and brand love. These findings suggest that it is appropriate to use sports stars' personal brand to build global brand equity and increase consumers’ brand love.     

The effects of rising labour costs on global supply chains: the case of China’s cotton yarn industry

Rapid economic growth in China and India has resulted in rapidly rising labour costs in those countries. In this study a Muth-type model is used to assess the potential effects of this development on global supply chains using China’s cotton yarn industry as a case study. The model considers i) product differentiation at the yarn level; ii) imperfect competition in the markets for cotton yarn and raw cotton fibre, iii) input substitution between raw cotton fibre, labour, and capital; and iv) offsetting increases in the demand for cotton yarn caused by rising consumer income. Results suggest the effects of rising labour costs on the supply chain are modest, and easily swamped or obscured by the effects of rising income. Increases in industry market power (both oligopoly and oligopsony) have the same effect on the supply chain as increases in labour costs, raising prices to consumers of cotton yarn, and lowering prices to input suppliers, including foreign suppliers of raw cotton fibre. The combined effects of increases in labour costs and income have increased the factor shares for labour and to a lesser extent capital at the expense of raw cotton fibre.