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Jahre, Marianne; Oorschot, Kimball Elizabeth van, Årdal, Christine Oline, Sverrisson, Eirik, Pettersen, Mikal S. & Wangen, Andreas
(2025)
Sustainable pharmaceutical procurement: Environmental tendering criteria for better or worse?
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The purpose of this study is to advance knowledge of the effects of using environmental criteria in the tendering and procurement of pharmaceuticals. In cooperation with the Norwegian Hospital Procurement Trust, we conducted a longitudinal case study of how environmental criteria in the tendering of generic antibiotics were implemented. This case is one of the first attempts to use environmental criteria in generic pharmaceuticals procurement. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected based on interviews, workshops, meetings and secondary sources, followed by iterative analysis, including a case narrative and causal loop diagramming. We found that rewarding environmental criteria fulfilment at the expense of price seems to have multiple effects. Firstly, higher prices increase public spending in the short-term but also help maintain the supply base, which can reduce shortages. Secondly, this increased focus gives more transparency into supplier risks. It is this latter unexpected effect of introducing environmental tendering criteria that makes the case and our analysis particularly interesting. Additionally, in the long term, interviewees expect that increased focus on environmental criteria for specific antibiotics will have the intended effect of reducing transmission of resistant bacteria through improving suppliers’ production processes. Our findings also suggest that increased focus on environmental criteria does not necessarily increase shortages of narrow-spectrum antibiotics, which could unintendedly increase transmission of resistant bacteria. Data from our case study suggest that these two effects are likely to have a positive influence on public health, thereby potentially reducing future healthcare costs.
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Skoge, Mari; Støme, Linn Nathalie, Vink, Josina, Værnes, Tor Gunnar, Romm, Kristin Lie, Aminoff, Sofie Ragnhild, Barrett, Elizabeth Ann, Bryhni, Gina Engen, Kling, Kristine, Kvaerner, Kari Jorunn, Melle, Ingrid, Mork, Erlend & Simonsen, Carmen
(2025)
A Mobile App Designed to Promote Shared Decision-Making in the Treatment of Psychotic Disorders: Feasibility and Acceptability Study
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Abstract Background Strengthening shared decision-making in mental health care may improve the quality of services and treatment outcomes, but its implementation in services for severe mental disorders is currently lacking. Objective This study aims to explore the feasibility and acceptability of iTandem (University of Oslo), a mobile app designed to promote shared decision-making in the treatment of psychotic disorders. In addition, the study aims to investigate mechanisms that potentially contribute to the intended effect of the app. iTandem is a therapy supplement that facilitates patient involvement in decisions regarding treatment goals and focus areas. It is designed for personalized use and contains 8 optional modules: sleep, medication, recovery, mood, psychosis, activity, substance use, and feedback concerning therapy. Methods Patients undergoing assessment or treatment for psychotic disorders and their clinicians were recruited for the study. Patients and clinicians jointly used iTandem as part of standard treatment in a 6-week trial. We used a mixed-methods study design with a clear emphasis on qualitative methods. Feasibility and acceptability were assessed through descriptive statistics based on preintervention and postintervention questionnaires and app usage data, in addition to text responses to open-ended items. We conducted a reflexive thematic analysis of postintervention interviews to elaborate these measures and to explore mechanisms potentially contributing to achieving shared decision-making when using iTandem. Results A total of 9 patients and 8 clinicians completed the trial. The participants evaluated iTandem as a user-friendly and acceptable tool, but there were considerable variations in how the app was integrated into treatment and in perceptions of its clinical value. The thematic analysis suggests that iTandem has the potential to facilitate shared decision-making through supporting cognition and shifting the patient’s role. We also identified scaffolding structures, an analogy of personalized support, as a precondition for these mechanisms and for the overall feasibility and acceptability of iTandem. Conclusions iTandem was generally perceived as a feasible and acceptable tool in the treatment of patients with psychotic disorders. Our findings suggest that nonclinical aspects, such as support structures, are important to the feasibility and acceptability of such digital interventions and patients’ aptness for digitalized treatment in general. Future research should explore related nonclinical aspects further instead of defining potential target groups based on diagnoses and symptom severity alone.
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Ørjasæter, Nils-Otto; Kvaerner, Kari Jorunn & Støme, Linn Nathalie
(2025)
Value-Based Framework for Evaluating Pre-Commercial Procurement: Case Study of Value-Based Key Performance Indicators
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Abstract Background The demographic shift toward older populations is placing increasing pressure on health care systems, and only 20% of patients with chronic issues in the industrial world’s rural areas have guaranteed access to adequate health care services. This stresses the health care systems, emphasizing the need for innovative solutions. The Horizon 2020 Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) project, Crane, addresses these needs by facilitating the procurement of a digital self-management system for treating patients with chronic issues at home. Three rural European regions are participating in the project: Västerbotten (Sweden), Extremadura (Spain), and Agder (Norway). Objective This study aims to explore and identify key design criteria and value-based key performance indicators (VB-KPIs) to support the development and evaluation of digital health care solutions for patients with chronic issues in rural areas within the Crane PCP process. Methods A 3-iteration process was used to identify and prioritize the VB-KPIs in the Crane project. First, user needs were investigated based on stakeholder analyses in the participating rural regions. The early health technology assessment tool, Step Up, was used in 5 workshops (2 in Agder, 2 in Extremadura, and 1 in Västerbotten). Participants included patients and health care professionals. Second, post workshop, stakeholders were asked to comment on the summarized results, which were accordingly adjusted. Third, following the workshops, VB-KPIs were identified and prioritized, and discussions among representatives from the 3 buyer regions were conducted. Results Thirty-five VB-KPIs across 5 domains were identified. User-related (9 VB-KPIs), employee-related (9 key performance indicators), clinical (4 VB-KPIs), organizational (6 VB-KPIs), and economic (8 VB-KPIs) outcomes from the workshops and the subsequent discussions emphasized regional differences in terms of user needs and priorities. While Agder (Norway) and Västerbotten (Sweden) emphasized privacy, digital trust, and physical interaction as important, Extremadura (Spain) prioritized negotiation and shared decision-making. Despite differences, shared values were identified, including empowerment, flexibility, preventative care, and improved quality of life. Conclusions The identified and prioritized VB-KPIs are likely to provide a need-based foundation for the development and subsequent evaluation of the digital PCP, Crane, although regional socioeconomic and cultural differences may necessitate local adaptations.
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Gaim, Medhanie; Saad, Elie & Nair, Sujith
(2025)
Pathways to a successful startup-corporate partnership
California Management Review.
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Benito, Gabriel R G
(2025)
Seen from the Outside: A Commentary on “The Historical Evolution of IB in a Comparative Perspective”
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Dasi, Ángels; Pedersen, Torben, Tomassen, Sverre & Kvålshaugen, Ragnhild
(2025)
Integration and governance mechanisms: a multilevel analysis of knowledge adoption in MNCs
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Wang, Pengfei & Shi, Yanlin
(2025)
Shoot the moving target: A dynamic perspective on optimal distinctiveness and strategic repositioning
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How efficacious is the strategy of pursuing optimal distinctiveness (OD)? Scholars have long strived to identify the optimal positions for firms in the market and advocate them to realign themselves accordingly. While plausible, however, prior literature overlooks the process of repositioning towards OD and the dynamic nature of market landscape. Specifically, if all firms reposition simultaneously, current optimal positions could become inferior, such that firms that deliberately move towards OD (OD firms) may get backfired. Emphasizing the dynamics, we utilize a parsimonious agent-based simulation to explore the efficacy of repositioning towards OD. The results indicate that across different scenarios, a significant proportion of OD firms end up experiencing repositioning failure and fail to improve their performance. More importantly, we underscore that the efficacy of repositioning towards OD depends largely on market conditions. It is particularly undermined in markets with more competitors seeking distinctiveness and/or fewer competitors aiming for conformity (e.g., markets with greater leniency). Experimenting with different approaches firms can take to pursue OD, we also find that exploratory repositioning performs better than exploitative repositioning. Finally, our extensional analyses offer further insights by integrating repositioning costs, sequential repositioning, alternative optimal locations, and random explorers.
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Amdam, Rolv Petter Storvik
(2025)
Commentary on “Bringing It Altogether and Moving Forward”: The History of IB: Some New Questions Regarding the Formative Period
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This comment focuses on how international business emerged and developed in the formative phase of the field’s history. It addresses the need for more research on Hambrick and Chen’s concept “aspiring community”, and for a critical examination of the borders between teaching and research in this and the formative period. Furter, the comment also highlights the historical methodological principle of chronology by referring to how Vernon got involved in case production prior to his MNE research project. Finally, it highlights the important role of the more than two hundred scholars who wrote teaching case.
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Andersson, Ulf; Benito, Gabriel R G, Lunnan, Randi & Tomassen, Sverre
(2025)
Why some are less willing to share: Competitive domains and knowledge transfer in multi-unit organizations
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Romm, Kristin Lie; Kruse, Sindre Hembre, Kvaerner, Kari Jorunn, Melle, Ingrid, Mork, Erlend, Ihler, Henrik Myhre, Rognli, Eline B., Simonsen, Carmen, Værnes, Tor Gunnar, Aminoff, Sofie Ragnhild, Skoge, Mari, Barrett, Elizabeth Ann, Berentzen, Lars-Christian, Bergsager, Dagfinn, Fugeli, Pål, Bjella, Thomas, Gardsjord, Erlend Strand & Kling, Kristine
(2025)
A Mobile Health Intervention to Support Collaborative Decision-Making in Mental Health Care: Development and Usability
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Yildiz, H. Emre; Zhou, Abby Jingzi & Fey, Carl F.
(2025)
Unfolding and developing disseminative capacity of subsidiaries via structural integration in MNCS
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Huemer, Lars & Flygansvær, Bente Merete
(2025)
Increasing circularity: The importance of resource interactions when adapting from waste management to resource management
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The circular economy, which entails a fundamental transition from waste management to resource management, involves waste minimization and prolonged resource utility. Resources should arguably be managed in a manner reducing the likelihood that they turn into waste. Correspondingly, waste should be managed in a way increasing the likelihood that it becomes a useful resource. To achieve such ends, this research highlights the bundled nature of resources (including waste). The study is based on an abductive research process and it de-bundles the resource categories portrayed in the 4R model. The de-bundled framework is applied to a longitudinal case study focusing on a recycling company's participation in the circular economy. This application results in distinctions between endogenous and exogenous adaptation strategies. Endogenous adaptations involve an explicit bundle awareness and attention to interaction processes within 4R resource categories, exogenous adaptations include interaction processes between 4R categories. It is proposed that adaptations involving deliberate tradeoffs between endogenous and exogenous strategies may lead to more circular business models and sustainable resource management.
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Tvedt, Jostein
(2025)
A predictive term-spread model in the age of inflation targeting
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The link between the shape of the US government bond yield curve and future economic growth is analysed using a novel real economy endowment model. The model suggests that the predictive power of bond market prices relies on the entire yield curve, i.e., on the long run interest rate level, the short-dated bond yield, the forecast horizon specific term spread and term premiums. A forecast horizon specific, maturity weighted, term spread is suggested as a supplement to extant one-factor term-spread models. The endowment model offers a theoretical basis for the findings of the recent empirical literature, which indicate predictive power of both the slope and curvature of the yield curve. The paper’s empirical section supports the observation that, in recent decades, the slope and curvature are predictors of US economic growth.
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Wang, Pengfei
(2025)
Repositioning, audience churn, and identity ambiguity: The external costs of market repositioning
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Prior literature has long underscored the importance for market actors to establish clear identities. Extant studies mostly adopt a static view, assessing whether actors adhere to a specific prototype or membership. By stressing a dynamic perspective, we maintain that identities are in flux as actors constantly shift positions. Specifically, we emphasize that repositioning can induce identity ambiguity, undermining the accuracy of audience evaluation. Analyzing market repositioning of US firms, we find that firms with greater repositioning tend to experience a higher degree of churn in their coverage audiences (financial analysts). More importantly, audiences are found to be less accurate in evaluating firms that undertake greater repositioning. These results align with our conjecture about external repositioning costs: Firms risk incurring identity ambiguity when shifting market positions.
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Korniychuk, Aleksey; Larsen, Marcus Møller & Asmussen, Christian G.
(2025)
The long-term domestic dominance of the multinational enterprise
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Adarkwah, Gilbert Kofi; Grøgaard, Birgitte & Tomassen, Sverre
(2025)
Impact Investment Firms and Institutionalization in Emerging Countries
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The authors examine the effect of impact investments – investments made with the intent to generate social and environmental impact alongside financial returns – on emerging countries. The authors argue that impact investment is effective in fostering positive social and environmental outcomes through institutionalization in host countries. The authors assess their hypotheses on a sample of European impact investment firms in Africa, using a unique hand-collected dataset of investments from 2000 to 2019. The authors find empirical support for their hypotheses. This study extends the international business literature by answering the growing calls among scholars for greater attention to the role of social enterprises in addressing complex social and environmental challenges
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Aparicio, Sebastian; Lengler, Jorge, Aguzzoli, Roberta, Sousa, Carlos M.P., Benito, Gabriel R G & Urbano, David
(2025)
Unfair competition and export intensity of Latin American SMEs: The role of regulations
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Latin American countries exhibit significant levels of informal economic activity and a low degree of trade openness. Yet, little is known about the effect of these institutional characteristics on the performance of SMEs when venturing abroad to explore international markets. Based on an institutional voids approach, we explore the effects of unfair competition, particularly related to informality, on export intensity of SMEs conditioned by tariffs, trade regulations, and taxes in Latin America. Multilevel modeling is applied to a sample of 5781 Latin American firms. We hypothesize and find that SMEs increase their exports when they compete against informal firms. Higher tariffs and trade regulations reinforce such unfair competition and thus the decision to focus on international markets.
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Benito, Gabriel R G
(2025)
Does de-globalization imply de-internationalization?
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De-globalization is for real and has profound, but differentiated, effects on international business and companies with cross-border activities. Yet, companies do not de-globalize, as the overwhelming majority of companies were never truly global by any measure in the first place. However, many companies de-internationalize, partly or fully. They do so by reducing their international engagement, and by reconfiguring their international footprint, some by exiting foreign markets altogether, and some of these companies also resume international activities after a time-out period. In this essay, the author discusses companies’ strategies, including their de-internationalization actions, as ways of coping with the challenges and opportunities arising from key aspects of de-globalization phenomena, and concludes that de-internationalization considerations are an integral part of sound strategies for companies’ internationalization.
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Veisdal, Jørgen; Dreyer, Heidi Carin & Aspelund, Arild
(2025)
Multi-Sided Platforms as Enablers of Circular Supply Chains: A Case Study From the Norwegian Shipbuilding Industry
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In maritime industries, transitioning to circular supply chains for the sourcing of components and materials is considered an important step in the direction of more environmentally sustainable means of production. Multi-sided platforms (MSPs) have previously been proposed as a promising technology for enabling industries to coordinate toward new paradigms such as the circular economy (CE). This novel study investigates the strategic challenges faced by managers looking to establish an MSP for trade in used components and materials in the Norwegian shipbuilding industry. From data gathered in workshops and interviews with key stakeholders, the paper finds that the characteristics of goods, the strength of incentives, and the necessity of complementors are key considerations to coordination around CE practices through an MSP. Based on these findings, we develop a conceptual model aimed at assisting managers in identifying and evaluating the attractiveness of goods for trade through MSPs in the circular value chain context.
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Melaku, Tsegaye; Mekonnen, Zeleke, Tucho, Gudina Terefe, Viana, Joe, Årdal, Christine Oline & Jahre, Marianne
(2025)
Resilience and Adaptability in Paracetamol Supply Chains: A Systems Perspective on COVID-19 Challenges and Responses in Ethiopia
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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic exposed vulnerabilities in global supply chains, including those for essential medicines like paracetamol. This study aimed to assess the resilience and adaptability of Ethiopia’s paracetamol supply chain during the pandemic. Methods: A mixed-methods approach was employed, combining semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders and analysis of secondary data on paracetamol availability and supply chain disruptions. The study employed systems thinking and supply chain resilience frameworks, utilizing causal loop diagrams to visualize system dynamics. Results: Eighteen stakeholders, representing seven pharmaceutical manufacturers, five import companies, and five wholesalers, participated in the study. These participants had between three and fourteen years of experience in their respective roles. The study revealed complex interactions within the paracetamol supply chain, highlighting both challenges and adaptive responses. While 500 mg paracetamol tablets were readily available, shortages of other formulations were observed due to a range of factors, including limited product diversification, political instability, inflation, and reduced production efficiency. Conclusions: The resilience and adaptability of stakeholders, particularly manufacturers and importers, were crucial in maintaining the supply of 500 mg paracetamol tablets. Key strategies included regional sourcing, increased production, and improved partnerships. Understanding the interconnectedness of factors within the supply chain is essential for developing effective strategies to enhance its resilience and ensure sustained access to paracetamol in the future.
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Kratochvil, Renate & Langley, Ann
(2025)
Process Research and Strategy as Practice
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Bjarnar, Ove; Amdam, Rolv Petter & Halse, Lise Lillebrygfjeld
(2025)
Narratives in context of cluster globalization
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This article is inspired by recent concerns that history and context has not been taken into proper account in evolutionary economic geography, and by a call for narrative approaches to assess processes of path development, in our case more broadly processes of cluster evolution. We conduct a narrative study of globalization in the maritime cluster in Møre and Romsdal in Western Norway and ask how narratives and antenarratives are voiced to make sense of, and merge, regional and global considerations (processes in phenomenological time). By using a historical approach, we show that the dialogue between materiality and narratives is not a linear process but developed in historical time and reflects contextual changes in historical time. By drawing upon the distinction between narratives and antenarratives, defined as fragments of discourse that are articulated to make sense of things or give sense to them in a chaotic organizational reality, the study contributes to our understanding of regional development.
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Jakobsen, Stig Erik; Bækkelund, Nora Geirsdotter, Sjøtun, Svein Gunnar & Wiig, Heidi
(2025)
Green to stay? Mechanisms explaining green industrial resilience during an external shock
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Friedmann, Jens-Christian; Lavie, Dovev, Rademaker, Linda & Shipilov, Andrew V.
(2025)
The Hidden Battle for IP Protection in Alliances
MIT Sloan Management Review, 66(3), p. 35-41.
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Souza-Santos, Renato; Carneiro, Jorge & Andersson, Ulf
(2025)
Pursuing headquarters’ attention: Foreign subsidiaries’ strategic issue selling
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Tvedt, Jostein & Lunnan, Randi
(2025)
Proactive investments in switching‑flexibility and the value of agility in international business
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How should a multinational enterprise (MNE) shape its own agility in response to the environments in which it operates? In this paper we argue that proactive investments in switching-flexibility, e.g., to facilitate future relocations of production assets, can be a powerful tool for handling international business (IB) volatility. If options to invest in future flexibility are exercised strategically, international relocation may become a more frequent phenomenon in high than in low volatility industries. This prediction contrasts the value-of-waiting recommendation of the classical real options literature, which suggests that relocation becomes less frequent if volatility is high. The differences in predictions stem from a change in perspective—from exogenous flexibility in the classical literature to endogenous flexibility in this study. Optimal proactive investments in future agility increase the value of a firm and enhance the firm’s ability to handle risk. This suggests that MNEs operating in volatile and competitive international markets typically become more agile than firms operating in stable environments. The paper’s proposition is supported by illustrative cases from ocean industries and by a real options model with endogenous reversibility. The model shows that optimal proactive investments in flexibility may tighten the entry and exit threshold spread for higher volatility.
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Taheriruh, Matin; Jääskeläinen, Aki, Loijas, Kati & Harrison, Debbie
(2025)
Developing and deploying competences for innovative public procurement: a network perspective
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Kano, Liena; Grøgaard, Birgitte, Ciravegna, Luciano & Adarkwah, Gilbert Kofi
(2025)
Beyond reductionism: rethinking MNEs’ role in environmental crises
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Prange, Christiane; Lunnan, Randi & Mayrhofer, Ulrike
(2024)
The Diary Method in International Management Research
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Relationships between subsidiary managers and headquarters (HQ) have been investigated through various research methods in the international management field. The diary method is an experience-based research method that helps to tap into the actions, reactions, and emotions of managers working in the international domain. To our knowledge, no study has shed light on subsidiary-headquarters relations using insights from subsidiary managers’ diaries. We introduce the diary method to international management research and present an illustrative study on subsidiary-HQ relations, based on diaries written by fourteen subsidiary managers. We note that subsidiary managers display multiple types of emotions when dealing with their corporate HQ. We discuss how the diary method can enrich international management research, and in particular studies on multi-level subsidiary-HQ relations. Based on our illustrative study, we propose guidelines for using the diary method in the international management field by providing insights into the diary study preparation, the collection of diary data, and data analysis.
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Wang, Pengfei
(2024)
Employee Status, Role Expectation and Performance Evaluation: Evidence from NBA Players
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This paper shifts attention from how employee status affects work performance to the role of status in performance evaluation when rewards or penalties for performance are determined. While prior studies have shown that high status enables employees to perform well, we emphasize that it may also elevate role expectations, which then become hard to meet. Building on expectation confirmation theory, we argue especially that high-status employees may be less rewarded for their performance because high expectations of them have been established. Although low-status employees are less likely to perform well, they receive greater rewards on attaining success, suggesting a potential advantage to being disadvantaged ex ante. Moreover, while prior literature highlights various benefits of having prestigious peers, we maintain that the presence of high-status teammates also raises expectations of teamwork. As such, employees will be less rewarded for team performance when they work with high-status teammates. We test our hypotheses in a sample of NBA players and find general support. Our findings highlight employees’ status as a potential liability in performance evaluation.
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Petersen, Bent & Benito, Gabriel R.G.
(2024)
Making Switches: Key Strategic Decisions When Moving From a Local, Independent Operator to a Wholly Owned Subsidiary
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Entering a foreign market entails making the important mode decision of how to operate there. But the initial mode choice is not always forever and may be reassessed as business circumstances change. The mode shifting process—that is, how switches from one mode to another unfold—has scarcely been described, so we lack a systematic outline of this process. In this article, we take a first step toward such an outline. Adopting the established distinction between the formation and implementation phases of strategy making and execution, we describe the critical strategic decisions managers need to make about how to carry out a mode switch. Regarding the formation phases, we discuss the identification and consideration of entry mode switches as viable options, and whether companies plan or not for such shifts. Regarding the implementation phases, we differentiate between the integrating and collaborating decisions that define the type of switches made by companies.
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Pinnock, Susanna; Evers, Natasha & Hoholm, Thomas
(2024)
Customer search strategies of entrepreneurial telehealth firms - how effective is effectuation?
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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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Arnold, Laurin & Hukal, Philipp
(2024)
The varying effects of standardisation on digital platform innovation: evidence from OpenStreetmap
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We investigate the effects of standardisation as a means of direct control on digital platform innovation. Specifically, we study the standardisation of parameters and procedures implemented in the web editing API on the popular geodata platform, OpenStreetMap. Using a regression-based approach to interrupted time series analysis, we assess the quantity and quality of new content generated on the platform before and after the standardisation. We find that the intervention had positive and negative effects on the generation of platform content on OpenStreetMap, which we summarise in three different effects (control, simplification, spill-over). Through the control effect, standardisation decreases the generation of content in quantity by enforcing conformity and reducing complementor’s freedom in producing certain outcomes. Through the simplification effect, standardisation increases the generation of new content in quantity by simplifying and streamlining the production of certain outcomes. Lastly, through the spill-over effect, standardisation increases the generation of content in quality and new areas of the platform by improving the compatibility and interoperability of content. Framing these findings through the rich body of work on standardisation and innovation in the technology management literature, we engage a long-standing tension in research on digital platforms – the balance between control and innovation. We discuss the prospect of standardisation as one way to directly control the balance between desirable and undesirable variation necessary for platforms to innovate, as it restricts some activities while enabling others.
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Nitzsch, Jannis Von; Bird, Miriam & Saiedi, Ed
(2024)
The strategic role of owners in firm growth: Contextualizing ownership competence in private firms
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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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Schou, Peter Kalum
(2024)
The evolution and disintegration of innovation narratives during scaling in science-based ventures
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Science-based ventures (SBVs) are crucial vehicles that bring new technologies from the lab and to the mainstream market. During this journey, innovation narratives play a crucial role in coordinating innovation. Innovation narratives are linguistic representations that actors use to make sense of innovation activities, events and actions. In other words, they are stories that drive sensemaking, which is a critical element in avoiding conflicts in product innovation process and securing coordinated activities between diverse actors. However, as SBVs shift markets and undergo radical changes, they may have to update narratives to fit these changes. Yet, little is known about how innovation narratives and coordination evolve during this journey. To improve knowledge on this matter, I conducted a 24-month study of a science-based venture crossing over to a commercial market. I find that during this transition, innovation narratives shift from being shaped by progressive storytelling, where the benefits of becoming commercial and hiring nonacademics is highlighted, to being shaped by retrogressive storytelling, where incumbents and newcomers use their respective pasts to develop divergent narratives, and finally to appearing as disintegrated storytelling, where narratives compete and hinder coordination in innovation processes. Building on these findings, I construct a process model of how innovation narratives evolve and disintegrate as SBVs scale. This article contributes to knowledge on innovation management by illustrating how innovation narratives affect coordination in innovation processes, as well as how they may evolve during organizational change. Furthermore, this article illuminates the challenges that SBVs face to their innovation processes when scaling
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Wessel, Michael; Schmidt-Kessen, Maria José & Hukal, Philipp
(2024)
Regulating short-term rental platforms: the effects of local regulatory responses on Airbnb’s operations in Europe
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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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Adarkwah, Gilbert Kofi; Dorobantu, Sinziana, Christopher, Sabel & Zilja, Flladina
(2024)
Geopolitical volatility and subsidiary investments
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Research Summary We examine how geopolitical volatility—the instability of bilateral political affinity between countries—affects foreign subsidiary investments. Building on prior work that shows that the level of political affinity between countries facilitates foreign investments, we argue that the volatility of political affinity impedes firms' ability to form expectations about stakeholder behavior and reduces subsequent investments in subsidiaries. We further argue that the effect of volatility of political affinity on foreign subsidiary investments is less pronounced when the level of political affinity between countries is high and when the firm has strong political connections at home. Our analyses examine 1054 US firms and their subsidiary investments in 106 countries from 2000 to 2015. Managerial Summary Geopolitical risk has emerged as an important factor in foreign investment decisions in recent years. The rise of geopolitical tensions worldwide and the fragmentation of relationships between countries have introduced new dimensions to foreign investment risks. We study the propensity for sudden and unpredictable shifts in the political relationship between countries—that is, volatility of political affinity in their bilateral political relations—and its effect on firms' foreign subsidiary investments. We show that volatility of political affinity negatively affects the number of subsidiaries, employees, and local sales in the host country because when bilateral relations change suddenly, it is more difficult for multinational firms to predict how stakeholder behavior will impact the performance of their investments.
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Benito, Gabriel R G & Meyer, Klaus E.
(2024)
Industrial policy, green challenges, and international business
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Nation states are designing their industry policies increasingly to not only enhance national competitiveness, but to simultaneously address “Green Challenges”, concerns about the natural environment that require concerted action among different actors in society, including domestic and foreign multinational enterprises (MNEs). This blending of global and national policy objectives is leading to a new wave of industrial policies in advanced economies that are informed by scholarly discourses in evolutionary economics, innovation systems and wicked problems. We discuss the implications of these sustainability-oriented industrial policies for MNEs. They operate in increasingly diverse local ecosystems shaped by local actors and local policies as we illustrate for two such ecosystems in Nordic countries: Circular economy and energy transition. Many MNEs face a tension between capabilities they could use to help nations achieve their sustainability goals and incentives to protect existing rents and business models. They may thus engage pro-actively or reactively in both market and nonmarket realms in each country in which they operate. We discuss the interactions between MNEs, governments and other actors in host countries pursuing both sustainability and competitiveness objectives, and outline how ensuing tensions create new challenges and opportunities for international business scholarship.
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Tinits, Priit; Yi, Jingtao, Fey, Carl F. & Meng, Shuang
(2024)
Government R&D support's effects on export performance via innovation: An analysis of organizational motivators as moderators
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Harrison, Debbie
(2024)
The dynamics of ongoing market maintenance through centralized market work
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Lluch, Andrea & Amdam, Rolv Petter Storvik
(2024)
In the shadow of Americanisation: The origins and evolution of management education and training in Argentina (1940s–1960s)
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Abstract
This article examines the development of educational programs for developing managers in Argentina from the 1940s to the 1960s. Research on management education during this period has tended to be US-European focused and has looked at the impact of American models. In Argentina, new institutions began to emerge in the 1940s. This process gained momentum in the 1950s and flourished in the 1960s. Several American actors supported the institutionalization of management education. This paper analyses the relationship between American influence and Argentine national actors in two cases, business education within the Facultad de Ciencias Económicas (FCE, Faculty of Economic Science) at the University of Buenos Aires, and executive education at the Instituto para el Desarrollo de Ejecutivos en la Argentina (IDEA, Argentine Institute for Executives Development) Rather than being clones of US models, they reflected a national re-interpretation of the overall US idea of the development of institutions for the education and training of people in managerial positions.
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Grøgaard, Birgitte
(2024)
Asset recombination
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Valls, Ferran Giones; Shankar, Raj K., Smith, Sheryl Winston, Garcia-Herrera, Cristobal & Timmermans, Bram
(2024)
Introduction to special issue on corporate and startup collaborations in an age of disruption: looking beyond the dyad
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Established organisations and new ventures search for knowledge in the face of disruption. The activation of corporate-startup collaborations facilitates access to new and complementary knowledge. This type of collaboration has become increasingly popular as a corporate response to technological and market disruptions. However, there is growing evidence of the multiplicity of outcomes, intrinsically related to the broad diversity of forms and collaboration models. In this special issue, we include five contributions that give an overview of the phenomenon. We explore theoretical lenses that help us understand the potential tensions emerging from asymmetrical inter-organisational collaborations and possible solutions to make those collaborations successful. We delineate the theoretical and practical contributions of the papers and summarise the research opportunities that emerge around a phenomenon that keeps evolving.
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Årdal, Christine Oline; Gawad, Mohamed, Baraldi, Enrico, Jahre, Marianne & Edlund, Charlotta
(2024)
Fragmented markets for older antibiotics and child formulations, Denmark, Norway, Sweden
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Antibiotic resistance is one of the most urgent threats to public health. The development of antibiotic resistance can be reduced by the use of narrow-spectrum antibiotics that target specific bacteria, meaning that fewer non-harmful bacteria are killed and other harmful bacteria are not exposed to selection pressure. However, many narrow-spectrum antibiotics were introduced decades ago and therefore lack regulatory documentation in line with current standards. An additional problem for a reliable supply is that of market fragmentation, where countries with similar resistance patterns and prescribing cultures (e.g. Norway and Sweden) prioritize different formulations and strengths. For example, over half of Sweden’s highest priority paediatric antibiotics are not marketed in Denmark or Norway in the same formulations or dosages. Such market fragmentation, which can result in the annual demand of a country being smaller than batch production sizes, means that specific strengths and formulations may no longer be economical to supply. Further, once an antibiotic has been withdrawn from the market, it is difficult to attract a new supplier because of the cost of the clinical trials required to update approval of the drug. However, as resistance to antibiotics increases among populations, clinicians need access to the maximum possible range of antibiotics. Regional collaboration, that is, the harmonization of essential medicines lists (including strengths and formulations for older antibiotics) between countries, is a recommended first step towards reliable access to the necessary range of antibiotics.
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Kratochvil, Renate
(2024)
The process of framing innovation activities: How strategic leaders erode their ideas for radical innovations
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Understanding what impedes and facilitates radical innovation is crucial. This study introduces a process perspective on managerial cognition into the strategic leadership literature to elucidate the dynamics that contribute to idea erosion during the development of radical innovation. Employing a framing perspective and utilizing longitudinal data from a single case, this study presents a process model of strategic leaders' framing-induced idea erosion. At the heart of this process are two dynamics. First is a dynamic consisting of the anticipation of innovation that fails to account for the necessary iterative process, leading to a growing mismatch between expectations and activities. Second is a dynamic consisting of cognitive processes, where strategic leaders frame this mismatch as a failure, this intensifying over time. This study shows that strategic leaders tend to favor incremental over radical innovation, not due to a shortage of ideas but because they frame their activities as failures.
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Friedmann, Jens-Christian; Lavie, Dovev & Rademaker, Linda
(2024)
Does the Predator Become the Prey? Knowledge Spillover and Protection in Alliances
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Verbeke, Alain; Simoes, Sean & Grøgaard, Birgitte
(2024)
The role of multinational enterprises and formal institutions in BOP markets
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There has been much debate on the role of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in ‘Bottom of the Pyramid’ (BOP) markets. MNEs are advised to overcome institutional voids by making maximum usage of informal institutions. In practice, the empirical support for MNEs' success and their contributions to the sustainable development of BOP markets has been limited. In this article, we focus on a realistic path –including the role of MNEs in this journey– to overcome the ‘poverty premium.’ The poverty premium refers to goods being available to BOP customers only at a very high cost, especially when using credit, and we attempt to address the root causes of this barrier. We present an actionable, transaction cost economics (TCE) based approach for MNEs and other market actors to strengthen and leverage contract-enforcing institutions in the long-term, using illustrative examples of the digital and financial inclusion journey observable in India. Our study confirms the continued need in BOP markets to build on conventional economics and management thinking, for the poorest people to be lifted out of poverty. Here, efficient formal institutions do matter.
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Fehlner, Corina
(2024)
Come closer! On transaction costs and spatial choices in a circular economy
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Wang, Pengfei
(2024)
Pricing innovation: The anchoring effect in patent valuation
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Prior literature has long recognized the substantial economic value that patents hold in the market. Yet, we know much less about the valuation process, i.e., how market audiences estimate (or determine) the value of newly granted patents. Building on behavioral economics, we propose the anchoring effect as an important cognitive mechanism, such that a patent's valuation is anchored on the value that preceding patents have secured. Analyzing financial valuation of U.S. patents between 1991 and 2010, we find broad support to the anchoring effect. The effect is more pronounced when focal patents are of lower novelty, when prior anchors are more consistent, and when focal firms have a higher patenting frequency. Furthermore, our extensional analysis suggests that anchoring acts as an important driver for the divergence between patents' economic value and scientific quality, which deserves attention from firms and policy makers.
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Kostis, Angelos; Lidstrom, Johan, Nair, Sujith & Holmstrom, Jonny
(2024)
Too Much AI Hype, too Little Emphasis on Learning? Entrepreneurs Designing Business Models through Learning-by-Conversing with Generative AI
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Entrepreneurs traditionally use “learning-by-doing” and “learning-by-thinking” as alternative approaches to iteratively build business models for their new ventures. However, both approaches face criticism in how they address novelty and uncertainty, which are crucial to successful entrepreneurship. While generative AI (GenAI) is increasingly used in entrepreneurial tasks, the practices through which it becomes a learning resource for entrepreneurs remain unexplored. Based on a qualitative study, we present a process model that illustrates how entrepreneurs incorporate GenAI into business model design through five resourcing practices. These practices transform GenAI into a valuable resource for facilitating learning during the design process. This approach, which we term “learning-by-conversing,” introduces a generative startup methodology to complement the lean startup model. We distinguish two modes of learning by conversing—reflexive learning and confirmatory learning—based on how novice and experienced entrepreneurs engage with it. By proposing a learning approach that integrates GenAI with entrepreneurial efforts, we bridge the “thinking” versus “doing” debate in business model generation and deepen our understanding of GenAI's role in entrepreneurship
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Aadland, Erik & Sgourev, Stoyan V.
(2024)
Capitalizing on Stigma: Valuation Arbitrage in Norwegian Black Metal
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Studies of destigmatization in markets typically feature targeted actors and audiences. This paper changes the analytical perspective by exploring the role of market intermediaries. It highlights the practice of “valuation arbitrage”, employed by intermediaries to capitalize on differences between the valuation of a product in stigmatized and non-stigmatized conditions. This practice may reduce the exclusionary power of stigma by facilitating the integration of targeted actors into product or labor markets. We investigate valuation arbitrage in the context of Norwegian black metal: a heavy metal genre that became notorious in the mid-1990s for its involvement in criminal activities. The analysis is abductive in nature, as exploration of qualitative data allows to identify a pattern and formulate an expectation that is then tested with quantitative data. An event history analysis of the hazard of a first record release attests to valuation arbitrage by international record labels that signed local bands to build up international demand, reinterpreting the transgressions as a sign of authenticity.
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Arnold, Laurin; Hukal, Philipp & Link, Marco
(2024)
Consortium Governance and Market Entry of Digital B2B Platforms: The Case of ADAMOS
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In this study, we examine how the Industrial Internet of Things platform ADAMOS successfully entered the German mechanical engineering market using a consortium-based approach. By establishing a joint venture among industry incumbents, ADAMOS followed consortium governance that separated platform ownership from platform operation. In so doing, ADAMOS navigated the complexities of market entry and overcame many challenges typical to business-to-business (B2B) markets. Drawing from the case, we develop a four-step framework for effective business-to-business platform market entry: (1) Spinning out a neutral legal entity, (2) designing a valuable platform core, (3) seeding the supply side with internal offerings, and (4) opening the platform to broader audiences. Based on this description, we discuss lessons learned and provide actionable recommendations for platform operators considering a consortium-based approach for their business-to-business platform market entry.
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Lagemann, Benjamin; Lunnan, Randi, Brett, Per Olaf, Agis, Jose Jorge Garcia, Solheim, Astrid Vamråk & Erikstad, Stein Ove
(2024)
What is a ship design firm, really?
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Ship design is a creative process serving a defined objective. This is normally an iterative process with the design being corrected and adjusted many times until it satisfies this objective. Ship design is taking place in a broader business context consisting of stakeholders providing necessary resources and information to enable the realization of a vessel newbuilding project. Activities performed by different actors, such as customers, suppliers and brokers, are organized by and integrated into a ship design firm. This paper addresses and discusses different ways of organizing integrated design-related activities to deliver on the firm´s value proposition. A value proposition denotes the promised value to a selected customer, and through its value proposition, a ship design firm provides “superior” solutions to a customer’s needs. To enable this solution, a design firm draws on its current resources, including its past knowledge and experiences, and uses these resources in different types of processes, and – in different ways of collaborating with internal and external actors and specialists. In this paper, we draw on approaches from the field of business strategy to understand implications and trade-offs in different logics of value creation processes, how they can be applied in ship design firms, and their implications.
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Tvedt, Jostein
(2024)
EU's “three-in-seven” road haulage cabotage rule – Impact imbalances across member states and the geography
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Road cabotage within the EU, as a share of domestic transport of goods, varies greatly across member states. This can partly be attributed to EU's regime for consecutive cabotage. In addition to economic factors that reflect incomplete market integration, spatial factors appear to affect the impact of the current regime. The impact seems stronger for geographically large and centrally located countries with interregional homogeneity in trade. This may reflect that foreign hauliers under such conditions can utilize the characteristics of their standardized long-range trucks better, or because the likelihood of successfully fixing three favourable long-distance cabotage assignments within the seven days limit increases. Potential amendments to regulations in order to equalize the impact of EU's consecutive cabotage regime across member states' spatial characteristics include removing the limits to the number of trips within the seven days' time frame or shortening the time frame for carrying out the current maximum of three trips.
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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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Wage employees enter self-employment either directly or in a staged manner and may subsequently undertake multiple stints at self-employment. Extant research on the relationship between entry modes and the persistence and outcomes of self-employment is inconclusive. This study investigates the relationship between wage employees’ initial mode of entry into self-employment and the duration of the subsequent first two stints of self-employment.
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Ratajczak-Mrozek, Milena; Hauke-Lopes, Aleksandra & Harrison, Debbie
(2024)
The evolution of contractual and relational governance mechanisms when platforms are actors in networks
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There is a lack of empirical research about network governance mechanisms in the inter-organisational relationship (IOR) literature. In this paper, we provide new insight by analysing how platform actors influence governance mechanisms in business networks using a comparative case study of two platforms in a B2B2C setting. The focus is on the dynamics of the governance mechanism mix over time, highlighting how important contextual factors impact the combination of formal, informal and virtual mechanisms. Three groups of contextual factors are central to the governance mechanism mix: (i) macro-level factors (e.g. market structure), (ii) network-level factors (e.g. platform scope) and (iii) inter-organisational relationship-level factors (e.g. prior history of cooperation). Our findings highlight the impact of, and the interdependencies between, the three different contextual factors on the evolution of network governance mechanisms over time when a platform is involved as a network actor.
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Benito, Gabriel R.G. & Petersen, Bent
(2024)
Reijo Luostarinen’s approach to value chain activity in firm internationalization: a key contribution to entry mode research
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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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Organizations often depend on experts to carry out complex tasks that require specialized or tacit knowledge. Yet, organizations often want to increase their control over how tasks are performed and thus reduce the autonomy of experts. In the past, scholars have argued that experts had the ability to rebuff organizational attempts to control them. However, in an era with increased digitalization and centralization in organizations, experts risk losing control. How experts react when facing this increased centralization and digitalization is not well understood. Thus, this study seeks to improve knowledge on how experts react as organizations digitalize and centralize control over tasks. To do so, we studied a large energy company, which sought to increase its control over tasks and reduce the autonomy of its expert engineers by implementing an organizational change that included centralization and digital control. Using in-depth interviews, we portray how the expert workers reclaimed control using three micro-level tactics – strategic compliance and workaround, using legacy to reclaim control and concealing expert control. Based on these findings, our paper makes three contributions to the literature on experts and control. First, we provide the concept of ‘stealth work’, outlining how experts can reclaim control when centralization and digitalization have otherwise stripped them of status and power. Second, we highlight how expert control may be nested in organizations as a legacy, which experts can use when facing centralization and digitalization, and finally, we highlight how experts can engage in small hacks that curb the usefulness of digital control systems.
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Fauchald, Ragnhild Nordeng; Veisdal, Jørgen, Aaboen, Lise & Kaspersen, Karoline Bergita Breivik
(2024)
The Dynamics of Alumni-Student Interactions via Digital Community Mechanisms in Entrepreneurship Education
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Colman, Helene Loe & Lunnan, Randi
(2024)
The performance serial acquirers: a review and integrative framework
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Serial acquirers take on multiple acquisitions as part of an acquisition program. Recently, serial acquirers have received scholarly attention from several streams of research. In this chapter, the authors review this research, focusing on the antecedents, processes, and performance of serial acquisitions. The authors develop a conceptual model that integrates the various streams of research. Based on this review, the authors argue that future research on serial acquirers should consider the complexity of integrating multiple acquisitions, by broadening the scope to include the organizational implications and long-term consequences when evaluating the performance of serial acquirers.
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Lu, Ren; Peng, Xiangcai & Reve, Torger
(2024)
Firms' digital transformation, competitive strategies, and innovation: Evidence from Chinese listed companies
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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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In the context of multi-sided platform (MSP) literature, the strategic use of first-party content is well established. In these contexts, consumers’ value perceptions of first- and third-party content is assumed to be equivalent. In the marketing literature, however, it is generally accepted that the perceived value of products from store brands is significantly lower than products from manufacturer brands. This study investigates whether the same difference exists among consumers on a multi-sided platform. The study finds that consumers perceive products sold by the platform as delivering significantly less value than substitutes from third-party brands, and that this difference persists independently of price. The implications of the findings for managers and marketers are that (i) first-party content strategies on MSPs are limited by consumers’ value perceptions. This implies that (ii) managers should calibrate their first-party content strategies according to target customers’ preferences and that (iii) in their analytics, marketers should distinguish between first- and third-party content.
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Hungnes, Tonje; Hoholm, Thomas & Clegg, Stewart
(2024)
Future-making power : a study of competing imagined futures in healthcare
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This paper presents a conceptual model of strategies of power in future-making, informed by a case study in the healthcare sector. In zooming out from investigating the future-making activities of an organizational innovation project team and tracing competing imagined futures enacted by medical professionals and strategic management, this study explains how and why the project struggled to realize its mandate. In this case, we identify three strategies of power, namely mobilization, discipline and discretion, and discuss their potential controversies and combinations. Moreover, we contribute to theories on discretionary power, demonstrating how it is produced by combining interdiscursivity with management control and nondecision. Strategies of discretion are productive in the realm of future-making, particularly in exploiting forces of discipline and mobilization to enable parallel imagined futures to be created and maintained over time. On the downside, this may keep competing imagined futures hostage, potentially serving non-transparent agendas.
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Tvedt, Jostein
(2024)
Sacralisation of Land and Seascapes on the West Coast of Norway – A Reality or Misconceptions on Renaissance Maps?
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The paper discusses the geographical sacralisation that seems to be present in sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century maps of the land and seascapes around Bergen on the Norwegian west coast. The hagiotoponyms may represent foreign mapmakers’ misconceptions when faced with unfamiliar and incomprehensible local place-names. That is, the toponyms’ original meaning may have been secular and the origin Norse. Alternatively, the maps may correctly reproduce and preserve medieval sacral place names, of which meaning subsequently has been lost. The toponyms that are discussed are Sotra, Krossfjord and Lyse, which may be linked, respectively, to the prominent medieval religious institutions of the region, the Benedictine Munkeliv Abbey, the Cross Church of Fana and the Cistercian Lyse Abbey.
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Schou, Peter Kalum
(2024)
Unpacking the myth of the entrepreneurial state
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The idea of The Entrepreneurial State, a state that acts as an entrepreneur, creating and shaping markets to solve certain missions, has captured the eye of the public and of scholars. Yet, a number of scholars have voiced critique of The Entrepreneurial State Paradigm, arguing that it leads to policy failure. But simultaneously, other scholars argue that policy failures stem from interpretation and poor implementation, rather than core ideas in The Entrepreneurial State, such as mission-oriented policies. In this paper, I seek to clarify this debate. I argue that the growing reports of mission-oriented policy failures are due to three factors nested in The Entrepreneurial State Paradigm. They are 1) Disregard of the role of private entrepreneurship; 2) Encouraging policy makers to disregard limits to government action, and 3) Extrapolating grand policies from limited results. Thus, I argue that registered policy failures do not stem merely from bad policy making or incorrect interpretations of The Entrepreneurial State Paradigm. They stem directly from this paradigm. Consequently, I argue that scholars and policy makers should move away from The Entrepreneurial State and instead focus on the enabling role of the state.
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Nicolini, Davide & Korica, Maja
(2024)
Structured shadowing as a pedagogy
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In this article, we introduce and discuss the potential benefits of structured shadowing, a distinct pedagogy in which the action-proximity of traditional unstructured job shadowing is supplemented by carefully designed pre-, intra- and post-shadowing pedagogical support. We suggest that structured shadowing is a promising yet under-utilized and overlooked pedagogy to enrich management learning and education. Drawing on an interview-based evaluation study of several cohorts of final-year undergraduates in a UK business school, we find that structured shadowing helps students to establish meaningful connections between theory and managerial practices, better appreciate management’s complexities and dispel existing myths and preconceptions. It also allows them to reflect on the types of managers they imagine or aspire to be and helps to model management as a reflective activity. Based on our teaching experience and our results, we argue that structured shadowing offers valuable lessons for our field. It helps to address the challenges of substance, contextual understanding and reflection, which we identify as central to current management education debates. We also acknowledge that while structured shadowing is a powerful resource, it demands significant investment and potential trade-offs, and may reflect certain professional privileges
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Sousa, Carlos M.P.; Tsinopoulos, Christos, Yan, Ji & Benito, Gabriel R.G.
(2024)
Finding the sweet spot : effects of exporting on the relationship between R&D investment and NPD performance
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Purpose:
The aim of this research is twofold: (1) to investigate when the effect of R&D investment on New Product Development (NPD) performance peaks – the sweet spot and (2) to analyze the influence of firms’ export activities on where that spot is. Drawing on the knowledge-based view (KBV), we argue that export intensity and export experience lead to differential effects on how R&D investments are converted into new products.
Design/methodology/approach:
We test our conceptual framework using time lagged data and optimal-level analysis. The dataset consists of an unbalanced panel of 608,891 observations and 333,516 firms.
Findings:
The results support the expected inverted U-shaped relationship between R&D investment and NPD performance. They also show moderating effects of export intensity and experience. Export intensity enhances innovation processes by enabling firms to stretch the points at which R&D investments eventually taper off. In contrast, export experience improves firms’ ability to convert R&D investments into NPD performance. Our results demonstrate that, all else equal, firms with relatively higher export experience can spend less on R&D and still achieve higher levels of NPD performance.
Originality/value:
We contribute to the literature by investigating how export activities provide a valuable context for understanding the theoretical mechanisms that help explain the inverted U-shaped relationship between R&D investment and innovation. We show the effects of exporting activities on the precise points where the R&D investment–NPD performance relationship peaks, thereby identifying the optimal point within this nonlinear relationship.
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Fey, Carl F. & Chen, Yian
(2024)
Organizational culture in MNE's
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Lunnan, Randi & Rygh, Asmund
(2024)
State-owned enterprises
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Amdam, Rolv Petter Storvik & Lluch, Andrea
(2024)
The International Labour Organization and Management Development in Argentina
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This article addresses a new field of research in business history by exploring how the International Labour Organization (ILO) introduced management development programs in Argentina as a pilot project in developing countries in the late 1950s. By studying how the ILO worked together with actors at the national level, the article reveals how the ILO’s original idea to focus on top management development was reshaped through a dialogue with local actors within the context of tripartite cooperation between the government, business organizations, and unions. While the initiative was successful during the project period, it collapsed when Argentina’s government closed down the national productivity center with which the ILO was cooperating. While the tripartite principle was valuable for the first achievements, it was extremely vulnerable without the support of all partners.
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Kvålshaugen, Ragnhild & Swärd, Anna Sundberg
(2024)
Managing complex collaboration in construction projects
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Vaagaasar, Anne Live; Bygballe, Lena Elisabeth & Swärd, Anna Sundberg
(2024)
An Organization Science Perspective on Collaboration in Construction Projects: Implications of practice theory.
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Dube, Nonhlanhla; Selviaridis, Kostas, Oorschot, Kim E. van & Jahre, Marianne
(2024)
Riding the waves of uncertainty: Towards strategic agility in medicine supply systems
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We investigate how organizations embedded in a supply system collectively respond to risks and seize opportunities arising from crisis events under shifting forms of uncertainty. Using the United Kingdom (UK) medicine supply system as the research context, we explore how decision-makers navigated the effects of an event with knowable implications (UK's European Union exit, 2016–2020) followed by an event with unknowable implications (COVID-19 global pandemic, 2020–2021). We adopt a longitudinal case research design that incorporates causal loop diagramming, to understand the system's responses. We find that learning evolves as crisis events unfold, changing from surface (know-what) to deep (know-why and -how) and at the highest level, it is transcendent. Transcendent learning entails understanding system effects into the future (i.e., beyond the past and present) and in relation to other supply systems (i.e., beyond the UK system). Capabilities to absorb, avoid, and accelerate away from shocks are developed sequentially as learning changes. We contribute to prior research by developing a theory of system-level strategic agility and the adaptation processes that underpin it. The latter hinge on dynamic resource (re)allocation and the continuous (re)configuration of processes, protocols, regulations, and structures.
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Nesheim, Torstein & Schou, Peter Kalum
(2024)
Where projects and non-projects coexist in the core challenges for frontline managers
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Galasso, Alberto; Luo, Hong & Zhu, Brooklynn
(2023)
Laboratory safety and research productivity
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Are laboratory safety practices a tax on scientific productivity? We examine this question by exploiting the substantial increase in safety regulations at the University of California following the shocking death of a research assistant in 2008. Difference-in-differences analyses show that relative to “dry labs” that use theoretical and computational methods, the publication rates of “wet labs” that conduct experiments using chemical and biological substances did not change significantly after the shock. At the same time, we find that wet labs that used dangerous compounds more frequently before the shock reduced their reliance on flammable materials and unfamiliar hazardous compounds afterward, even though their overall research agenda does not appear to be affected. Our findings suggest that laboratory safety may shape the production of science, but they do not support the claim that safety practices impose a significant tax on 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
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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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Saiedi, Ed
(2023)
Are Constraints the Mother of Innovation? Innovation Effects of the Global Financial Crisis
Proceedings and Membership Directory - Academy of Management.
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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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Gadde, Lars-Erik & Håkansson, Håkan
(2023)
Network dynamics and action space
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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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Adarkwah, Gilbert Kofi & Benito, Gabriel R G
(2023)
Dealing with high-risk environments: Institutional-based tools to reduce political risk costs
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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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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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Because high-status employees make disproportional contributions to firms, prior literature suggests that their departure would undermine various organizational outcomes. Building on recent literature, however, we suspect that a high-status employee may have seized disproportional resources and credits from coworkers, thereby restricting them from performing, particularly when the work context is more independent and contested. As a result, the departure of a high-status employee may bring staying coworkers more resources and incentives to perform, causing their performance to improve. To test this possibility, we examine the effect of high-status analysts' departure on the individual performance of analysts who remain, using a sample of sell-side analysts in Chinese financial brokerage firms. Employing a before-and-after treatment research design, we find evidence that after the departure of a high-status analyst, the staying coworkers' individual performance is significantly improved. It is particularly so when they share greater industry overlap with the departing analyst. Our extensional analyses also investigate additional contingencies, which helps provide valuable hints about possible mechanisms.
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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
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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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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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The benefits of having an internationally diverse alliance portfolio are well known. However, the challenges remain overlooked, especially the potential to curb firms’ international expansion beyond such alliances. Building on global connectivity literature, we study how firms’ international footprint through their foreign subsidiaries is affected by the geographical spread of their international alliances. Using data on a sample of U.S. high-tech firms, we find that this relationship follows a U-shaped pattern and is contingent on alliance portfolio geographic distance and firms’ absorptive capacity for internationalization. Deviations from the optimal international footprint lower firms’ innovation and financial performance.
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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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We study subsidiary capital structure as a mechanism of intra-MNE (multinational enterprise) governance from the perspective of “new internalization theory”. We build on the argument from transaction cost theory that equity and debt are not just financial instruments but also alternative governance structures, with equity useful for financing specific assets that do not serve well as collateral, especially when external uncertainty is high. Inside an MNE, debt represents a partial reintroduction of market mechanisms that can limit governance costs and strengthen subsidiary manager incentives. However, debt financing may be inappropriate if subsidiaries possess specific assets that are lost if debt contracts are enforced. Using subsidiary-level panel data from Norwegian MNEs, we argue that patents registered in the subsidiary represent MNE-specific non-location bound knowledge assets, while subsidiary R&D income represents location-bound and subsidiary-specific assets. We predict MNE-specific assets to be negatively related to external debt, and subsidiary-specific assets to be negatively related to all debt, under conditions of external uncertainty. We find only partial support for our hypotheses. Patents are negatively related to external debt when external uncertainty in the form of political risk is high. However, we do not find similar significant results for location-bound and subsidiary-specific assets, measured by subsidiary R&D income. For both measures, there is evidence that debt financing is viable in low-risk contexts. Further analysis indicates different effects for joint ventures as compared to wholly owned subsidiaries. We build on the partly unexpected results to propose an expanded internalization perspective on subsidiary capital structure
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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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What are the implications of finance and knowledge flows for MNE strategy? In this perspective paper, we discuss the antecedents and implications of HQ-subsidiary financial and knowledge flows. These flows differ, as the deployment of knowledge hinges on numerous contextual characteristics, whereas financial flows are relatively fungible. The complexity and diversity of knowledge resources make their transfer sensitive to several subsidiary-level characteristics such as R&D mandates, location, and inter-unit interdependencies. In contrast, financial resource flows are relatively easier to measure and directly compare across domains. Hence, they are likely to be allocated primarily on risk considerations, notably the equity control over the subsidiary. Both flows are needed for subsidiaries to succeed. Based on the interrelations of knowledge and financial resources flows into the subsidiaries, four types of subsidiary roles are categorized: strategic growth, interrelated, diversified, and independent. We discuss implications on subsidiary competitiveness and MNE risk and point to future research avenues addressing the dynamic and interrelated flows of both these resources.
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Sabel, Christopher Albert & Sasson, Amir
(2023)
Different people, different pathways: Human capital redeployment in multi-business firms
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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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Bucher, Eliane; Schou, Peter Kalum & Waldkirch, Matthias
(2023)
JUST ANOTHER VOICE IN THE CROWD? INVESTIGATING DIGITAL VOICE FORMATION IN THE GIG ECONOMY
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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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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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Women in patriarchal societies face cultural barriers hindering them in pursuing entrepreneurship. For example, women are hindered by gender roles, male dominated networks and expectations that they take of the family. Recently, scholars have argued that digital technologies may provide women with avenues to bypass these barriers. Yet, there is little knowledge about how female entrepreneurs engage with digital tools, and how this may help them bypass gendered, cultural barriers. Using 18 interviews with female entrepreneurs in Beijing and Shanghai, we identify four affordances (virtual networking, online learning, opportunity creation and scaling-up) that women use to overcome the cultural barriers to entrepreneurship. We find that through engaging these affordances, the women feel empowered and able to challenge traditional structures. Our paper contributes to recent work in digital and women entrepreneurship as we unpack how women actively create affordances, such as female friendly communities, and how they skilfully use new digital technologies to try to disrupt traditional industries.
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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
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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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Stensaker, Inger G.; Colman, Helene Loe & Grøgaard, Birgitte
(2023)
The dynamics of union-management collaboration during postmerger integration
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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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Smith, Sheryl Winston; Herrera, Cristobal Garcia, thiel, jana, Perkmann, Markus & Giones, Ferran
(2023)
Corporate, Industrial And Wicked Acceleration: Tackling Grand Challenges Through Novel Approaches
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Colman, Helene Loe; Rouzies, Audrey & Lunnan, Randi
(2023)
Social integration in subsidiary-building acquisitions
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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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Baraldi, Enrico; Harrison, Debbie, Kask, Johan & Ratajczak-Mrozek, Milena
(2023)
A network perspective on resource interaction: Past, present and future
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Teyi, Shelter Selorm; Larsen, Marcus Møller & Namatovu, Rebecca
(2023)
Entrepreneurial identity and response strategies in the informal economy
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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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Kolbjørnsrud, Vegard
(2023)
Organizing intelligent digital actors
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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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Jahre, Marianne; Ditlev-Simonsen, Caroline Dale, Chao, Emmanuel, Czerwinska, Anna C & Mushi, Mary
(2023)
Sustainable New Business Development in the Global South - Supply Chains and Networks
The international journal of Business and Management in Emerging Markets (IJOBMEM), 2(1).
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To improve understanding of factors to take into account when developing and implementing new sustainable business opportunities in the Global South. The study uses a phenomenon-based approach. Building on three research streams – sustainable supply chain management (SSCM), the industrial network approach (INA) and sustainable entrepreneurship (SE) – this paper develops a conceptual framework and demonstrates its applicability using a relevant case study: Business Opportunities for the Opuntia cactus (prickly pear) in Tanzania. New business opportunities can be identified from three different perspectives: demand-pull, supply-push, and gaps in supply chains. The proposed framework suggests how to include all three perspectives and what factors to account for in development and implementation.
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Veisdal, Jørgen
(2023)
A Definition of Platforms with Meaningful Policy Implications
Competition Policy International.
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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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Larsen, Marcus Møller; Birkinshaw, Julian, Zhou, Yue Maggie & Benito, Gabriel R G
(2023)
Complexity and multinationals
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Research Summary The multinational corporation (MNC) is a typical example of a complex organization. In this essay, we employ an established body of literature on complexity in organizations to explore and discuss the nature and consequences of complexity for global strategy and MNCs. On that basis, we develop a simple organizing framework for complexity in global strategies emphasizing the source (external and internal complexity) and type (process and structural complexity) of complexity. We use this framework to structure and discuss the six research contributions in this Special Issue. We conclude by suggesting additional avenues of research on the interface between global strategy and complexity. Managerial Summary Firms internationalize because they recognize business opportunities abroad and devise strategies to successfully exploit them. At the same time, managers face increasing complexity as MNCs expand internationally and engage in more unknown and dispersed operations. Not only do MNCs face considerable complexity by operating in diverse and uncertain environments, but also by managing and coordinating organizational tasks and activities spanning multiple countries. This essay discusses these challenges and corresponding strategies for MNC managers. It also provides an overview of the six research articles included in this Special Issue about complexity and MNCs.
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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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Breaches of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in global value chains (GVCs) pose a managerial challenge for multinational enterprises (MNEs) and threaten both their reputations and global sustainability. While an MNE-centric perspective on these issues has dominated existing international business research, we show that a dynamic view of bargaining among actors in the GVC can yield novel insights. We draw on coalitional game theory and develop a model where an MNE collaborates, monitors, and negotiates prices with a supplier whose CSR breaches may be revealed by the MNE, external agents, or remain hidden. Our model illustrates how MNEs may face a hold-up problem when irresponsible actions by suppliers are made public, and the suppliers have the power to engage in opportunistic renegotiation. Interestingly, we show that greater monitoring by MNEs, if not combined with specific strategies, can have negative consequences by weakening the MNE’s bargaining position and, in some cases, even prompting more irresponsible actions by the suppliers. Our model advances international business research on GVC sustainability and has important implications for managers and researchers alike.
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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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In the complex realm of ethical decision making, organizations are increasingly developing comprehensive ethical frameworks as guides. These frameworks prescribe ethical principles and decision-making processes to steer organizational actors toward addressing the elusive question of “what is the right thing to do?” in specific situations. However, the interplay between these prescriptive frameworks and collective processes of ethical sensemaking remains underexplored. Based on an extensive qualitative study within publicly funded healthcare organizations, we examine how organizational actors, confronted with the challenge of making exceptional funding decisions, enact an organizational ethical framework. Our findings reveal the manifold ways through which such a framework both streamlines ethical sensemaking and induces new and unexpected interpretive challenges. These challenges generate ethical equivocality, which decision makers seek to reduce through particular sensegiving interventions, and, on occasion, through problematizing the abstract principles prescribed by the framework, based on what is intuitively felt right in situ. We contribute to the literature by developing a conceptual model of three distinct modes in which organizational actors enact the prescriptions of an ethical framework. Our article sheds new light on the unintended consequences of using organizational ethical frameworks in real-world ethical deliberations.