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Kratochvil, Renate & Langley, Ann
(2025)
Process Research and Strategy as Practice
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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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Korniychuk, Aleksey; Larsen, Marcus Møller & Asmussen, Christian G.
(2025)
The long-term domestic dominance of the multinational enterprise
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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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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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Wang, Pengfei
(2025)
Repositioning, audience churn, and identity ambiguity: The external costs of market repositioning
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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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Souza-Santos, Renato; Carneiro, Jorge & Andersson, Ulf
(2025)
Pursuing headquarters’ attention: Foreign subsidiaries’ strategic issue selling
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Kano, Liena; Grøgaard, Birgitte, Ciravegna, Luciano & Adarkwah, Gilbert Kofi
(2025)
Beyond reductionism: rethinking MNEs’ role in environmental crises
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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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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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Taheriruh, Matin; Jääskeläinen, Aki, Loijas, Kati & Harrison, Debbie
(2025)
Developing and deploying competences for innovative public procurement: a network perspective
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Lagemann, Benjamin; Lunnan, Randi, Brett, Per Olaf, Garcia Agis, Jose Jorge, 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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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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Von Nitzsch, Jannis; 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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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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Wang, Pengfei
(2024)
Pricing innovation: The anchoring effect in patent valuation
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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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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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Nesheim, Torstein & Schou, Peter Kalum
(2024)
Where projects and non-projects coexist in the core challenges for frontline managers
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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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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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Prange, Christiane; Lunnan, Randi & Mayrhofer, Ulrike
(2024)
The Diary Method in International Management Research
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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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Kvålshaugen, Ragnhild & Swärd, Anna Sundberg
(2024)
Managing complex collaboration in construction projects
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Grøgaard, Birgitte
(2024)
Asset recombination
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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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Lu, Ren; Peng, Xiangcai & Reve, Torger
(2024)
Firms' digital transformation, competitive strategies, and innovation: Evidence from Chinese listed companies
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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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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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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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Veisdal, Jørgen
(2024)
Value perceptions of first-party content on multi-sided platforms: Findings from the Amazon Marketplace
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Schou, Peter Kalum
(2024)
Unpacking the myth of the entrepreneurial state
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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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Dube, Nonhlanhla; Selviaridis, Kostas, van Oorschot, Kim E. & Jahre, Marianne
(2024)
Riding the waves of uncertainty: Towards strategic agility in medicine supply systems
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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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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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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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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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Wang, Pengfei
(2024)
Employee Status, Role Expectation and Performance Evaluation: Evidence from NBA Players
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Harrison, Debbie
(2024)
The dynamics of ongoing market maintenance through centralized market work
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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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Aadland, Erik & Sgourev, Stoyan V.
(2024)
Capitalizing on Stigma: Valuation Arbitrage in Norwegian Black Metal
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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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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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Fehlner, Corina
(2024)
Come closer! On transaction costs and spatial choices in a circular economy
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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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Nicolini, Davide & Korica, Maja
(2024)
Structured shadowing as a pedagogy
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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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Adarkwah, Gilbert Kofi; Dorobantu, Sinziana, Christopher, Sabel & Zilja, Flladina
(2024)
Geopolitical volatility and subsidiary investments
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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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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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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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Giones Valls, Ferran; 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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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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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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Wessel, Michael; José Schmidt-Kessen, Maria & 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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Nicolini, Davide & Mengis, Jeanne
(2023)
Towards a Practice-Theoretical View of the Situated Nature of Attention
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In this paper, we examine how a practice-theoretical perspective may complement and expand the central tenet of the attention-based view (ABV) that attention is contextually situated. We put forward three main arguments. First, the components that make a practice possible and that locate it in history and context (practice architecture) also prefigure a situated horizon of relevance and possibilities (pragmatic field of attention). Attention thus often befalls organizational members outside the realm of discursive consciousness as a consequence of being engaged in socio-material practices. Second, attention is situated at the crossroads of multiple practices, each with its practice architecture and local pragmatic field of attention. Organizational attention implies tensions, conflict, and contradictions and emerges from the interaction and negotiation of multiple individual and group pragmatic fields of attention. Finally, attention is situated in the temporal dynamics of sustaining and turning attention. This allows us to distinguish between inattention, dysfunctional distraction, and potentially productive attention turning. We argue that by focusing on the ordinary and routinized nature of attention, a theoretical practice view complements and enriches the ABV by offering a less voluntarist and top-down view and proposing a richer view of situatedness. A practice-theoretical approach also distributes attention among a broader set of elements, offering resources to theorize how these elements are connected. The approach also establishes a link between paying attention and caring, thus bringing emotions back into the study of organizational attention. In turn, the ABV helps the practice-theoretical perspective to recognize the central role of attention in organizational matters and the importance of engaging in full with the organizational unit of analysis when dealing with attention-related issues.
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Kolbjørnsrud, Vegard
(2023)
Designing the Intelligent Organization: Six Principles for Human-AI Collaboration
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This article presents principles and practical guidelines for how managers can succeed in growing the intelligence of their organizations by harnessing the complementary strengths of humans and artificial intelligence (AI). Organizational intelligence is the ability of collectives of intelligent human and digital actors to solve problems and adapt. Six principles for human-AI collaboration in organizations are explored—addition, relevance, substitution, diversity, collaboration, and explanation—and how they play out in leading organizations is discussed. Finally, practical guidelines are outlined for how leaders can enable their organizations to successfully make the change.
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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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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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O'Riordan, Niall; Ryan, Paul & Andersson, Ulf
(2023)
The subsidiary strategising process
for a competence-creating role
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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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Smith, Sheryl Winston; Garcia Herrera, Cristobal, thiel, jana, Perkmann, Markus & Giones, Ferran
(2023)
Corporate, Industrial And Wicked Acceleration: Tackling Grand Challenges Through Novel Approaches
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Kolbjørnsrud, Vegard
(2023)
Organizing intelligent digital actors
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Wang, Pengfei
(2023)
Rebirth from the ashes: Failure events and new venture creation in Norway
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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
Vis sammendrag
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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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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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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Karimova, Guli-Sanam; Heidbrink, Ludger, Brinkmann, Johannes & LeMay, Stephen Arthur
(2023)
Global standards and the philosophy of consumption: Toward a consumer-driven governance of global value chains
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Håkansson, Håkan & Snehota, Ivan
(2023)
Economic effects of interaction. The neglected economy of connectivity
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Purpose
With a start in the observation that there is a large variation in how companies interact with each other, the paper aims to anlayse the economic consequences of this variation. As the more extensive interaction is costly, the variation also indicates a variation in the economic dimension.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a conceptual paper.
Findings
Three different economic streams can be identified. Firstly, the interaction costs can be reduced by taking advantage of time and scope. Interaction over time give opportunity to use some of the costs as investments through creation of relationships. By using the same counterpart for several products, scope can be used to reduce interaction costs. Secondly, developed business relationships can be used to create relation revenues. The counterparts can use each other for developing better solutions and for development of knowledge. Finally, the actors can also get positive network effects. One example is the joint development with third parties such as sub-suppliers or customer’s customer.
Research limitations/implications
The discussion ends in two major implications. One is the central role of managers and the other the crucial role of economic deals. Managers are crucial both to identify relevant cost and revenue items as well as to exploit them. Deals are important as it is only with direct counterparts where there are monetary streams. In all other relationships, there is only indirect consequences.
Originality/value
It is obvious that the type of cost and revenue streams identified above will require new and different economic tools. A base for this is given here.
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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.