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In the mainstream international business literature on multinational corporations (MNCs), an authoritative central headquarter (HQ) that transfers standardised practices to its subsidiaries remains the norm. This study aims to explore how MNCs coordinate their management practices through principles.

The paper draws on empirical findings from a qualitative in-depth single case study based on evidence-rich qualitative data including observations from how a high-tech MNC headquartered in Sweden coordinates its development practices.

An alternative informal coordination approach (i.e. coordination by principles) is identified. Additionally, antecedents and implications of the approach are presented.

Coordination by Principles may facilitate the internalisation of practices and be a feasible compromise between context adaptation and traditional standardisation, particularly for MNCs with highly heterogeneous research and development operations.

This paper highlights the importance of acknowledging that firm practices often are based on management ideas that HQs adopt to prevent loss of legitimacy. As such, this study contributes to the scarce literature that critically questions the assumption that HQs solely transfer practices to subsidiaries to improve subsidiary efficiency and performance.

This paper aims to contribute to the multinational company (MNC) literature by studying the diffusion of a management idea within an MNC and its interaction with the MNC’s corporate immune system (CIS).

The qualitative single case study draws on evidence of how a management idea augments within an MNC and changes its development practice.

The study identifies four phases of the diffusion process and presents the interaction between the management idea and the CIS in each phase.

The more subsidiaries within an MNC that take the initiative to adopt a management idea, the harder will it become for the headquarters (HQ) to reject it. Thus, to ensure that changes in management practices are based on informed and, ideally, deliberate decisions, managers should critically evaluate management ideas immediately at inception.

The study breaks new ground by explaining how the CIS reacts to the diffusion of management ideas in MNCs.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential interrelationship between different types of volunteer involvement (event involvement and community involvement) and their impact on the behavioural intentions of different types of events.

By means of a survey, data from an one-off sport event (n=316), including volunteer tourists, and from annual sport events (n=278) in Germany were collected. Structural equation modelling was employed for data analysis.

Findings show that event involvement and community involvement are significantly correlated. Both influence future behavioural intentions for one-off events. But only event involvement and not community involvement influences behavioural intentions for annual events.

The findings are underpinning the rationale of social identity theory from a theoretical perspective.

Volunteer managers learn that not only the volunteers’ involvement with event organisations, but also with the community (i.e. hosting destination) seems to be a key contributor of behavioural intentions and should therefore be fostered during the recruitment process and prior to the event.

This study is the first to compare involvement with two objects for different types of events. Therefore, this study adds to the rare literature looking at different event types in which an individual can volunteer.

This chapter addresses the concern that much theory building in organization and management (OM) research suffers from de-contextualization. The authors argue that de-contextualization comes in two main forms: reductionism and grand theory. Whereas reductionism tends to downplay context in favor of individual behavior, grand theory looks at context only in highly abstract ahistorical terms. Such de-contextualization is problematic for at least two reasons. First, the boundary conditions of theories remain unexplored in ways that threaten scientific validity. Second, de-contextualization limits the potential of OM theory to fully understand the role of organizations in society and thereby address societal grand challenges. These claims are exemplified through critical reviews of four fields in OM research – gender, employee voice, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and institutional logics – and counterpoints that may help to overcome de-contextualized research are presented.

Given the increasing demands placed on a sport event workforce in servicing the needs of spectators, to attract and recruit volunteers to the industry, it is important for sport event managers to know what is driving how much time volunteers allocate to an event. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the individual and macro-level factors influencing the allocation of time to volunteer at sport events.

Survey data were collected from volunteers at 25 sport events (n=2,303). Multi-level modelling was used to identify common effects controlling for event differences.

Male gender significantly influences time allocated to an event at the individual level. At the macro-level, the number of local inhabitants has a significant negative effect whereas the status of an international event and duration contribute positively to time allocation.

The results provide clear evidence that macro-level variables can stimulate interest in event volunteering opportunities.

This paper uses a multi-level approach to assess the influence of micro- and macro-level variables on time allocation by sport event volunteers. Using this approach, event heterogeneity can be controlled.

The purpose of this paper is to reduce the research gap in private sector participation in the Danish and German health systems, where empirical evidence is still very scarce compared with the impressive accumulation of similar literature in Anglo-Saxon countries.

Based on the findings of two case studies – one Danish and the other, a German hospital – the paper assesses the future potential of different private sector participation strategies in health care.

The assessment is that low-level private sector participation approaches such as outsourcing and concession models remain limited and specialised financing instruments for health care in Denmark and Germany due to legal restrictions and lesser importance being placed on operational financial savings and improved management than on achieving strategic goals. Furthermore, existing approaches do not necessarily prepare the ground for public-private partnerships.

To date, longitudinal studies of private sector participation in health care are almost non-existent for continental Europe, yet critical for the assessment of the outcomes of long-term projects of ten to 40 years' duration. In addition, there is still a need for more international comparisons, especially for studies comparing more than two countries.

Case studies about private sector participation in health care with transnational European or international comparisons are very scarce. The paper, which compares two cases of a Danish and a German hospital, is therefore a contribution to reducing a relevant research gap. To date, private sector participation in the German health system, in particular, has rarely been discussed in international journal publications.

In this chapter we discuss the dynamics of convergence-divergence between organic and non-organic farming systems. We are specifically interested in how and in what ways organic systems emerge into a new system that synthesizes the diverse qualities of competing systems. Or, will these systems continue to diverge because of their path dependencies and contradictory, unresolvable logics? Alternatively, are we confronted with conversion? Following a discussion of the origin of organic agriculture and the IFOAM Principles, we explore differentiation of two agricultural paradigms that was developed more than 20 years ago before the rise of GMOs. This comparison identifies the key features of both systems and a first interpretation on the potential of convergence-divergence. Third, we take a macro-look at agro-food chain that offers insights on the convergence-divergence potential in the context of global, economic, market, political, and societal dynamics. Fourth, we discuss convergence-divergence at the production level comparing the four agricultural systems. Finally, we reflect and assess on the explanatory potential of our study for the future development of organic and non-organic agriculture/farming. We conclude that there is more evidence for conversion than for convergence.

Archaeological evidence from the prehistoric Spondylus industry of coastal Ecuador is analyzed here to clarify how craft production was structured and the role that it played in the rise of social complexity. Many models of social development propose that elite cooption of specialized craft production can be a useful avenue through which aspiring elites can gain differential status. Contrary to the expectations of these models, data from coastal Ecuador indicates that craft production of sumptuary goods was an activity primarily carried out by household units for the benefit of the domestic economy. Increased trafficking with northern Peruvian states at ca. 750 seems to have promoted local social stratification by attracting large numbers of households to the restricted locales where they could exploit these resources, which in turn prompted a strengthening of the kinds of political conditions that facilitate orderly interaction and minimize internal social conflict.

In February 2015, Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, CEO of the LEGO Group, invited the national and international press to a financial briefing at the company's headquarters in Billund (Denmark). 2014 had been an exceptional year of growth for the LEGO group. Nevertheless, most of the journalists present in the room were surprised when the Danish CEO suddenly began to dance in front of the audience while singing ‘Everything is awesome’ from the LEGO Movie. Why did he do it? Was it out of spontaneous joy? Or was there a strategy behind his actions? And what were the reactions of the media and LEGO employees? What can a CEO who is dancing and singing for a few seconds or minutes in front of a group of journalists tell us about leadership roles and leadership communication? The aim of this chapter is to provide plausible answers to these questions. We combine theory of dancing with three different approaches to the study of leadership: (1) a strategic approach: the CEO as a Performer, (2) a positive organizational scholarship approach: the CEO as a Chief Happiness Officer and (3) a critical approach: the CEO as a Seducer. At the end of the chapter, we discuss how this small case study can contribute to a broader understanding of strategic communication that includes a dramaturgical and multimodal perspective.