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11 – 20 of 23Mairi Maclean and Charles Harvey
The purpose of this study is to explore some of the distinctive features of organizing and organization in France which set it apart from organization in other nations, and which…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore some of the distinctive features of organizing and organization in France which set it apart from organization in other nations, and which are fundamental to its modus operandi. In particular, this article is concerned with elite connectivity and concerted action by elite “connectors”.
Design/methodology/approach
The research underpinning this article stems from a cross-national comparative project on business elites and corporate governance in France and the UK. This has three dimensions, being quantitative, qualitative and case study-based. Concerted action by the ruling elite is explored through two illustrative vignettes: the ousting from office of Jean-Marie Messier and State-sponsored expansion as pursued by EDF. Both examples shed light on the French business elite’s response to globalization and the development of international business.
Findings
The paper finds elite cohesion to be achieved quite differently in the two countries. In addition, it finds that the ties that bind French connectors tend to be strong and institutionally based.
Practical implications
The case of EDF suggests that the most ambitious of State-sponsored strategies can also be the most successful. It implies that elite ideologies in France have deviated relatively little from sentiments expressed by Rousseau and de Gaulle concerning the primacy of the national interest and the conviction that firms can serve as an (expansionist) instrument of the nation. The Messier case illuminates the pattern of close relationships among the French business elite. It demonstrates how a strategy of expansion may come unstuck when it is not grounded in the customary modes of business regulation.
Originality/value
This research confirms a slight preference on the part of the French business elite for more homogenous ties. Against this, the paper demonstrates that a significant proportion of the French elite act as boundary spanners, brokering relationships with others from more distant parts of the wider network. The integration of the French elite in the Eurozone has potentially favored bridge-building relationships and weakened national embeddedness. This may contribute to the decline of indigenous interlocks, while promoting the further internationalization of top management teams. The implications of this for organizational strategy, firm survival and economic performance form an agenda for future research.
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Alan J. Daly, Nienke M. Moolenaar, Jose M. Bolivar and Peggy Burke
Scholars have focused their attention on systemic reform as a way to support instructional coherence. These efforts are often layered on to existing social relationships between…
Abstract
Purpose
Scholars have focused their attention on systemic reform as a way to support instructional coherence. These efforts are often layered on to existing social relationships between school staff that are rarely taken into account when enacting reform. Social network theory posits that the structure of social relationships may influence the direction, speed, and depth of organizational change and therefore may provide valuable insights in the social forces that may support or constrain reform efforts. This study aims to discuss this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
This mixed‐methods exploratory case study examined five schools within one under‐performing school district as it enacted a system‐wide reform. Quantitative survey data were collected to assess social networks and teacher work perception of five schools enacting the reform. Qualitative data were gathered through individual interviews from educators within representative grade levels as a way to better understand the diffusion and implementation of the reform.
Findings
Despite being enacted as a system‐wide reform effort, the results suggest significant variance within and between schools in terms of reform‐related social networks. These networks were significantly related to the uptake, depth, and spread of the change. Densely connected grade levels were also associated with more interactions focused on teaching and learning and an increased sense of grade level efficacy.
Practical implications
The findings underline the importance of attending to relational linkages as a complementary strategy to the technical emphasis of reform efforts, as social networks were found to significantly facilitate or constrain reform efforts. Implications and recommendations are offered for leadership, policy and practice that may support the design and implementation of reforms, which may ultimately increase student performance.
Originality/value
The study makes a unique contribution to the reform literature by drawing on social network theory as a way to understand efforts at reform. The work suggests that the informal social linkages on which reform is layered may support or constrain the depth of reform.
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As has been widely recognized in the literature, the post‐war economic boom which drew to a close by the early 1970s has been followed by an intense period of industrial…
Abstract
As has been widely recognized in the literature, the post‐war economic boom which drew to a close by the early 1970s has been followed by an intense period of industrial restructuring characterized by marked instability in all three major spheres of economic activity: production, distribution, and finance. This process has taken place both at the global level and at the level of national economies (Cardenas, 1990). It reflects a profound change in the mode of capitalist accumulation. Prior to the current round of restructuring, accumulation was taken to be principally the inward‐oriented task of each nation's own economy. Now, it seems that successful capital accumulation (i.e. development) depends most upon a nation's competitive integration into the world market for goods and services (Garrido, 1995). The present mode of accumulation implies an opening of national economies to international trade in commodities and capital, both among the advanced industrial nations and between the industrialized and the newly‐industrializing countries. This has generated a heightened degree of competition among countries and among firms, given that the easy movement of capital, goods, and services has allowed for real competition to emerge among dispersed places around the globe based upon their comparative financial and productive advantages.
Todd R. Zenger and Jeffrey Xiaofei Huang
A widespread consensus in strategy literature argues that firms acquire positions of advantage and competitive capability by assembling or “organizing” sets of uniquely…
Abstract
A widespread consensus in strategy literature argues that firms acquire positions of advantage and competitive capability by assembling or “organizing” sets of uniquely complementary resources, activities, or assets. In this regard, value is created not only in identifying unique and valuable combinations of existing resources, but also in seeing unique and valuable ways to modify or cospecialize these assets. With the envisioned strategic bundle defined, the manager must then determine how to form, organize, and create this bundle. In particular, the manager must decide which assets, activities, and resources must be “owned” and which can be accessed contractually. We argue that although integration does have certain advantages over market transactions, it does not necessarily lead to the expansion of the scale and scope of the firm, because firms would also fail, particularly as they become larger in size. While established theories articulate this organizational failure puzzle in terms of incentive explanations and measurement difficulties, recent advancement in organizational economics and business strategy sees this as a result of influence activities, and social comparison and social attachment processes. These elements can serve as new building blocks for a more comprehensive theory of the nature and the boundary of the firm. Three future research trajectories – both theoretical and empirical in this realm – are suggested.
This paper describes the personal history and intellectual development of Morris B. Holbrook (MBH), a participant in the field of marketing academics in general and consumer…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper describes the personal history and intellectual development of Morris B. Holbrook (MBH), a participant in the field of marketing academics in general and consumer research in particular.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper pursues an approach characterized by historical autoethnographic subjective personal introspection or HASPI.
Findings
The paper reports the personal history of MBH and – via HASPI – interprets various aspects of key participants and major themes that emerged over the course of his career.
Research limitations/implications
The main implication is that every scholar in the field of marketing pursues a different light, follows a unique path, plays by idiosyncratic rules, and deserves individual attention, consideration, and respect … like a cat that carries its own leash.
Originality/value
In the case of MBH, like (say) a jazz musician, whatever value he might have depends on his originality.
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Secondary school leadership provides multiple challenges in terms of the diversity of tasks, multiple demands on time, balancing communities and attending to instructional…
Abstract
Purpose
Secondary school leadership provides multiple challenges in terms of the diversity of tasks, multiple demands on time, balancing communities and attending to instructional programming. An emerging scholarship suggests the importance of a distributed instructional leadership approach to high school leadership. However, what has been less thoroughly explored is how secondary school leadership is distributed leaders across a school district. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the social structure and positions urban high school principals occupy in the district system.
Design/methodology/approach
This study was conducted in one urban fringe public school district in southern California serving diverse students populations. The data were collected at three time points starting in Fall 2012 and ending in Fall 2014 from a district-wide leadership team including all central office and site leaders. All leaders were asked to assess their social relations and perception of innovative climate. The data were analyzed through a series of social network indices to examine the structure and positions of high school principals.
Findings
Results indicate that over time high school principals have decreasing access to social capital and are typically occupying peripheral positions in the social network. The high school principals’ perception of innovative climate across the district decreases over time.
Originality/value
This longitudinal study, one of the first to examine high school principals from a network perspective, sheds new light on the social infrastructure of urban high school principals and what this might mean for efforts at improvement.
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The study of the family firm has gained increased attention in recent years, judging by the number of articles and books published lately as well as the fact that a number of…
Abstract
The study of the family firm has gained increased attention in recent years, judging by the number of articles and books published lately as well as the fact that a number of universities in the United States and elsewhere now emphasize a focused study of family business in higher education (Fletcher, 2002; Hoy & Verser, 1994; Litz, 1997). At the same time, the field of entrepreneurship has been enriched by perspectives from sociology and anthropology and has welcomed the study of ethnic business groups, especially in terms of their unique entrepreneurial tendencies as well as their organization and operations within a social order in which they remain a distinct minority (Aldrich & Waldinger, 1990; Light & Gold, 2000).
The purpose of this paper is to identify the antecedents of successful South Asian opportunity diaspora entrepreneurship. Furthermore, it examines the successful South Asian…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify the antecedents of successful South Asian opportunity diaspora entrepreneurship. Furthermore, it examines the successful South Asian diaspora opportunity entrepreneurs’ (DOE) interactions with their country of origin and country of residence.
Design/methodology/approach
With a qualitative approach, this study employs the NVivo software to examine a set of semistructured interviews of eight South Asian diaspora entrepreneurs.
Findings
The qualitative analysis in this study suggests that a South Asian DOE with a college education, previous industry-related experience, prior startup experience, and a tendency to attribute entrepreneurship talent to training rather than birth exhibits a high-entrepreneurial venture growth rate. Furthermore, the qualitative analysis suggests that a south Asian DOE who emphasizes market analysis, accentuates building the right team of employees, and pursues adventurous choice of financing (i.e. bootstrapping or small bank) exhibits a high-entrepreneurial venture growth rate.
Research limitations/implications
Due to the small sample and exploratory nature of the study, results may not be generalized. Future research is encouraged to test the robustness of the findings.
Practical implications
The findings of this qualitative study offer implications for immigrant individuals who might have interest in starting a new business and wonder what the ingredients of a diaspora entrepreneurship success recipe might be.
Originality/value
This study provides an enhanced understanding of diaspora opportunity entrepreneurship. Furthermore, it contributes to the qualitative approach by offering a novel research design to avoid common problems of researcher bias and mono-method bias.
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Although understanding the capital structure of firms has been quite commonplace in the empirical literature, there is admittedly limited evidence with regard to the determinants…
Abstract
Purpose
Although understanding the capital structure of firms has been quite commonplace in the empirical literature, there is admittedly limited evidence with regard to the determinants of capital structure for banks. In this context, using data for the period 2000-2012, this paper aims to examine the factors affecting the capital structure of Middle East and North African (MENA) banks.
Design/methodology/approach
The data span the period 2000-2012 and comprise of over 100 banks from 12 MENA countries. Given the longitudinal nature of the data, the panel uses panel data techniques and controls for unobserved bank characteristics that might affect capital structure.
Findings
The findings indicate that the factors driving book leverage are similar to those influencing market leverage. These findings refute the conventional wisdom that bank capital structure is purely a response to the regulatory requirements, as otherwise, regulatory concerns would have driven a wedge between these two leverage measures. Second, the crisis appears to have exerted a perceptible impact on bank capital. Third, in terms of ownership, it appears that the crisis-support measures had a salutary effect on Islamic banks, in turn improving their growth opportunities.
Research/limitations/implications
This is the first study to examine the determinants of capital structure for MENA banks and how it evolved during the crisis. By using both book- and market-related measures of capital structure, the study is able to shed light whether regulatory concerns are a major driven of bank capital. As the recent financial crisis indicates, bank failures impose enormous social and economic costs, which are protracted and significant.
Practical implications
From a practical standpoint, the study seeks to inform the policy debate on the role of regulation in impacting bank capital, especially in the light of the envisaged Basel III reforms. In addition, the study suggests that classroom teaching on bank capital needs to be suitably refined to take on board country-specific requirements and, in addition, focus on how such behavior evolved during the crisis.
Originality/value
This is the first study to examine the determinants of capital structure for MENA banks and how it evolved during the crisis. By using both book- and market-related measures of capital structure, the study is able to shed light whether regulatory concerns are a major driven of bank capital. As the recent financial crisis indicates, bank failures impose enormous social and economic costs, which are protracted and significant.
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