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Strategic human resource management (HRM) research has been dominated by a best-practice perspective that calls for seeing uniformity and stability in HRM practices across organizations. The dominance of the best practice perspective occurs despite the many theoretical arguments and typologies that suggest there is variety and change in HRM practices. We argue that strategic HRM research will gain considerably from bringing in variety and change in HRM practices. We propose a theoretical framework that examines both variety and change at the organizational and the population level based on the strength or lack of competitive and institutional pressures in an organizational field. The framework identifies how variety arises in different ways and change takes different forms. We illustrate the framework in the contexts of the taxicab industry, large corporate law firms, and university tenure system. We conclude by discussing the implications of the framework for strategic HRM research.

Purpose – This paper focuses on a unique historical case study of industry evolution in order to develop a road map where historical and strategic research could develop a common ground for trans-disciplinary inquiry.

Design/methodology/approach – The industry I explore is the Universal Credit Card Industry since its inception with the Diners Club in 1949 until its maturity in late 1990s. My empirical objective here is to develop a historically detailed and theoretically rich case study in which evolutionary processes are discovered as a result of the historical narrative.

Findings – The historical account of the industry demonstrates how the evolution of alternative business models as organizing forms has led to the establishment of interorganizational platforms with unique ecosystems. These alternative business models, through various experimentations, have ultimately produced two critical interorganizational organizations, one based on an open-loop system represented by Visa and MasterCard, and the other based on a closed-loop system represented by Diners Club and the American Express. The historical account also shows that in a given industry competition is not only among specific firms in the industry but also among the business models and the platforms created by these models.

Originality/value – I conclude that historical analyses reveal the nature of competition not only among firms but also among alternative business models where traditional strategy research rarely covers.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the governance structures of corporate foundations in the implementation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives.

After discussing the heretofore-underutilized research advantages of corporate foundations, the authors survey theoretical perspectives to explain the corporate foundation phenomenon. The authors build on this theory to construct a typology of corporate foundation structures based on their interactions with internal and external stakeholders.

The findings suggest that many of the largest corporations do not embed their corporate foundation into their strategic plan as they define it (i.e. specific alignment with corporate competency).

Research limitations include an examination solely of the 50 largest corporate foundations among a field of nearly 3,000 corporate foundations. The authors advance a research agenda that addresses the potential role of corporate foundations in fulfilling CSR.

The foundation field may see a movement toward corporate foundations being strategically aligned with the parent company’s core competence as external stakeholders continue to pressure companies.

Studying corporate foundations is important as they serve as intermediaries between corporations and civil society. Thus, they will continue to play an important role in the CSR agenda.

This paper is one of the first to examine the corporate foundation phenomenon, with a specific focus on their governance. Thus, the authors go beyond the motivations that lead corporations to be involved in “socially responsible activities,” the types of activities that corporations select, and how these choices produce benefits for a diverse set of stakeholders.

This paper seeks to answer two questions: (1) where do a country's entrepreneurship policies come from? (2) How do they evolve and shape entrepreneurial activities?

Drawing upon the comparative political economy literature and the institutional perspective, this paper proposes a theoretical model of the origin and evolution of entrepreneurship policies. We use China as a case study to apply the theoretical model and demonstrate the evolution of entrepreneurship policies in three stages during the period 1978 to 2012.

The case analysis of China provides evidence and support for our theoretical model and unpacks the process by which entrepreneurship policies originate and evolve as the result of the interplay among constantly changing policymaking, production, and knowledge regimes.

Because of the research context, findings may lack generalisability. Additional studies on policymaking and production regimes of different kinds and their respective roles in shaping entrepreneurship policies are encouraged to further advance this line of research.

This paper offers important implications concerning entrepreneurship policy and activities for policymakers, practitioners and other stakeholders in emerging economies.

Our study fills a gap in the entrepreneurship literature by expanding scholarly understanding of the origin and evolution of entrepreneurship policies.

Purpose – This chapter traces the creation of a market for strategy by management consulting firms during the second half of the twentieth century in order to demonstrate their impact in shaping debates in the subject and demand for their services by corporate executives.

Design/methodology/approach – Using historical analysis, the chapter draws on institutional theory, including institutional isomorphism. It uses both primary and secondary data from the leading consulting firms to describe how consultants shifted from offering advice on organizational structure to corporate strategy and eventually to corporate legitimacy as a result of the changing economic and regulatory environment of the time.

Findings/originality/value – This study provides a historical context for the emergence of corporate and competitive strategy as an institutional practice in both the United States and around the world, and provides insights into how important this history can be in understanding the debates among consultants and academics during strategy's emergence as an academic subject and practical application.

This study aims to understand the antecedents of export performance at the firm level. Building on agency theory but taking into account emerging market settings and institutional differences, the authors investigate how the board composition determines the export competitiveness of the firms operating in an emerging country from the point of view of corporate governance mechanisms.

Using data from 221 exporting firms for four years (2007-2010), the authors find that there is a significantly positive relationship between board size and all measures of export performance, while a higher presence of outside directors on the board is negatively associated with export performance, consistently with expectations. The separation of chairman of board of directors and chief executive officer (CEO) positions has significantly positive impact on export performance. On the other hand, the authors find no support for the position that inside director professional representation neither reduce nor increase all measures of export performance of firms. In other words, the convergence with Western practices and consistently with agency theory’s claims is evident for both board size and CEO duality. However, the effects of inside professional and outside directors are no consistent with agency theorists’ expectations.

Using data from 221 exporting firms for four years (2007-2010), the authors find that there is a significantly positive relationship between board size and all measures of export performance, while a higher presence of outside directors on the board is a negatively associated with export performance, consistently with expectations. The separation of chairman of board of directors and CEO positions has significantly positive impact on export performance. On the other hand, the authors find no support for the position that inside director professional representation neither reduce nor increase all measures of export performance of firms. In other words, the convergence with Western practices and consistently with agency theory’s claims is evident for both board size and CEO duality. However, the effects of inside professional and outside directors are no consistent with agency theorists’ expectations.

Export performance is one of the most widely researched areas within international marketing research but least reached topic of management. However, exporting continues to be an important mode of internationalization for multinational companies, especially operating an emerging economy. This study is one of the first studies on the impact of governance factors such as board structure on only export performance rather than overall (firm) performance in light of international management. In other words, the study of the determinants of exports in the context of an emerging economy is an important contribution to the literature, given that our understanding of how the board composition determines the export competitiveness from the point of view of firms operating in an emerging country such as Turkey. Moreover, this research investigates this relationship at objective export performance dimensions using primary data set from listed and non-listed export firms.

The current study offered in-depth information to multinational companies that aim to gain a competitive exporting advantage in Turkey. Further, the results of this study give managers an opportunity to see the reasons behind the success of the exporting firms from the point of view of corporate governance mechanism.

In this paper, the authors contribute to this recent stream of research providing evidence on the effects of governance mechanism on the export performance from the point of view of emerging countries. Building on agency theory but taking into account emerging market settings and institutional differences, and international management, the authors provide a new framework that models the linkages between board composition and export performance. This work helps us to gain a deeper understanding of how board dynamics contribute to the internalization of firms. Research in this area has been sparse, although some studies have linked governance with export intensity. In this effort, the authors differentiate from previous studies in several ways.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the service behaviours of highly committed consultants engaged in face‐to‐face service provision with customers in the financial‐services industry.

In‐depth interviews are conducted with 41 financial consultants (from 30 financial‐service firms) in Austria. The qualitative data are then rigorously analysed and coded to identify categories of behaviours of highly committed financial consultants.

In total, 15 behaviours of highly committed financial consultants are identified. These behaviours are shown to include both “in‐role” behaviours and “extra‐role” behaviours. The study also finds that service behaviours of highly committed financial consultants change over time. Employed and self‐employed financial consultants are found to have the same high‐commitment behaviours; however, employed consultants tend to experience conflicts between organisational commitment and customer commitment, whereas self‐employed consultants tend to experience conflicts between their own self interests and the interests of their customers.

The study did not examine whether age and experience influence behavioural differences. Nor did the study address the question of behaviours that are typical of low‐commitment service delivery. Future research could objectively record the behaviours (by audio‐recording and/or video‐recording) to reduce the possibility of self‐serving bias by respondents in reporting their behaviours.

The study provides guidance for managers who wish to encourage and reward highly committed service behaviours among employees.

Little research has been conducted into the actual behaviours of financial consultants while delivering services. Moreover, previous studies of organisational commitment have utilised quantitative methodologies to assess attitudes, whereas this study adopts a qualitative approach and examines actual behaviours of high work commitment.

The purpose of this paper is to show how the content of a firm's culture, carefully developed by top managers, can create effective employee experiences and how this exemplary case of strategic culture shaping relate to various academic insights on intangible social or collaborative capital.

Inductive case study (of a large American convention hotel), highlighting the strategic crafting of a service‐firm culture, both descriptively (in terms of what took place) and analytically (in terms of various OB‐literatures).

Describes how organizational culture can be part of strategizing in terms of aligning cultural expressions regarding various employees' practices, including continuous organizational improvement. Analyzes and integrates various extant culture insights on service cultures and culture strength.

Insights are applicable to a wide variety of work settings beyond the hospitality and service sectors; it expands the view of organizational culture to the broader and more complex, strategic issue of how organizations can craft or amend cultures that fit their missions.

One may learn from this case (including the authors' reflections), how to put a well‐articulated service mission into operational practice: through taking a particular, desired culture quite seriously when creating employee experiences, so that they are effectively focused on that mission.

The paper illustrates specific tactics for implementing culture plus the value of developing a strategic approach to creating a particular culture. It offers a template of crafting a culture, based on the strategic pairing of managerial mission with action (or employee and client experiences). Strategizing with culture, also referred to as firm‐cultural content shaping, is meant for researchers and practitioners seeking to help develop a mission‐focused organizational culture.