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A dilemma exists in that many view offshoring as a tradeoff between cost efficiency and innovation. The purpose of this paper is to reconcile this dilemma by showing how and why offshoring to institutionally distant host countries may result in innovation. The authors introduce an institutional lens in order to understand how offshoring to institutionally distant locales affects innovation outcomes of multinational enterprises. This lens is aimed to provide an analytical tool that is less coarse and less overwhelmingly focused on institutional distance (ID) as a harsh and certain harbinger of reduced innovation performance.

The authors use primary data from the Offshoring Research Network as well as secondary data from the Frasier Institute on Economic Freedom, and Hofstede’s cultural value survey to empirically assess the distinct effects of distance on innovation at the firm level.

The authors have developed a model of distance and innovation which goes beyond the traditional assumption of distance as overwhelmingly negative. Whereas in some cases, the positive effect of formal and informal distances outweigh the negative effects stimulating innovation; in other cases, the negative effects of distance hamper innovation. Finally, some elements of distance may not have an impact on innovation outcomes at all.

While previous research stresses the negative effects of distance in general, the authors provide an ID model which, in the context of offshoring, takes into account potential positive, negative, or no effects.

The study presents global supply chain managers with a reference framework for making strategic offshoring relationships decisions.

By unbundling the inherently confounding formative construction of distance measures, eschewing the reflexive assumption that distance is always negative, and mapping theories specific to the application of distinct institutional logics to specific value-enhancing business activities (i.e. innovation), this study offers a more accurate and complete institutional picture that helps reconcile institutional theory with an empirical record that often fails to find what it predicts.

Describes a free market economy as a competitive, self‐regulating market. In this environment, marketing becomes a powerful instrument for matching products and services to people′s needs. The competitive nature of the market necessitates a continuous exploration of changes in people′s needs and a constant adaptation of the organization and its output to these changes. The success of this adaptation enhances product or service quality and ensures institutional survival. Explains that adult and continuing education can become more effective by adopting marketing strategies, and provides important marketing strategies that may be found relevant in the administration of adult and continuing education programmes under a free market economy.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

CR is an imperative business issue, since a firm's reputation is a crucial link between social initiative and profitability and it is a difficult resource to create. When making decisions about actions that can affect stakeholders it is very important for the organization to know and understand the needs of its stakeholders, and ensure that strategies are executed successfully, in order to avoid a negative effect in CR.

The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that can have a broader social impact.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

The paper analyses social and environmental engagement, stakeholders’ relations and corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies/options along with their underlying mechanisms of firms operating in China.

It does this through the analysis of a unique case study using data collected from internal members and external stakeholders of the company framed within stakeholder theory.

Within the Aguinis and Glavas (2012) framework, the results show that the company’s resources and values can act as a mediator, their high visibility and scale can act as a moderator, and their self-regulation can act as a predictor in weak institutional contexts. Also, the findings show that employees’ perceptions of visionary leadership can act as a mediator, and that the alignment in the vision/values/beliefs of the chief executive officer with those of the shareholders can act as moderators.

The paper intends to contribute to the literature on CSR in China by analysing a specific type of investor, the socially responsible investor, neglected in the CSR literature, and by studying multilevel (individual/organisational/institutional) social and environmental engagement, stakeholders’ relations and CSR strategies/options in an evolving institutional environment.

This paper aim to argue for Cambodia to take internationalization of higher education seriously and strategically to position it for higher education development, and this starts with enhancing its buy-in among the key stakeholders, fine-tuning its conceptualization and contextualization and a government-funded comprehensive policy and investment program.

This paper explores policies and practices of internationalization in Cambodia, using Knight's (2004, 2007) conceptualization of internationalization and Wan's (2018) list of six dimensions, by which the authors track and measure internationalization.

Systematic policy implementation to position internationalization to achieve national and institutional goals is little. Given utilitarianism of internationalization, policy statement has geared more toward employing internationalization to achieve institutional building, in order of significance: mobility, research collaboration, policy formulation and quality control, and much less on networking and aligning with international instruments. Subtle differences among the four universities under investigation exist. While all focus on student and faculty mobility and exchange, some aim at research collaboration and networks; some at indigenous “international” and language programs, and some at joint degree programs. But, internationalization is not a key priority nor is it strategically positioned to achieve institutional aspirations.

Without comprehensive, strategic policy guidance and implementation from the government, internationalization has taken its own course, and such is not healthy for higher education development.

There are few studies on internationalization in Cambodia. Clayton and Yuok (1997), Clayton (2002) and Pit and Ford (2004) examine politics or its politicization and higher education development after the end of the Eastern Bloc's support (Tek and Leng, 2017). Recent studies (Leng, 2015; Leng, 2016; Yun, 2014) underline institutional case studies to illustrate status, issues and challenges in internationalization. This article attempts to provide an overarching map of internationalization to inform policies and practices toward higher education and national development.

The COVID-19 pandemic and its related economic meltdown and social unrest severely challenged most countries, their societies, economies, organizations, and individual citizens. Focusing on both more and less successful country-specific initiatives to fight the pandemic and its multitude of related consequences, this chapter explores implications for leadership and effective action at the individual, organizational, and societal levels. As international management scholars and consultants, the authors document actions taken and their wide-ranging consequences in a diverse set of countries, including countries that have been more or less successful in fighting the pandemic, are geographically larger and smaller, are located in each region of the world, are economically advanced and economically developing, and that chose unique strategies versus strategies more similar to those of their neighbors. Cultural influences on leadership, strategy, and outcomes are described for 19 countries. Informed by a cross-cultural lens, the authors explore such urgent questions as: What is most important for leaders, scholars, and organizations to learn from critical, life-threatening, society-encompassing crises and grand challenges? How do leaders build and maintain trust? What types of communication are most effective at various stages of a crisis? How can we accelerate learning processes globally? How does cultural resilience emerge within rapidly changing environments of fear, shifting cultural norms, and profound challenges to core identity and meaning? This chapter invites readers and authors alike to learn from each other and to begin to discover novel and more successful approaches to tackling grand challenges. It is not definitive; we are all still learning.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate political activity (CPA) are two important components of firms’ nonmarket strategies, oriented toward shaping the firm’s political and social conditions. Although this is acknowledged in the literature, there are contradictory arguments and evidence, concerning, first, whether and under which conditions firms align their CPA and CSR activities, and second, what the impacts might be if they do align these activities. In light of this, this chapter draws from earlier reviews of nonmarket strategies, to explore the factors at multiple levels, macro and micro, that may drive a firm’s alignment of CPA and CSR. In doing so, we draw from management research to identify the macro- and micro-level factors that shape CPA and CSR alignment as CSR and CPA alignment research mostly focuses on outcomes rather than identifying the drivers of alignment. We develop a general model that integrates the macro- and micro-level discussions to make suggestions about where future research needs to go to increase understanding of when corporations will combine their CPA and CSR efforts and the merits of these efforts.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a mineral policy development framework for Pakistan based on seven key elements derived from the gap analysis of Pakistan’s current framework with leading developing minerals-based economies. Pakistan is gifted with significant mineral resources that have the potential to lift its economy and bring prosperity to its citizens. For this to happen, Pakistan must formulate a mineral policy based on leading practices to attract mining investment for economic growth.

This paper develops a new mineral policy framework from the lessons derived from the gap analysis conducted in the first paper of this research. These lessons are called the “elements of development” which, after evaluation with the existing framework, will provide the suggested strategic fit measures for the formulation of the new mineral policy framework for Pakistan.

A new mineral policy framework is proposed based on seven key enablers, namely, institutional framework, stable political economy, legal framework, regulatory framework, fiscal framework, stakeholder participation and sustainable development. A new organisational structure of the Ministry is also proposed based on the generally accepted organisational structure of tiers, implementation and regulatory bodies.

The key constraints for Pakistan’s mineral sector are as follows: the sector is lacking an enabling institutional framework for efficient access to mineral resources and lacks an enabling fiscal and regulatory framework including secure mineral rights system for mining to enhance the economic attractiveness of the sector.

This paper presents original work on the development of a new mineral policy framework for Pakistan to extract maximum benefit from its mineral resources.

This study aims to understand what drives firms towards board gender diversity in emerging markets. The authors examine the effect of regulative, normative and cognitive pressures on board gender diversity and the moderating effect of national governance quality.

This study tested the hypotheses using unbalanced panel data for the period between 2014 and 2019, which includes 1,384 observations of 380 different firms located in emerging markets.

The results reveal that board gender diversity is directly conditioned by normative pressures (women’s economic and educational empowerment). This relationship becomes stronger if firms are located in countries with high governance capacity. Interestingly, this study finds that regulative and cognitive pressures do not enhance women’s presence on boards if they are not accompanied by strong national governance.

Although we have learned in recent years about how women’s presence on boards brings positive corporate outcomes, we know little about how country-level antecedents foster or hinder this gender diversity. This paper expands knowledge of the way gender-related institutions affect a firm’s board gender diversity, and these findings have policy implications for firms, policymakers, the government and other institutions.

This study is a comparative analysis of the magnitude of economic growth as a key determinant of long-term foreign currency sovereign credit ratings in 30 countries in Africa, Europe, Asia and Latin America from 2010 to 2018.

The analysis applies the fixed effects (FE) and random effects (RE) panel least squares (PLS) models.

The authors find that the magnitude economic coefficients are marginally small for African countries compared to other developing countries in Asia, Europe and Latin America. Results of the probit and logit binary estimation models show positive coefficients for economic growth sub-factors for non-African countries (developing and developed) compared to negative coefficients for African countries.

These findings mean that, an increase in economic growth in Africa does not significantly increase the likelihood that sovereign credit ratings will be upgraded. This implies that there is lack of uniformity in the application of the economic growth determinant despite the claims of a consistent framework by rating agencies. Thus, macroeconomic factors are relatively less important in determining country's risk profile in Africa than in other developing and developed countries.

First, studies that investigate the accuracy of sovereign credit rating indicators and risk factors in Africa are rare. This study is a key literature at the time when the majority of African countries are exploring the window of sovereign bonds as an alternative funding model to the traditional concessionary borrowings from multilateral institutions. On the other hand, the persistent poor rating is driving the cost of sovereign bonds to unreasonably high levels, invariably threatening their hopes of diversifying funding options. Second, there is criticism that the rating assessments of the credit rating agencies are biased in favour of developed countries and there is a gap in literature on studies that explore the whether the credit rating agencies are biased against African countries. This paper thus explores the rationale behind the African Union Decision Assembly/AU/Dec.631 (XXVIII) adopted by the 28th Ordinary Session of the African Union held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in January 2017 (African Union, 2017), directing its specialized governance agency, the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), to provide support to its Member States in the field of international credit rating agencies. The Assembly of African Heads of State and Government highlight that African countries are facing the challenges of credit downgrades despite an average positive economic growth. Lastly, the paper makes contribution to the argument that the majority of African countries are unfairly rated by international credit rating agencies, raising a discussion of the possibility of establishing a Pan-African credit rating institution.