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1 – 10 of over 10000George O. White III, Thomas A. Hemphill, Tazeeb Rajwani and Jean J. Boddewyn
The purpose of this study is to apply the institution-based view and resource dependence theory in arguing that perceived deficiencies in a legal service sector where a foreign…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to apply the institution-based view and resource dependence theory in arguing that perceived deficiencies in a legal service sector where a foreign subsidiary operates will influence the intensity of its political ties with actors in both the regulatory and legal arenas. The authors further theorized that these relationships will vary across governance environments.
Design/methodology/approach
The research context for this study was multinational enterprises (MNE) wholly owned foreign subsidiaries and international joint ventures (IJVs) operating in the Philippines and Thailand. Data for most variables in this study came from primary survey data collected in 2018 from senior managers of MNE WOSs and IJVs operating in the Philippines and Thailand.
Findings
The authors’ analysis of 352 foreign subsidiaries operating in the Philippines and Thailand show that, in a flawed democracy, perceived deficient legal services enhance the intensity of foreign subsidiary political ties with government actors in both the regulatory and legal arena. However, in a hybrid regime, perceived deficient legal services enhance only the intensity of foreign subsidiary political ties with government actors in the regulatory arena. The authors’ findings also suggest that the relationship between perceived deficiencies in legal service sector and the intensity of political ties is stronger for foreign subsidiaries that operate in heavily regulated industries across both a flawed democracy and hybrid regime. Conversely, the authors do not find the market orientation of these foreign subsidiaries to play a role in this process.
Research limitations/implications
The authors’ study was unable to control for whether managerial perceptions of deficient legal services were well informed at the local or federal level. This issue raises the question of will the presence of an in-house legal department influence managerial perceptions with regard to deficiencies within a legal service sector? Based on these limitations, the authors suggest that future research can further extend political ties research by using a fine-grained analysis in investigating the antecedents of managerial perceptions of legal services within different legal jurisdictions.
Originality/value
The political ties literature has largely argued that political ties are more prevalent in environmental contexts comprising institutional voids as MNEs attempt to mitigate volatility associated with the lack of developed institutional infrastructure (e.g. Blumentritt & Nigh, 2002; Bucheli et al., 2018). However, the concept of institutional voids is very broad and still rather abstract in nature. Hence, scholars have yet to fully understand what types of institutional voids may drive MNE foreign subsidiary political tie intensity in varying governance contextsThe authors’ study attempts to contribute to this important line of research by investigating how one type of institutional void, namely, perceived deficiencies in the legal service sector, can influence the intensity of political ties in varying governance environments.
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Patricia J. Woods and Scott W. Barclay
The traditional and most common conception of cause lawyers has viewed them as necessarily oppositional to the state, leftist, and, at best, transgressive. This conception is…
Abstract
The traditional and most common conception of cause lawyers has viewed them as necessarily oppositional to the state, leftist, and, at best, transgressive. This conception is significant to our analysis because of its tendency to treat “the state” as a rather singular arena of power – an “it” – rather than a multi-dimensional entity made up of competing institutions and personnel. Following work on the disaggregated and embedded state, we suggest that conflict and competition among state institutions and state personnel allow cause lawyers and state actors to engage in mutually-beneficial action in service of their agendas. Litigation has important benefits for both cause lawyers and state actors: within the arena of law, processes that usually require the backing of large constituencies in the context of majoritarian institutions require, instead, convincing legal arguments. We briefly present evidence from two highly disparate cases of similar processes of interaction among cause lawyers and state actors in Vermont and Israel, which we believe indicates that this type of interaction is far from idiosyncratic.
Small Claims Court Television Shows offer spectators an opportunity to re-envision their relationship to legal and civic judgment. Through presenting racial and regional judges…
Abstract
Small Claims Court Television Shows offer spectators an opportunity to re-envision their relationship to legal and civic judgment. Through presenting racial and regional judges, these shows re-imagine legal judgment as a necessary and inclusive component of everyday citizenship. Reflecting Reality TV, Tabloid TV Talk Shows, and the History of African-American representation on television, shows like Judge Mathis and Judge Judy demonstrate the contradictions inherent in racial representations on television. By showing the ways in which television performance reflects the performative aspect of legal discourse already operating upon us, the judges use stupidity as a way to pedagogically energize a lower class, disenfranchised viewership into newly rehearsing their roles as active citizens.
Managing the adverse visibility associated with a high‐profile legal crisis is a challenge faced by an increasing number of public relations professionals. This paper offers…
Abstract
Managing the adverse visibility associated with a high‐profile legal crisis is a challenge faced by an increasing number of public relations professionals. This paper offers guidelines for effectively managing a legal crisis outside the courtroom while the case is pending before a court of law.
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David Levi‐Faur and Ziva Rozen Bachar
The wave of regulatory reforms in European telecoms and electricity industries has had an important impact on the structure of the state as well as of corporations. The purpose of…
Abstract
Purpose
The wave of regulatory reforms in European telecoms and electricity industries has had an important impact on the structure of the state as well as of corporations. The purpose of this paper is to explore the establishment of these regulatory organizations at the state and corporate levels within a unified theoretical framework, that is grounded in the politics of regulation.
Design/methodology/approach
The case selection includes governance structures at the state and corporate levels in 16 European countries in both telecoms and electricity.
Findings
The data reveal that regulatory agencies exist in both telecoms and electricity sectors in all 16 countries under study, with the notable exception of Switzerland's electricity sector. At the same time, business corporate reforms were also evident, mainly via the creation of corporate regulatory offices at the headquarters of the firms. These departments, which redefine the patterns of responsibility within the corporation and have played the leading role in the negotiations with the external regulatory environment.
Originality/value
This paper strives to overcome the tendency in the scholarly literature to look only at one or the other aspect of the growth of regulatory development and therefore also to offer a narrow understanding of the growth of regulation. It asserts that the commonalities in the expansion of autonomous regulatory agencies and corporate regulatory departments suggest that the growth in the regulatory professionalization of the state and of business corporations reflects the changing nature of capitalist economy and society and the rise of a new global order of “regulatory capitalism”.
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Richard Eberlin and B. Charles Tatum
The purpose of this paper is to examine organizational justice, decision making, and the unintended consequences of cognitive biases and errors. Managers, and other leaders, are…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine organizational justice, decision making, and the unintended consequences of cognitive biases and errors. Managers, and other leaders, are often subject to simple, but serious, biases and errors when making important organizational decisions. Sometimes these errors and biases produce decisions that result in adverse outcomes. Moreover, these same errors and biases may be used to justify or excuse the unintended results.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reviews the literature on organizational justice, decision‐making styles and biases, and cognitive errors. From this review, the authors draw conclusions about potential adverse outcomes when leaders or managers engage in biased decision‐making or commit cognitive errors.
Findings
When leaders or managers inadvertently make biased decisions or cognitive errors that lead to adverse results, their followers may perceive these acts as unfair and unjust even when no injustice was intended. Leaders must acknowledge, and be accountable for, their actions and decisions if they want to avoid undesirable side effects such as lower morale, increased turnover, reduced performance, or litigation.
Originality/value
The lack of consideration of the implications of organizational justice (especially the social forms of justice) during the decision‐making process may create perceptions of unfairness and injustice among followers (e.g. employees, subordinates). Any rip in the fabric of social justice, whether intentional or not, can create problems in an organization. Many of these problems can be avoided if leaders or managers accept responsibility for their decisions and not try to deflect criticism or rationalize their actions.
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Considerable research has been conducted into the problem of sexual harassment in the workplace, although most of it has been undertaken in the United States, particularly since…
Abstract
Considerable research has been conducted into the problem of sexual harassment in the workplace, although most of it has been undertaken in the United States, particularly since the 1970s. In 1974, for example, a group of women, almost equally black and white and with economic backgrounds ranging from very affluent to poor, discovered a common thread in their employment careers, which Farley summed up, saying:
Holly J. McCammon, Allison R. McGrath, Ashley Dixon and Megan Robinson
Feminist legal activists in law schools developed what we call critical community tactics beginning in the late 1960s to bring about important cultural change in the legal…
Abstract
Feminist legal activists in law schools developed what we call critical community tactics beginning in the late 1960s to bring about important cultural change in the legal educational arena. These feminist activists challenged the male-dominant culture and succeeded in making law schools and legal scholarship more gender inclusive. Here, we develop the critical community tactics concept and show how these tactics produce cultural products which ultimately, as they are integrated into the broader culture, change the cultural landscape. Our work then is a study of how social movement activists can bring about cultural change. The feminist legal activists’ cultural products and the integration of them into the legal academy provide evidence of feminist legal activist success in shifting the legal institutional culture. We conclude that critical community tactics provide an important means for social movement activists to bring about cultural change, and scholars examining social movement efforts in other institutional settings may benefit from considering the role of critical community tactics.
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Weigang Li, Jixiang Chen and Dongying Wu
The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of legal institution building during the process of China's economic miracle of past three decades.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of legal institution building during the process of China's economic miracle of past three decades.
Design/methodology/approach
To engage with the issue, the paper builds on historical research and comparable approaches which explore the interactions of legal institution building and economic reforms in China.
Findings
Legal institution building is not only a passive factor that can make up market failures in developing countries. Studies on China case find that legal institution building in China has often been taken as a tool to realize the ruling party's political commitment of economic development.
Research limitations/implications
The paper takes only one country – China as the case to explore the interactions of legal institution building and economic development. Owing to most China's peculiar characteristics, more cases should be studied in order to examine a much clearer result, which might shed lights on the current reforms of a lot of developing countries.
Practical implications
The argument of the paper, that legal institution building can be employed as an active tool to drive economic development if designed properly, broadens policy pools for developing countries that are in a strive to fight against poverty reduction.
Originality/value
The paper opens a new arena to re‐examine the role of legal building for economic development in developing countries. Also, it develops a unique perspective to explore the myth of China's economic miracle.
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Clémence Demay and Mathilde Krähenbühl
This paper aims to explore how the argument of “eco-reproductive” concerns was mobilized in climate change trials in Switzerland. Looking at social movements' advantages and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how the argument of “eco-reproductive” concerns was mobilized in climate change trials in Switzerland. Looking at social movements' advantages and constraints when having recourse to the law, the authors interrogate why the symbolism of reproduction and kinship represented a political opportunity to defend the activists in a judicial system where judging is seen as an apolitical act.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is grounded in legal research and research on social movements. While legal research focuses mainly on the study of legal and written sources, the authors used ethnography and conducted interviews to cross the perspectives of activists, their lawyers and judges.
Findings
In a context where positivist legal tradition remains strong, the “eco-reproductive” argument represented the advantage of being “apolitical,” thus audible in court. Used as socio-political tools, “eco-reproductive” concerns translated the activists' political claims into the legal arena. However, judges' conservative beliefs on family reinforced the depoliticization of activists' claims.
Originality/value
While research on “eco-reproductive” concerns has been significantly quantitative and exploratory, the authors look in depth at one case of application and highlight the limits of “eco-reproductive” concerns to appeal to decision-makers.
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