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The purpose of this study of Google and Baidu in mainland China is to identify the key contingencies to firm strategic responses to technical and institutional pressures. From an institutional logic perspective and Hirschman's model of exit, voice, and loyalty, this research proposes a few propositions which are intended to explain why foreign and local companies adopt different responses to similar institutional requirements or under similar institutional pressures.

This study applies a historical chronological method by the recognition of certain types of events and key strategic activities conducted by two sample organizations from their foundations in mainland China till March 2010 when Google exited from China's internet search market. These activities were identified as the measurement of firm strategic responses to institutional pressures. Data were gathered from various sources, including documents published by sample organizations, online and media reports, etc.

It is found that firms adopted similar responses to technical pressures which were determined by characteristics of the internet industry. However, their responses to institutional pressures, which were driven by the state logic for control of the internet, were dramatically different. As a multinational corporation, Google was faced with inherent tensions between home and host institutional requirements. When the state control pressures increased, Google eventually selected a voice and exit strategy. Baidu, as a local leading player in China's internet market, adopted a loyalty strategy through closer collaboration with local institutional constituents, including government agencies and clients, in addition to its investment in creating corporate images and reputation among local internet users.

This research explores the dynamic and diverse responses of foreign and local companies to institutional pressures and advances our understanding of political properties in firm strategies and the importance of firm nationality in strategy making.

This study aims to examine the causal factors of customer motivation, trust and loyalty, influencing the level of repurchase intentions of local tourists travelling during pandemic COVID-19 crisis in Thailand.

The population of this study comprised all Thai local tourists travelling in Thailand. Using simple random sampling of local tourists on travel in Thailand, quantitative data were collected from 500 tourists as the sampling, representing Northern Thailand, North-Eastern Thailand, Central Thailand, Southern Thailand and Bangkok. Path analysis, including correlation matrix and factor confirmation, was used to test the causal factors influencing the level of repurchase intentions.

Motivation trust, customer trust, customer loyalty and repurchase intentions of Thai domestic tourism were on a high level. In addition, there were positive influences of customer motivation, trust and loyalty on the level of repurchase intentions by local tourists travelling in Thailand.

The study results demonstrate that the social exchange theory can be used to explain the influences of customer motivation, customer trust and loyalty on repurchase intentions of domestic Thai tourism.

With public services operating as monopolies, dissatisfied users cannot exit from the relation without changing patronage. Apart from exit from the region, voicing their dissatisfaction in order to influence the service offer becomes the only alternative. Industries and companies may be classified as customer oriented if they market differentiated products and services reflecting heterogeneous customer preferences. Customer satisfaction is influenced by expectations and perceived service quality. Degree of customer satisfaction and loyalty consequently becomes an indication of customer orientation. Reports on an empirical study of 100 business executives′ degree of satisfaction with local governments′ services in the capital of Norway. Loyalty, defined as willingness to maintain present location of business, is believed to be influenced by satisfaction. The results from the study confirm low satisfaction scores. However, support for positive correlation between satisfaction and loyalty was not found. Reputation correlated with loyalty and satisfaction. Improvements in customers′ perception of service quality, government′s reputation and professional handling of customer voice, will influence customer satisfaction and loyalty. Improving service quality as perceived by the users through the differentiating of the offer, and improving reputation, are the managerial implications of this study in order for government to improve its performance, i.e. increased user satisfaction and loyalty.

Many studies have investigated consumers’ loyalty to businesses situated in the local area, in the community, the region or in the same country. However, the effect of loyalty to the state in which the consumer resides has received little attention. This paper aims to propose the concept of home-state attachment (HSA) and develop models of its antecedents and its effects on criterion variables such as loyalty to local business.

After refinement of the measure of HSA, the authors conduct two studies (n = 202 and n = 201) among residents of two different Canadian provinces (states). They estimate the models, which include both formative and reflective indicators, using structural equation modeling.

The results of both studies show that HSA can be distinguished from related constructs like consumer ethnocentrism (CET). HSA has a strong effect on loyalty to local businesses, independent of the effect of CET, testifying to its importance. HSA also affects other criterion variables, with loyalty to local business playing a mediational role.

This paper shows that HSA, a social-identity-based motivation for local patronage, is an important but largely overlooked determinant of loyalty to local businesses. The robustness of the results over two studies suggests that appeals to consumers based on this motivation may enhance the effectiveness of marketing programs.

The seminal literature on state formation proposes a model of “co-opt and expand” to explain the rise of centralized nation-states in modern and early modern Europe. Building on this literature’s distinction between direct and indirect rule, other analysts have expanded the scope of this model to explain patterns of state building in the non-Western world, particularly in the construction of centralized authority in postcolonial and postimperial contexts. According to this literature, the failure of central rulers to co-opt local elites has frequently produced weak states lacking capacities of rule in their peripheries. Using archival materials to examine the Albanian state’s relatively successful penetration of the country’s highland communities during its early decades of national independence, this article suggests that state building can proceed along an alternative path called “co-opt and bind,” in which state builders “bind” peasant communal institutions to the institutional idea of the nation-state to legitimize and implement state building goals. The article identifies three mechanisms used by early Albanian state builders to generate legitimacy and institute political order in its remote communities, including disarmament, the institution of new forms of economic dependency, and the invocation of peasant cultural codes of honor.

The study of international business has become increasingly important in recent years. So important that the American Assembly of the Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) has called for the internationalisation of business curricula. In 1992 and beyond, successful business people will treat the entire world as their domain. No one country can operate in an economic vacuum. Any economic measures taken by one country can affect the global economy. This book is designed to challenge the reader to develop a global perspective of international business. Globalisation is by no means a new concept, but there are many new factors that have contributed to its recently accelerated growth. Among them, the new technologies in communication and transport that have resulted in major expansions of international trade and investment. In the future, the world market will become predominant. There are bound to be big changes in the world economy. For instance the changes in Eastern Europe and the European Community during the 1990s. With a strong knowledge base in international business, future managers will be better prepared for the new world market. This book introduces its readers to the exciting and rewarding field of international management and international corporations. It is written in contemporary, easy‐to‐understand language, avoiding abstract terminology; and is organised into five sections, each of which includes a number of chapters that cover a subject involving activities that cross national boundaries.