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This paper aims to compare the emergence and evolution of organizational fields through an analysis of the life insurance industries in two large emerging markets. Using institutional theory as a conceptual framework, we compare the regulatory, cognitive and normative dimensions of the life insurance industry in China and India.

The authors introduce a qualitative variation of the country institutional profile (CIP) that has been traditionally implemented as a quantitative analytical tool used to describe differences in national environments. This newly proposed methodology captures the socially embedded aspects of the phenomenon more completely than commonly employed survey-based methodology.

This analysis leads to a three-dimensional typology of constructs and themes within each national environment. These themes include the importance of regulation and protectionism, the domestic savings culture, family support structures and human capital development within the industry. The authors conclude by comparing these typologies to consider the implications for studying change in organizational fields across contexts.

As the authors reflect on the evolution of organizational fields, they demonstrate how the interplay of historical factors and new global norms results in a negotiated stance between compliance with new norms and allegiance to local interests. In terms of methodological contribution, we show how the socially embedded aspects of the examined phenomenon are explored more completely by the proposed qualitative CIP than through its quantitative variation. This approach and the analysis illustrate a complex interplay of local and global norms within a selected industry that may be missed by other research methods.

Using an institutional theory perspective this paper aims to examine the influence of multinational corporations (MNCs) on host country institutional environments.

This is a conceptual piece that introduces the concept of the country institutional profile (CIP) as a useful theoretical framework for analyzing the host country institutional environment.

The existing model that describes the MNC as a social change agent within host country institutions is extended. This is accomplished by utilizing the CIP as a more formal conception of the host country institutional environment. The model is then used to examine a specific case of the MNC impact on the host country level of environmentalism.

The value of the contribution lies in the application of the CIP for analyzing the host country institutional environment. Furthermore, this framework is applied to the case of the MNC's impact on host country environmentalism.

The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence that firms that are more committed to internationalization, systematically differ from firms that are less committed to internationalization in their future intention to engage in foreign direct investment (FDI). The authors analyzed data from 42 large Brazilian multinational enterprises (MNEs) and found that results support previous research on the degree of satisfaction with prior internationalization efforts and future intent to internationalize, such that the relationship between the two is positive. Yet contrary to existing literature, the degree to which a firm was committed to internationalization has a negative influence on the positive relationship between satisfaction and intent.

All Brazilian firms that have entered foreign markets via FDI were surveyed to measure the firm’s: intent to internationalize; satisfaction with prior internationalization; and commitment to internationalization. Intent to internationalize is future based while both satisfaction and commitment reflect previous year’s activities. The potential response pool included publically traded companies listed on the Bovespa (São Paulo Stock Exchange) and private limited companies (Ltda.). The authors conducted a hierarchical moderated regression analysis to test the moderating effect of commitment to internationalization on the relationship between international satisfaction and intent to internationalize.

This study adds to the literature by examining how past international satisfaction and commitment affect the future intent to internationalize for large Brazilian MNEs. The results confirm that the degree of past satisfaction regarding a firm’s international business is positively related to the firm’s future intent to internationalize. However, the results diverge from past research in two important ways. First, contrary to the organizational behavior literature, past commitment to internationalization does not have a significant relationship with future intention to internationalize. Second, the results show the relationship between satisfaction and intent is weakened by a high degree of international commitment.

A limitation of this study is the small sample size. While it encompasses the vast majority of large MNEs in Brazil, the authors still do not have enough data points to test more hypotheses such as the effects of firm size, number of countries the firm is in, and age of the firm. Future studies should attempt to expand the work done here by examining these effects. Another limitation of this study is that it is based on solely one country; Brazil. Future studies should attempt to replicate these findings in other emerging market countries.

These results have three main managerial implications. First, international strategists analyzing the trajectory of a firm’s future intentions to internationalize should focus on how satisfied the firm has been with its past efforts. Second, managers should not assume that just because their firms have a large presence abroad that this will subsequently lead to future plans to internationalize. Finally, for emerging market MNEs in a period of the financial crises, committing more to internationalization may reduce the positive relationship between satisfaction and intention.

The purpose of this study is to add to the small but growing work on large MNEs from Brazil in order to better understand their internationalization strategies. While there are literally hundreds of articles investigating the individual-level relationship between satisfaction and the intent to do something, there are a dearth at the firm level (see Wood et al., 2011, as a notable exception). The authors therefore attempt to extend the literature on internationalization by discussing how satisfaction at the firm level affects a firm-level decision.

The Howard Shuttering Contractors case throws considerable light on the importance which the tribunals attach to warnings before dismissing an employee. In this case the tribunal took great pains to interpret the intention of the parties to the different site agreements, and it came to the conclusion that the agreed procedure was not followed. One other matter, which must be particularly noted by employers, is that where a final warning is required, this final warning must be “a warning”, and not the actual dismissal. So that where, for example, three warnings are to be given, the third must be a “warning”. It is after the employee has misconducted himself thereafter that the employer may dismiss.

The purpose of this article is to look in detail into the collapse and its subsequent implications of the London and County Securities bank (L&C) in 1973, one of the most significant UK corporate fraud scandals and regulatory failures in recent decades.

The article is a case study drawing on the report on L&C by the Department of Trade (DT) inspectors and the national and trade press, interviews with and the private papers of some of the major participants.

The study identifies and explains the nature of the fraud, the shortcomings of the auditing of the bank, the poor performance of the DT inspectors, and the weaknesses of the subsequent changes in the regulatory system.

The implications of the article's findings are: that commentators, and the regulatory and legal system need to distinguish between different types of fraud; that commercial pressures impact adversely on the audit process; that DT inspections conducted by accountants are not independent in their judgements; and that self‐regulation is always likely to be ineffective.

The findings are likely to be of interest to accounting academics and historians, practitioners and regulators.

Provides an insight into the collapse of the London and County Securities bank.

It has often been said that a great part of the strength of Aslib lies in the fact that it brings together those whose experience has been gained in many widely differing fields but who have a common interest in the means by which information may be collected and disseminated to the greatest advantage. Lists of its members have, therefore, a more than ordinary value since they present, in miniature, a cross‐section of institutions and individuals who share this special interest.

Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).