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Article
Publication date: 12 September 2016

Michelle Mielly, Frank Alain Rouault and Kevin Richards O'Reilly

The purpose of this brief paper is to highlight the role of culture in cross-cultural M&A environments.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this brief paper is to highlight the role of culture in cross-cultural M&A environments.

Findings

Empirical work as consultants and participant-observers within multiple international organizations in the process of pre or post M&A restructuring has revealed the need to develop three key “best practices” linked to behaviors which facilitate organizational actors’ role in such dynamic and complex organizational environments.

Practical implications

Managers and practitioners may be able to re think their own positioning within the merged or merging firm and question some of their own cultural allegiances and behaviors, whether linked to national culture or organizational (corporate) culture.

Originality/value

The authors have identified three key behavioral skills crucial to effective intercultural interactions, when interacting in cross-border M&A contexts.

Details

Strategic Direction, vol. 32 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0258-0543

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 February 2022

Michelle Mielly and Amanda Peticca-Harris

This qualitative study explores, through the lens of Schein's (1978) career anchor theory, the internal career perceptions (self-perceived values, challenges and capabilities) of…

Abstract

Purpose

This qualitative study explores, through the lens of Schein's (1978) career anchor theory, the internal career perceptions (self-perceived values, challenges and capabilities) of local surf workers in the highly internationalized sector of surf tourism in Nicaragua.

Design/methodology/approach

Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 22 local surf tourism workers. Participant experiences were analyzed using thematic analysis to distinguish their career anchor orientations.

Findings

The results indicate the sustained value and instrumentality of Schein's original career anchor theory, specifically in terms of the interconnectedness of dominant and supporting anchors and the relevance of anchor groupings for workers in non-standard working environments. The anchors of lifestyle, entrepreneurial creativity, and security and stability were closely interrelated and complementary, as participants from this context were ultimately striving for security and stability.

Research limitations/implications

Future research should consider more explicitly the role of the socio-political, environmental or economic context in shaping the internal career self-concepts and experiences of workers.

Practical implications

This study sheds light on the internal career drivers — the unique dilemmas, challenges, passions and motives — of local workers in a resource-constrained environment. Managers, business owners and other economic actors stand to gain important insights into the realities of workers they employ, but do not intimately understand. Such insights could be generalizable to a variety of work settings in which there are high material, social or cultural constraints.

Social implications

Non-standard work contexts and local worker voices are both thematically underrepresented in the careers scholarship. Research on these topics can contribute to broader discussions of sustainability, sustainable development goals and decolonial perspectives in social science scholarship. Bringing local workers from the Global South into view means turning scholarly attention towards less-visible “others” working alongside those having received the lion's share of academic discussion, i.e. expatriate workers on a global assignment or self-initiated expatriates, most often from the Global North.

Originality/value

This is one of the first studies to explore the career anchors of local workers in the Global South in a non-standard, non-bureaucratic vocational setting. The study sheds light on local workers' career decisions, an often-neglected perspective within international human resource management.

Details

Career Development International, vol. 27 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1362-0436

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 July 2024

Michelle Mielly, Phil Watson Eyre and Felix Hubner

International Entrepreneurs (IEs) increasingly cross borders to internationalize their activities, yet the various motives driving them into foreign markets are insufficiently…

Abstract

Purpose

International Entrepreneurs (IEs) increasingly cross borders to internationalize their activities, yet the various motives driving them into foreign markets are insufficiently understood vis-à-vis the public agencies striving to attract them. Our study proposes a consideration of their interplay by contrasting the various mobility rationales of IEs with those of the investment agencies striving to capture their talent.

Design/methodology/approach

Empirically, we concentrate on firms selected for funding in the French Tech Ticket, a competitive program designed to incentivize international start-ups to set up business in regional clusters across France. Using a longitudinal qualitative approach, we conducted two separate rounds of semi-structured interviews with IEs, public agency managers, and incubator staff members using thematic analysis of participant narratives on mobility.

Findings

Our findings point to diverging narratives on mobility, with an overarching opportunity-centrism on the part of the entrepreneurs and a general location-centrism emanating from the regional agencies. These contrasting visions of mobility are not mutually exclusive but rather present along a mobility continuum that generates contrasting logics.

Practical implications

Implications for policy and practice are provided for the investment agencies crafting policies and committing resources to attract mobile international entrepreneurs. While past IE mobility may correlate with the likelihood of present and future movement, our dual settler-explorer continuum model demonstrates that a binary separation of explorers and settlers is too simplistic: explorers may be subject to settler impulses and settlers can still be drawn to exploration and nomadism. We also provide insights for IEs seeking support in their international development and mobility and the particular advantages a given host economy can offer by identifying an overarching proximity-to-distance rationale for explorers, including the common “host-as-stopover” intermediary rationale.

Originality/value

We theorize this incommensurability as an expression of the current complexity of international mobility and policymaking, revealing a “next-frontier” expansionism in cross-border movement that requires more deliberate consideration.

Details

Journal of Global Mobility: The Home of Expatriate Management Research, vol. 12 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2049-8799

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 October 2017

Michelle Mielly, Catherine Jones, Mark Smith and Vikram Basistha

This paper aims to explore the experience of self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) moving from the global South to the global North. It considers the relationship between country of…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore the experience of self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) moving from the global South to the global North. It considers the relationship between country of origin and host country, the role of non-traditional destinations and the choices made by SIEs.

Design/methodology/approach

In-depth interviews were conducted with Indian SIEs and key experts to explore the motives, identities and life narratives of skilled expatriate Indians in France.

Findings

The results shed light on how individuals’ careers are fashioned through the intersection of identities; highlighting the interplay between country of origin and the host country as a catalyst in SIEs’ choice of destination. Furthermore, the authors demonstrate a strategic form of agency exercised through these SIEs’ choice of an unconventional destination.

Research limitations/implications

The intricate nature of SIE trajectories holds implications for migration theory, diaspora studies and career theory. SIEs from the Global South adopt varying strategies linked to specific host-country career offerings, often in sharp contrast with home-country opportunities.

Practical implications

The results inform managerial and policy-maker understandings of career motivations for mobile skilled workers moving for career and lifestyle. For countries seeking to attract talent, the findings demonstrate the roles of host-country immigration policy, country reputation and perceived career opportunities.

Originality/value

This study helps address research gaps in relation self-initiated expatriation from the Global South to the North. At the same time, it identifies the potential for transitional spaces and the relationship between countries, identity-formation factors and career agency. These findings on France as a transitional space – one of intermediacy and in-betweenness, where self-identity and future career projections can be re-imagined and reshaped – shed new light on how SIEs and their movements can be conceptualized.

Details

critical perspectives on international business, vol. 13 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1742-2043

Keywords

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