Search results

The purpose of this paper is to address the limitations of prior views regarding knowledge source exploitation by proposing a phenomenological approach to managerial attention and the antecedents of exploiting knowledge sources within the multinational corporations (MNC) network.

A phenomenological approach to attention is taken to explain the antecedents of managerial attention in knowledge source exploitation behavior. This approach provides an alternative way of conceiving of knowledge source remoteness and familiarity, on the one hand, and exclusion and inclusion on the other.

Drawing on a phenomenological approach to attention, the merits and limits of prior studies of attention and knowledge seeking/exchange behavior are addressed and three modes of managerial attention are proposed – relative attention, mimetic attention, implicit attention – to explain the antecedents of managerial attention to MNC knowledge sources.

This approach to knowledge source exploitation and attention provides a rich conceptualization of taken‐for‐granted assumptions in extant literature on managerial attention and knowledge‐seeking behavior. The framework offered here builds on a conceptually rigid foundation of attention that overcomes dualisms such as mind‐body, subject‐object, and thinking‐acting that are often embedded in other mainstream approaches to managerial attention.

In this study the aim is to analyze multiple decisions in mergers and acquisitions (M&As) strategy to verify whether isomorphism appears in these decisions when a firm imitates others and to determine under what conditions the link between imitation and the degree of similarity in M&As is weakened.

With a sample of 4,881 completed M&As in the financial service industry, the authors adopt the generalized multivariate regression model to test the hypothesized effects of the independent variables on the degree of similarity in M&As.

Support is found for the mimetic isomorphism argument. Furthermore, firm experience and local market segmentation weaken the positive relationship between imitation and the degree of similarity in M&As.

This study enhances the understanding of mimetic isomorphism by not only verifying the relationship between imitation and isomorphism, but also integrating the role of organizational active agency (firm experience) and the extent to which local market competitors affect imitation and isomorphism within the industry as a whole.

Traditionally, researchers have relied on the “rational choice” paradigm in studying organizational buying behaviour. Shows that such reliance is inappropriate in the international setting. By integrating insights from four theoretical perspectives that break out of the rational choice model, ventures 14 propositions of importer behaviour that shed useful light on the complex and messy process of overseas vendor search. Also discusses managerial implications and directions for further research.

The purpose of this paper is to explain the role of mimetic isomorphism in relation to reporting sustainability information on local authority websites.

The paper adopts a case study approach using semi‐structured interviews of 16 Malaysian local councils.

The paper finds that 15 out of 16 of the interviewed councils mimicked the sustainability information on websites of other councils. Interviews revealed that they do so to copy ideas about sustainability activities implementation rather than reporting format. Councils imitate both Malaysian and international websites.

Websites play an important role in the improvement of sustainability development for learning, benchmarking and cost reduction. The pattern of copying websites suggests a hierarchical model where councils lower in the hierarchy copy councils at the next level in the hierarchy.

This paper adds to the limited literature on mimetic isomorphism of public sector website sustainability reporting in developing countries.

This paper aims to explain the implementation process of risk management (RM) practices as a trade facilitation initiative in a public organization undergoing public sector reform and modernization processes in Jordan.

The paper draws on the institutional theory and presents a qualitative case study of Jordan Customs (JC). It synthesizes an institutional isomorphism framework to interpret the interplay between the JC institutional environment and the JC RM practices. The data were collected and analyzed by using the triangulation of interviews, observations and documents.

The study findings reveal that JC has experienced institutional pressures that mobilize the emerging of RM as a managerial tool that contributes to facilitating international trade, improving state revenues and reducing the public budget deficit. To be internationally recognized, JC benchmark its RM practices with international practices recommended by International Agencies such as World Customs Organizations (WCO). The study concludes that RM practices have been tailored and aligned with the JC’s external and internal context and role and RM has been embedded as an integral part of all organizational processes including strategic and business planning, as well as all accounting change and management activities. The study finds that coercive, normative and mimetic pressures are the driving forces with coercive mechanisms being the most influential.

This paper has important implications for practitioners, academics and students, as well as international donors especially U.S. Agency for International Development. It mainly depends on the analysis of documents and records to elucidate the development of RM, yet corroborated by interviews. It also uses a retrospective approach with interviewees being asked to describe, explain and reflect upon the events they had experienced during the JC change processes.

This paper significantly contributes to the scarce of knowledge that currently exists about RM in the public sector of developing countries and in particular “customs administrations.” It recognizes how the public sector in Jordan responded to the international community and WCO’s recommendation in implementing RM.

This study shows that JC’s experience of institutional pressures mobilized by the enactment of RM as a managerial tool that enabled a higher quality of custom services, trade facilitation, improvement of state revenues and a reduction of the state’s budget deficit.

In most European code-law oriented Latin countries, the publication of a CEO's letter to shareholders in a company's annual report is a fairly recent phenomenon. In this paper, the authors seek to determine the characteristics that explain why companies in one such country, i.e. Portugal, published a CEO letter.

The paper's holistic theoretical framework draws on elements of agency theory, institutional theory and signalling theory. To understand the characteristics of Portuguese holding companies that published CEO letters, the authors used a logistic regression model to explore 266 observations over the years 2006-2011.

The publication of a CEO letter becomes more likely if a firm is audited by a Big 4 accounting firm; has a higher level of profitability; and has a high number of foreign subsidiaries. Other findings are that finance companies are slightly more likely to publish a CEO letter than non-finance companies. The number of CEO letters increased to a peak in 2008, and then declined.

The increasing number of companies now publishing a CEO letter raises the concern for regulatory authorities of whether the content of the CEO letter should be audited, since any numbers presented in the management report have to be audited in Portugal.

To the best of the authors' knowledge this is the first empirical exploration of the characteristics that explain why companies publish a CEO letter. Mimetic and normative isomorphism is revealed to be a potentially important influence, since there is a tendency of companies audited by Big 4 accounting companies, and with foreign subsidiaries, to publish a CEO letter.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the influence of SOEs on institutions. The authors argue that in some cases there are differences in institutional shape between the shape that is actually demanded by an institution’s institutional environment and the shape that the institution itself believes is demanded of its institutional framework. The authors observed a behavior specific to institutions that change their institutional shape in response to demands, irrespective of whether these demands are legitimate, and this behavior was primarily in response to demands from governments and SOEs. The authors call this situation institutional dysmorphia and contrast it with institutional isomorphism.

This study is characterized by the qualitative approach and descriptive form. It is also a documentary study employing the systematic review technique and critical appreciation in a research group. The case of the Brazilian National Development Bank (BNDES) is analyzed to examine the different relationships between Brazilian SOEs and BNDES. It used secondary data provided by reports, papers and relevant magazines. The authors compare them with the conceptual purpose originated in the Medicine field.

The study is illustrated by the case of the BNDES and the various different relationships between Brazilian SOEs and BNDES are examined. This is a qualitative and descriptive documentary study, employing the systematic review technique. Specific behavior is observed in institutions that change their institutional shape in response to demands, irrespective of whether these demands are legitimate, and these demands mainly come from the government and from SOEs.

The authors use of secondary data from only one country that was used to present these arguments. The focus was restricted to the institutional framework comprising one institution and SOEs. Private firms were not considered in this institutional framework, but they must be included in a macro-environment. Institutional pressures are dynamic and asymmetric. The dynamism of institutional change was not evaluated, and neither was the evolution of the relationships between government, SOEs and institutions. Finally, researchers need to understand not only top-down models of institutional effects but also the institutional process that incorporates both institutional influence and firm responses.

The term institutional dysmorphia is proposed through the contrast with concepts such institutional isomorphism, with reference to the institutional logics and institutional complexity of these institutions’ and SOEs’ environment. The situation described institutional dysmorphia happening in emerging countries context and might open new avenues for research.

The purpose of this paper is to explain why many socially responsible firms appear to converge on a standard set of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices instead of striving to differentiate themselves from rivals and achieve competitive advantage.

Three explanations of this convergence are presented as follows: herd behaviour, institutional isomorphism and strategic cooperation. The different empirical predictions of these theories are laid down. The resulting framework is used to analyse a recent self‐regulatory scheme launched by the steel industry, in which knowledge sharing was used to stimulate poor performers to curb carbon dioxide emissions.

Social practices of firms are very often driven by pressures to conform, instead of pressures to perform. Even firms that want to be innovative may be forced by stakeholder requests to adopt passive and imitative behaviour.

The paper suggests that there are two types of CSR – convergent and divergent – and that firms need to establish which type of CSR best fits their needs before they address the issues raised by stakeholders.

The literature on CSR focuses on the relationship between stakeholders and single firms. The paper tries to add to this literature by analysing the relationship between stakeholders and industries. The paper also contributes to the debate on the financial benefits of CSR by arguing that in industries where the convergent type of CSR is dominant researchers should not expect above‐average returns for socially responsible firms.

The purpose of this paper is to fill the following research gaps. First, few studies have examined isomorphic behavior of multinational corporations (MNCs) with respect to foreign subsidiary staffing. Second, the adoption by an MNC of its internally preferable practices, which is referred to as internal mimetic behavior, has been less extensively investigated when compared with the imitation of practices adopted by a large number of peer firms. Lastly, factors that facilitate internal mimetic behavior have not been extensively explored.

This study hypothesizes that internal mimetic behavior is affected by both formal and informal institutional distance. The hypotheses are tested using the panel data set that consists of 3,981 foreign subsidiaries of Japanese MNCs.

This study finds that as the formal institutional distance between the host country and the home country increases, MNCs are more likely to adopt internal mimetic behavior. Furthermore, it demonstrates that as the informal institutional distance increases, the likelihood that MNCs adopt internal mimetic behavior decreases.

This study suggests that MNCs need to consider the consequences of internal mimetic behavior when they adopt it without having economic rationale. It also suggests that when uncertainty can be mitigated, MNCs should avoid internal mimetic behavior.

This study fills the aforementioned research gaps by examining what factors facilitate internal mimetic behavior. It suggests that both economic rationale and isomorphic behavior need to be considered to advance an understanding of foreign subsidiary staffing.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the factors influencing the adoption of new information systems (IS) in organizations. Based on the institutional theory, this research proposes that organizations may induce their employees to adopt new IS by creating three types of institutional pressure: coercive, normative and mimetic. It is further argued that the effects of these three institutional pressures on employees’ new IS usage depend on their cultural orientations.

Model testing relies on data collected from 370 banking sector employees during the implementation of a new “customer relationship management” system. The hypothesized model was tested by using the structural equation modeling technique in MPlus 7.0.

The findings of this research reveal that institutional pressures (coercive, normative and mimetic) have positive effects on employees’ attitudes to using the new IS, which, in turn, positively influences their IS usage. In addition, collectivism strengthens the positive effect of coercive and normative forces on attitudes to using the new IS. Conversely, collectivism weakens the effect of the mimetic force on employees’ attitudes to using the new IS.

This research is among pioneering studies that explain the effect of institutional pressures (coercive, normative and mimetic) on employees’ IS usage. It is the first study of its nature that demonstrates that each of the three institutional pressures has differential effects on employees with highly collectivist orientations in comparison with employees with low collectivist orientations.