Search results

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in emerging economies face significant challenges in formulating effective strategies to enter international markets, particularly amid uncertain conditions such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, there is a pressing need to examine the performance of these SMEs and evaluate their internationalization process. This study aims to examine the effects of international entrepreneurial orientation on the internationalization performance of SMEs and the mediating effects of organizational dynamic capability and organizational culture in Indonesia.

This study used a quantitative method with a survey approach by distributing questionnaires to 206 SMEs in Indonesia that have implemented internationalization practices. Partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to predict and estimate relationships.

This study finds that one of the SMEs’ strategies to encounter the new normal era of COVID-19 is to improve their internationalization performance, especially by actively participating in international markets. The empirical results show that organizational dynamic capabilities and organizational culture are proven to fully mediate the relationship between international entrepreneurial orientation and the internationalization performance of SMEs. Meanwhile, international entrepreneurial orientation does not directly affect SMEs’ internationalization performance. This study confirms the mediating role of organizational dynamic capabilities and organizational culture in dynamic capabilities theory and their relevance to internationalization.

This study provides valuable insights and encourages owner-managers and policy-makers in emerging economies, particularly Indonesia, to develop organizational dynamic capabilities and organizational culture that align with the demands of internationalization.

Drawing upon theories of ethical ideologies (idealism and relativism) and work locus of control, this study aims to examine how ethical ideology in job seekers influences their use of deceptive impression management (deceptive IM) behavior during job interviews.

A time-lagged study was conducted with two measurement waves to test our hypotheses. AMOS-SEM, which included bootstrapping (5,000 re-sampling) procedures to analyze the data, was used.

Results indicate that a job seeker's relativistic ethical ideology influences their use of deceptive IM behavior during job interviews and work locus of control – internal [WLOC (internal)] mediates this relationship. Exploring the relationship between ethical ideologies of job seekers and their deceptive IM behavior at job interviews, this study found that relativistic individuals with WLOC (internal) were more inclined to engage in deceptive IM.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies to explore the role of ethical ideology in influencing deception IM behavior during job interviews. Knowledge of the relationship between job seekers ethical ideologies and deception IM behavior at job interviews would alert HR managers to adopt additional screening processes to detect candidates who indulge in deceptive IM behavior to exaggerate their image to influence the interviewer's perception.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the control mechanisms used by multinational corporations (MNCs) from emerging economies to manage their subsidiaries in developed countries and their implications for human resource management practices.

The paper draws on data collected through in-depth case studies and interviews with senior subsidiary managers of 12 major Indian information technology (IT) MNCs operating in Australia.

Indian IT MNCs rely heavily on the use of people-centric controls exerted through global staffing practices (via the transfer of parent-country nationals), which, in turn, influence their subsidiary’s discretion over their HR practices. The use of people-centric controls allows Indian IT multinationals to replicate parent-country HRM practices in their Australian subsidiaries in an ethnocentric manner and significantly leverage the people-based competitive advantages from India through short- and long-term expatriate assignments.

The study investigates control and HRM practices from a single country and a single industry perspective. It provides an insight into the normative means of control in foreign subsidiaries of MNCs and enhances our understanding by explaining the integrated relationship that control mechanisms (and their people-centric components) have with HRM practices including the global staffing approaches and expatriate management practices of emerging MNCs.

Indian MNCs are using their business model to leverage the Australian immigration and skilled visa programme to maintain cost advantages. However, the immigration legislation in developed countries needs to be capable of allowing emerging multinational corporations (EMNCs) to maintain such advantages as developed countries seek to attract foreign direct investment from emerging economies.

The results indicate that the control practices of EMNCs are similar to the controls exerted by MNCs from developed countries. They also show that EMNCs do not adopt a portfolio approach to global staffing, and that the people-centric components of their control have a clear impact on their subsidiaries’ HRM practices.

The purpose of this study is to apply the dominance effect theory and postcolonial notions of “otherness” to critically study the enactment of mimicry at IndianBread, an Indian fast-food chain that has adopted work practices typically found in US fast-food multinational enterprises (MNEs).

The authors used an interpretive sensemaking case study approach and collected qualitative data drawing on observations, notes from the company policy manual and in-depth interviews with eight staff at an IndianBread outlet. Data were also collected during informal interactions with staff at three other IndianBread outlets. The analysis focused on the enactment of mimicry and studied the postcolonial dynamics between managers and migrant workers to explain their resistance to the adoption of US work practices.

Work practices of US fast-food MNEs such as the standardization of workers’ appearance and basic “Englishization” such as greeting customers in English had been adopted at the IndianBread outlet. However, migrant workers resisted enforcement by contesting the superiority and relevance of these US work practices. The workers’ resistance was accommodated by local managers to pacify and retain them.

The analysis contributes to a deeper understanding of the dynamics of resistance to the dominant influence of US work practices in emerging market firms. It expands current notions of “otherness” by presenting the perspective of “local” managers and migrant workers. The authors show how worker resistance embedded in their “identity work” involves contesting notions of “inferiority” of local work practices and selves. In the case of managers, accommodating resistance maintains their “legitimacy of dominance”. To that end, the study explains how the need to mimic US work practices is enforced, contested and ultimately diluted in competitive local firms in rising India.

The organizationally grounded data show how managerial accommodation of workers’ resistance to US practices creates a more flexible working environment that dilutes migrant workers’ sensitivity to their exploitation at the fast-food outlet.

The findings identify the link between mimicry and resistance by the “other,” the ambivalence of the colonizing agent and the ongoing material exploitation within emerging economies.

To that end, the study explains how the need to mimic the US work practices is enforced, contested and ultimately diluted in the context of the competitive local firms in India.

Hotels conducting international business are acknowledging the importance of an expatriate general manager (GM), to increase the effectiveness of their knowledge management system through the sharing of knowledge between expatriates and local employees. In the aspect of comparative leadership studies, this study attempts to compare and analyze the effects of knowledge sharing (KS) efforts, which are competencies of expatriate GMs and local GMs, on employee trust, organizational KS and employee loyalty.

Data were collected from employees of 7 hotels managed by expatriate GMs among 16 franchising luxury (5-star) hotels, and from employees of 6 hotels operated by local GMs among 9 local luxury hotels located in Korea. Structural equation modeling method using SmartPLS 3.3.3 was used to analyze the data.

Expatriate GM’s two-way KS influences affective trust but does not influence cognitive trust. Affective trust influences cognitive and organizational KS but does not influence employee loyalty. Cognitive trust does not influence organizational KS but influences employee loyalty. Finally, organizational KS significantly affects employee loyalty. In addition, in the analysis comparing the estimates between expatriate and local GM group, significant differences in groups were found for the impact of GM’s two-way KS on cognitive trust, for the impact of affective trust on organizational KS, for the impact of affective trust on employee loyalty and for the impact of cognitive trust on organizational KS.

This study shows that knowledge management designs need to consider different effects of expatriate GMs’ and local GMs’ capabilities on employee attitudes and behavior considering cultural impacts. Expatriate GMs will greatly benefit their effort for KS by assuring employees that they are attentive to their needs, interests and problems.

This study not only contributes to the existing social capital theory but also provides managerial implications for human resources management in the hospitality field through a comparative study of KS efforts of expatriate and local GMs.

The study aims to investigate the production offshore outsourcing practices of SMEs in the New Zealand printing, publishing and packaging industries. It identifies the techniques SMEs use to organise and manage their offshore outsourcing activities. The authors then develop a managerial framework to assist SMEs in their future offshore outsourcing ambitions.

The study takes a qualitative approach; obtaining data from a sample of 22 New Zealand SMEs in the printing, publishing and packaging industries that are actively offshore outsourcing production tasks. Data was gathered in the form of semi‐structured interviews with SME managers who have carried out offshore outsourcing.

To mitigate offshore outsourcing costs, SMEs use the internet to locate suppliers and use short‐term reliable contracts that are managed remotely or by intermediaries. Customer involvement was highly important during the entire offshore outsourcing process. Most SMEs developed long‐term business relationships with reliable suppliers. These findings are integrated into the SME framework, which identifies ways SMEs can overcome resource constraints and minimise risks when offshore outsourcing.

This study is confined to a single country and reports on findings for several related industries, i.e. the printing, publishing and packaging industries in New Zealand. This limits its applicability to research in other settings and other industries. However, it identifies an area of research (offshore outsourcing activities in SMEs) that could be extended to other industries and countries by future research.

The SME framework presents an easily understood approach that has been verified by SME managers who have successfully offshore outsourced production tasks. The research proves that SMEs can offshore outsource within the constraints of limited physical and managerial resources.

The study showed that the decision‐making process to outsource is supported by the transaction costs approach. Firms have to balance out total cost considerations in making their decision to offshore (including contingency costs) to ensure that the savings from outsourcing are greater than the transaction costs. The resource‐based view of the firm is also used to suggest that offshore outsourcing means that firms may be able to improve their own competences by providing (through their suppliers) access to more sophisticated and higher‐quality processes.

The research contributes to the growing area of SME offshore outsourcing research, providing detailed empirical evidence of SME offshore outsourcing activities occurring in New Zealand.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the motivations for offshore outsourcing encountered by manufacturing small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) and their suppliers in China. The paper explores the motivations and challenges encountered by SMEs choosing to outsource their manufacturing activities and why their suppliers engage with them.

A qualitative case study method was utilized. The authors obtained perspectives of SME managers as well as the suppliers for each of the cases, conducting in‐depth interviews in order to obtain comprehensive information about their outsourcing activities. Then, cross‐case analysis was carried out using content analysis techniques to identify key themes for the motivations to undertake offshore outsourcing.

The results showed that the first rationale for offshore outsourcing relates to increasing efficiency and labor cost reduction while holding quality constant. The second rationale is to maintain flexibility in resource allocation providing both manufacturing SMEs and their suppliers with an opportunity to enter new markets. For both manufacturing firms and their suppliers building a relationship through networks and alliances was the key to the success (learning orientation) of the partnership.

The managerial implications of the findings are that first, from the perspective of client firms, the most important factor for success in manufacturing offshore outsourcing was maintaining good relationships with suppliers. The benefits of having close relationships with suppliers for outsourcing firms helped them to secure the quality of their products. The second managerial implication is from the perspective of the supplier firms. Supplier firms which were also aware of the transaction cost implications of their delivery while improving their own international image by supplying international clients. The evidence supplied suggests that supplier firms can benefit from using networks to assist them to gain international exposure.

While there are numerous studies on offshore outsourcing by multinational enterprises (MNEs) and large enterprises, there are relatively fewer studies on manufacturing offshore outsourcing by SMEs. Using the three theoretical lenses of the transaction cost approach, the core competences and the alliances, networks and internationalization approach, the paper offers insights on the reasons for and outcomes of a group of SMEs decision to undertake offshoring‐manufacturing activities in China. Also, the paper examines the manufacturing offshore outsourcing issues from the perspective of the suppliers to these SMEs.

This paper aims to examine the role of psychic distance during the process of international market entry by software international new ventures (INVs) from small, open economies. Specifically, we investigate how home market and global industry contexts influence market-entry strategies, and how psychic distance influences initial then subsequent market-entry choice decisions.

Using Atlas.ti7 software, this paper adopts a qualitative, multi-case analysis of ten software INVs based in New Zealand. Thematic coding of interview and secondary data revealed three core processes: pre-entry considerations, market selection criteria and post-entry evaluation, across the stages of initial and subsequent market entry.

In the context of the global software industry, the key driver of proactive market entry by INVs from small, open economies is market size rather than psychic distance. During the process of market expansion, firms encounter the psychic distance paradox (PDP). A second paradox arises when, despite experiential learning, managerial perceptions of psychic distance increase, making entry into more distant markets less, rather than more, likely and reactive, rather than proactive.

This paper addresses contextual differences in software versus more traditional sectors, and the influence of psychic distance on market entry rather than outcomes. Specifically, extending our understanding of the PDP, we find perceptual psychic and cultural distance ignored as criteria for initial market-entry decisions, and initial positive attitudes toward risk-taking become less apparent during subsequent entries.

An international joint venture (IJV) helps multinational enterprises (MNEs) overcome the “liability of foreignness.” However, in the presence of institutional voids, MNE’s overreliance on the local partner can result in the MNE unwittingly becoming involved in a corporate scandal. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the causes, impacts and outcomes on the MNE’s legitimacy following a corporate scandal.

Using secondary data, this paper presents a qualitative case study of the Fonterra-Sanlu milk-powder scandal in China.

The paper identifies the institutional voids that contributed to the scandal. It also examines the effects of the scandal on the MNE’s legitimacies and evaluates the appropriateness of its actions in China during the formation, erosion and repair stages of its legitimacy.

It contributes to legitimacy literature by discussing the importance of MNE’s active commitment when entering the emerging market. It argues that the building of pragmatic legitimacy is not sufficient, and explains why attendance to moral obligations is part of building moral and cognitive legitimacy.

This unique case study of a corporate scandal offers deep insights into how, what and why questions regarding how the three forms of legitimacy are necessary for improving IJV performance by MNEs operating in emerging economies. It particularly highlights the importance of moral legitimacy as a mechanism for overcoming institutional voids.

The purpose of this study is to advance the prevalent leadership–creativity perspective by examining respectful engagement as a missing link between transformational leadership and employees creativity in the tourism and hospitality industry of Pakistan.

Data were collected from 288 supervisor–subordinate dyads of hotel and tourism industry in Pakistan. Partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique was used to validate the measurement model and to test the proposed hypotheses using SmartPLS 3.0.

The results suggest that transformational leadership and respectful engagement are significantly related and that respectful engagement fosters employee creativity. The study further confirmed that respectful engagement mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and employee creativity.

Besides theoretical contribution, the study has several managerial implications for the tourism and hospitality industry. Globally, in the tourism and hospitality industry, the service selling proposition is largely based on creativity. Hence, the study suggests the managers of tourism and hospitality industry should adopt a transformational leadership style to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage of creativity. The study further recommends the managers capitalize on their transformational leadership style to observe respectful engagement in the workplace, which in turn can encourage employees to behave creatively.

Theoretically, this paper contributes to the existing body of knowledge in a couple of ways. Firstly, while several empirical studies have discussed the impact of transformational leadership on employee creativity, and various mediating models have also been tested in this regard, little effort has been made to study the links between transformational leadership and employee creativity despite existing awareness about the importance of respectful engagement for employee creativity. Thus, the current study examines employee creativity with the lens of transformational leadership and respectful engagement. Secondly, the study integrates the theories of transformational leadership, employee engagement and employee creativity.