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Corporate digital transformation (DT) and top management team (TMT) internationalization seem to be concomitant phenomena in recent years, the former is a major change and a thorough transformation requiring continuously new technologies and ideas. Excitingly, the latter shows a relatively broad vision, a large risk appetite and interest in new things. Does TMT internationalization promote DT? This question is essential for DT. Given that, this article will aim to discuss and examine whether and how TMT internationalization affects corporate DT.

This article takes China's A-share listed manufacturing companies from 2011 to 2019 as a sample. The quantitative text analysis method is used to measure attention related to digitalization. This paper discusses: (1) The decision-making logic and cognitive process mechanism of “TMT internationalization–attention related to digitalization–corporate DT”. (2) The moderating effect of shared corporate mission of the TMT on the cognitive process of decision-making, that is, the social process of transforming individual cognition into team cognition, and the social process of transforming team cognition into corporate decision-making.

TMT internationalization promotes DT. As an external manifestation of team cognition, attention plays a positive role as an intermediary mechanism. Specifically, executives with overseas experience have higher urgency assessment and manageable assessment, thus affecting their attention to digitalization positively, thereby promoting DT. This article does not demonstrate the moderating effect of shared corporate mission on the cognitive process, but it promotes DT directly, and only plays a role in the precognitive stage.

This article is the first one to study the relationship between TMT internationalization and corporate DT, which has practical guiding significance for DT and the “going out” strategies of the TMT. Also, the combination of upper echelons theory and cognitive theory opens up the black box of the strategic process. Lastly, this research explores the formation process of team cognition, which is always neglected by previous studies of the TMT demographic characteristics.

This study sets out to explore questions such as: “Does mission statement matter? If so, in what ways?” Using data on mission statements of 128 large Japanese firms, the paper aims to show that corporate mission has a significant impact on corporate policies that determine employment, board, and financial structures.

The paper provides evidence that strong‐mission firms are more likely to retain incumbent employees, promote managers from within firms, and have less debt and a higher percentage of interlocking shareholdings than weak‐mission firms.

The evidence supports the view that strong‐mission firms value their organizational capital and thus tend to adopt policies to preserve it. It also confirms that corporate mission and its embedded policies contribute to better corporate performance. The paper suggests that the effect of explicit corporate mission and its implementation has practical impacts in corporate policies and business outcomes.

The sample is based on firms from Japan. The criteria used to discriminate between strong mission and weak mission firms need further refinement with more rigorous sub‐dimensions. In the Japanese context the percentage of inside directors is an important indication of internally promoted managers – one might argue that a measure of external pressures (e.g. law, codes, investors, etc.) might be a better one. The small number of cases and the richness of statements need a richer qualitative analysis in the future.

The empirical results provide helpful insight on the organizational behavior of Japanese firms during the long economic downturn from the 1990s to 2000s in Japan and an insight on what to do in view of the challenges facing Japanese firms.

The paper presents a model that clarifies the role of mission statement. The extensive literature review includes a diverse set of papers on the role of mission statement. The empirical results suggest how strong Japanese corporate mission, expressed in mission statements, might have impact on corporate outcomes through the formation and utilization of Monozukuri.

This chapter addresses one of the most crucial areas for critical thinking: the morality of turbulent markets around the world. All of us are overwhelmed by such turbulent markets. Following Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2004, 2010), we distinguish between nonscalable industries (ordinary professions where income grows linearly, piecemeal or by marginal jumps) and scalable industries (extraordinary risk-prone professions where income grows in a nonlinear fashion, and by exponential jumps and fractures). Nonscalable industries generate tame and predictable markets of goods and services, while scalable industries regularly explode into behemoth virulent markets where rewards are disproportionately large compared to effort, and they are the major causes of turbulent financial markets that rock our world causing ever-widening inequities and inequalities. Part I describes both scalable and nonscalable markets in sufficient detail, including propensity of scalable industries to randomness, and the turbulent markets they create. Part II seeks understanding of moral responsibility of turbulent markets and discusses who should appropriate moral responsibility for turbulent markets and under what conditions. Part III synthesizes various theories of necessary and sufficient conditions for accepting or assigning moral responsibility. We also analyze the necessary and sufficient conditions for attribution of moral responsibility such as rationality, intentionality, autonomy or freedom, causality, accountability, and avoidability of various actors as moral agents or as moral persons. By grouping these conditions, we then derive some useful models for assigning moral responsibility to various entities such as individual executives, corporations, or joint bodies. We discuss the challenges and limitations of such models.

The common view of communication is of something that is not really communication. To be effective, communication effort must be seen in its holistic social context, and be managed — planned, co‐ordinated, integrated — and understood. Modern organisational communication, ie interpersonal communication in an organisational setting, must be recognised as a social integrator rather than as a mechanistic management tool. This requires managers to hold a particular concept of interpersonal communication. Evidence of the prevailing concept is provided, a more appropriate view is discussed, and a research agenda is outlined.

Recently, significant shifts of competitive edge in industry have been sharpening the needs for quality education and training (QET). “Quality” is conformance to requirements and customer satisfaction. In this context, the authors initiated a two‐stage empirical study to investigate the managerial views about the requirements and provision status of QET in Hong Kong. A random sample of 130 organizations was selected. Through a focus group study, 30 QET elements were consolidated under four categories of customer value and market focus, quality engineering and management, process analysis and improvement, and human resource focus. A subsequent mass survey examined the hypothesized links between the QET needs and provisions, and investigated specific QET requirements of top management, middle management and front‐line personnel. This paper contributes to identifying the needs of, assessing the provision of, and garnering company‐wide support and commitment towards QET in relation to sustaining organizational performance and competitiveness.

To introduce the systemic approach towards measuring globalization of the economy that is based on the theory of systemic framework of national competitiveness and economic growth.

Construction of a composite index of global economy by the principal components analysis (PCA) on the basis of 83 individual indicators, linked into the seven spheres of national competitiveness in the period of contemporary globalization. The weights of single indicators in the composite index are determined by two levels: on the first level, the weights of the indicators in the subindices are determined, whereas on the second level the weights of the sub‐indices in the joint composite index of global economy are determined. Reliability of the composite indices is verified by Cronbach's α.

The results of the PCA indicate the high reliability of the joint composite index on the basis of five subindices, whereas the inclusion of the remaining two subindices – international business activities and government role – has lowered the reliability of the joint composite index. This finding is combined with many statistical limitations in the field of measuring globalization of economies.

The unavailability and incomparability of statistical data in the field of international business activities presented great obstacles to deeper analysis. Such analysis would be attainable above all by the international harmonization of hard data collecting and greater emphasis on development of qualitative surveys in the field of activities of transnational enterprises.

This paper develops the concept for monitoring and benchmarking globalization of economies which is founded on the comprehensive theory and solid methodology. It offers a useful tool for national policymaking.

Briefly reviews previous literature by the author before presenting an original 12 step system integration protocol designed to ensure the success of companies or countries in their efforts to develop and market new products. Looks at the issues from different strategic levels such as corporate, international, military and economic. Presents 31 case studies, including the success of Japan in microchips to the failure of Xerox to sell its invention of the Alto personal computer 3 years before Apple: from the success in DNA and Superconductor research to the success of Sunbeam in inventing and marketing food processors: and from the daring invention and production of atomic energy for survival to the successes of sewing machine inventor Howe in co‐operating on patents to compete in markets. Includes 306 questions and answers in order to qualify concepts introduced.

An agenda for a social constructionist perspective on corporate communication. It seeks to do so by focusing on the mission statement as an aspect of corporate communications. Previously unpublished research on mission statement design and use in the UK is used as a basis for an analysis of the theoretical assumptions which are often presupposed in corporate communications. It is suggested that these assumptions represent one (cognitivist) model of communication meaning‐making. The alternative model of socially constituted meaning‐making is developed in the context of mission statement use. Some further, more general suggestions are made concerning the implications of social constructionism for corporate communications.

This paper builds upon recent advances in the corporate governance framework to extend and complement the economic literature on producer cooperatives. We argue that the problem of governance in a cooperative is twofold and consists in designing mechanisms and setting up institutions that (1) encourage workers to define a goal that maximizes workers’ welfare and (2) induce managers to pursue and internalize such a broad goal. When compared to capital‐controlled firms, the agency problems become more complex and harder to solve in the cooperative framework. As empirical evidence of this problem and its corresponding solution, we illustrate the case of the Mondragón cooperatives, explaining in detail the incentive system and the control mechanisms now in place in this successful business group. The study of the governance architecture of Mondragón may help us to propose solutions to traditional problems of the cooperative firm and to reach a better understanding of both the governance of cooperatives and corporate governance in general.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the current state of mission and vision statements on corporate websites of Malaysian and Singaporean corporations based on Aaker's brand personality dimensions and analyze how the dimensions are effectively used to develop a unique corporate identity.

Content analysis is employed to examine similarities and differences for 300 Malaysian and 214 Singaporean consumer corporations based on Aaker's big five brand personality framework.

Generally most companies tend to publish and communicate their mission and vision statements visibly to general stakeholders. First, both Malaysian and Singaporean companies have weak brand personality dimensions which reflect the projection of corporate identity of companies. Second, there is a significant difference in the brand personality dimensions between Malaysian and Singaporean consumer corporations. Finally, evidence showed that most Malaysian and Singaporean companies rather failed to position themselves in the marketplace using brand personality dimensions in their vision and mission statements. This may affect their overall organizational direction in building a unique corporate identity and gaining competitive advantages within the context of a global business environment.

The study acknowledges the increase in communicating the mission and vision statements on the corporate websites of Malaysian and Singaporean corporations. However, there is a need for corporations in Malaysia and Singapore to orchestrate their core competence in order to develop a unique corporate identity in a global business environment.

The study contributes to the corporate identity literature in providing an insight into how corporations communicate the desired brand personality through their websites for the critical inquiry of the dominant coalition and main stakeholders.