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While qualitative work has a long tradition in the strategy field and has recently regained popularity, we have not paused to take stock of how such work offers contributions. We address this oversight with a review of qualitative studies of strategy published in five top-tier journals over an extended period of 15 years (2003–2017). In an attempt to organize the field, we develop an empirically grounded organizing framework. We identify 12 designs that are evident in the literature, or “designs-in-use” as we call them. Acknowledging important similarities and differences between the various approaches to qualitative strategy research (QSR), we group these designs into three “families” based on their philosophical orientation. We use these designs and families to identify trends in QSR. We then engage those trends to orient the future development of qualitative methods in the strategy field.

German executives can make misleading statements regarding merger activities while U.S. executives must either state “no comment” or provide a truthful statement. Do these differences in corporate governance standards cause differences in the market response to merger announcements? A sample of German and U.S. firms that announced acquisition plans between 1995 and 1999 suggests that for smaller firms, merger news has no significant impact on cumulative abnormal returns for German firms but a significant positive impact for U.S. firms. Large German firms, however, have similar experiences to large U.S. firms, as do German firms listed on a U.S. stock exchange, which require greater disclosure requirements. Aside from the smaller-firm effect, the evidence is consistent with no price-relevant differences arising from the differences in corporate governance rules.

This paper aims to contribute to the subsidiary initiative literature by studying the interaction between a headquarters and its subsidiary during an initiative process that has the potential to “wag the corporate dog” that is, for the global corporation’s promising subsidiary initiative in a strategically important emerging market to question the corporation’s prevailing schemata.

The longitudinal single case study draws on evidence from the Indian subsidiary of Swedish Volvo Bus and its efforts to introduce a value product in India.

The study argues that wag the dog initiatives provoke the corporate immune system independent of the initiative’s potential and the subsidiary’s autonomy and legitimacy. If the idea behind the wag the dog initiative is perceived as strategically important for the multinational corporation, then the corporate immune system tries to engulf – most likely unsuccessfully – the idea within the prevailing schemata. Failed attempts to engulf the initiative weaken the corporate immune system temporarily, thereby opening the organization to revitalization of the original initiative. Resistance, even though weakened, from the corporate immune system continues to exist.

Subsidiary managers need to avoid having their headquarters perceive an initiative as a wag the dog initiative by balancing their need to sell persistently the initiative with avoiding negative attention.

This study is a pioneer in explaining how the corporate immune system reacts towards wag the dog initiatives taken from subsidiaries in large emerging markets.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the literature discussing the internationalization of research and development (R&D) among multinational companies by proposing a process description to capture the development of local R&D capabilities in subsidiaries.

The authors build the conceptualization not only on the prevailing literature on resource management, subsidiary evolution and subsidiary initiatives, but also on empirical observations.

A process in four phases is distinguished to describe the evolution of R&D capabilities in subsidiaries: the identification of an opportunity in the host country that triggers the establishment of local R&D capabilities; the gathering of support – from the host country and from MNC internally – and resources; the bundling of the resources to build capabilities; and finally the leveraging of the capabilities.

By offering a conceptualization of the process through which subsidiaries build R&D capabilities, the authors contribute to the literature on R&D internationalization that hitherto has neglected the central role played by subsidiaries and the fact that a subsidiary needs to develop and manage resources and capabilities to change its R&D related role and/or mandate within the MNC.

By providing a process perspective on MNCs internationalization of R&D focussing on the development and management of R&D capabilities at subsidiaries, the paper adds a more dynamic dimension to the previously rather static view on R&D internationalization.

Marketing literature views word-of-mouth (WOM) as unidirectional communication in which consumers transmit either positive or negative messages based on their consumption experiences. Becoming visible in online forums, however, are consumers who engage in WOM as part of interactions with other consumers. This article aims to investigate a phenomenon frequently occurring in these interactions: consumers who defend companies and brands against others' negative WOM.

The authors investigated the online defense phenomenon in its natural setting using an online ethnography, known as a netnography.

This study provides empirical evidence for the existence of six different defense styles, as well as details of the identified factors underlying consumers' choices of defense styles. Moreover, the authors' analysis highlights the different outcomes of various company- and brand-defending behaviors and illustrates that this consumer phenomenon can be effective in preventing the spread of negative WOM or in mitigating its impact.

Future research could benefit from further testing the effectiveness of the various defense styles as well as investigating how to stimulate this important buffer against negative WOM.

Companies are increasingly allocating resources to the monitoring of online conversations so as to be able to respond to criticisms in social media. The authors' findings indicate that other consumers frequently respond to these complaints before the companies do. These company and brand defenders could replace some of the resources companies currently devote to social media.

The present study identifies company and brand defending as a new WOM activity, thus extending the concept of WOM beyond praising and complaining. In addition, this study suggests that consumers who counter negative messages are not necessarily loyal, as previously assumed, but rather motivated by a sense of justice or a need for self-enhancement.

Flexible automated assembly is an emerging need in several industries. The purpose of this paper is to address the introduction of an innovative concept in flexible assembly: the fully flexible assembly system (F‐FAS).

After an analysis of the state of the art, the authors describe the proposed F‐FAS, from a layout, constitutional elements, functioning principles and working cycle point of view. Second, the authors compare the traditional FAS and the manual assembly system versus the proposed F‐FAS according to their throughput and unit production costs, deriving a convenience map as a function of the number of components used in assembly and of the efficiency of the F‐FAS. Finally, using a prototype work cell developed at the Robotics Laboratory of University of Padua, the authors validate the F‐FAS concept.

Results of the research indicate that the concept of full‐flexibility can be exploited to bring automation to a domain where traditional FAS are not competitive versus manual assembly. In fact, the F‐FAS outperforms both traditional FAS and manual assembly, in terms of unit direct production costs, when the size of the batch is small, the number of components used in assembly is large and the efficiency of the F‐FAS is reasonably high. The F‐FAS prototype demonstrated the possibility of working, for certain conditions (models/components/production mix), in the F‐FAS convenience area, highlighting the achievable cost reduction versus traditional assembly systems.

The novelty of the study lies in the F‐FAS concept, its performances in terms of flexibility, compactness, throughput and unit direct production costs. A prototype work cell validated the concept and demonstrated its viability versus traditional assembly systems, thanks to convenience analysis.