Showing papers on "Embeddedness published in 1999"

Transnational Transfer of Strategic Organizational Practices: A Contextual Perspective

Abstract: To examine the phenomenon of the transnational transfer of strategic organizational practices within multinational companies. I use a cross-disciplinary approach. After conceptualizing the success of a transfer as the institutionalization of the practice at the recipient unit. I develop a multilevel model of transfer success, based on the notion of the contextual embeddedness of the process of transfer. I propose that three sets of factors at three levels—country, organization, and individual—affect transfer success reflecting social, organizational, and relational embeddedness. Finally, I discuss the theoretical and practical implications of this research.

Bridging ties: a source of firm heterogeneity in competitive capabilities

Abstract: What explains differences in firms’ abilities to acquire competitive capabilities? In this paper we propose that a firm’s embeddedness in a network of ties is an important source of variation in the acquisition of competitive capabilities. We argue that firms in geographical clusters that maintain networks rich in bridging ties and sustain ties to regional institutions are well-positioned to access new information, ideas, and opportunities. Hypotheses based on these ideas were tested on a stratified random sample of 227 job shop manufacturers located in the Midwest United States. Data were gathered using a mailed questionnaire. Results from structural equation modeling broadly support the embeddedness hypotheses and suggest a number of insights about the link between firms’ networks and the acquisition of competitive capabilities. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Embeddedness in the making of financial capital : How social relations and networks benefit firms seeking financing

Abstract: The article investigates how social embeddedness affects an organization's acquisition and cost of financial capital in middle-market banking-a lucrative but understudied financial sector Using existing theory and original fieldwork, Author develops a framework to explain how embeddedness can influence which firms get capital and at what cost I then statistically examine my claims using national data on small-business lending At the level of dyadic ties, author finds that firms that embed their commercial transactions with their lender in social attachments receive lower interest rates on loans At the network level, firms are more likely to get loans and to receive lower interest rates on loans if their network of bank ties has a mix of embedded ties and arm's-length ties These network effects arise because embedded ties motivate network partners to share private resources, while arm's-length ties facilitate access to public information on market prices and loan opportunities so that the benefits of different types of ties are optimized within one network Author concludes with a discussion of how the value produced by a network is at a premium when it creates a bridge that links the public information of markets with the private resources of relationships

The sociology of entrepreneurship

Abstract: ▪ Abstract Recent research on entrepreneurship by sociologists has focused on subsectors of the discipline rather than on entrepreneurship as a class. This review draws insights from diverse literatures to develop a sociological perspective on entrepreneurship as a whole. Until recently, the supply-side perspective, which focuses on the individual traits of entrepreneurs, has been the dominant school of research. Newer work from the demand-side perspective has focused on rates, or the context in which entrepreneurship occurs. This review emphasizes this less developed demand-side perspective—in particular, the influence of firms and markets on how, where, and why new enterprises are founded. I take stock of the differences and separation in the two perspectives and argue that sociological frameworks, an embeddedness perspective, institutional and ecological theory, and multilevel models can be used to integrate the two schools and extend their research implications.

Institutional and Rational Determinants of Organizational Practices: Human Resource Management in European Firms

Abstract: This paper tests predictions from institutional and rational perspectives about the adoption of organizational practices through a comparative study of human resource management in firms located in six European countries. Distinguishing between calculative practices—aimed at efficient use of human resources—and collaborative practices—aimed at promoting the goals of both employees and employer—the paper predicts differences in adoption across countries. Results show that institutional determinants, as indicated by the national embeddedness of firms, have a strong effect on the application of both calculative and collaborative human resource management practices. Firm size, a rational determinant, has a considerable impact on calculative practices, whereas the effect of industrial embeddedness is quite modest for both practices.

The new institutionalism in sociology

Abstract: Foreword Robert K. Kerton Introduction 1. Sources of the new institutionalism Victor Nee Part I. Institutions and Social Norms: 2. Embeddedness and beyond: institutions, exchange and social structure Victor Nee and Paul Ingram 3. Of coase and cattle: dispute resolution among neighbors in Shasta County Robert C. Ellickson 4. Cultural beliefs and the organization of society: a historical and theoretical reflection on collectivist and individualist societies Avner Greif 5. Conflict over changing social norms: bargaining, ideology, and enforcement Jack Knight and Jean Ensminger 6. Embeddedness and immigration: notes on the social determinants of economic action Alejandro Portes and Julia Sensenbrenner Part II. Institutional Embeddedness in Capitalist Economies: 7. The organization of economies Gary G. Hamilton and Robert Feenstra 8. Institutional embeddedness in Japanese labor markets Mary C. Brinton and Takehiko Kariya 9. Winner-take-all markets and wage discrimination Robert H. Frank 10. Institutions and the labor market Bruce Western Part III. Institutional Change and Economic Performance: 11. Economic performance through time Douglass C. North 12. changing the rules interests, organizations, and institutional change in the US hospitality Paul Ingram 13. The importance of the local: rural institutions and economic change in preindustrial England Rosemary L. Hopcroft 14. Outline of an institutionalist theory of inequality: the case of socialist and postcommunist Eastern Europe Ivan Szelenyi and Eric Kostello Index.

Corporate Social Capital and Liability

Abstract: Introduction: CSC: The Structure of Advantage and Disadvantage S.M. Gabbay, R.Th.A.J. Leenders. Section I: Conceptual Issues - Theory, Models, and Measurement. 1. Organizational Networks and Corporate Social Capital D. Knoke. 2. Social Capital of Organization: Conceptualization, Level of Analysis, and Performance Implications J.M. Pennings, K. Lee. 3. A Relational Resource Perspective on Social Capital L. Araujo, G. Easton. 4. Social Capital by Design: Structures, Strategies, and Institutional Context W.E. Baker, D. Obstfeld. 5. Corporate Social Capital and Liability: a Conditional Approach to Three Consequences of Corporate Social Structure I. Talmud. 6. Dimensions of Corporate Social Capital: Toward Models and Measures S.-K. Han, R.L. Breiger. 7. Organizational Standing as Corporate Social Capital P. Doreian. 8. Customer Service Dyads: Diagnosing Emperical Buyer - Seller Interactions along Gaming Profiles in a Dyadic Parametric Space D. Iacobucci. Section II: Structure at the Individual Level - Social Capital in Jobs and Careers. 9. The Sidekick Effect: Mentoring Relationships and the Development of Social Capital M. Higgins, N. Nohria. 10. Social Capital in Internal Staffing Practices P.V. Marsden, E.H. Gorman. 11. Getting a Job as a Manager H. Flap, E. Boxman. 12. The Changing Value of Social Capital in an Expanding Social System: Lawyers in the Chicago Bar, 1975 and 1995 R.L. Sandefur, et al. Section III: Structure at the Individual Level -- Social Capital and Management. 13. Generalized Exchange and Economic Performance: Social Embeddedness of Labor Contracts in a Corporate Law Partnership E. Lazega. 14. CEO Demographics and Acquisitions: Network Effects of Educational and Functional Background P.R. Haunschild, et al. 15. Public Service Organizations -- Social Networks and Social Capital E. Ferlie. 16. The Dark Side of Social Capital M. Gargiulo, M. Benassi. 17. Social Capital, Social Liabilities, and Social Resources Management D.J. Brass, G. Labianca. Section IV: Structure at the Firm Level -- Social Capital in Collaboration and Alliances. 18. The Triangle: Roles of the Go-Between B. Nooteboom. 19. The Management of Social Capital in R&D Collaboration O. Omta, W. van Rossum. 20. Technological Prestige and the Accumulation of Alliance Capital T.E. Stuart. 21. Networks and Knowledge Production: Collaboration and Patenting in Biotechnology L. Smith-Doerr, et al. 22. Supply Network Strategy and Social Capital C. Harland. Section V: Structure at the Firm Level -- Social Capital and Financial Capital. 23. Choosing Ties from the Inside of a Prism: Egocentric Uncertainty and Status in Venture Capital Markets J.M. Podolny, F. Castellucci. 24. Corporate Social Capital and the Cost of Financial Capital: An Embeddedness Approach B. Uzzi, J.J. Gillespie. 25. Venture Capital as an Economy of Time J. Freeman. Conclusion. References. Index. Contributors. Editors.

Sustainability and the Social Sciences: A Cross-Disciplinary Approach to Integrating Environmental Considerations into Theoretical Reorientation

Abstract: * 1. Exploring Uncommon Ground: Sustainability as a Concept for the Social Sciences - Egon Becker, Thomas Jahn and Immanuel Stiess * Part I: Sustainability: Linking the 'Leitbild' to Emerging Fields of Knowledge ** 2. Social Sustainability and Whole Development: Exploring Dimensions of Sustainable Development - Ignacy Sachs ** 3. Sustainability and Territory: Meaningful Practices and Material Transformation - Henri Acselrad ** 4. Sustainability and Sociology: Northern Preoccupations - Michael Redclift ** 5. Sustainability, Sustainable Development and Gender: A View from a Feminist Perspective - Rosi Braidotti ** 6. From Experience to Theory: Traditions of Social-Ecological Research in Modern India - Ramachandra Guha ** 7. The Socio-Ecological Embeddedness of Economic Activity: The Emergence of a Transdisciplinary Field - Juan Martinez-Alier * Part II: Towards Defining, Measuring and Achieving Sustainability: Analytical Approaches in the Social Sciences ** 8. The Political Logic of Sustainability - Nazli Choucri ** 9. Economic Concepts of Sustainability: Relocating Economic Activity within Society and Environment - John M Gowdy

Narrating the future of the national economy and the national state? Remarks on re-mapping regulation and re-inventing governance.

Abstract: The paper consider the articulation of three perspectives: the regulation approach, the neo-Gramscian political school, and the critical discourse analysis, to study the links between the economic and the political in contemporary capitalism, particularly by examining the cultural and social embeddedness of market and state and their discursive, and the ways in which they are articulated both discursively and extra-discursively. These arguments are illustrated substantively by references to changes in the state form that has been centrally associated with Atlantic Fordism. It is shown how deeply regulationist and neo-Gramscian categories rest on assumptions, concepts, and explanatory principles rooted in cultural analysis. Taking into account the critical discourse analysis, it is considered the future of the capitalist economy and the national state, the governance, and its cultural and social embeddedness.

The Embeddedness of Organizations: Research Dialogue and Directions

Abstract: We review research on organizations to highlight prevailing and emerging conceptions for embeddedness. An integrated framework that considers the sources, mechanisms, outcomes, and strategic implications of embeddedness is presented. Also, promising research directions for embeddedness approaches, including cross-level issues (such as collective cognition and nesting), as well as issues related to temporality, networks, and methodology are identified.

Social Relations and Cooperation in Organizations

Abstract: The paper addresses the effects of social relations on cooperation (or collusion) in organizations and communities. Social and production relations are modeled as separate repeated strategic interactions. "Linking" them--by employing members of the same community or by encouraging social interaction between employees--is shown to facilitate cooperation in production: (a) because of available "Social Capital," the slack of net expected gains from cooperation in the social relations which can be credibly transferred to discipline behavior in the workplace; (b) because payoffs from the social and production relations tend to be substitutes, in which case the linkage of more relations endogenously generates Social Capital (a sort of "increasing returns in cooperation"); (c) because the linkage generates transfers of "trust," reputation spillovers from a cooperative social background to newly started production relations; and (d) because agents who share social relations have access to additional information about each other's situations. The model provides a microfoundation for Putnam's concept of "Social Capital" and for Granovetter's idea of "embeddedness" for the employment relation. It shows that Kandel and Lazear's peer pressures are a credible effort-enforcing mechanism even when teams' members are fully self-interested, and that the threat of social sanctions can credibly enforce social norms independent of agents' moral constraints (that is, no "second-order free rider problem" exists). It provides an explanation for Japanese firms' investments in employees' free-time activities, for the Grameen Bank's requirement that group members belong to the same village and participate in social activities, for the ambiguous empirical results on the effectiveness of group-incentives, for markets' tendency to crowd out cooperative institutions, and for the sudden breakdown in trust and cooperation observed in communities after a war ends and peace is established.

Capturing Social Embeddedness: A Constructivist Approach:

Abstract: A constructivist approach is applied to characterising social embeddedness and to the design of a simulation of social agents which displays the social embedding of agents. Social embeddedness is defined as the extent to which modelling the behaviour of an agent requires the inclusion of the society of agents as a whole. Possible effects of social embedding and ways to check for it are discussed briefly. A model of co-developing agents is exhibited, which is an extension of Brian Arthur's `El Farol Bar' model, but extended to include learning based upon a GP algorithm and the introduction of communication. Some indicators of social embedding are analysed and some possible causes of social embedding are discussed.

Enriching exchange: Cultural dimensions of markets

Abstract: As economic sociologists have been arguing for some time, markets are not to be abstractly opposed to other social relations but rather to be understood as embedded in them, and indeed subject to the same kinds of analysis as other social relations. However, many accounts of embeddedness explain it in structural terms and still operate with an impoverished notion of culture. It is argued that there is a rich agenda for cultural investigation which has yet to be fully exploited in economic sociology, and fascinating work on economic embeddedness which could be enriched with more culturally oriented analysis and research. Three issues on this agenda which are more often collapsed are distinguished, arguing that the meaning of markets should be investigated in terms of the cultural construction of objects of market exchange, the cultural construction of parties to market exchange, and the cultural construction of norms of exchange.

Innovations, Competitiveness and Local Embeddedness: A Study of Machinery Producers in Sweden

Abstract: This paper is about technological relations and firm performance in the Swedish machinery industry. Taking its point of departure in the proliferating literature on the localized nature of learning...

Capitalism and social cohesion : essays on exclusion and integration

Abstract: Introduction: New Thinking on Exclusion and Integration I.Gough & G.Olofsson PART 1: THEORIES OF INTEGRATION Mapping System Integration and Social Integration N.Mortensen Embeddedness and Integration: An Essay on Karl Polanyi G.Olofsson PART 2: AUDITS OF INTEGRATION Civic Integration and Social Cohesion D.Lockwood Social Welfare and Economic Competitiveness I.Gough Gender, Citizenship and Empowerment B.Siim PART 3: NEW ARENAS OF EXCLUSION: NEW STRATEGIES FOR INTEGRATION From Class Society to Exclusion from Society J.Anderson Critical Reflections in the 'Underclass' and Poverty K.Mann Unemployment or Basic Income: Is there a Middle Road? I.Hornemann & J.Lind Conclusion: Differentiation and Marginalisation in Late Modernity N.Mouzelis

Transnational Corporations and Business Networks: Hong Kong Firms in the ASEAN Region

Abstract: Given the increasingly important role of transnational corporations (TNCs) in the global economy as well as in economic development, it is not surprising that TNCs and their operations have become the focus of many academic studies. The activities of TNCs have been particularly well documented but, as argued by the author of this book, largely from a western-centric perspective. This view has been presented "not as geographically and historically specific but as the norm from which all others are an aberration." (p. xv) Henry Yeung, in this book, presents compelling arguments that the activities of TNCs from Hong Kong (HKTNCs) pose a fundamental challenge to the conventional wisdom about "Third World multinationals". In this study of HKTNCs, Yeung argues that the different conceptualizations of TNCs (read "western") as "firms that rely upon networks as a form of organising activities" (p. 7) or as "enterprises which control assets - factories, mines, sales office and the like - in two or more countries (UNCTC 1978, p. 158 as quoted in Yeung 1998, p. 7) or as firms which co-ordinate production across national boundaries without using market exchange (p. 7) leads to a conceptual ambiguity. Yeung thus sets himself the task of developing a network approach to the understanding of TNCs through a deconstruction of existing Westerncentric perspectives and a rebuilding of a generic network perspective to take account of time-space specificities in transnational operations (p. 3). Yeung also argues that Third World multinationals have been misleadingly stereotyped as "very small in their assets and sales, labour-intensive in their operations, low in technological capabilities and restricted in geographical coverage" (p. 3). However, this contention is not directly addressed in the book as one would have expected. The background upon which Yeung seeks to explain the role of business networks in HKTNCs is richly prepared through his analysis of the emergence of transnational corporations from Asian Newly Industrialized Economies (NIEs). He maps out the geographical distribution of TNCs from Asian NIEs and also identifies the main characteristics and competitive advantage of these TNCs. Perhaps the most appealing aspect of Yeung's approach to the study of TNCs is the concept of the TNC simultaneously as "a form (italics in original) of (international) business organisation and a process (italics :in original) of organising (international) business" (p. 65) because it takes into account the dynamics of TNC activities. However, while the "economies of synergy" (p. 65) provide a powerful incentive for network creation, some of the strengths that Yeung attributes to HKTNCs may relate more to alliances rather than individual TNCs to the extent that there is a blurring of the analytical unit. He points out that in the context of business networks, the TNC is both a nc,dal point on intricate inter- and extra-firm networks as well as a dense network of intra-firm relationships in its own right (p. 66). Yeung's work explains the motivations of HKTNCs to invest in the ASEAN region and their subsequent success in these ventures to be a function of the embeddedness of these firms' networks. Little is known about those HKTNCs, if they exist, that have succeeded without this emphasis on networks or even those that have failed in spite of strong networks. In the same vein, the author himself has highlighted an implicit question that remains unanswered in his book, that is, to what extent are non-Chinese HKTNCs embedded in the peculiar Chinese business system? This raises a related question - how different are the firms presently under indigenous Hong Kong ownership from when they were owned by the British hongs or colonial trading houses? …

Political Embeddedness in the New Triad: Implications for Emerging Economies

Abstract: ■ Recent comparative international business research has shown the importance of distinguishing between the contractual and individualist approach of AngloSaxon societies, such as the United States and United Kingdom and the collectivist and relationship based approach of communitarian societies such as Japan and Germany. ■ This article compares the two existing successful systems of corporate governance, and analyses which aspects of both systems may provide helpful to the formation of governance systems in a "third system", the system for emerging economies such as Asia or Eastern Europe.

Rethinking The “Local” in Labour Markets: The Consequences of Cultural Embeddedness in a Philippine Growth Zone

Abstract: This paper contributes to recent geographical studies of local labour markets in three ways. First, it highlights the distinctive labour market processes occurring in an industrialising setting in the Philippines to complement existing studies that have tended to focus on “restructuring” contexts in the west. Second, it shows how labour markets are embedded not just in processes of institutional and social regulation, but also in the transformation of the culture of work that accompanies industrialisation in an agricultural setting. Thus, while a significant feature of the local labour market in the municipality of Tanza (Province of Cavite) is a shortage of labour in the agricultural sector, this cannot be explained solely by the massive shift of a young workforce into non-agricultural activities. It must also be understood in the context of changes found in youth culture and conceptions of work. The result is that the availability of labour for agriculture dries up even if the supply of labour, in a literal sense, is adequate for its needs. Third, a significant process operating in this “local” labour market is the extraction of labour for temporary overseas work. This suggests that local labour markets should be conceived not just on the basis of geographical contiguity, but also in the “networked space” of households functioning across very large distances.

The argentine civil service: an unfinished search for identity

Abstract: The new forms of economic and political domination emerging in those societies that have undergone -or are in the course of going through- the harshest phase of structural adjustment and state reform, have raised a central concern in the specialized literature: the governance of these societies in view of the potential conflicts caused by widening gaps in the patterns of income and wealth distribution, however successful they may have been in stabilizing the economy, reducing fiscal deficit or streamlining the public bureaucracy. In turn, the governance issue has brought back, into a new light, the subject of the state's relative autonomy, a central theme in Marxist theory, as well as the problem of strengthening the public sector, a necessary condition for the state to assume the articulation and guidance roles that could establish or restore equilibria in the patterns of sociopolitical domination. Hence, new issues have raised scholarly attention: the new configuration of the public scene; the emergence, weakening or disappearance of social actors; the embeddedness of the state (as opposed to its isolation) in the network of social relations, playing a cathalytic role (Evans, 1996; Osborne and Gaebler, 1992); the new political weight acquired by subnational states as they have taken up new functions and gained access to growing resources; and, finally, the nature of the political system resulting from the new power structure and mechanisms of citizen representation. Implicitly, civil service systems (CSS) are at the core of these concerns, although usually they have not been highlighted as a central, yet separate, subject of research. As Chinese boxes, CSSs are a main component of public bureaucratic institutions, much as these are, in turn, the material (as opposed to the ideal) manifestation of the state. Seen as a whole, they form a sort of conceptual hierarchy, made up of ever more aggregated units of analysis. As Bekke, Perry and Toonen (1996) 1 I am referring to the Protocol for Comparative Studies of National Civil Service Systems (hereafter, the Protocol), suggested by the Comparative Civil Service Research Consortium (Indiana University) to the authors contributing papers to this Conference. 2 After all, none of the nine sections suggested in the Protocol take up explicitly the unifying theme.

Embeddedness : Socialising the social construction of ethnicity

Abstract: Considers the pluralistic cultures which exist within a nation and outlines the history of previous research into this field. Introduces the concept of embeddedness which means that the society within which a person lives will influence their behaviour. Discusses intracultural differences and presents some research strategies for looking at the ethnic consumer.

Generalized exchange and economic performance : social embeddedness of labor contracts in a corporate law partnership

Abstract: This chapter examines the relationship between social structure and economic performance at the intraorganizational level. It attempts to identify a few conditions under which individual social relationships are most productive for the firm in collegial organizations—where the production process is difficult to routinize, where professional expertise and advice cannot easily be standardized, and therefore where internal transaction costs for the firm as a whole can be assumed to be a large part of total costs. An empirical study of a medium-sized northeastern U.S. corporate law firm is used for that purpose. In this firm, attorneys are shown to be bound by a labor contract that is difficult to sustain on pure economic terms: partners can easily free-ride, and associates can threaten the quality of work. Against this damage potential, a social system sustains their commitment. Using network data collected in the firm, social capital is described and measured at the individual, workgroup, and structural levels to show that the more constraining the member’s coworkers network, the easier it is for the firm to extract higher economic performance, including from tenured partners, by controlling the time put into work. With regard to partners, such teams represent an element of self-entrapment compensated by status and professional recognition. Examples of low and high economic performers, and their respective combinations of social resources, are provided as illustrations. A locally multiplex generalized exchange system is then described as providing firmlevel social capital. Its existence is viewed as a precondition for individual-level and group-level social structure to be productive because it maintains the circulation of social resources in the firm. A multilevel form of embeddedness is thus revealed here and shows the importance of taking into account a meso level when measuring the relationship between social capital and performance. In this particular case, the notion of multilevel embeddedness advances our understanding of economic performance: the latter is rooted in individual social capital, that is itself rooted in workgroup and firm social capital, which in turn helps individual members in being more productive. Finally, however, this virtuous circle is shown to be fragile. First, because group-level social capital also threatens the cohesiveness of the firm: well-knitted teams can defect and take away with them valued members and clients. Second, given the dependence of economic performance on firm social capital, the relative contribution of individual ties and collective social structure to economic performance is also a highly politicized issue.

The MNC as a Differentiated Network : Subsidiary Technology Embeddedness and Performance

Abstract: There has been a growing interest in looking upon the MNC as a differentiated network in the sense that subsidiaries have access to different types of resources and therefore perform differently in its market-place and within the MNC. Yet, even though subsidiaries are the object of intense interests, remarkably little have been written about assessment of subsidiary performance. In short, the possibilities of subsidiaries seem to generate more attention in the literature than their results. The two distinctive features of this paper lie in the development of the concept of subsidiary performance and the exploration of the linkage between subsidiary embeddedness and performance. More specifically, by drawing on literature about organizational learning, absorptive capacity and embeddedness in business relationships, some hypotheses will be formulated about the casual link between subsidiary environment and subsidiary performance. The hypotheses are tested in an LISREL-model based on data of 98 subsidiaries belonging to Swedish multinationals.

State power, state embeddedness, and national development in less developed countries: A cross-national analysis

Abstract: In this article, we test the prevailing statist argument about the state’s contribution to economic development in less developed countries (LDCs). State power in terms of centralized control of societal resources has been long considered a primary factor for economic growth. From the embeddedness perspective, the state’s effective embedding in the economy advances productive growth, while state power actually operates as a structural precondition of such policy action. Featured in our measurement are representative and financial embeddedness (operationalized as the central government’s tax income and its lending to the private sector and local states, respectively). The empirical testing is based on a pooled cross-national data of sixty-one underdeveloped countries. As indicated from modeling both manufacturing growth and increase in GNP per capita as dependent variables (during the period 1975–1990), the state power variable does not produce expected growth outcomes. However, two embedded state measures display significant but sectorbiased growth effects only for manufacturing production. Herein we further compare strong state power countries with weak ones, concluding that state power serves as a structural prerequisite so that late industrialization for LDCs can benefit from the growth coalitions in which the central state collaborates with (rather than dominates) actors at the subnational level of society and authorities.

Economic Action and Embeddedness: The Problem of the Structure of Action

Abstract: Author(s): Beckert, Jens | Abstract: In this article I attempt to contribute to the development of foundations for a sociological theory of economic action. Such a theory, it is argued here, has to make a substantial break with the teleological structure that informs both rational actor theory and normative theories of action. Informed by the tradition of American pragmatism I propose to base the understanding of action in economic contexts on a "non-teleological interpretation of intentionality" (Joas 1996). Such a theoretical conceptualization brings the interpretative acts of intentionally rational actors to the center. It finds its justification in the observation that the complexity and novelty inherent in economic contexts create an uncertain environment for actors which rules out optimizing decisions and provokes the question as to how actors make such an environment intelligible for intentionally rational decisions. I will argue that meaning and perceptions of rationality are established intersubjectively in the action process itself. Embeddedness then refers to the social structuration of meaning which is enacted based on interpretations, a process which is undetermined but not unstructured.

Towards A Synthesis of Transaction Cost Economics and a Feminist Oriented Network Analysis: An Application to Women's Street Commerce

Abstract: ANN DUPUIS [*] ABSTRACT. This paper suggests the possibility of an interdisciplinary, tripartite merger of transaction cost economics and the concept of embeddedness, with feminist insights. It demonstrates that in isolation, a simple application of transaction cost analysis can offer an adequate explanation of economic activity. The explanatory power of this approach however, is enhanced when complemented by greater recognition of the importance of the social context in which economic activity occurs. This paper uses research from New Zealand's largest street market to examine women's work in street commerce, a sub-sector of the informal sector. Aspects of transaction cost analysis are applied to activities of women market vendors. It is proposed however, that the approach we take which considers the embeddedness of economic activity in ongoing networks of social relations, and the intertwining of economic with non-economic goals, is compatible with aspects of feminism. Novel features of the analysis include the applicatio n of transaction cost analysis to informal sector activity and a synthesis of this approach with a feminist oriented network analysis. I Introduction TRANSACTION LOST ANALYSIS, a core aspect of the New Institutional Economics, has achieved prominence chiefly through the work of Williamson (1975, 1985, 1994). Initially referred to by Coase (1937) as marketing costs, transaction costs have been widely incorporated into economics. Transaction cost economics offers an alternative view of economic behavior from that of the mainstream neoclassical approach. Although Williamson himself acknowledges that transaction cost economics has "enormous explanatory power" (1986, xviii) most analyses have been contributions to the theory of the firm and industrial organization, and have chiefly emphasized contractual relations at the institutional level, particularly those of markets and hierarchies (see for example Casson 1996). There is now a growing body of literature that attempts to study empirically the validity of the central theses of transaction cost economics. Articles in a recent special issue of the Cambridge Journal of Economics, on contracts and competition, f or example, have examined variations of transaction costs across both firms and industries (Maher 1997) and also drawn attention to the managerial perceptions of transaction costs versus fully recognized transaction costs (Buckley 1997). There has also been a parallel growth in the literature recognizing the importance of networks in organizational permutations (Granovetter 1995; Podolny and Page 1998). Valuable empirical research has been undertaken on the existence of these networks in such diverse areas as, for example, the apparel industry (Uzzi 1996, 1997), bio-technology (Barley et al 1992; Powell and Brantley 1992) and financial services (Podolny 1993, 1994). Furthermore, a torrent of strategic management literature has emerged focusing on the significance of the ties and alliances between organizations, although it appears that until Gulati (1998) the literature in this area had given greater recognition to dyadic interactions rather than more broadly based social networks. To date, attempts at integrating the two strands of transaction cost economics and social network perspectives have been limited. A notable exception to this however can be found in Jones et al(1997). Correspondingly, attempts rarely have been made to apply transaction cost economics to the study of informal sector activity. Here too Uzzell (1994) stands out as an exception. A further gap exists in the linking of either of these two approaches to work of a feminist orientation. In part, this paper is an attempt to mitigate these gaps and so break down what we see as unnecessary barriers between the disciplines. The approach taken therefore constitutes an attempt at developing an interdisciplinary direction. Thus rather than focusing on the discrete features of distinct approaches, we highlight instead areas where we see the compatibility and convergence of perspectives. …

Politics as occupational choice : Youth self-selection for party careers in Italy

Abstract: Existing theories of social stratification fail to address the issue of the assortment of young adults into specific occupations. As an inductive strategy to fill this gap, empirical research can examine the determinants of the entry into detailed career lines. This paper focuses on a particular yet relevant case: the self-selection of young people into the pool of those eligible for a political career. In many democratic and non-democratic countries, access to political office tends to follow structured paths which usually begin within party organizations. Italy in the early 1990s is a case in point. Previous research shows that in those years the bulk of the Italian parliamentary elite had begun their career as militants of a party youth organization. Hence, to be a young party militant appears to be the most common first step in a political career. A case-control research design is adopted. Background and psychological traits of a sample of young party activists are contrasted with those of a random control group of people of the same age. Empirical results lend little support to hypotheses based on the psychological factors underscored by the literature on the political personality. On the other hand, in itself class is insufficient as a predictor of such a career choice. A more complex mechanism of social reproduction is highlighted, involving: (a) gender, (b) the availability of an educational and/or occupational safety net against possible career failures, (c) the embeddedness in the political world of some family member providing an identity model for political work and (d) a prior attachment to a senior party sponsor who facilitates (e) the political use of a larger than average volume of social capital. A rational identification model is consequently proposed, surmising that it may also explain other processes of self-selection into upper-class career lines