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Showing papers on "Embeddedness published in 2006"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors put forward a view of social entrepreneurship as a process that catalyzes social change and addresses important social needs in a way that is not dominated by direct financial benefits for the entrepreneurs.

2,538 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a symbolic interactionist rereading of the classic study Patterns of Industrial Bureaucracy is used as a lever to expand the boundaries of institutionalism to encompass a richer understanding of action, interaction, and meaning.
Abstract: Organizational sociologists often treat institutions as macro cultural logics, representations, and schemata, with less consideration for how institutions are ”inhabited“ (Scully and Creed, 1997) by people doing things together. As such, this article uses a symbolic interactionist rereading of Gouldner’s classic study Patterns of Industrial Bureaucracy as a lever to expand the boundaries of institutionalism to encompass a richer understanding of action, interaction, and meaning. Fifty years after its publication, Gouldner’s study still speaks to us, though in ways we (and he) may not have anticipated five decades ago. The rich field observations in Patterns remind us that institutions such as bureaucracy are inhabited by people and their interactions, and the book provides an opportunity for intellectual renewal. Instead of treating contemporary institutionalism and symbolic interaction as antagonistic, we treat them as complementary components of an “inhabited institutions approach” that focuses on local and extra–local embeddedness, local and extra-local meaning, and a skeptical, inquiring attitude. This approach yields a doubly constructed view: On the one hand, institutions provide the raw materials and guidelines for social interactions (“construct interactions”), and on the other hand, the meanings of institutions are constructed and propelled forward by social interactions. Institutions are not inert categories of meaning; rather they are populated with people whose social interactions suffuse institutions with local force and significance.

693 citations


01 Aug 2006
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the implications of new directions in social network theory that emphasize networks as both cognitive structures in the minds of organizational members and opportunity structures that facilitate and constrain action.
Abstract: This article investigates, for leadership research, the implications of new directions in social network theory that emphasize networks as both cognitive structures in the minds of organizational members and opportunity structures that facilitate and constrain action. We introduce the four core ideas at the heart of the network research program: the importance of relations, actors' embeddedness, the social utility of connections, and the structural patterning of social life. Then we present a theoretical model of how network cognitions in the minds of leaders affect three types of networks: the direct ties surrounding leaders, the pattern of direct and indirect ties within which leaders are embedded in the whole organization and the interorganizational linkages formed by leaders as representatives of organizations. We suggest that these patterns of ties can contribute to leader effectiveness. © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

575 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a causal chain from relationship commitment over relationship knowledge development and network knowledge development to opportunity development is specified, and two propositions are formulated regarding the effects of mutual relationship commitment and of network embeddedness in a country market on opportunity development in the market.
Abstract: * This paper starts from the observation that the internationalisation process (IP) model frequently is interpreted as a model of risk reduction in the internationalization of the firm. The dominating view of the model seems to be that commitment is the dependent variable and experience is the independent variable. A basic assumption of the original model, however, is that opportunity development is an important outcome of commitment. The purpose of this note is to articulate this relation, which is not stressed enough in earlier writings. Key Results * A causal chain from relationship commitment over relationship knowledge development and network knowledge development to opportunity development is specified. Two propositions are formulated regarding the effects of mutual relationship commitment and of network embeddedness in a country market on opportunity development in the market. Introduction 25 years afterwards, we are surprised. Firstly, we never expected this longevity of the model. Secondly, we are surprised, because after some thinking we have arrived at the conclusion, that we would not have built the model differently today, but with somewhat different underpinning. In a way we were lucky in using concepts such as "knowledge" and "commitment", which later came to be widely used in research on the theory of the firm but also in some functional disciplines. We were left with our inductively produced understanding of these concepts. We are grateful to the organizers of the conference and editors of this issue of MIR for focusing on the IP model and giving us this opportunity to elaborate on it. But, we must point out that the model is not "the establishment chain", going from ad hoc exports to the establishment of manufacturing subsidiaries. This was the empirical phenomenon we observed, giving the impetus to construct the model. The model is on learning and commitment building or, more precisely, on the interplay between knowledge development and increasing foreign market commitments. While the effect of knowledge development on foreign market commitment has been recognized and studied by many researchers the effect of commitment on knowledge development has been less noticed. The purpose of this note is to elaborate on this latter effect. In particular, we are here interested in the effect on opportunity development. Admittedly, this note is written in a way that it presupposes the reader is familiar with the original version of the internationalization model published in 1977 (Johanson/Vahlne 1977). In that article we tried to explain the gradual internationalization process observed by relying on two interdependent sub-processes--experiential learning and commitment building. We related those processes to the focal company only, later realizing that indeed these processes occur as interplay between at least two (potential) partners (Johanson and Vahlne 1990). In Johanson/Vahlne (2003), we tied the mechanisms of our original model closer to the network view of industrial markets by focusing on the critical role of building and changing relationships. One implication is that the concept of a "country market" is no longer seen as a valid unit of analysis. In this note, we focus on network or partner commitment and its role not only for uncertainty reduction, but on a sub-set of issues, notably--opportunity development. We believe we have under-estimated this aspect and the purpose of this note is to make up for that. The paper is structured as follows. After a short introductory review of important applications of the IP model in international business research, we discuss the change from market commitment to relationship commitment. In a following section, we discuss the relations between relationship commitment and knowledge development. Next, we widen the discussion to include network relationships, social capital and knowledge development. …

538 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This work finds that considerable heterogeneity exists in the network embeddedness of open source projects and project managers, and uses latent class regression analysis to show that multiple regimes exist and that some of the effects ofnetwork embeddedness are positive under some regimes and negative under others.
Abstract: The community-based model for software development in open source environments is becoming a viable alternative to traditional firm-based models. To better understand the workings of open source environments, we examine the effects of network embeddedness---or the nature of the relationship among projects and developers---on the success of open source projects. We find that considerable heterogeneity exists in the network embeddedness of open source projects and project managers. We use a visual representation of the affiliation network of projects and developers as well as a formal statistical analysis to demonstrate this heterogeneity and to investigate how these structures differ across projects and project managers. Our main results surround the effect of this differential network embeddedness on project success. We find that network embeddedness has strong and significant effects on both technical and commercial success, but that those effects are quite complex. We use latent class regression analysis to show that multiple regimes exist and that some of the effects of network embeddedness are positive under some regimes and negative under others. We use project age and number of page views to provide insights into the direction of the effect of network embeddedness on project success. Our findings show that different aspects of network embeddedness have powerful but subtle effects on project success and suggest that this is a rich environment for further study.

495 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors proposed that socialization tactics influence newcomer turnover by embedding newcomers more extensively into the organization, and tested with a sample of newcomers in a large financial services organization.

447 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors show how actors legitimize new practices by accomplishing three interdependent, recursive, situated "microprocesses" (i.e., cultivating opportunities for change, fitting a new role into prevailing systems, and proving the value of the new role).
Abstract: How do individual actors institute changes in established ways of working? Longitudinal research is the basis for our theoretical model showing how actors legitimize new practices by accomplishing three interdependent, recursive, situated “microprocesses”: (1) cultivating opportunities for change, (2) fitting a new role into prevailing systems, and (3) proving the value of the new role. These microprocesses are demarcated by an accumulating series of small wins that consolidate gains while facilitating continuing change efforts. Most accounts of institutional change focus on embeddedness as a constraint, yet our study shows how embeddedness can provide the foundation and opportunity for change.

402 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors trace the selective engagement of economic geography with network approaches in economic sociology and highlight the limitations of these implicit assumptions, and their limitations in the context of network governance.
Abstract: In economic geography the notion of the network has come to play a critical role in a range of debates. Yet networks are rarely construed in an explicit fashion. They are, rather, assumed as some sort of more enduring social relations. This paper seeks to foreground these implicit assumptions - and their limitations - by tracing the selective engagement of economic geography with network approaches in economic sociology. The perception of networks in economic geography is mainly informed by the network governance approach that is founded on Mark Granovetter's notion of embeddedness. By embracing the network governance approach, economic geography bypassed the older tradition of the social network approach. Economic geography thus discarded not only the concerns for network position and structure but also more calculative and strategic perceptions of networks prevailing in Ron Burt's work. Beyond these two dominant traditions, economic geography has, more recently, started to tinker with the poststructural...

265 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, three key notions of value, power and embeddedness are used to reveal the most powerful actors in the production network, how they maintain and exercise their power, and how the organization of production is manipulated as a result.
Abstract: This paper has two main aims. Firstly to conceptualize the production networks of the video games industry through an examination of its evolution into a multi-million dollar industry. Secondly, to use the video games industry to demonstrate the utility of Global Production Network approaches to understanding the geographically uneven impacts of globalization processes. In particular, three key notions of value, power and embeddedness are used to reveal the most powerful actors in the production network, how they maintain and exercise their power, and how the organization of production is manipulated as a result. It is argued that while hardware production is organized by console manufacturers using truly global sourcing strategies, the production of software is far more complex. In fact, software production networks are bounded within three major economic regions: Western Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. This paper seeks to explain how and why this has occurred. Copyright 2006, Oxford University Press.

242 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that transparency policies are effective only when the information they produce becomes embedded in the everyday decision-making routines of information users and information disclosers.
Abstract: Regulatory transparency—mandatory disclosure of information by private or public institutions with a regulatory intent—has become an important frontier of government innovation. This paper assesses the effectiveness of such transparency systems by examining the design and impact of financial disclosure, nutritional labeling, workplace hazard communication, and five other diverse systems in the United States. We argue that transparency policies are effective only when the information they produce becomes “embedded” in the everyday decision-making routines of information users and information disclosers. This double-sided embeddedness is the most important condition for transparency systems' effectiveness. Based on detailed case analyses, we evaluate the user and discloser embeddedness of the eight major transparency policies. We then draw on a comprehensive inventory of prior studies of regulatory effectiveness to assess whether predictions about effectiveness based on characteristics of embeddedness are consistent with those evaluations. © 2006 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management

241 citations


Book
01 Jan 2006
TL;DR: Mudambi and Navarra as mentioned in this paper developed and extended the notion of embeddedness in the Uppsala network view of the MNE, which is based on the essential recognition of the political aspects of MNE.
Abstract: It has long been recognized that controlling complex organizations like multinational enterprises (MNEs) is a multi-dimensional problem. Efficient organizational structures based on Coasian transaction costs often run afoul of individual or sub-unit goals, resulting in vertical conflicts between headquarters and subsidiaries (Nohria and Ghoshal, 1994). Further, horizontal competition among subsidiaries intent on promoting their own strategic agendas within the MNE results in internecine competition over resources and consequent rents (Mudambi and Navarra, 2004). Thus, the resulting organization and control structures of MNEs are the outcome of political processes where ‘power explains results when the organization sacrifices efficiency to serve special interests’ (Williamson and Ouchi, 1981). The network view of the MNE, built up over the years by the Uppsala school, is based on the essential recognition of the political aspects of the MNE, that is, ‘the political perspective stresses the fact that a great deal of the market knowledge … so important in explaining the internationalization process is controlled by subsidiaries rather than by the parent company’ (Forsgren, 1989). The current book sheds further light on the politics of the MNE by developing and extending the notion of embeddedness. It demonstrates that the Uppsala school remains fecund – a continuing source of new ideas on the cutting edge of IB research. Charles Dhanaraj's critical review provides an excellent dissection of the book, highlighting its pioneering aspects and linking it to methodologically rigorous mainstream research in management and sociology. Ram Mudambi JIBS Book Review Editor References Forsgren, M. (1989) Managing the Internationalization Process: The Swedish Case, Routledge: London. Mudambi, R. and Navarra, P. (2004) ‘Is knowledge power? Knowledge flows, subsidiary power and rent-seeking within MNCs’, Journal of International Business Studies 35(5): 385–406. Nohria, N. and Ghoshal, S. (1994) ‘Differentiated fit and shared values: alternatives for managing headquarters-subsidiary relations’, Strategic Management Journal 15(6): 491–502. Williamson, O.E. and Ouchi, W.G. (1981) ‘The markets and hierarchies program of research: origins, implications, prospects’, in A.E. Van de Ven and W.F. Joyce (eds.) Perspectives on Organization Design and Behavior, John Wiley: New York.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine whether top corporate executives maintain more informal ties to executives of other firms in order to manage uncertainty arising from resource dependence, and draw from theory and research on social embeddedness and friendship to suggest that the maintenance of friendship ties between top executives provides benefits that are comparable to the supposed benefits of board cooptation, while imposing fewer constraints on the organization.
Abstract: Research on organization–environment relations has focused primarily on formal linkages between organizations such as board interlock ties as a strategy for managing resource dependence. This study examines whether top corporate executives may maintain more informal ties to executives of other firms in order to manage uncertainty arising from resource dependence. Our point of departure is prior research on boards of directors that has examined whether so-called ‘broken board ties’ (i.e., ties that are disrupted due to executive turnover) tend to be reconstituted, and whether resource dependence explains the likelihood of reconstitution. These studies have generally provided little evidence that corporate board ties are used to manage resource dependence. We draw from theory and research on social embeddedness and friendship to suggest that, as a strategy for managing dependence, the maintenance of friendship ties between top executives provides benefits that are comparable to the supposed benefits of board cooptation, while imposing fewer constraints on the organization. Our theory leads to the contention that, despite limited prior evidence that resource dependence determines the formation of formal board ties, corporate leaders may nevertheless reconstitute informal (i.e., friendship) ties to leaders of other firms that have the power to constrain their firms' access to needed resources when those ties have been disrupted (e.g., due to turnover of the CEO's friend). We test our hypotheses with a unique dataset that includes survey data from U.S. corporate leaders collected at two points in time, thus permitting an assessment of whether top executives reconstitute broken social ties to leaders of other firms, and whether various sources of resource dependence predict the likelihood of reconstitution. We discuss implications for strategic perspectives on inter-organizational relations and the sociological literature on embeddedness. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Book
01 Jan 2006
TL;DR: The concept of Institutional embeddedness and the concept of institutional embeddedness was introduced in the New Class Schema as mentioned in this paper, which is used in the UK, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland.
Abstract: Introduction PART I: LABOUR MARKET TRENDS AND THE THEORY OF A NEW CLASS SCHEMA Class Theorists and the Debate About the End of Class Three Labour Market Trends and their Impact on the Employment Structure Women, the Manual/Non-Manual Divide and the Working Class Horizontal Divisions Within the Middle Class The Construction Logic of a New Class Schema PART II: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF EMPLOYMENT STRATIFICATION Operationalization of the New Class Schema The Class Structure of Britain, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland The Distribution of Advantage Within the Class Schema Structural Divisions Within the Schema: Public Employment and Party Support Collapsed Versions of the Detailed Class Schema PART III: CLASS AND THE CONCEPT OF INSTITUTIONAL EMBEDDEDNESS Introducing Institutions: The Concept of Institutional Embeddedness Class Differences in Pension System Integration Class Differences in Trade Union Membership Class Differences in Political Citizenship and Electoral Participation Cumulative Differences in Institutional Embeddedness Concluding Summary Statistical Annexe

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper will first venture into the neglected sphere of thin, ephemeral, and global personal knowledge networks by differentiating between connectivity, sociality, and communality networks, and elucidates the supportive functions of these ties but also explores the tensions between personal interests, project goals, and the firm's aims that are induced by thesepersonal knowledge networks.
Abstract: Recent debates on learning have shifted the analytical focus from formal organizational arrangements to informal personal ties. Personal knowledge networks, though, mostly are perceived as homogenous, cohesive, and local personal ties. Moreover, a functionalist tone seems to prevail in accounts in which personal knowledge networks are seen to compensate the shortcomings of the formal organization. This paper sets outtoexpandthedominantconstrualofnetworks,whichislargelymoldedby the notion of embeddedness. Against the background of in-depth empirical analysis of the project ecologies of the Hamburg advertising and the Munich software business, the paper will first venture into the neglected sphere of thin, ephemeral, and global personal knowledge networks by differentiating between connectivity, sociality, and communality networks. Second, the paper not only elucidates the supportive functions of these ties but also explores the tensions between personal interests, project goals, and the firm’s aims that are induced by these personal knowledge networks.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a cross-level understanding of the embeddedness of interfirm partnering in the context of the formation of new partnerships is proposed, making a critical distinction among environmental embeddedness, interorganizational embedness, and dyadic embedness.
Abstract: This paper suggests a cross-level understanding of the embeddedness of interfirm partnering in the context of the formation of new partnerships. It makes a critical distinction among environmental embeddedness, interorganizational embeddedness, and dyadic embeddedness, stressing the importance of understanding the interaction of these different levels of embeddedness. This focus on the complex interaction effects of different levels of embeddedness of interfirm partnering sets this contribution apart from previous work in the field.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the relationship between new social embedding of the economy and older traditions of social embeddedness, such as the welfare state, neocorporatist arrangements, and other socio-political and labour market arrangements.
Abstract: Purpose – The increasing engagement in corporate social responsibility (CSR) potentially indicates an attempt to “re‐embed” the economy in a wider societal context, following a period of neoliberal market exposure, deregulation, and separation of commercial and societal concerns. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between this new social embedding of the economy and older traditions of social embeddedness, such as the welfare state, neocorporatist arrangements, and other socio‐political and labour market arrangements.Design/methodology/approach – The paper explores the relationship between old and new embeddedness by examining how 17 West European nations and the USA are ranked on “old” embeddedness dimensions and comparing this ranking with “new” CSR rankings of nationally aggregated industrial performance.Findings – The overall findings at an aggregate level provides some support for the idea of a symmetric relationship between the “old”, politically‐driven embeddedness and the “ne...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore how, under certain political economic conditions, the investments of transnational corporations (TNCs) can be shaped to meet the state's objectives.
Abstract: With the aid of an empirical case study of the automobile industry in China, we explore how, under certain political-economic conditions, the investments of transnational corporations (TNCs) can be shaped to meet the state's objectives. We develop the concept of 'obligated embeddedness' to capture the dynamics of this process. We show that foreign direct investment in the automobile industry in China is a type of market-led and embedded investment which is characterised by joint ventures and the follow-up network configurations. However, to achieve such obligated embeddedness on the part of TNCs-and for the state and its citizens to gain its benefits-the state not only has to have the theoretical capacity to control access to assets located within its territory, but also the power actually to determine such access.

Reference BookDOI
01 Jan 2006
TL;DR: The International Encyclopedia of Economic Sociology as discussed by the authors is the first encyclopedia in the field and a timely response to the surge of interest in economic sociology over the last 30 years, focusing on the impact of social, political and cultural factors on economic behavior.
Abstract: The International Encyclopedia of Economic Sociology is the first encyclopedia in the field and a timely response to the surge of interest in economic sociology over the last 30 years. Economic Sociology deals with the multiple and complex relations between economy and society. In particular, it focuses on the impact of social, political and cultural factors on economic behaviour. The Encyclopedia gives comprehensive and accessible coverage of the wide range of areas and subjects covered by the field, including, amongst many others, such major topics as consumption, corruption, democracy and economy, ecology, embeddedness, gender and economy, globalization, industrial relations, law and economy, markets, organization theory, political economy, religion and economic life, social capital, the sociology of money, state and economy, trust, and work. The International Encyclopedia of Economic Sociology is the much-needed major reference work on one of the richest areas of development in the social sciences in recent years. It is an extremely valuable new resource for students and researchers in sociology, economics, political science, and business, organization and management studies. Entries are cross-referenced and carry compact bibliographies. There is a full index.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, it is argued that the attributes of entrepreneurial individuals who are not born locally enable them to follow distinct routes to starting and/or running a business, working in contexts that allow them to break away from the confines of rurality.
Abstract: It is now broadly accepted in the literature that in-migrants make a disproportionately positive contribution in the creation of new ventures in rural England. However, to date, there have been precious few advances in our understanding of either the characteristics or, more importantly, the degree of embeddedness of in-migrant entrepreneurs. This paper aspires to address this gap in the literature, drawing upon the findings of an extensive fieldwork investigation in rural Cumbria.1 It is argued that the attributes of entrepreneurial individuals who are not born locally enable them to follow distinct routes to starting and/or running a business, working in contexts that allow them to break away from the confines of rurality. They appear to rely less upon the local setting for the supply of materials and capital, as well as a market for their products/services and to have closer relationships with national and international sources of information than their locally-born counterparts. Thus, in-migrant entre...


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors shed some light on strategies and power resources of subsidiary managers and employee representatives involved in "charter changes" and the implementation of best practices developed elsewhere, and identified three key influences which restrain or empower local management and employees in their ability to make strategic choices and gain power within the MNC.
Abstract: This paper intends to shed some light on strategies and power resources of subsidiary managers and employee representatives involved in ‘charter changes’ and the implementation of ‘best practices’ developed elsewhere. Research shows that local managers face a dilemma in that they need both internal legitimacy (within the MNC itself) and external legitimacy (within the local context). It is argued that the power resources key actors draw on in the (internal) decision-making processes of ‘charter changes’ are intertwined with certain (external) national business system (NBS) characteristics, an aspect often neglected in North American research about MNCs. The authors identify three key influences, which restrain or empower local management and employees in their ability to make strategic choices and gain power within the MNC. They are (1) the overall strategic approach of the multinational group, (2) the strategic position and the economic performance of the subsidiary itself and (3) the degree of instituti...

Posted ContentDOI
01 Jan 2006
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that even when one encounters a prevailing market form of governance of economic interactions, the latter are embedded in a rich thread of non-market institutions, and they build on the fundamental institutional embeddedness of such processes of technological learning in both developed and catching-up countries and identify some quite robust policy ingredients which have historically accompanied the coevolution between technological capabilities, forms of corporate organisations and incentive structures.
Abstract: In this work, meant as an introduction to the contributions of the task force on Industrial Policies and Development, Initiative for Policy Dialogue, Columbia University, New York, the authors discuss the role of institutions and policies in the process of development. They begin by arguing how misleading the "market failure" language can be in order to assess the necessity of public policies in that it evaluates it against a yardstick that is hardly met by any observed market set-up. Much nearer to the empirical evidence the authors argue that even when one encounters a prevailing market form of governance of economic interactions, the latter are embedded in a rich thread of non-market institutions. This applies in general and is particularly so with respect to the production and use of information and technological knowledge. In this work they build on the fundamental institutional embeddedness of such processes of technological learning in both developed and catching-up countries and we try to identify some quite robust policy ingredients which have historically accompanied the co-evolution between technological capabilities, forms of corporate organisations and incentive structures. All experiences of successful catching-up and sometimes overtaking the incumbent economic leaders – starting with the USA vis-a-vis Britain – have involved “institution building” and policy measures affecting technological imitation, the organisations of industries, trade patterns and intellectual property rights. This is likely to apply today, too, – also in the context of a “globalised” world economy.

Book
16 Nov 2006
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explain the mechanisms of the management consulting market and the management of consulting firms from both economic and sociological perspectives, and examine the strategies, marketing approaches, knowledge management and human resource management techniques of management consultancy.
Abstract: Management consultancy is a key sector in the economic change toward a service and knowledge economy. Originally published in 2006, this book explains the mechanisms of the management consulting market and the management of consulting firms from both economic and sociological perspectives. It also examines the strategies, marketing approaches, knowledge management and human resource management techniques of consulting firms. After outlining the relationships between transaction cost economics, signaling theory, embeddedness theory and sociological neoinstitutionalism, Thomas Armbruster applies these theories to central questions such as: Why does the consulting sector exist and grow? Which institutions connect supply and demand? And which factors influence the relationship between clients and consultants? By applying both economic and sociological approaches, the book explains the general economic changes of the previous thirty years and sharpens the relationship between the academic disciplines.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate the contemporary restructuring of the mobile-telecommunications industry with the use of a global production networks (GPNs) perspective, and explore the delicate power balance between embedded state and corporate actors in telecommunications GPNs through a consideration of the changing bases of standard setting in the industry.
Abstract: The authors investigate the contemporary restructuring of the mobile-telecommunications industry with the use of a global production networks (GPNs) perspective. After a brief conceptual discussion of GPN, standard setting and embeddedness, their analysis proceeds in four further stages. First, they consider how technological change has driven the development of complex mobile telecommunications GPNs in a sector previously characterised by relatively linear and simple value chains. Second, they show how processes of deregulation and privatisation over the past two decades have enabled the internationalisation of mobile telecommunications provision. Third, they explore the delicate power balance between embedded state and corporate actors in telecommunications GPNs through a consideration of the changing bases of standard setting in the industry. Despite ongoing processes of globalisation, the continuing importance of national policies and strategies is clear. Fourth, they demonstrate the continuing import...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper found that employees from high power distance, high uncertainty avoidance, and high context cultures prefer greater standardization, whereas those from high individualism cultures prefer less standardization and that work interdependence is positively associated with standardization preferences.
Abstract: Both theoretical and empirical studies of professional service employee standardization preferences are relatively scarce. Using responses from 398 employees of an international public relations firm, this study finds that employees from high power distance, high uncertainty avoidance and high-context cultures prefer greater standardization, whereas employees from high individualism cultures prefer less standardization. Additionally, work interdependence is positively associated with standardization preferences, whereas local embeddedness is negatively associated with standardization preferences.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the extent to which the effects of interfirm networks on the behavior of firms are historically contingent, focusing on the level of debt financing among approximately 140 large U.S. corporations over a 22-year period.
Abstract: Economic and organizational sociologists have increasingly demonstrated that the actions of individuals and firms are affected by the social networks within which they are embedded. In recent years scholars have begun to recognize that the effects of these social networks may vary across populations or types of relations. This article examines the extent to which the effects of interfirm networks on the behavior of firms are historically contingent. Focusing on the level of debt financing among approximately 140 large U.S. corporations over a 22-year period, the authors show that the extent to which the firms' use of debt was influenced by those with which they were tied through director interlocks declined over time. The authors argue that this decline in the network effect reflected a shift in the institutional environment within which the firms operated, and that it was driven by three processes: the professionalization of the finance function within the firm, the internalization of financial decision-...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors suggests that the academic field of study called comparative education must always deal with the intellectual problems produced by the concept of context (the local, social embeddedness of educational phenomena) and transfer (the movement of educational ideas, policies and practices from one place to another, normally across a national boundary); and their relation.
Abstract: This article suggests that the academic field of study called comparative education must always deal with the intellectual problems produced by the concept of context (the local, social embeddedness of educational phenomena) and transfer (the movement of educational ideas, policies and practices from one place to another, normally across a national boundary); and their relation. Considerable progress has been made, but these intellectual issues have not yet been fully sorted out despite the normal optimism—and the very powerful legitimation motif in the history of the field of study—about its ‘usefulness’: the special value of comparative education as a way of improving educational policy. The article suggests that the ideology of usefulness in the history of comparative education has helped to permit a whole range of intellectual, quasi‐intellectual, and rather practical activities to be gathered together under the umbrella name, ‘comparative education’ to the point where serious epistemological, ethical...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors argue that in the context of rural Cumbria, the conceptualisation of locality may go beyond territorial notions, and advocate a move forward to the detailed exploration of the interface between agency and context.
Abstract: There is a growing realisation among scholars and policymakers of the role of local contextual factors and circumstances in influencing the behaviour of key economic agents, including the entrepreneur. This approach has stretched the boundaries of academic inquiry well beyond mainstream conceptualisations of economic agency as isolated from its setting. An assumption that underpinned research and policymaking in the new learning is that economic activity is typically socially embedded, which is generally taken to imply local embeddedness. In our paper, drawing upon the findings of extensive research in rural Cumbria, we question this assumption. We argue that in the context of rural Cumbria, the conceptualisation of locality may go beyond territorial notions. This argument does not support a return to the notion of the isolated economic agent, but advocates a move forward to the detailed exploration of the interface between agency and context.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors assess the factors affecting national administrative rationalization in the context of the current worldwide movement for governance reforms, focusing on national linkages to world society rather than internal socioeconomic development.
Abstract: We assess the factors affecting national administrative rationalization in the context of the current worldwide movement for governance reforms, focusing on national linkages to world society rather than internal socioeconomic development. We conduct cross-national longitudinal analyses of a multiple-indicator measure of rationalized governance for the period 1985–2002. Overall, there is only a very modest growth in the measure worldwide, with the most substantial changes occurring in developing countries. Change is mostly on an indicator of investment openness. National change tends to reflect links with global society: expanded trade, the penetration of science, and embeddedness in world organizations play prominent roles. The rationalization of national governance, like other dimensions of modernization, is not simply or principally a consequence of endogenous national development or social complexity. Rather, it directly reflects trade and institutional linkages with wider rationalizing movements in t...

Journal ArticleDOI
01 May 2006-Geoforum
TL;DR: The status of nature in food systems is the subject of as discussed by the authors, which looks into the ecological embeddedness of the Austrian food system both on the national level and in a regional case study.