Showing papers on "Embeddedness published in 2020"

Springboard internationalization by emerging market firms: Speed of first cross-border acquisition

Abstract: According to the springboard perspective, emerging market multinationals seek strategic assets aggressively from the outset. In this paper, we investigate the role of firms’ institutional embeddedness in terms of age and affiliation to business group on their aggressive internationalization pursuits, an issue which has remained less explored in international business scholarship. This study, based on 8163 Indian listed firms over 18 years, identifies a trend that younger firms founded in the liberalized era, post 1991, and unaffiliated firms are more likely to pursue aggressive internationalization by conducting their first cross-border acquisition (CBA) faster. Among affiliated firms, younger ones are relatively faster in conducting their first CBA. Furthermore, the evidence signals a moderating impact of inter-group heterogeneity in terms of group-level assets and foreign investments on the relationship between firm age and aggressive internationalization.

Inclusive Business at the Base of the Pyramid: The Role of Embeddedness for Enabling Social Innovations

Abstract: Inclusive businesses that combine profit making with social impact are claimed to hold the potential for poverty alleviation while also creating new entrepreneurial and innovation opportunities. Current research, however, offers little insight on the processes through which for-profit business organizations introduce social innovations that can profitably create social impact. To understand how social innovations emerge and become sustained in business organizations, we studied a telecom firm in Kenya that successfully extended financial services across the country through a number of mobile banking innovations. Our qualitative analysis revealed the strong role of being embedded in local networks and structures for initiating and implementing social innovations. Strong embeddedness enhanced the pragmatic and ethical imperative for internalizing social issues, but also provided access to diverse resources for implementing and legitimizing social innovations. However, hybridization processes that emphasized social issues introduced organizational tensions by increasing goal diversity and requiring adapting organizational processes and structures. The case shows how developing a mission-driven identity enabled the sustenance of social innovations by providing a meta-narrative that bridged goal diversities and rationalized organizational change.

Radical Hope: Poverty-Aware Practice for Social Work

Abstract: In this seminal book, Krumer-Nevo introduces the Poverty-Aware Paradigm: a radical new framework for social workers and professionals working with and for people in poverty The author defines the core components of the Poverty-Aware Paradigm, explicates its embeddedness in key theories in poverty, critical social work and psychoanalysis, and links it to diverse facets of social work practice Providing a revolutionary new way to think about how social work can address poverty, she draws on the extensive application of the paradigm by social workers in Israel and across diverse poverty contexts to provide evidence for the practical advantages of integrating the Poverty-Aware Paradigm into social work practices across the globe

Understanding Economic Inequality Through the Lens of Caste

Abstract: Research on economic inequality has largely focused on understanding the relationship between organizations and inequality but has paid limited attention to the role of institutions in the creation and maintenance of inequality. In this article, we use insights from the caste system—an institution that perpetuates socio-economic inequalities and limits human functions—to elaborate on three elements of economic inequality: uneven dispersions in resource endowments, uneven access to productive resources and opportunities, and uneven rewards to resource contributions. We argue that economic inequalities persist because these three different elements of inequality feed from and reinforce each other. Our study underscores the potential of the caste lens to inform research on economic inequality as well as organizational theory and practice.

Networks, Labour and Migration among Indian Muslim Artisans

Abstract: Networks, Labour and Migration among Indian Muslim Artisans provides an ethnography of life, work and migration in a North Indian Muslim-dominated woodworking industry. It traces artisanal connections within the local context, during migration within India, and to the Gulf, examining how woodworkers utilise local and transnational networks, based on identity, religiosity, and affective circulations, to access resources, support and forms of mutuality. However, the book also illustrates how liberalisation, intensifying forms of marginalisation and incorporation into global production networks have led to spatial pressures, fragmentation of artisanal labour, and forms of enclavement that persist despite geographical mobility and connectedness. By working across the dialectic of marginality and connectedness, Thomas Chambers thinks through these complexities and dualities by providing an ethnographic account that shares everyday life with artisans and others in the industry. Descriptive detail is intersected with spatial scales of ‘local’, ‘national’ and ‘international’, with the demands of supply chains and labour markets within India and abroad, with structural conditions, and with forms of change and continuity. Empirically, then, the book provides a detailed account of a specific locale, but also contributes to broader theoretical debates centring on theorisations of margins, borders, connections, networks, embeddedness, neoliberalism, subjectivities, and economic or social flux.

Impact of informal institutions on the prevalence, strategy, and performance of family firms: A meta-analysis

Abstract: Family-controlled firms (FCFs)’ prevalence, strategies, and performance differ across countries. We explain these differences through the lens of informal institutions, suggesting that different countries have different levels of appreciation for family business. To capture this effect, we introduce the construct of family business legitimacy (FBL) and an associated index (FBLI). We empirically measure FBLI scores for 83 countries spanning both developed and emerging economies. By combining meta-analytic and archival data, we show that FCFs prevail, follow unique strategies, and outperform non-FCFs in countries with high FBLI scores. As a new contingency variable, FBL advances the literature on the informal institutional embeddedness of organizations and family business.

Regime Threats and State Solutions: Bureaucratic Loyalty and Embeddedness in Kenya

Abstract: The administrative state is a powerful tool because it can control the population and, in moments of crisis, help leaders put down popular threats to their rule. But a state does not act; bureaucrats work through the state to carry out a leader's demands. In turn, leaders attempt to use their authority over the state to manage bureaucrats in a way that induces bureaucratic behavior that furthers their policy and political goals. Focusing on Kenya since independence, Hassan weaves together micro-level personnel data, rich archival records, and interviews to show how the country's different leaders have strategically managed, and in effect weaponized, the public sector. This nuanced analysis shows how even states categorized as weak have proven capable of helping their leader stay in power. With engaging evidence and compelling theory, Regime Threats and State Solutions will interest political scientists and scholars studying authoritarian regimes, African politics, state bureaucracy, and political violence.

Relational Work in the Economy

Abstract: In her groundbreaking scholarship on intimacy and economy, Viviana Zelizer coined the concept of relational work, or efforts in matching social relations with economic transactions and media of exc...

Transformational leadership, proactive personality and service performance: The mediating role of organizational embeddedness

Abstract: This paper aims to examine the impacts of transformational leadership and employee proactive personality on service performance, the mediation role of organizational embeddedness and the synergies of transformational leadership and proactive personality within the proposed framework.,Data was collected following a time-lagged research approach. The study sample included 218 frontline employees and their supervisors from ten carefully selected five-star hotels in China. Structural equation modeling was employed for the data analysis.,Transformational leadership and proactive personality had positive effects on task performance and contextual performance via organizational embeddedness. The interactive influences of transformational leadership and proactive personality on task performance and contextual performance were found significant and negative.,Transformational leaders and proactive employees have been shown to exert a strong influence on excellent service performance, with organizational embeddedness playing a critical role.

Social embeddedness and its benefits for cooperation in a tourism destination

Abstract: According to the concept of social embeddedness, economic decisions are affected by the social networks in which economic actors operate. One such decision relates to business cooperation. The benefits of social embeddedness have not been presented with regard to entrepreneurs in tourism destinations, especially in relation to decisions on cooperation. The aim of the paper is to identify and characterize the benefits of tourist entrepreneurs' social embeddedness for establishing economic cooperation, as well as the development and effects of such cooperation. This aim is achieved on the basis of semi-structured interviews conducted among 48 tourist entrepreneurs – members of the Wisla Tourism Organization operating in Wisla – a popular tourist destination in Poland. The identified benefits include: access to resources, flexibility of activities, shaping partners' common identity, reducing transaction costs, generating positive ‘domino effects’ in the destination, elimination of dishonest partners, limiting inappropriate market behavior, and easier knowledge acquisition and transfer.

The mixed embeddedness of transnational migrant entrepreneurs: Moroccans in Amsterdam and Milan

Abstract: This article addresses transnational migrant entrepreneurship – migrant entrepreneurs establishing businesses that span across borders. The article contributes to this field by applying the mixed e...

Effect of network embeddedness on innovation performance of small and medium-sized enterprises: The moderating role of innovation openness

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to identify if network embeddedness and innovation performance relationship, which has been largely studied in multinational enterprises (MNEs) and large corporations, was also applicable in the context of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Secondly, the authors also sought to identify the moderating role of innovation openness in the relationship between network embeddedness and SMEs' innovation performance.,Empirical analysis was based on 388 SMEs in Ghana. Various validity and reliability checks were conducted before the presentation of the actual analysis, which was conducted using the structural equation modeling in Amos (v.23).,Findings revealed that, in the context of SMEs, network embeddedness had significant positive effect on innovation performance. The authors further identified that SMEs with both high levels of network embeddedness and innovation openness had a much higher performance in their innovation, compared to SMEs that relied solely on network embeddedness.,The current study found innovation openness to further strengthen the relationship between network embeddedness and SMEs' innovation performance. The relationship between network embedded and SME's innovation could, however, be mediated by knowledge transfer mechanisms, so future studies should pay particular attention to the mediating mechanisms.,Management of SMEs is advised to develop conducive organizational structures, such as trust, openness to collaboration and so on, for effective innovative knowledge transfer and transformation.,Past research studies on network embeddedness and innovation performance have dominantly resided in MNE and large corporations. This current study extends the body of knowledge by extending the network embeddedness and innovation performance research studies to SME context.

Bringing the organization back in: Flexing structural responses to competing logics in budgeting

Abstract: This paper aims to understand the mechanisms through which organizations, over time, manage competing logics within budgeting practices. We draw insights from new institutional studies in accountingto highlight the importance of practice-level negotiations for managing institutional conflicts, but we complement them with a focus on the organizational embeddedness of hybrid practices from organizational studies in accounting. More specifically, we build on the notion of ‘structured flexibility,’ according to which organizational structures frame and enable negotiations on hybrid practices, as critical to manage complexity in face of changing environmental conditions. We thus show how ‘structured flexibility’ is made possible by a number of characteristics of decision-making that have been widely studied by the behavioral theory of the firm, i.e. the decomposition of decision-making processes, the framing of local negotiations and the search for satisficing solutions. Our findings from a case study of a public university facing the conflict between a professional and a managerial logic shed light on how organizations may actively manage institutional complexity over time and suggest specific interventions to transform complexity into a source of strategic advantage.

How to Join the Club: Patterns of Embeddedness and the Addition of New Members to Interorganizational Collaborations:

Abstract: Using U.S. venture capital investment data from 1985 to 2008 and qualitative interviews, we examine how group dynamics influence the growth of interorganizational collaborations through the additio...

Managing dilemmas of resource mobilization through jugaad: A multi-method study of social enterprises in Indian healthcare

Abstract: Research Summary This study focuses on the dilemmas that social entrepreneurs encounter and the practices used to manage dilemmas over time. Using a multi‐method approach involving event structure analysis and an inductive multiple case study, we find that four key organizational practices—asset multiplication, leveraging human capital, building social embeddedness, and affordable quality—embody the jugaad elements of frugality and inclusivity. Adding to the social entrepreneurship literature, this study demonstrates that the jugaad approach is conceptually distinct from bricolage and relevant to the study of social enterprises' resource mobilization processes. Managerial Summary How do social enterprises encounter and manage dilemmas over time in emerging markets? The present study responds to this question, finding that social entrepreneurs mobilize resources and overcome dilemmas using the practices of jugaad, the “Indian method” of problem‐solving. These jugaad practices can be used to build and allocate resources and create trade‐offs among the jugaad elements of frugality and inclusivity. Based on our results, we recommend that social entrepreneurs pay close attention to how to proceduralize human assets, which would allow these entrepreneurs to build training systems that are highly task‐focused and replicated across functions. We also encourage social entrepreneurs to work in rural markets and seek wider resource pools within these markets by building social embeddedness in rural communities.

Gendering foreign policy: A comparative framework for analysis

Abstract: This article seeks to explain the rise of pro-gender norms and feminist strategies in foreign policy, which are increasingly salient in global politics. How can this trend be theorized? In what ways is this development resisted and contested by other states and international actors? To what extent can we trace continuity and change in regard to gender and foreign policy? To address these major research questions and to spur cross-national comparative studies, this article advances a theoretical framework on gendering foreign policy. It draws on two strands of research, which rarely engage with one another: international feminist theory (IFT) and foreign policy analysis (FPA). We identify three ways in which comparative analysis of gender in foreign policy can be advanced: first, by highlighting the variations of pro-gender norms and enhancing the analytical assessment of cross-national trends; second, by generating a more robust explanation of the rise, embeddedness, and continuity of, as well as resistance to, pro-gender norms in foreign policy in similar and diverse contexts; and third, by examining both continuity and change in pro-gender norms in order to reveal the contestation around gender, which is at the heart of foreign policy. (Less)

The effect of servant leadership, perceived organizational support, job satisfaction and job embeddedness on turnover intentions: An empirical investigation

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to provide insights into the effect of servant leadership on turnover intentions. The authors investigate the mediating effects of perceived organizational support (POS), job embeddedness and job satisfaction on the relationship between servant leadership and turnover intentions. In doing so, the authors seek to make the following contributions. First, the authors seek to provide additional empirical evidence for servant leadership as an effective organizational theory. Additionally, the authors seek to establish POS, embeddedness and job satisfaction as underlying mechanisms that transmit the positive effects of servant leadership.,The data were collected from a paper and pencil survey questionnaire provided to employees of different organizations in a metropolitan area in the southeastern United States. The sample consisted of 150 participants; complete (listwise) data were available for 115 participants.,The study shows that POS and embeddedness are mediating mechanisms through which servant leadership is related to employee turnover intentions. The authors found POS and job embeddedness to be significant mediating constructs which help explain the nature of the relationship between servant leadership and turnover intentions.,By investigating these constructs in the present framework, we help to provide answers to the questions of how and why servant leadership affects employee outcomes. These answers are an important step towards more fully understanding the complex ways by which followers respond to servant leadership.

Network Embeddedness and Innovation: Evidence From the Alternative Energy Field

Abstract: Researchers have long studied the effect of network embeddedness on innovation outcomes, resulting in mixed findings. In this paper, we aim to take a novel approach to reconcile prior conflicting perspectives. We argue that previous seemingly discrepant findings may stem from ignoring different forms of network embeddedness and innovation. An innovator has doubly embedded relations in innovation networks: relational and structural embeddedness (SE). Additionally, innovations are categorized into two distinct types: exploratory and exploitative innovations. Our analysis is based on 2936 patent records involving 1561 inventors from a large U.S. company over a 16-year period. The findings indicate that, both relational and SE contribute to promoting exploitative innovation, while they have inverted U-shaped relationships with exploratory innovation. Furthermore, we argue that the whole network structure (e.g., the small-world quotient) must be considered to fully understand the effectiveness of network embeddedness. The implications of our findings are discussed for embeddedness, innovation, and network theory. For policy practice, researchers and knowledge workers should be more aware of modifying the levels of relational and SE, adopt appropriate embeddedness levels in a different situation, and match their embeddedness strategy with the whole structure of the intrafirm network.

Social influence and MNE strategic response to political risk: A global network approach

Abstract: According to the conventional view of MNE–host country relations, MNEs faced with political risk condition their strategic responses on each party’s relative power positions – or bargaining influence. Drawing insight from network theory, institutional theory, and international relations research, I argue that firm sensitivity to political risk is contingent upon a complementary concept: social influence. Social influence arises through the mutual embeddedness of MNE and host government in a complex global network of nations. To test my hypotheses, I construct a global network of trade relations that I combine with a unique transaction-level dataset from the global petroleum industry. My results demonstrate that social influence, as modeled by home–host structural equivalence, moderates the effects of political risk. Further, my findings provide support for a conceptual and empirical distinction between social influence and the traditional bargaining influence examined in the literature.

Network Embeddedness in Exploration and Exploitation of Joint R&D Projects: A Structural Approach

Abstract: This paper analyses how network embeddedness affects exploration and exploitation R&D project performance. By developing joint projects, partners and projects are linked to one another and form a network that generates social capital. We examine how the location, which determines the access to information and knowledge within a network of relationships, affects the performance of projects. We consider this question in the setup of exploration and exploitation projects, using a database built from an EU Framework. We find that each of the structural´ embeddedness dimensions (degree, betweenness and eigenvector centrality) have a different impact on the exploration and exploitation project performance. Our empirical analysis extends to project management literature, and social capital theory, by including the effect that the acquisition of external knowledge has on the performance of the project.

Making Choices from the Choices we have: The Contextual-Embeddedness of Occupational Choice.

Abstract: Background.“Choice” is central to occupational therapy’s theoretical tradition, which maintains that individuals can impact their well-being through wisely choosing their occupations. However, the ...