Beyond Grey Pinstripes survey

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Author

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Key Words

Corporate Social Responsibility as Institutional Hybrids

Eva Boxenbaum

Journal of business strategies Vol. 23, nr. 1 2006

CSR,

Institutions

Abstract:

This paper empirically examines the impact of societal context on constructs of corporate social responsibility (CSR). The empirical analysis is informed by neo-institutional theory, which conceptualizes CSR constructs as potential or actual institutions. A case study from the Danish business setting identifies the steps that a project group of business actors took to develop a new CSR construct. The steps include the transfer and translation of a foreign institution in response to a field-level problem, major events, and partial deinstitutionalization of an established CSR construct. The findings suggest that the new CSR construct is an institutional hybrid, a combination of foreign and familiar institutions that make a new CSR construct innovative, legitimate, and continuous with existing practice in the business setting. The paper proposes that CSR constructs are malleable institutional hybrids that are most easily implemented if tailored to the social context. It concludes with implications for managers who want to select, design and implement CSR constructs in their own business settings.

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Author

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Spectacular Ethics

Lilie Chouliaraki

Journal of Language and Politics, Vol.4, No.1, 2005

Aesthetic Representation; Analytics of Mediation; Iraq War; Multi-Modality; Regime of Pity;

Abstract:

This article argues that the BBC World footage of the bombardment of Baghdad, March–April 2003, manages to take sides in the controversy over the Iraq war, without violating the principle of objectivity — a principle necessary for the credibility of public service broadcasting. Making use of the ‘analytics of mediation’, I show that the semiotic choices of this footage construe the bombardment of Baghdad in a regime of pity, whereby the aesthetic quality of the spectacle effaces the presence of Iraqi people as human beings and sidelines the question of the coalition troops identity either as benefactors or bombers. This combination is instrumental in aestheticising the horror of war at the expense of raising issues around the legitimacy and effects of the war.
The taking of sides in the BBC ‘update’ occurs precisely through this aestheticised representation of warfare that denies the sufferer her humanity and relieves the bomber of his responsibility in inflicting the suffering. By rendering these identities irrelevant to the spectacle of the suffering, the footage ultimately suppresses the emotional, ethical and political issues that lie behind the bombardment of Baghdad.

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Author

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Entrepreneurship as social change

Daniel Hjorth

Steyaert, Chris

Book

Social Entrepreneurship

society-creating

Abstract:

Third in the "Movements in Entrepreneurship" series, this book examines entrepreneurship as a societal phenomenon. It provides a study of the social aspects of entrepreneurship, illustrating how entrepreneurship affects society. It is intended for academics and researchers with an interest in entrepreneurship, sociology and economic sociology. This book examines entrepreneurship as a societal phenomenon. It provides an in-depth study of the social aspects of entrepreneurship, illustrating how entrepreneurship affects society. The need to move beyond economy to disclose entrepreneurship in its societal forms is demonstrated, as is the relevance of our understanding of entrepreneurship as a societal phenomenon. The contributors show that entrepreneurship is a society-creating force. Through rich empirical work, this book explores the social of 'social entrepreneurship' and in doing so shows us how entrepreneurship is at home where society is created.

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Author

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Cloning sensations

Maja Horst

Public Understanding of Science 14 (2005)

Cloning

Mass Media

Biotechnology

Social Responses

Culture

Abstract:

The 1998 announcement by American researcher Richard Seed that he intended to clone a human person for reproductive reasons created a large amount of journalistic attention and controversy in the Danish mass media. Developing a theoretical framework inspired by Bruno Latour, this paper analyzes the mass mediated articulation of this announcement as an exploration of the socially viable interpretations of human cloning within the controversial field of biotechnology. An inductive analysis of scripts employed by four national newspapers identifies four main scripts: scientific education, pragmatic regulation, absolute resistance and fatalistic irony. All scripts generally reject the idea of human cloning, but they are found to represent distinctively different forms of social response corresponding to the classification of different cultural dialogues on risk.

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Remodeling the Transnational Political Realm

Dorte Salskov-Iversen

Hans Krause Hansen

Alternatives: Global Local Political, vol. 30, nr. 2, 2005

Governmentality, Transnational, Best-Practice, Partnerships, ICTs

Abstract:

Drawing on theories of governance and governmentality, this article investigates the growing array of transnational organizational forms that create, share, and provide knowledge and expertise about various aspects of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and e-modernization. It analyzes the characteristics and role of transnational partnerships and transnational best-practice schemes. These organizational forms, viewed as instantiations of soft-governance techniques of agency and performance, are illustrated by examples based on the authors' field-work: the World Bank-initiated Global Knowledge Partnership, the Balanced E-Government Index (BEGIX) launched by the Bertelsmann Foundation, and the Stockholm Challenge. Such transnational forms aim to enhance participation and empowerment while promoting competition and self-discipline at the level of organizations and individuals. In addition, transnational partnerships and best-practice schemes constitute nodes through which the accomplished actors of these emergent organizational forms communicate, flow, mix, and create alliances on a transnational scale, while capitalizing on them in domestic and other organizational realms.

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Strategic Options of Home Country Firms Faced with MNC Entry

Eugene D. Jaffe

Israel D. Nebenzahl

Israel Schorr

Long Range Planning vol. 38, no.2 2005

MNCs

Foreign Competition

Abstract:

How do domestic firms react when faced with competition from encroaching MNCs

.... and how should they react? The authors test research models with actual data from Israeli firms’ reactions to increased competition following the Oslo agreement, and then cross-check with expert judges’ predictions to see how the two parameters of globalised/ localised pressures and strong/weak FSA’s affected outcomes in practice and in theory. Seeking to develop a model to predict optimum response, they use a 2x2 grid to characterise responses as contenders, cooperators, contesters or defenders for firms wishing to avoid the other obvious choice of being forced out of the market. They underpin their argument with two case studies showing the results of ‘correct’ and ‘incorrect’ decisions.

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Author

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Moral intensity as a predictor of social responsibility

Eugene D. Jaffe

&

Hanoch Pasternak

Business ethics vol. 15, nr. 1 2006

CSR, Context, Physical

Distance

Abstract:

This study adds to the extant literature by providing two innovations to most current research applying the moral intensity construct. First, it deals with an issue of corporate social responsibility, rather than an ethical event. The concept of corporate social responsibility refers to ‘the firm’s consideration of, and response to, issues beyond [its] economic, technical, and legal requirements . . .’ (Davis 1973). Second, in contrast with previous studies, the present research measures proximity not only within the context of a scenario, but also by the actual physical distance of respondents from the act itself.

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Agriculture and Cooperativism, A Persistent Duality: The Case of Denmark.

Gurli Jakobsen

Journal of Rural Cooperation, 34(1) 2006:67-98

Abstract: No abstract.

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Author

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The Contested Space of Multinationals: Varieties of Institutionalism, Varieties of Capitalism

Peer Hull Kristensen,

Glenn Morgan

Human relations 2006, vol 59(11)

Multinationals; institutionalism; varieties of capitalism; isomorphism; embeddedness

Abstract:

The paper argues that the contrast between studies of MNCs which emphasise isomorphism and those which emphasise social embeddedness is unhelpful. Following recent institutionalist discussions which have emphasised the dynamic nature of firms, and institutions, it is argued that the transnational social space of the multinational encompasses a variety of different forms of actors which are engaged in processes that partially produce isomorphism and partially reproduce institutional difference. This perspective is proposed not as a middle way between the two institutionalisms but as a way to capture the ongoing dynamics of MNCs. The paper illustrates this approach through considering four ideal-typical ‘games’ which occur inside MNCs. These games are analysed in terms of the actors, the institutional resources brought into the game, the emerging rules of the game, the outcomes of the game and how these processes relate to institutional theory. These games reveal the complex interaction of processes of isomorphism and social differentiation and suggest an agenda for further research on MNCs that will focus on examining how these games interact and with what effect in different sorts of multinationals.

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Stick, Carrot and Skill Acquisition

Birthe Larsen

Trine Filges

Scandinavian Journal of Economics vol. 107, no. 3 2005

Unemployment

Skills

Training

Wage

Abstract:

We evaluate the impact of specially designed youth unemployment programmes (YUPs), intended to provide young unemployed unskilled workers with skills. If unemployment among skilled workers is lower than among unskilled workers, YUPs imply that unemployment falls. However, YUPs potentially crowd out ordinary training. We set up an equilibrium matching model with endogenous skill choice and examine the impact of an increase in programme participation. We derive a condition for crowding out of ordinary training, as well as a condition for an increase in the skilled labour force and thereby reduced unemployment. The impact of YUPs on welfare and wage dispersion is also considered.

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The Market for Force and Public Security: The Destabilizing Consequences of Private Military Companies

Anna Leander

Journal of Peace Research 42(5): 605-22.

Private Military Companies

Security Institutions

Existing Security Orders

Public Security.

Abstract:

This article explains how it is possible to arrive at the paradoxical conclusion that an increased reliance on private actors (in the guise of private military companies) could consolidate public peace and security in the weakest African states. It argues that this conclusion can only be reached if the dynamics of the market for force are neglected. The basic claim is that the market as a whole has effects that cannot be captured by focussing on single cases. The article analyses these effects, departing from the empirical functioning of supply, demand and externalities in the market for force in order to spell out the implications for public security. More specifically, the article shows that supply in the market for force tends to self-perpetuate, as PMCs turn out a new caste of security experts striving to fashion security understandings to defend and conquer market shares. The process leads to an expansion of the numbers and kinds of threats the firms provide protection against. Moreover, demand does not penalize firms that service ‘illegitimate’ clients in general. Consequently, the number of actors who can wield control over the use force is limited mainly by their ability to pay. Finally, an externality of the market is to weaken existing security institutions by draining resources and worsening the security coverage. This gives further reasons to contest the legitimacy of existing security orders. In other words, the development of a market for force increases the availability and perceived need for military services, the number of actors who have access to them and the reasons to contest existing security orders. This hardly augurs well for public security.

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Author

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The Power to Construct International Security: On the Significance of Private Military Companies

Anna Leander

Millennium Journal of International Studies 33(3): 803-26

Security

Power Shifts from State to Private

Structural Power

Abstract:

This article suggests that the full significance of PMCs for international security is often missed because the concept of power framing these discussions is inadequate. The power to shape shared understandings of security is particularly neglected. The article argues that the emergence of PMCs has shifted the location of this power from the public/state to the private/market and, even more significantly, from the civil to the military sphere. The article reaches this conclusion in three steps. First, it suggests that PMCs have considerable power to shape the security agenda (Bacharach and Baratz). Second, it suggests that PMCs shape security understandings of key actors and hence their interests and preferences (Lukes's third dimension). These two facets highlight what I term the PMCs' epistemic power, located at the level of agency. Third, the article suggests that the action of PMCs have affected the field of security expertise, empowering a more military understanding of security which, in turn, empowers PMCs as particularly legitimate security experts. This third enlargement of the power concept highlights the 'structural power' of PMCs related to their position in the field of security.

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Author

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Shifting Political Identities and the Justified Use of Force

Anna Leander

Markus Lederer and Phillip Müller, eds, Critizing Global Governance, London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 125-44.

Use of Force

Boundaries

Political Identities

Abstract:

„Today little vitality remains in the idea that force is justifiable only to the extent that it is usedto protect the common interest or well-being of society. This norm has ceased to operate as a limit because the ‘interest of society’ no longer coincides with either the geographic boundaries of society or the foreign commitments of a society“. This is not a quote from a contemporary scholar discussing the impact of globalisation on the way that the justified use of force is viewed. It is from taken from Sheldon Wolin’s discussion of violence in Western political thought in the 1960s when the word globalisation did not yet enjoy its current, seemingly irresistible, appeal. As I will argue in this paper, this tension has increased as a result of two parallel developments in political identities both of which make the inside/outside divide seem increasingly problematic and inadequate for thinking about the justified use of force.

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Author

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Wage-Labour Activities by Agricultural Households in Nicaragua

Nikolaj Malchow-Møller

&

Michael Svarer

Journal of development studies vol. 41, no. 7 2005

Agriculture

Labour

Wages

Households

Abstract:

This article considers wage labour activities by agricultural households in Nicaragua. It analyses the role of: (1) comparative advantage as determined by individual and household characteristics; and (2) agricultural conditions and market imperfections, in shaping wage labour supply. An econometric specification is developed which allows for random household-specific effects. Results reveal that non-agricultural wage work is largely determined by comparative advantages, whereas agricultural wage work is used to deal with a number of agricultural conditions and market imperfections.

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Message in a bottle: communicating responsibility.

Mette Morsing

Business Strategy Review, vol 6, issue 2, pp. 84-88 2005

Communicating CSR, The balancing act

Abstract:

This paper examines how member identification is connected to strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication via external stakeholders. While the interlinkages between external and internal stakeholders have been extensively analysed in stakeholder theory, for example in terms of how managers perceive and prioritise relationships with different stakeholders (Mitchell et al. 1997), the role of corporate communication as a means of linking external and internal stakeholders has been under-explored in current stakeholder literature. This paper suggests that corporate CSR communication, i.e. communication that is designed and distributed by the company itself about its CSR efforts, profoundly influences the willingness of managers and employees to identify with their workplace.

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Author

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La responsibilidad social corporative como moda de gestión empresarial

Mette Morsing

Roy Langer

Harvard-Deusto Business Review, no. 150, October, pp. 56-67

CSR

Sceptical Accountants

Standards

Abstract:

Based on an analysis of the media coverage of the social responsibility of businesses in “The Economist” and in the Danish business press, the issue of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is discussed as a fad. “Even though CSR is often called “just a fad” it is to be taken seriously” says Mette Morsing and continues: “By way of a number of routines and processes fads create their own rationality and arguments and ensure support for quite a while. The article concludes that while sceptical accountants and financiers still ask whether CSR activities pay off, companies still get involved and establish their own standards of the concept and that way contribute to its survival.

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Corporate social responsibility communication: stakeholder information, response and involvement strategies

Mette Morsing

Majken Schultz

Business Ethics: a European Review, 15(4), pp. 323-338

Communication

Ethics

Enterprises

CSR

Stakeholders

Abstract:

While it is generally agreed that companies need to manage their relationships with their stakeholders, the way in which they choose to do so varies considerably. In this paper, it is argued that when companies want to communicate with stakeholders about their CSR initiatives, they need to involve those stakeholders in a two-way communication process, defined as an ongoing iterative sense-giving and sense-making process. The paper also argues that companies need to communicate through carefully crafted and increasingly sophisticated processes. Three CSR communication strategies are developed. Based on empirical illustrations and prior research, the authors argue that managers need to move from 'informing' and 'responding' to 'involving' stakeholders in CSR communication itself. They conclude that managers need to expand the role of stakeholders in corporate CSR communication processes if they want to improve their efforts to build legitimacy, a positive reputation and lasting stakeholder relationships.

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CSR as strategic auto-communication – on the role of external stakeholders for member identification

Mette Morsing

Business Ethics:  A European Review, 15 (2), pp.171-182 2006

Ethics

Culture

Employees

CSR

Image

Abstract:

This article presents a paper that examines how member identification is connected to strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication via external stakeholders. The role of corporate communication as a means of linking external and internal stakeholders has been under-explored in current stakeholder literature. This paper suggests that communicating corporate CSR efforts via external stakeholders is one of the current most powerful communication strategies available to improve member identification, or cause disidentification. While CSR messages indeed communicate to external stakeholders, they also serve internal purposes such as reinforcing corporate identity and building identification among organisational members.

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Author

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Corporate moral brands – the question of aligning employees

Mette Morsing

Corporate Communications: an international journal, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 97-108 2005

Employees

CSR

Branding

Ethics

Abstract:

Purpose – To engage a critical discussion on the challenges raised for employees as corporate brands increasingly address moral issues.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper links theories on corporate branding informed by marketing with theories on employee identification informed by critical sociology.

Findings – While the move towards corporate branding with a strong emphasis on moral issues provides opportunities for improved employee identification, it may also lead to unintended implications in the sense of uniformity and centralisation of morals and employee demotivation.

Research limitations/implications – While this paper provides theoretical analysis of the potential direness of corporate moral brands in relation to employees, no empirical investigations have been carried out to illustrate and analyse such implications. It is of theoretical as well as managerial interest to provide more research to understand this relation better.

Practical implications – Rather than imposing a corporate brand with moral and ethical visionary statements, managers engage employees in the corporate moral brand exercise.

Originality/value – The paper questions the immediate tendency towards integrating moral issues to the corporate brand based on an untested idea of that this will motivate external and internal stakeholders. Rather the paper suggests that the corporate moral brand may also serve counter-productive purposes.

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Author

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Strategic CSR Communication - the challenge of telling others how good you are

Mette Morsing

D. Oswald

Book: Management Models for Corporate Social Responsibility

CSR Communication

Strategy

Stakeholder Information

Stakeholder Interaction

Abstract: No abstract.

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Author

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Choice of Ownership Structure and Firm Performance

Niels Mygind

Panu Kalmi

Derek C. Jones

Post-Communist economies vol. 17, no. 1 2005

Economic policy

Employee ownership

Performance standards

Privatization

Acquisition of property

Abstract:

This article uses panel data for a representative sample of Estonian enterprises to analyse diverse issues related to the determinants of ownership structures and ownership changes after privatisation. A key focus is to determine whether ownership changes are related to economic efficiency. While employee-owned firms are found to be much more prone than other firms to switch ownership categories, often ‘employee-owned’ firms remain ‘insider-owned’ as ownership passes from current employees to managers and former employees. Logit analysis of the determinants of ownership structures and ownership changes provides mixed support for several hypotheses. As predicted: (i) wealth and resource constraints play a crucial role in the determination of ownership, with foreigners buying firms with the highest equity levels and insiders buying firms with the lowest equity valuations; (ii) risk aversion explains subsequent ownership changes, especially away from employee ownership; (iii) allocation of ownership depends on the pre-privatisation origin and location of the firm, and these factors also influence subsequent ownership changes. Our findings provide mixed support for the hypothesis that ownership changes are related to economic efficiency.

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Author

Published In

Key Words

Use of Aid Evaluation from an Organizational Perspective.

Henrik Schaumburg-Müller

Evaluation vol. 11, no. 2 2005

Development, cooperation, feedback, institutional approach,

learning, organization theory

Abstract:

The evaluation of foreign aid is thoroughly integrated into the work of aid agencies. It is argued that evaluations contribute to organizational learning and are used to support change in policies and operations. How the use of evaluation is understood, however, depends on the organization perspective applied. Various organization perspectives are relevant. This article discusses the different approaches and looks at organizational practices and a number of case studies to address the question of how evaluation is used. The findings suggest that the use of evaluation for learning in agencies may be less important than other inputs, and evaluation results only partly support policy and operational changes. One single perspective on an organization cannot explain its evaluation processes and use. Different elements of the evaluation appear to be dominated by specific organization perspectives.

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Author

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Doing business in... Vietnam

Huang Vo Nguyen

Yen Thi Thu Tran

Klaus E. Meyer

Thunderbird international business review vol. 48, no. 2

Business in Vietnam

FDI

Institutional Framework

Abstract:

Over the last 30 years, Vietnam evolved from “war after war” to an emerging economy with an attractive foreign investment policy and commitment to a liberalized economy. Although the GDP per capita is still considerably lower than in the Asian Tiger economies, and the institutional framework still reflects inheritances from the central plan system, Vietnam today has a vibrant economy with small businesses springing up at every street corner. Foreign investors have been flocking to Vietnam since the early 1990s, with a new peak of FDI inflow in 2004. `this article reviews the Vietnamese economy, society, culture, and policies toward foreign investment to in form those considering investing in Vietnam and to provide some practical advice. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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Author

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State-Civil Society Relations and Tourism

Can-Seng Ooi

SOJOURN vol. 20, no. 2 2005

Tourism

Civil society

Public spaces

Abstract:

In Singapore, the government has been able to close, absorb, re-define and open up civil spaces. The line separating state and civil society is blurred. This article examines how tourism in Singapore has not only played a central role in shaping Singaporeans own understanding of their national and ethnic identities, but it has also helped open up important civil and social spaces. This paper offers three examples the re-branding of Singapore, the decision to have two casinos in Singapore, and the promotion of educational and medical tourism. These examples demonstrate how various civil and social spaces are managed and transformed through the tourism industry. The government uses tourism resources to engineer local society to turn Singapore into a livelier and funkier city. By serving the interests of tourists, tourists have effectively become a civil group and constituency in Singapore.

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Author

Published In

Key Words

Instituting the Power to Do Good?

Morten Ougaard

International Political Economy Yearbook

Annual report,

Social effects,

Democratic constitution

Abstract:

Explores the diverse ways that corporations affect the practices and structures of the global political economy. This work addresses fundamental questions such as: How can the corporation be most usefully conceptualized within the field of IPE? Does global governance succeed in constraining the power of multinational corporations? Exploring the diverse ways that corporations affect the practices and structures of the global political economy, this innovative work addresses three fundamental questions: How can the corporation be most usefully conceptualized within the field of IPE? Does global governance succeed in constraining the power of multinational corporations? To what extent has the movement for corporate social responsibility been fruitful? The authors' rich, detailed contributions, covering topics ranging from environmental governance to control of the Internet, from the evolution of legal structures to issues of outsourcing, cogently reestablishes the study of the corporation as a central concern for IPE.

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Author

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Making Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Operable

Esben Rahbek Pedersen

Business and society review vol. 111, no. 2

CSR, Stakeholders, implementation

Abstract:

The article examines how corporations actually translate corporate social responsibility (CSR) into actual practice and determines some of the factors that influence the implementation process. The stakeholder approach to CSR is briefly discussed and the three constraints that may hamper companies' capability to implement stakeholder dialogue are presented. It is shown how the company's consciousness, ability, willingness, and interests may affect the success of stakeholder dialogue initiatives.

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Author

Published In

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Guiding the Invisible Hand

Esben Rahbek Pedersen

Journal of corporate citizenship Issue 20, Winter 2005

Corporate citizenship

Corporate social Responsibility (CSR)

Private-sector Development (PSD) Programmes

Developing countries

Abstract:

In recent years, the corporate citizenship discourse has become very popular among international organisations, bilateral donors and development finance institutions. However, even though development issues are also increasingly integrated in the corporate citizenship literature, the role of these organisations has gone widely unnoticed. The paper will try to fill this gap by examining how development agencies can have an impact on corporate citizenship practices in developing countries, either indirectly by stimulating investments or directly by offering companies incentives for social and environmental improvements. The analysis is based on the experiences from a number of private-sector development (PSD) programmes and a case example that illustrates how these interventions actually affect company behaviour

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Author

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Annual Reports as Interaction Devices.

Peter Skærbæk

Financial accountability and management vol. 21, no. 4 2005

Annual report,

Social effects,

Democratic constitution

Abstract:

Based on a micro sociological examination of how an annual report is produced within a Danish business university, this study attempts to increase our understanding of the strategies used by the producers of an annual report intended for use by parliament and the government. The study demonstrates how the use of accounting is not the objectivist theoretical use of information for decision-making, but rather the use of information for impression management purposes. Thus the study shows us that annual reports have significant social effects on contributing to the purification of the State and even the democratic constitution.

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Author

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Key Words

The Role of mass media in the consumption of management knowledge

José Luis Alvarez

Carmelo Mazza

Jesper Strandgaard Pedersen

Scandinavian journal of management Vol. 21, nr. 2 2005

Role of Mass media

Management

Abstract:

The motivation for this special issue arose from having paid attention in the last decade to the desks and shelves of top managers we got in touch with. While it is hardly surprising that academic papers are nowhere to be found—most, if not all of them are written by scholars for scholars only—it is worth noting that neither are abundant professional books on management techniques, processes and/or formal knowledge (Alvarez, Mazza, & Mur, 1999). Interestingly, what is mostly found instead are stacks of newspapers, magazines, personal computers downloading information from business-related websites and even TV sets diffusing images from business channels. We argue that managers act like consumers in a market, treating knowledge as a service good. This market is growing and is becoming increasingly competitive with service organizations—such as, universities, business schools, consulting firms, business publishers and media—and individuals—such as business gurus, business journalists and professional trainers—vying for managers’ attention and contracts.

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Author

Published In

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Corporate accountability in South Africa.

Peter Lund-Thomsen

International affairs vol. 81, no. 3 2005

CSR

South Africa

Abstract:

‘Manufacturing amnesia’ argues that the term‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ has been abandoned by most South African firms in favour of the term‘corporate social investment’. This has been done in order to divert attention from calls on business to redress the results of its historical contribution to the apartheid system. The discourse of reconciliation has further served to erase memories of past corporate behaviour. It also masks continuing inequalities and unsustainable practices. Business has responded weakly to the pressures for CSR, of which five broad areas are identified and analysed. Voluntary sustainability initiatives have not succeeded and compliance with black economic empowerment charters and environmental standards have to be legislated and regulated. Firms need to reassess their legacies more honestly until which time their CSR contributions will be regarded as cosmetic and self-serving.

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Author

Published In

Key Words

Gender and National Identity Constructions in the Cross-Border Merger Context

Janne Tienari

Anne-Marie Søderberg

Charlotte Holgersson

Eero Vaara

Gender, work and organization vol. 12, no. 3 2005

gender inequality,

discourse,

national identities

Abstract:

In this article we explore ways in which vertical gender inequality is accomplished in discourse in the context of a recent chain of cross-border mergers and acquisitions that resulted in the formation of a multinational Nordic company. We analyse social interactions of 'doing' gender in interviews with male senior executives from Denmark, Finland and Sweden. We argue that their explanations for the absence of women in the top echelons of the company serve to distance vertical gender inequality. The main contribution of the article is an analysis of how national identities are discursively (re)constructed in such distancing. New insights are offered to studying gender in multinationals with a cross-cultural team of researchers. Our study sheds light on how gender intersects with nationality in shaping the multinational organization and the identities of male executives in globalizing business.

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Author

Published In

Key Words

Business Ethics in a Transition Economy

Eugene D. Jaffe

Alexander Tsimerman

Journal of business ethics vol. 62, no. 1 2005

Ethical climates,

Ethics and success,

Ethics in a transition Economy,

Russia

Abstract:

This study investigated students’ perceptions of ethical organizational climates, attitudes towards ethical issues, and the perceived relationship between ethical behavior and success in business organizations. Comparisons were made between the attitudes of these future managers with previously published studies of Russian managers’ attitudes. A survey of 100 business students in three Moscow universities showed that their attitudes toward ethical behavior were more negative than those of Russian managers. No significant differences were found in the perceptions or attitudes of students who had attended an ethics course and those that did not. The implications for both managers and researchers were reported.

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Author

Published In

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Market Penetration and Acquisition Strategies for Emerging Economies

Yen Thi Thu Tran

Klaus E. Meyer

Long Range Planning vol. 39, no. 2

MNEs

Branding

Emerging Economies

Local Markets

Abstract:

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) are expanding their global reach, carrying their products and brands to new and diverse markets in emerging economies. As they tailor their strategies to the local context, they have to create product and brand portfolios that match their competences with local needs. A multi-tier strategy with local and/or global brands may provide MNEs with the widest reach into the market and the potential for market leadership. However, it has to be supported with an appropriate combination of global and local resources. Foreign entrants therefore have to develop operational capabilities for the specific context, which requires complementary resources that are typically controlled by local firms. As institutional obstacles and weaknesses of local firms often inhibit the direct acquisitions, foreign investors may pursue unconventional strategies to acquire local resources. We outline the strategies for penetrating local markets through multi-tier branding and the acquisition of local firms, and offer new typologies that describe staged, multiple, indirect, or brownfield acquisitions. We illustrate them by analysing the entry and growth of Carlsberg Breweries in four very different emerging economies: Poland, Lithuania, Vietnam and China.