State-Owned Enterprises as Institutional Actors: A Hybrid Historical Institutionalist and Institutional Work Framework

Although state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are recognized as important economic actors, the literature to date has assumed close state control over SOEs and, therefore, their passive stance towards institutions. Drawing on the institutional work and historical institutionalism literatures, we challenge this view. We develop a multilevel framework of SOE top management teams’ (TMTs’) embedded agency, spanning the national macro-institutional level, the meso-level of regimes of state-SOE relations, and sector-specific institutions. We then derive propositions regarding the factors across these multiple levels that shape SOE TMTs’ motivation, resources, and scope for institutional work. This framework allows us to explain the leeway for and likelihood of SOE TMTs’ engagement in institutional work across institutional contexts.

Peer Interaction and Pioneering Organizational Form Adoption: A tale of the first two for-profit stock exchanges

Building on a historical case study on the first two stock exchanges to adopt the now globally dominant for-profit organizational form, the Stockholm Stock Exchange in 1993 and the Helsinki Stock Exchange in 1995, we argue that interaction among socially proximate peers contributes to pioneering organizational form adoption within an industry, particularly when such forms are introduced by established organizations. Peer interaction can induce a search for technically efficient organizational forms through the sharing of collective experiences, the establishment of collective assumptions, and a joint search for solutions. Together, these factors contribute to the legitimization of novel organizational forms in the local setting before the adoption of the first instantiation of those forms. We propose a context-sensitive multilevel model of peer-interaction-induced pioneering organizational form adoption that considers shared macro environmental drivers, idiosyncratic local environmental drivers, and peer interaction as central social mediators between the two.

Cultures and Institutions: Dispositional and contextual explanations for country-of-origin effects in MNC ‘ethnocentric’ staffing practices

Although the country-of-origin effect on staffing practices of multinational corporations (MNCs) is well-known, its underlying mechanisms are under-theorized. Drawing on the cross-cultural management and comparative institutionalism literatures, we propose an overarching, theory-based framework with two mechanisms, dispositional and contextual, that might explain country-of-origin effects in MNCs’ use of parent-country nationals (PCNs) in their foreign subsidiaries’ top management teams. The tendency of MNCs from some home countries to staff these positions with PCNs is typically labelled as ‘ethnocentric’, a word imbued with negative intentions referring mainly to the dispositional rationale behind this staffing choice. However, fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) of staffing practices of MNCs from ten home countries shows that both mechanisms – dispositional and contextual – have considerable explanatory power. Our methodological approach enables us to analyse conceptually distinct, yet empirically intertwined, societal-level explanations as a pattern, and thus offers a viable solution to integrate different perspectives in international and comparative research.

Transferring family logic within a multinational corporation

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to extend the understandingof how family logic is transferred through mundane practices across the subsidiaries of a Japanese multinational corporation (MNC) in different national contexts.

Design/methodology/approach

In order to fulfil this purpose, a comparative qualitative case study was adopted with emphasis on actors’ interpretations.

Findings

Through qualitative data analysis, three findings and their theoretical significances can be summarised. First, it was found that the constellations of family, market and religion logics were transferred differently. This is significant for Japanese management scholars since it illuminates the importance of actors who perceive the (non-) necessity of logics in a Japanese MNC facing institutional dualities. Second, it was found that the family logic is enacted at different levels and with different boundaries. This is significant for both institutionalists and international business scholars since it highlights the strong influence of language and religion in the transfer of logics from one country to another. Third, it was found that the enactment of the family logic greatly affects the acceptability of Japanese management practices. This is significant for business managers since it further proposes an intimate relationship between Japanese management practices and the meanings attached to the family logic.

Originality/value

The originality of this work stems from an updated comparative qualitative study of the management of a Japanese MNCs’ subsidiaries across different countries, providing in-depth insights for international business, Japanese subsidiary management and institutional logics perspectives.