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Going global: how middle managers approach the process in medium-sized firms
No full textPrior research has emphasized middle managers' important role in the strategy process and the benefits of their involvement, but little is known about their role in medium-sized firms and their participation in the internationalization strategy process (ISP). This article aims to fill these gaps.
Our analysis of interviews conducted with the complete layer of middle managers at a medium-sized firm is intended to shed light on these issues by examining the extent and effect of middle managers' involvement in the strategy formulation phase of the ISP. The medium-sized Italian firm chosen for our sample was going through a period of radical change as it expanded its international activities beyond its cultural boundaries.
We found that not all the firm's middle managers perceived themselves to be involved in formulating the internationalization strategy. The perception of involvement was dependent on ownership of the outcome of internationalization. Middle managers with revenue accountability perceived themselves to be involved in strategy formulation. Furthermore, this perception of increased involvement was tightly linked to a more opportunity-oriented attitude toward internationalization.
We suggest that medium-sized firms can actively manage middle managers' attitudes and behavior toward internationalization by managing perceptions
Institutional voids as spaces of opportunity
No full textThe article discusses how institutional voids can be spaces of opportunity for companies. Institutional void refers to the absence of supporting institutions in certain economy. Institutions are shared conceptions and constraints that shape human interaction. They constitute the rules of the game, for doing business, for social interaction, and for human behavior in general. For motivated entrepreneurs, institutional voids is perceived as opportunities. Two examples are presented to illustrate the nature of institutional voids in Bangladesh and India
Exploring the determinants of unit performance : The role of middle managers in stimulating profit growth
No full textThis article sets out to identify the origins of performance differences between units within the same organizational and industry context. Building on and reconciling diverse research streams, it empirically tests the effect of strategic, individual, and context factors on performance over time. The study complements traditional research in strategy by advancing a middle manager perspective. More specifically, it highlights the importance of middlemanagers' actions aligned with strategy, their demographic characteristics, and their immediate competitive environment in stimulating performance. Data on 119 managers and units of a European financial services firm suggest that how middle managers enact strategy, who they are, and where they are significantly affect profit growth in their units
Bringing change into the lives of the poor: Entrepreneurship outside traditional boundaries
No full textThe powerful imagery of entrepreneurship as a means to induce and explain institutional change is gaining momentum (Greenwood & Suddaby, 2006; Lawrence & Suddaby, 2006). In response to criticisms that institutional theory was chiefly being used to explain homogeneity and persistence, important efforts have been devoted to restoring human agency in explanations of endogenous institutional change (DiMaggio, 1988; Sewell, 1992; Emirbayer & Mische, 1998). However, the image of the entrepreneur as institutional change agent has also been a source of controversy among institutional theorists, especially when accompanied by voluntarist, un-embedded conceptions of individual action (Holm, 1995; Leca & Naccache, 2006). As a result we observe vivid scholarly discussions on how to solve the “paradox of embedded agency”– i.e. on explaining how institutional change is possible if actors are fully conditioned by the institutions that they wish to change (Holm, 1995; Seo & Creed, 2002; Greenwood & Suddaby, 2006). The current debate is important and we welcome more agent-oriented views on institutions. The purpose of this chapter is to advance institutional theory by rethinking various aspects of institutional work (Lawrence & Suddaby, 2006; DiMaggio, 1988) and thereby to contribute new insights into the paradox of embedded agency. We do so by challenging and breaking dominant patterns in current empirical research. While previous research on institutional entrepreneurship has predominantly looked at elite and/or powerful actors (DiMaggio, 1988; Fligstein & Mara-Drita, 1996) who assume either peripheral (Leblebici, Salancik, Copay & King, 1991) or central (Greenwood & Suddaby, 2006) positions, we focus instead on institutional work carried out by actors with limited power and very few resources
When Innovation Goes Wrong
No full textEfforts by social enterprises to develop novel interventions receive a great deal of attention. Yet these organizations often stumble when it comes to turning innovation into impact. As a result, they fail to achieve their full potential. Here’s a guide to diagnosing and preventing several “pathologies” that underlie this failure
Essays in microeconomics with applications in education, health and crime
Get PDF(...) Simple changes in an institutional framework can have huge impacts for the human society which makes it important to analyze them and define their consequences to create a surplus for the society.
In the following dissertation, I present applications how policy regulations and external events generate behavioral responses with a focus on indirect effects, e.g. from health on education and education on crime. All chapters, while not exclusively, follow an empirical approach and show effects in important fields of human society. Beyond the research methods from microeconomics, this dissertation tackles the field of health, early childhood development, secondary education, adolescent drug-abuse and law enforcement. Several identification strategies are used to cope with endogeneity and deliver causal effects between the fields of education, health and crime.(...
A Rational Response to Natural Disasters? Explaining the global rise of regional disaster risk management
No full textNatural disasters pervade the certainty of social life. In a globalized world this truism increasingly calls for transnational solutions to prevent, prepare, and respond to these deadly disruptions. Regional Disaster Risk Management (DRM) has recently emerged to meet this concern. However, a number of observations question the expected motivation that compels states to cooperate in this important issue area.
First, there has been only a moderate increase in the relative estimated economic costs from natural disasters in a majority of regional organizations, and the number
of deaths related to natural disasters has consistently decreased. Second, after a tranquil period of cooperation from the mid 1970s, regional DRM rapidly developed and
spread across the globe. This sudden rise in DRM cooperation seems difficult to explain if the costs from natural disasters have not considerably changed. Third, remarkable similarities appear in the goals and wording of regional DRM agreements despite the varied political, historical and cultural contexts that typify regional organizations. These empirical observations go against conventional expectations and question the core motivation of the state’s protection of its citizens. (...