970 research outputs found
Human rights and international business research: A call for studying emerging market multinationals
No full textElisa Giuliani, Grazia D. Santangelo, and Florian Wettstein invite international
business scholars to study emerging market multinationals from the perspective of
their human rights impact. Human rights is a new challenging issue in corporate
social responsibility research, yet so far international business scholars have largely
overlooked their role in the quality of work, access to water, and education in
markets they operate. The perspective continues the leadership by Professor Anne
Tsui, the founder of Management and Organization Review, in calling for a study of
multinationals as part of global governance affecting people’s lives
The Role of Technological Gatekeepers in the Growth of Industrial Clusters: Evidence from Chile
No full textIndustrial clusters are often associated with innovative success. However, there is very little
research on what types of organizational models apply to clusters as they grow. This paper uses
longitudinal micro-level data for a wine cluster in Chile. It shows that the most advanced firms in
the cluster behave as Technological Gatekeepers – i.e. they acquire knowledge outside cluster
boundaries and contribute to diffusing knowledge to other local firms – and do so persistently over
time. The results are explained by combining three theoretical perspectives: evolutionary economics
theory; business studies on communities of practice and knowledge workers’ know-how trade; and embeddedness theory
The selective nature of knowledge networks in clusters: evidence from the wine industry
No full textMost of the studies about industrial clusters and innovation stress the importance of firms' geographical proximity and their embeddedness in local business networks (BNs) as factors that positively affect their learning and innovation processes. More recently, scholars have started to claim that firm-specific characteristics should be considered to be central in the process of learning and innovation in clusters. This article contributes to this latter direction of research. It applies social network analysis to explore the structural properties of knowledge networks in three wine clusters in Italy and Chile. The results show that in spite of firms' geographical proximity and the pervasiveness of local BNs, innovation-related knowledge is diffused in clusters in a highly selective and uneven way. This pattern is found to be related to the heterogeneous and asymmetric distribution of firm knowledge bases in the clusters. Copyright 2007, Oxford University Press.
Piketty, Thunberg, or Marx? Shifting ideologies in the COVID-19 bailout conditionality debate
No full textre crises an opportunity to push for fundamental changes? Can the COVID-19 crisis help to promote an ideological shift towards a different type of capitalism? By conducting a quantitative content analysis of the international press on the COVID-19 bailout conditionality debate, this article documents the existence of three dominant narratives: the distributive justice, environmental justice, and Marxist-type anti-capitalistic narratives. Yet, only the distributive justice assumed greater prominence during the period of observation, signaling a small step towards an ideological shift in which the general public may become more open to scrutiny of companies' dividend and bonus policies and more averse to acceptance of tax avoidance and the accumulation of excessive wealth by members of the corporate elite. The article concludes by recommending MNEs and their CEOs to be prepared for more distributive justice challenges in the future
Multinational corporations and patterns of local knowledge transfer in Costa Rican high-tech industries
No full textOver recent decades, governments in industrializing countries have promoted policies to attract foreign investors, anticipating the benefits of technology transfer to host economies. During the 1990s, Costa Rica adopted an industrialization strategy based on attracting high-tech multinational companies (MNCs). Using an original survey of a sample of high-tech MNC subsidiaries, this article shows that the new wave of efficiency-seeking subsidiaries tend not to transfer knowledge to domestic firms even when they establish backward linkages with them. Instead, most of the knowledge transfer occurs between high-tech foreign subsidiaries. This has clear policy implications for host country governments
The wine industry: persistence of tacit knowledge or increased codification? Some implications for catching-up countries
No full textThis paper is about innovation and technological learning in clusters of wine producers in the context of the Italian and Chilean wine industry. It raises questions about measures designed to strengthen knowledge-centred links and interactions among actors in cluster innovation systems, both (i) between firms themselves and (ii) between firms and public research and technology organisations (PRTOs). It shows that, first, the overall effectiveness of knowledge transfer links from PRTOs to cluster firms depends heavily on characteristics of the intra-cluster knowledge network, in particular on the extent to which the firms involved in those links are also connected within the cluster via gatekeeper and broker roles. Second, the density and structure of these intra-cluster networks are not simply ‘givens’ that can be assumed to exist simply because firms are located in geographically bounded clusters. Instead, they are shaped by the existing knowledge resources and innovative activities of the firms. Implications for policy are noted
Cluster Absorptive Capacity: Why do Some Clusters Forge Ahead and Others Lag Behind?
No full textThis article provides a firm-centred interpretation of
why some industrial clusters forge ahead and others
lag behind. It argues that the dynamic growth of a
cluster depends on its absorptive capacity and therefore
on the capacity of firms to absorb external
knowledge and diffuse it into the intra-cluster
knowledge system. This article speculates on the
relationship existing between the heterogeneity of firms’ knowledge bases with both intra- and extracluster
knowledge systems. It concludes by illustrating
that a conceptual link exists between firm-level
knowledge bases, the cluster absorptive capacity and
its potential for growth
Multinational corporations' economic and human rights impacts on developing countries: A review and research agenda
No full textDeveloping countries are attracting a significant portion of global foreign direct investments. Governments of such countries often compete fiercely for attracting multinational corporations (MNCs) in the expectation of the advantages they will bring to their economies, often prioritising economic goals over fundamental human rights. For a long time, economists have analysed the economic impacts of MNCs, while a parallel strand of work in political science, business ethics and international law investigates the repercussions of MNC operations on human rights. Despite the significant relatedness and complementarities, these two bodies of literature have so far poorly interacted. This paper addresses this limitation and systematically analyses and integrates existing micro-level empirical evidence on the economic and human rights impacts of MNCs on developing countries. It provides a critical analysis of what is known and highlights what we do not know about the factors that mediate the positive and/or negative impacts of MNC operations on host developing countries. Based on a critical analysis of the literature, it discusses avenues for future research in this field and sets the grounds for a new interdisciplinary research agenda on this subject. © The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Cambridge Political Economy Society. All rights reserved
MEASURING CORPORATE SOCIAL IRRESPONSIBILITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS’ ABUSES
No full textThis presentation discusses issues about the data and measures of business and human rights
Distretti industriali, reti e comunità di knowledge worker: un’analisi empirica nel settore vitivinicolo cileno
No full textIndustrial districts are
changing: their firms struggle
to compete in the global
market, while their traditional
local communities are displaced
by younger generations of
workers.
This paper explores the
characteristics of the
community of knowledge
workers in a Chilean wine
cluster. It finds that the flow
of knowledge in the district is
driven by the reputation of
knowledge workers and by
their friendship.
Implications for theory and
practice are discussed
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