Critical Perspectives on International Business最新文献

{"title":"“It’s hard for them to even understand what we are saying”(.) Language and power in the multinational workplace","authors":"Kyoungmin Kim, J. Angouri","doi":"10.1108/cpoib-06-2020-0084","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/cpoib-06-2020-0084","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Purpose\u0000The purpose of this paper is to discuss the role of language ideologies in negotiating organisational relationships in a Korean multinational company (MNC). By adopting an interactional sociolinguistics (IS) approach, this paper illustrates how language becomes part of a mechanism of negotiating group membership and of perpetuating or challenging power asymmetries through social and ideological processes.\u0000\u0000\u0000Design/methodology/approach\u0000This paper draws on interview data from an ethnographic case study of a Korean MNC to understand language ideologies in one working team. The interview data are analysed through an IS framework to connect the situated interaction to the broader social context.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000This paper shows that participants’ discourse of linguistic differentiation becomes an interactional resource in challenging the organisational status quo. Linguistic superiority/inferiority is constructed through particular sequencing and the systematic production of a dichotomy between two groups – expatriate managers and local employees – at various levels of their company structure. Group membership is enacted temporarily in positioning the self and the others.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000This paper offers a methodological contribution to international business language-sensitive research on language and power by conducting interactional analysis of interview talk. Through the lens of IS, it provides insights into how discourse becomes a primary site of negotiating power and status and a multi-level approach to the study of organisational power dynamics and the complex linguistic landscape of any workplace.\u0000","PeriodicalId":46124,"journal":{"name":"Critical Perspectives on International Business","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43604748","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Contextual and linguistic challenges for French business schools to achieve international accreditation: experts as boundary-spanners","authors":"M. Vigier, Michael Bryant","doi":"10.1108/cpoib-06-2020-0080","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/cpoib-06-2020-0080","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Purpose\u0000The purpose of this paper is to explore the contextual and linguistic challenges that French business schools face when preparing for international accreditation and to shed light on the different ways in which experts facilitate these accreditation processes, particularly with respect to how they capitalize on their contextual and linguistic boundary-spanning competences.\u0000\u0000\u0000Design/methodology/approach\u0000The authors interviewed 12 key players at four business schools in France engaged in international accreditations and in three specific categories: senior management, tenured faculty and administrative staff. The interview-based case study design used semi-structured questions and an insider researcher approach to study an underexplored sector of analysis.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000The findings suggest that French business schools have been particularly impacted by the colonizing effects of English as the mandatory language of the international accreditation bodies espousing a basically Anglophone higher education philosophy. Consequently, schools engage external experts for their contextual and linguistic boundary-spanning expertise to facilitate accreditation processes.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000The authors contribute to language-sensitive research through a critical perspective on marginalization within French business schools due to the use of English as the mandatory lingua franca of international accreditation processes and due to the underlying higher-education philosophy from the Anglophone academic sphere within these processes. As a result, French business schools resort to external experts to mediate their knowledge and competency gaps.\u0000","PeriodicalId":46124,"journal":{"name":"Critical Perspectives on International Business","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"62055336","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Public procurement – price-taker or market-shaper?","authors":"Sandra Gail Hamilton","doi":"10.1108/cpoib-08-2020-0116","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/cpoib-08-2020-0116","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Purpose\u0000This paper examines the role of government procurement as a social policy mechanism within a multilateral open trading system. Government regulations globally are being transformed to foster more responsible business conduct in multinational enterprises (MNEs). Yet, concern that sustainability may present a discriminatory barrier to trade has stalled the progress of sustainable public procurement (SPP) at the international level, raising questions regarding the role and scope of the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) to align taxpayer-funded contracts with the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals.\u0000\u0000\u0000Design/methodology/approach\u0000With a focus on social sustainability, this paper reviews the grey and academic literature to assess the changing landscape of public procurement policy and supply chain legislation in high-income countries.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000Frontrunner nations are adopting a mandatory approach to sustainable public procurement and due diligence legislation is elevating supply chain risk from reputational damage to legal liability. While technological innovation and the clean, green production of manufactured goods dominates the sustainable public procurement literature, the social aspects of sustainability poverty, inequality and human rights remain underrepresented.\u0000\u0000\u0000Research limitations/implications\u0000The scope of this paper is limited to the examination of government procurement covered by the WTO-GPA (2012). Smaller value contracts, under the WTO-GPA thresholds and the category of defence are beyond the scope of the paper.\u0000\u0000\u0000Social implications\u0000The paper focusses on the underserved topic of social sustainability in business-to-government (B2G) – business to government – supply chains arguing that for responsible business conduct to become a competitive advantage, it must be more meaningfully rewarded on the demand-side of all taxpayer-funded contracts in organisation for economic co-operation and development countries. The paper introduces the idea of priceless procurement as a mechanism to build system capacity in the evaluation of non-financial sustainability objectives.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000To build the capacity to stimulate competition based on social and environmental policy objectives, the paper introduces the concept of priceless procurement in B2G contracts.\u0000","PeriodicalId":46124,"journal":{"name":"Critical Perspectives on International Business","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46348878","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The nasty face of the liability of foreignness: MNCs and rent extraction","authors":"A. Kozan","doi":"10.1108/cpoib-10-2018-0074","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/cpoib-10-2018-0074","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Purpose\u0000This study aims to clarify the factors that act as a buffer to rent extraction from multi-national corporations (MNCs) in exchange relationships with the host country’s political actors.\u0000\u0000\u0000Design/methodology/approach\u0000This study proposes a conceptual model of the factors that determine rent extraction by host country political actors from MNCs. The model identifies the sources of power the MNC can use to alleviate the power imbalance relative to the political actor to decrease rent extraction. Additionally, it identifies the factors that constrain the power-advantaged political actor, thus moderating the relationship between power imbalance and rent extraction.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000This conceptual paper’s propositions remain for future empirical validation.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000This study integrates insights from the international business literature and resource dependence theory (RDT) to identify the determinants of firm-specific rent extraction risk for MNCs. First, the model sheds light on the heterogeneity among MNCs in their susceptibility to rent extraction and their ability to manage their liability of foreignness in the host country. Second, by integrating the horizontal and vertical distribution of power in the political environment to analyze the power-dependence relationship between the MNC and host country political actors, the framework addresses a shortcoming of RDT and accounts for the dynamics of the external environment for MNCs managing their dependencies. This study also provides a basis for discussing the rent extraction MNCs face worldwide and lays the foundation for future empirical works.\u0000","PeriodicalId":46124,"journal":{"name":"Critical Perspectives on International Business","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46668318","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Is it possible to improve the international business action towards the sustainable development goals?","authors":"A. Celone, Antonello Cammarano, Mauro Caputo, Francesca Michelino","doi":"10.1108/cpoib-08-2020-0122","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/cpoib-08-2020-0122","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Purpose\u0000The purpose of this paper is to investigate possible improvements in the pursuit of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) by multinational enterprises (MNEs) through an analysis of the literature.\u0000\u0000\u0000Design/methodology/approach\u0000A critical framework based on Gleicher’s formula for change is provided after conducting a systematic literature review.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000The best way to pursue the SDGs is through an integrated approach that recognises the importance of MNEs in terms of possibilities and power of action. Working towards the SDGs appears to be largely limited by three aspects of the problem: its complexity and wickedness, the genuine interest in reaching some SDGs, at the expense of profit and low foresight.\u0000\u0000\u0000Research limitations/implications\u0000A fundamental limitation of the study concerns, as in most of the literature on the matter, the impossibility of providing an optimal solution to the problem of meeting the SDGs, given their nature. However, formulating the best definition of the problem and its characteristics can contribute to making its management better.\u0000\u0000\u0000Social implications\u0000This study has social implications due to the extreme importance that many SDGs have with regard to democracy and social equity, beyond their environmental and economic aspects.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000The claimed contribution is the value brought by the synthesis of several points of view, through the interdisciplinary analysis of the research question. The novelty consists in organising the literature according to the formula for change.\u0000","PeriodicalId":46124,"journal":{"name":"Critical Perspectives on International Business","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44884925","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Practice coordination by principles: a contemporary MNC approach to coordinating global practices","authors":"Alexander Kristiansen, R. Schweizer","doi":"10.1108/cpoib-04-2020-0027","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/cpoib-04-2020-0027","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Purpose\u0000In the mainstream international business literature on multinational corporations (MNCs), an authoritative central headquarter (HQ) that transfers standardised practices to its subsidiaries remains the norm. This study aims to explore how MNCs coordinate their management practices through principles.\u0000\u0000\u0000Design/methodology/approach\u0000The paper draws on empirical findings from a qualitative in-depth single case study based on evidence-rich qualitative data including observations from how a high-tech MNC headquartered in Sweden coordinates its development practices.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000An alternative informal coordination approach (i.e. coordination by principles) is identified. Additionally, antecedents and implications of the approach are presented.\u0000\u0000\u0000Practical implications\u0000Coordination by Principles may facilitate the internalisation of practices and be a feasible compromise between context adaptation and traditional standardisation, particularly for MNCs with highly heterogeneous research and development operations.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000This paper highlights the importance of acknowledging that firm practices often are based on management ideas that HQs adopt to prevent loss of legitimacy. As such, this study contributes to the scarce literature that critically questions the assumption that HQs solely transfer practices to subsidiaries to improve subsidiary efficiency and performance.\u0000","PeriodicalId":46124,"journal":{"name":"Critical Perspectives on International Business","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46315453","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Exploiting bullets: international business and the dynamics of war","authors":"Martin D. Owens","doi":"10.1108/cpoib-05-2020-0063","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/cpoib-05-2020-0063","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Purpose\u0000The purpose of this paper is to critically review the existing research on the intersection between war and international business (IB) and to map out a future research agenda.\u0000\u0000\u0000Design/methodology/approach\u0000Drawing on corporate examples and extant literature within IB, political science and international relations, the paper provides an introduction to the main concepts of war, a review of the IB research on war and provides a critical future research agenda.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000The review of the multiple strands of war-related research in IB generally reveals an understudied area. Among other biases, prior research has focused on inter-state wars and has relatively unexplored foreign direct investment (FDI) and non-FDI within civil wars. Furthermore, previous studies offer little attention to how IB and multinational companies contribute to the emergence and development of wars.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000The paper develops an analytical and critical research agenda for future research to examine the relationship between war and IB. This includes a set of questions for each of the three major phases of war: pre-conflict, armed violence and post-conflict. To the best of my knowledge, this has not been done before in the context of IB research.\u0000","PeriodicalId":46124,"journal":{"name":"Critical Perspectives on International Business","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49614827","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"How can international business research contribute towards the sustainable development goals?","authors":"A. Rygh, Eleni Chiarapini, María Vallejo Segovia","doi":"10.1108/cpoib-08-2020-0123","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/cpoib-08-2020-0123","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Purpose\u0000Realising the sustainable development goals (SDGs) will require substantial efforts from both governments, businesses, civil society and academic researchers. This paper aims to discuss the contributions that the international business (IB) discipline can make to promoting the SDGs.\u0000\u0000\u0000Design/methodology/approach\u0000The paper is conceptual.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000The authors argue that IB can contribute to promoting the SDGs, given IB’s expertise on the multinational enterprise (MNE) and knowledge that is relevant to the international dimensions that most SDGs have. However, paradigmatic features of IB such as a focus on firm-level financial performance and on the MNE as an organisation, and dominance of quantitative methods, may presently restrict the discipline’s contributions to the SDGs.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000The authors present a set of recommendations for IB research on the SDGs, many of which imply an extension of the boundaries of the current IB paradigm.\u0000","PeriodicalId":46124,"journal":{"name":"Critical Perspectives on International Business","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42462739","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The standalone and resource-bundling effects of government and nongovernment institutional support on early internationalizing firms’ performance","authors":"A. Faroque, H. Sultana, J. Ahmed, F. Ahmed, Mahabubur Rahman","doi":"10.1108/cpoib-06-2020-0076","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/cpoib-06-2020-0076","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Purpose\u0000This study aims to analyze the individual and joint effects of institutional support by government and nongovernment institutions on early internationalizing firms’ (EIFs) performance. It also investigated the moderating impact of firm age and size on the institutional support-firms’ export performance relationships.\u0000\u0000\u0000Design/methodology/approach\u0000Data were collected from 705 EIFs in the apparel industry of Bangladesh and analyzed with hierarchical regression.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000The positive influence of institutional support on exporting firms’ financial performance is stronger for the joint effect of government and nongovernment assistance than the individual impact. Firms’ size positively moderates the impact of individual government and nongovernment assistance, while age positively moderates their resource-bundling effect.\u0000\u0000\u0000Research limitations/implications\u0000The findings suggest the necessity of integrating resources from diverse but complementary sources of institutional support for superior export performance. The findings also show the presence of the liability of smallness and liability of newness in the standalone and joint influence of institutional support, respectively.\u0000\u0000\u0000Practical implications\u0000Firms need to bundle resources obtained from the government (unrequited) and nongovernment (reciprocal) institutional support to overcome the liability of smallness they might encounter while availing of support from only one source.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000Distinguishing between government and nongovernment institutional support, this paper sheds light on exporting firms’ resource-bundling mechanism for these two sources of support in the backdrop of an emerging economy. It also offers fresh insights into the critical role of the liabilities of newness and smallness in early internationalization, especially with regard to the home-country institutional environment.\u0000","PeriodicalId":46124,"journal":{"name":"Critical Perspectives on International Business","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49379893","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Post-merger integration and subsidiary roles in Chinese MNCs – the case of Chinese M&As in Germany","authors":"Ursula Mense-Petermann","doi":"10.1108/cpoib-02-2020-0010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/cpoib-02-2020-0010","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Purpose\u0000This paper adds to the literature on outward Foreign Direct Investments by Chinese Multinational Corporations (MNCs) in advanced economies. Its objective is threefold: to characterize the subsidiary roles that advanced economy targets of Chinese Multinational Corporations (CMNC) takeovers typically adopt, to assess the position that these subsidiary roles grant them within the CMNCs as a whole and to flesh out how subsidiary actors perceive and make sense of the particular constellation as a subsidiary of a CMNC. Furthermore, this paper aims to contribute to theory development on headquarters‐subsidiary relations by suggesting an additional theoretical lens.\u0000\u0000\u0000Design/methodology/approach\u0000The paper draws on in-depth qualitative case studies from the automotive, mechanical engineering and solar industries and focuses on German firms that have been acquired by Chinese MNCs. Theoretically, the present paper draws on extant post-merger integration (PMI) and subsidiary role research, particularly from a micro-political and sensemaking perspective, refined by adding a neo-imperial dominance – lens.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000The paper reveals the subsidiary roles that German subsidiaries of Chinese MNCs typically adopt and discovers the PMI pattern of “reverse integration” delineating quite a particular form of reverse knowledge transfer. Regarding human integration, it emphasizes the importance of neo-imperial attitudes surfacing in the German subsidiaries.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000The value of the paper is in contributing to fill the pending research gap on the subsidiary roles that advanced economy subsidiaries of Chinese MNCs adopt, on the resulting positions of these subsidiaries within the overall Chinese groups and the sense that subsidiary actors make of being acquired by a Chinese MNC. The paper also reveals the importance of neo-imperial dominance patterns and attitudes in PMI in the constellation scrutinized.\u0000","PeriodicalId":46124,"journal":{"name":"Critical Perspectives on International Business","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41766963","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}