Navigating institutional complexity in socio-technical transitions

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of transnational entrepreneurs in growing born global firms, with a focus on the growth process facilitated by collaborative entry mode. Design/methodology/approach The author chose the solar photovoltaic industry as the empirical setting. This industry is a particularly good context for the study because many firms in this industry sell knowledge-intensive products internationally from their inception. The primary data consist of 32 in-depth interviews with entrepreneurs, industry association representatives, research institute scholars, and professional service firms. Findings The study highlights the importance of transnational entrepreneurs who develop born global firms to maturity by using their technological knowledge, international connections, and bicultural advantages to navigate and leverage institutional complexity. Collaborative entry mode with distributors enables born global firms’ high growth rapidly, whereas transnational entrepreneurs play a central role in building and expanding international network. Initial public offering in overseas stock exchange accelerates the high growth trajectory of born global firm by signalling its maturity. Research limitations/implications The author took a process perspective by examining the growth and maturity of born global firms by collaborative partnership; the author’s focus on the role of transnational entrepreneurs highlighted entrepreneurs’ sensitivity to institutional complexity along the growth trajectory. Practical implications The author recommends both incumbent and entrepreneurial firms in developed economies collaborate with transnational entrepreneurs in various business areas. Industry firms may be able to cooperate on product and marketing development, and professional service firms can offer services to expand born global firms further, because transnational entrepreneurs follow the global “rules of the game”. Originality/value The author shed important light on the role of transnational entrepreneurs throughout the growth of born global firms via collaborative entry mode. Furthermore, the author develops a multilevel framework for analysing the combined influence of transnational entrepreneur and institutional complexity on the growth of born global firm.

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Institutional complexity and family business development: a case study of the Charoen Pokphand group

Nankai Business Review International ◽

10.1108/nbri-05-2021-0033 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Bo Wang ◽

Qiang Liang ◽

Lihong Song ◽

Erming Xu

Keyword(s):

Family Business ◽

Family Values ◽

Family Businesses ◽

Chinese Family ◽

Overseas Chinese ◽

Institutional Complexity ◽

Content Type ◽

Equal Importance ◽

Decision Making Processes ◽

Dominant Period

Purpose With features of both “family” and “business,” family businesses must seek a balance between the emotional aspect of “family” and the economic aspect of “business” in its organizational and decision-making processes to ensure the sustainability of the family’s entrepreneurship. This study aims to focus on how internal institutional complexity combined evolves alongside the growth of the family business. Design/methodology/approach The research looks, from the perspective of institutional logic, into the Charoen Pokphand Group, which is an epitome of overseas Chinese family businesses and proceeds to build a model of family business growth in the context of institutional complexity. Findings The research finds that as a family business grows, institutional complexity inside the organization would change from aligned period to sustaining period and then to dominant period. Then further elucidates the process of proactive response in different stages of the development of a family business. Attaching equal importance to the cultivation of entrepreneurship and to the continuation of family values and culture is the crucial mechanism by which Chinese family businesses seek a balance between family logic and business logic. Originality/value This paper unveils the change of institutional complexity in the evolution of family businesses and the process of action of its agency as an organization, and simultaneously partly reveals the features of entrepreneurship that overseas Chinese family businesses have as they grew, which is of positive significance for exploring and building a path of growth unique to Chinese family businesses.

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Altering Authoritarianism: Institutional Complexity and Autocratic Agency in Indonesia

Explaining Institutional Change ◽

10.1017/cbo9780511806414.007 ◽

2012 ◽

pp. 132-167 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Dan Slater

Keyword(s):

Institutional Complexity

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‘The vulnerable institutional complexity’ the 2004 regional elections in Brussels

Regional & Federal Studies ◽

10.1080/13597560500526319 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 16 (1) ◽

pp. 99-107 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Hilde Coffé

Keyword(s):

Institutional Complexity ◽

Regional Elections

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Organizational Imprinting and Response to Institutional Complexity: Evidence from Publicly-Traded Chinese State-Owned Firms in Hong Kong

Management and Organization Review ◽

10.1017/mor.2016.54 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 345-373 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Yifan Wei

Keyword(s):

Hong Kong ◽

Central Government ◽

Stock Exchange ◽

Organizational Response ◽

Institutional Complexity ◽

Organizational Responses ◽

Organizational Attributes ◽

State Directors ◽

Chinese State ◽

Organizational Imprinting

ABSTRACTThis study seeks to answer the following question: What are the organizational attributes that influence organizational responses to institutional complexity? Building on core ideas of organizational imprinting, I argue that organizational response is influenced by the imprint from the dominant logic of organizing during the founding period and from the institutional position an organization possessed at founding. Empirically, I examine the variation in board composition of Chinese state-owned firms listed in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange market. It is found that state-owned firms founded in the market logic dominant period tend to have more non-state directors on the board in that they were organized around the prescription of the market logic and more responsive to shareholders’ demands for legitimacy reasons. Besides, state-owned firms founded by central government agencies tend to have fewer non-state directors because they were born at the center of the socialist system to accomplish strategic goals of the central government and non-state directors may challenge the vested interests. This study contributes to the organizational imprinting and institutional literature and resonates with the contemporary call for a more systematic examination of organizational attributes that influence organizational responses to institutional complexity.

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