Understanding resource commitment to R&D in multinational enterprises: a novel conceptual framework

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Niels le Duc
Keyword(s):  
Research And Development ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Multinational Enterprises ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
External Environment ◽  
Multinational Enterprise ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Resource Commitment ◽  
Insight Into

Purpose This paper aims to introduce and advocate the concept of resource commitment to better understand multinational enterprise (MNE) research and development (R&D) behavior. Design/methodology/approach Adopting a theory adaptation research design, this paper assesses the characteristics and antecedents associated with varying resource commitment positions. It does so in relation to MNE R&D activities, considering their importance to firm competitiveness and the recent increases in the number of locations and innovative activities a firm might choose to invest in. Findings The paper presents a framework showing that differences in resource commitment are more nuanced than expected. The evaluation of antecedents shows that the external environment, the purpose of R&D activities and firm experience influence the resource commitment position of a firm’s R&D activities. Originality/value The paper provides a pathway toward understanding of MNE R&D behavior, explaining observable differences in resource and commitment levels of R&D units. The presented framework offers MNE managers insight into when to adopt which resource commitment positions. It offers policymakers insights into the type of activities and the companies they need to attract to maximize the added value of firm’s investments in their country/region.

On a correlative and evolutionary SWOT analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 347-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charis Vlados
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Business Strategy ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Swot Analysis ◽  
Evolutionary Economics ◽  
External Environment ◽  
International Literature ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Business Dynamics

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to counter-propose a new approach of SWOT analysis, which can be used in the strategic planning of the contemporary organizations. Design/methodology/approach This paper, after presenting the conceptual context of the existing (conventional) SWOT analysis, presents the existing criticism within the international literature. Then, it articulates gradually the new evolutionary and correlative SWOT analysis, by using the approaches and the literature of evolutionary economics, and the Stra.Tech.Man approach in business dynamics. In conclusion, it presents the new conceptual framework on which a new correlative SWOT analysis can be based. Findings Main finding of this research is that the interpretation of the conventional SWOT analysis tends to study the strengths and the weaknesses of the business with an analytical dichotomy. The conventional SWOT analysis conceptualizes, usually implicitly, the opportunities and threats of the external environment as having the same impact to all the socioeconomic agents, without exception. However, by using a correlative interpretation of SWOT analysis, we understand that the opportunities and threats are always “potential,” depending on the organization’s strategic capability to exercise its comparative strengths and weaknesses. Originality/value In the existing literature of SWOT analysis, despite the growing criticism, there is no critique that can give systemic and correlative answers to the articulation of business strategy in SWOT terms. The Stra.Tech.Man approach, also, is a conceptual framework to study the evolutionary adaptation of all the kinds of socioeconomic organizations.

An organismic approach to multinational enterprise failure

2019 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeong-Yang Park ◽  
Yong Kyu Lew ◽  
Byung Il Park
Keyword(s):  
International Business ◽  
Delphi Technique ◽  
Multinational Enterprises ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Multinational Enterprise ◽  
Institutional Pressures ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Institutional Legitimacy ◽  
Foreign Divestment ◽  
Market Strategies

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to answer why some multinational enterprises (MNEs) fail within the international business (IB) domain. Design/methodology/approach Conceptually, the study takes an organismic approach to MNE failure. Methodologically, it adopts an elite interview approach derived from the Delphi technique. Respondents are 39 IB and strategic management academics. Findings The paper finds that MNE failure is rooted in strategic leadership and capabilities (i.e. internal deterioration of organizational resources and strategies) and institutional pressures and differences, and these factors lead to deterioration of institutional legitimacy for an MNE. Originality/value The paper conducts a review of the firm failure and foreign divestment literature and undertakes an organismic approach to the analysis of MNE failure in the IB context. The paper provides useful insights on developing and implementing both market and non-market strategies for overcoming MNE internationalization failure.

How emerging markets firms will become global leaders

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 274-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Grosse
Keyword(s):  
Emerging Markets ◽  
Multinational Enterprises ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Single Model ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Success Stories ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Insight Into

Purpose – Over time the countries characterized as “emerging” change, and some of the companies from these countries become world leaders even as many of those from traditional economic powers fade. There is nothing guaranteed about success of companies from emerging markets (EMs), other than the fact that some of the firms that do survive will be among the success stories of the future. The purpose of this paper is to explore two questions: what enables companies from EMs to compete with existing firms? Is there a conceptual structure that is best for analyzing these firms and their strategies? Design/methodology/approach – This paper discusses the strengths of EM multinational enterprises (MNEs) from the perspective of Dunning’s eclectic view, and gives four detailed examples of companies from this perspective. Findings – It is suggested that while the eclectic view offers excellent insight into EM MNEs, an analysis of their strategies and policy implications requires further perspective such as through the global value-added chain. Research limitations/implications – No single model will capture all of the important features of EM MNEs, but Dunning’s view and the global value-added chain are good tools. Practical implications – Hopefully, both research analysts and company managers will be able to utilize the view presented here to better manage/understand EM MNEs. Originality/value – This view demonstrates a mechanism for exploring key elements of EM MNEs and by moving to the global value-added chain additional, original perspective is gained.

Customer-driven supply chains under IMP lens

IMP Journal ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 289-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa Martina Martinelli ◽  
Annalisa Tunisini ◽  
Simone Guercini
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Interpretative Framework

Purpose This paper explores the most recent contributions to interpreting customer-driven supply chains (CDSCs) under the IMP lens, focusing on the main characteristics that emerged from a review of the relevant literature. The purpose of this paper is to offer a holistic interpretative framework of major topics covered by the CDSC literature, highlighting both some shared issues and emerging elements using the IMP conceptual framework’s ARA (actor bonds, activity links and resource ties) model. Design/methodology/approach The paper reviewed the literature by searching selected journals using a combination of specific keywords in order to find the most recent contributions on the CDSC theme. The presented analysis allowed an interpretation of the findings through a conceptual framework. Findings The findings suggest that the ARA model could be a useful method through which to structure an interpretation of the most recent contributions, in both IMP and the general literature, on the discipline. In particular, three streams of research were identified: the customer closeness strategy, relational strategy, and intra-organizational strategy. Research limitations/implications These clusters can be deeply analyzed using the major knowledge on CDSC dynamics. By studying these issues in an integrated way, the implications in terms of competition, generalization of results, constraints, problems, and difficulties of the customer-driven approach could be enhanced. Limitations are the restricted period of time and the absence of empirical research. Practical implications Each identified cluster presents the tools that have to be improved in order to implement the customer-driven orientation, which increases the performance and brings an added value for the same supply chain. For this reason, an emerging need is to develop studies on the empirical side that consider the implications in terms of an integrated framework among the three issues. Originality/value The paper increases the understanding of CDSCs by using conceptual and interpretative tools developed by the IMP literature. The ARA model allows the creation of a conceptual framework that clarifies, in a holistic way, the most important characteristics that have to be developed in order to improve the CDSC perspective. Recommendations and a research agenda for the implementation of the customer-driven view are derived.

Identifying offenders with an intellectual disability in detention in The Netherlands

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 94-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hendrien L. Kaal ◽  
Henk L.I. Nijman ◽  
Xavier M.H. Moonen
Keyword(s):  
Learning Disabilities ◽  
Intellectual Disability ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Intellectual Disabilities ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Shed Light

Purpose – The Dutch Custodial Institutions Agency has commissioned a number of research projects on offenders with intellectual disabilities (ID) in prison. A continuing problem has been that it is not known what the prevalence of ID in Dutch prisons is, and how to identify ID in individual detainees. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – With this in mind a screening instrument (screener for learning disabilities and intelligence (SCIL)) has been developed that screens for IQ < 85. This instrument has been piloted in four different penitentiary institutes. Findings – The papers briefly describes the results of the studies preceding the pilot before turning to the pilot itself. The pilot shed light on what considerations need to be taken into account when implement screening for ID in the current prison system, and on the potential added value for prison staff of knowing whether a detainee possibly has an ID. In addition, the pilot gave some insight into the characteristics of Dutch prisoners. Originality/value – The main conclusion is that the SCIL can be successfully implemented within these settings, provided that sufficient attention is being paid to the advance instructions to staff and to the introduction of the screening to the detainees.

Rethinking bibliographic utilities for library consortia

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (8) ◽  
pp. 7-9
Author(s):  
Israel Odede
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Distributed Network ◽  
Network Resources ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Library Consortia ◽  
Individual Ownership ◽  
Insight Into

Purpose The paper aims to critically examine the bibliographic utility as a roadmap to increase library consortia and provide an insight into a new library consortia strategy that integrates librarians into a system of sharing both resources and knowledge. Design/methodology/approach This study adopted a literature review approach with a focus on bibliographic utility as a necessary prerequisite for effective library consortia, which is a paradigm shift from the concept of individual ownership to a collective access of distributed network resources and knowledge. Findings The reviewed literature indicated that significant bibliographic utilities and integrated library systems are factors that shaped and developed consortia activities in libraries. Originality/value The bibliographic utility has limited literature, and a few published scholarly studies have combined bibliographic utility and library consortia as strategies to share resources and knowledge

What determines the adoption of employee empowerment practices by MNE subsidiaries in China?

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 871-894
Author(s):  
Yishuai Yin
Keyword(s):  
Multinational Enterprises ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Employee Empowerment ◽  
Institutional Factors ◽  
Hierarchical Regression ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Hrm Practices ◽  
Institutional Forces ◽  
Mne Subsidiaries

Purpose This paper aims to explore how institutional factors determine the adoption of employee empowerment practices by multinational enterprises (MNEs) subsidiaries in China. Design/methodology/approach This paper examines the effects of MNE subsidiaries’ external and internal institutional factors on the degree of employee empowerment practices adopted by these subsidiaries. Using hierarchical regression analysis, hypotheses were tested with a sample of 99 MNE subsidiaries operating in China. Findings The results show that both the informal institutions of the host country and the subsidiary’s characteristics play an important role in shaping the degree of empowerment practices adopted by MNE subsidiaries in China. Originality/value Employee empowerment practices have been increasingly used by MNEs to leverage human resources for organizational competitive advantage. Although a large body of work has studied a bundle of HRM practices as a whole adopted in MNE subsidiaries, there is a paucity of research on the specific empowerment practices in MNE subsidiaries. This research fills this important gap in the literature by investigating the institutional forces that influence the empowerment practices in MNE subsidiaries in China.

Mindfulness for teachers: notes toward a discursive cartography

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-108
Author(s):  
Remy Low
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teacher Educator ◽  
Entry Point ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Educational Researcher ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Discursive Formation ◽  
Heuristic Device

Purpose For the interested teacher, teacher educator and educational researcher seeking an entry point into how mindfulness relates to teachers’ work, the burgeoning and divergent appeals for the relevance of mindfulness to teachers can be bewildering. The purpose of this paper is to offer teachers, teacher educators and educational researchers a conceptual framework for understanding the different orientations and sources of mindfulness as it has been recommended to teachers. Design/methodology/approach Using Foucault’s (1972) concept of “discursive formations” as a heuristic device, this paper argues that mindfulness as pitched to teachers can be helpfully understood as arising from three distinct orientations. Findings Statements about mindfulness and its relevance to teachers emerge from three distinct discursive formations – traditional, psychological and engaged – that each constitute the “problem” faced by teachers respectively as suffering, stress or alienation. Specific conceptions of mindfulness are then advanced as a solution to these problems by certain authoritative subjects and institutions in ways that are taken as legitimate within each discursive formation. Originality/value Apart from offering a historical and discursive mapping of the different discursive formations from which mindfulness is pitched to teachers, this paper also highlights how each of these orientations impies a normative view of what a teacher should be. Suggestions for further historical research are also offered along the lines of genealogy, epistemology and ontology.

Formation of contracts for the international sale of goods under Korean law and the CISG

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 208-223
Author(s):  
Byung Mun Lee
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Case Law ◽  
The Other ◽  
Basic Question ◽  
Content Type ◽  
International Sale Of Goods ◽  
The Comparative Study ◽  
International Sales ◽  
Insight Into

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze the rules on the formation of contracts under Korean law and the Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) in a comparative way and introduce the relevant proposed rules under the Amendment Draft of the Korean Civil Code (KCC). In addition, it attempts to compare and evaluate them in light of the discipline of comparative law. Design/methodology/approach In order to achieve the purposes of the study, it executes a comparative study of the rules as to the formation of contracts of the CISG, Korean law and the Amendment Draft of the KCC. The basic question for this comparative study is placed on whether a solution from one jurisdiction is more logical than the others and to what extent each jurisdiction has responded to protect the reasonable expectations of the parties in the rules as to the formation of contracts. Findings The comparative study finds that most of the rules under the CISG are quite plausible and logical and they are more or less well reflected in the proposals advanced by the KCC amendment committee. On the other hand, the other rules under the CISG which have brought criticisms in terms of their complexity and inconsistent case law invite us their revision or consistent interpretation. The drawbacks of the CISG have also been well responded in the Amendment Draft of the KCC. Nevertheless, it is quite unfortunate that the Amendment Draft of the KCC still has a rule that regards any purported performance with non-material alteration of the terms of an offer as an acceptance. Originality/value This study may provide legal and practical advice to both the seller and the buyer when they enter into a contract for international sales of goods. In addition, it may render us an insight into newly developed or developing rules in this area and show us how they interact with each other. Furthermore, it may be particularly useful in Korea where there is an ongoing discussion for revision of the KCC.

Professionals freaking out: the case of accreditation in Dutch higher education

2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 473-485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Everard van Kemenade ◽  
Teun W. Hardjono
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Iso 9000 ◽  
Preliminary Survey ◽  
External Evaluation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Evaluation Systems ◽  
System A ◽  
Engineering And Technology ◽  
Insight Into

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to define what factors cause willingness and/or resistance among lecturers in universities towards external evaluation systems, especially accreditation.Design/methodology/approachA model has been designed to describe possible factors of willingness and/or resistance towards accreditation based on Ajzen and Metselaar. A literature review has been undertaken on the effects of external evaluation like ISO 9000 as well as accreditation systems such as Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology and European Quality Improvement System. A questionnaire has been administered to a group of 63 lecturers from three departments at Fontys University in The Netherlands. The results of this preliminary survey have been presented to 1,500 academics in The Netherlands and Flanders to collect empirical data.FindingsResistance to accreditation can be found in the consequences of accreditation for the work of the lecturer (workload), negative emotions (stress and insecurity); the lack of knowledge and experience (help from specialists is needed); and lack of acceptance (other paradigm).Originality/valueThe paper provides more insight into the difficulties that organizations, especially universities, have to commit their employees to external evaluation. It might be possible to generalize the findings to other professionals in other organizations. Little research in this field has been undertaken so far.

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