Beyond “Doing as the Romans Do”: A review of research on countercultural business practices

There has long been a dominant logic in the international business literature that multinational corporations should adapt business practices to “fit” host cultures. Business practices that are congruent with local cultural norms have been advocated as effective and desirable, while practices that are incongruent have been deemed problematic. We examine and challenge this persistent assumption by reviewing the literature showing evidence for both benefits and acceptance of countercultural practices (i.e., practices that are seemingly incongruent with local cultural norms or values), and disadvantages and rejection of local practices. Drawing on the literature reviewed, we offer four types of theoretical (ontological, epistemological, causal, and functional) explanations as to why and when countercultural business practices might be preferred. Finally, we provide a springboard for a future research agenda on countercultural practices, centered around understanding the circumstances under which businesses and local stakeholders might benefit from the use of countercultural practices based on such factors as strategic intent, local preferences, institutional drivers, and social responsibility.

Knowledge Sharing and Competitive Advantage in Public Universities: Mediating Role of Strategic Intent

Public universities are the major source of higher education all over the world. Therefore, competitive public universities play a significant role in producing an effective labour force for society. The basic objective of the study is to examine the mediating role of strategic intent on the relationship between knowledge sharing and competitive advantage in the public higher education institutions (PHEIs) of Pakistan. Data were collected from the top management of the PHEIs of Pakistan by distributing the structured close-ended questionnaire. A total number of 192 questionnaires were received in a fully completed form that has been used for the final analysis. PLS-SEM was employed to examine measurement and structural model of the path model. The results reveal that KS is significantly and positively related to strategic intent and CA. Strategic intent also found to be significantly and positively related to CA. In addition, strategic intent mediates the relationship between KS and CA.

Employees as a vector of strategic intent: an examination of corporate, social and environmental strategic intent recognition by employees

PurposeOne of the hallmarks of strategizing is having a clearly articulated vision and mission for the organization. It has been suggested that this provides a compass bearing for the organization's strategy, helps in motivation, commitment and retention of employees, serves as a guide to internal sensemaking and decision-making, has a potential performance effect, helps establish the identity of the organization and positions its desired reputation. The compass bearing role is important because it guides the selection of the goals and strategic orientation of the organization which in turn shapes its overall strategy and much of its internal decision making. The inspirational role is important because it helps to motivate and engage employees and other stakeholders.Design/methodology/approachThis study provides a more rigorous indication as to whether employees can, in the first instance, recognize and distinguish their corporate and environmental strategy from that of their competitors within their own industry and random other companies from other industries. This first issue addresses, to a degree, if and why, such strategic communiqués are effective inside a range of different organizations. Secondly, the authors examine whether there are any specific individual level effects that could explain variations in these responses. Finally, the authors examine the extent to which the recognition rates the authors observe, relate to how employees are rewarded through appraisals, promotions and salary increases. This helps in the authors’ understanding of the role of hard incentives versus soft motivations. The authors’ approach to assessing employee knowledge of their organization's strategy is unique. Rather than survey employees about their knowledge, the authors use a matching study and a discrete choice measurement model to assess if they can recognize their organization's strategy from those of their competitors and some other randomly selected organizations. This approach allows us to mitigate social desirability and common method biases and directly estimate the underlying behavioral model being used to assess their organization's strategy.FindingsOverall, the authors found that few employees could correctly identify their corporate strategy statements. In the case of corporate strategy statements, the authors find that, on average, only 29 percent of employees could correctly match their company to its publicly espoused corporate strategy. When the authors look at the environmental sustainability strategy of the firm, this is worse overall, with individuals doing no better than random on average. When the authors look at company training and communication practices across the realm of different strategies, the authors see a number of factors leading to the general results. First, most of the authors’ respondents could not recall a significant effort being given to communication and training by their employer. Indeed, most communication/training is simply related to having documentation/brochures available. Second, respondents indicated that more effort is put into communicating corporate strategy to employees in a more systematic manner than communication about environmental/corporate social responsible (CSR) strategy. Third, the authors see that individuals are evaluated more on and give more weight to, evaluations relating to their ability to meet individual/group financial and market performance metrics (targets) and work as a team than their involvement in environmental and social responsibility programs. Finally, the employees studied seemed to be more confident in understanding the corporate strategy. When asked to put their corporate strategy into words – a task the authors asked respondents to do after the matching phase of the study – 40% of participants did so for the corporate strategy but only 14% did so for the environmental strategy and seven percent for the CSR strategy.Practical implicationsThe primary implication of the study is that the values-mission-strategy logic of strategic motivation seems to have limited validity and with respect to the view that employees are a vector of corporate strategy. It is hard to argue that employees can be a vector for something they cannot recall or even distinguish between.Originality/valueThe study is unique in terms of (1) asking the very simple question of whether employees internalize their company's strategies and (2) in the methodological approach to examine employee knowledge and informativeness.

Aligning policymaking in decentralized health systems: Evaluation of strategies to prevent and control non-communicable diseases in Nigeria

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are leading causes of death globally and in Nigeria they account for 29% of total deaths. Nigeria’s health system is decentralized. Fragmentation in governance in federalised countries with decentralised health systems is a well-recognised challenge to coherent national health policymaking. The policy response to the rising NCD burden therefore requires strategic intent by national and sub-national governments. This study aimed to understand the implementation of NCD policies in Nigeria, the role of decentralisation of those policies, and to consider the implications for achieving national NCD targets. We conducted a policy analysis combined with key informant interviews to determine to what extent NCD policies and strategies align with Nigeria’s decentralised health system; and the structure and process within which implementation occurs across the various tiers of government. Four inter-related findings emerged: NCD national policies are ‘top down’ in focus and lack attention to decentralisation to subnational and frontline care delivery levels of the health system; there are defective coordination mechanisms for NCD programmes which are underpinned by weak regional organisational structures; financing for NCDs are administratively burdensome and fragmented; and frontline NCD service delivery for NCDs are not effectively being integrated with other essential PHC services. Despite considerable progress being made with development of national NCD policies, greater attention on their implementation at subnational levels is needed to achieve more effective service delivery and progress against national NCD targets. We recommend strengthening subnational coordination mechanisms, greater accountability frameworks, increased and more efficient funding, and greater attention to integrated PHC service delivery models. The use of an effective bottom-up approach, with consideration for decentralization, should also be engaged at all stages of policy formulation.

Missing the Forest for the Trees: Marketing Systems Approach to Pharmaceutical Industry Marketing Practices

The overall aim of this study is to examine firm strategic choices that trigger negative externalities culminating in market failure, system crisis, and public harm. A conceptual framework of marketing system crisis rooted in conflict of interests (COI) theory is used to make the following arguments: (1) marketing strategies emulated by the industry actors at micro level set lock in through path dependencies, (2) such path dependencies may be associated with negative externalities in the form of reduced quality of life of downstream stakeholders in adjacent systems, (3) back lash by system actors precipitates market failure inviting regulatory oversight in the form of fines that tarnish trust and firm reputation, (4) with implications for system crisis and public welfare. A systematic analysis of court documents pertaining to pharmaceutical industry settlements bolstered by sales data from the company reports and Medicaid reimbursement data indicate that, for the case examined, diverse marketing practices are systematically developed with the strategic intent to insert external incentives that influence physician judgment and trigger market failure through negative externalities. Implications for marketing for a better world, systems health, pharmaceutical marketing, and suggestions for incorporating COI principles into theories of marketing for a better world conclude the paper.

Exploring the Strategic Intent and Practices of University Accelerators: A Case of Australia

University accelerators are a recent but rapidly growing phenomenon that not only enhance regional entrepreneurial ecosystems but influence the success of university startups and regional development and prosperity. The aim of this research is to explore the alignment of university strategic intent and practices with the impact and outcomes of university startup accelerators. The research design includes emergent enquiry perspectives aligned to inductive and nascent exploratory research. This is the first global algorithmic study using Leximancer techniques to examine the integration of university intent and accelerator impact using institutional theory as a foundation. Neoteric reviews provide conflicting points of view regarding university accelerators as startup launchpads or vehicles for entrepreneurial learning, and the findings suggest a disparity between university accelerators and university strategic intent, primarily a result of the incongruent interplay of substantive and symbolic management practices. The findings provide not only critical grounding and insights for researchers, practitioners, and university leaders in their quest to engage with successful nascent entrepreneurs and university startups but, also, practical implications to align the strategic intent.

Future-Making

This chapter provides the conceptual groundwork for a deliberative theory of future-regarding collective action. The first section introduces terms that have to do with thinking and acting temporally, such as “future-regarding” and “future publics.” The second section focuses on the concept of “future-making.” It is argued that we must act collectively in order to make the futures that we think we might want for our ourselves and future others. We must use political power to marshal and redirect the future-making forces that are otherwise likely to make our futures for us: societal drift, general inadvertence, invention (e.g., technological developments), market forces, and the actions of the rich and the powerful. The last section of the chapter provides working definitions of the terms “politics,” “democracy,” and “deliberation.” It is possible to create deliberative conditions that incentivize pragmatic political actors to channel strategic intent into talk and persuasion.

How firms strategically navigate informal and formal copyright practices: insights from Nollywood

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explain how and why firms configure copyright practices when confronted with state-sanctioned laws and informal customs projected by local ethnic or religious communities. Design/methodology/approach A multi-case inductive study of four film-producing organizations within the Nigerian film industry (i.e. Nollywood) was conducted. Specifically considered were firms that started their operations around the same time with similar founding conditions, experiences, resources and technical competencies. Field observations and multiple rounds of in-depth interviews were conducted to achieve the research objectives. Findings The study found that firms adopted dominant or hybrid configurations when interacting with informality and formality. Dominant configurations represent the exclusive adoption of informal copyright practices while hybrid configurations refer to the blended use of informal and formal copyright practices. The second set of findings revealed that each firm’s strategic intent affected the type of interactional configuration that unfolded in the firm. Specifically, firms with social intents tended to adopt dominant configurations, whereas firms with socio-economic intents tended to adopt hybrid configurations. Practical implications The study implies that firms may profit from strategically focusing on when and in what circumstances to adopt informality. Strategic intents that blend social and economic rationales may secure more positive interactive outcomes from internal and external stakeholders promoting formality and informality. Social implications This study highlights the fact that firms embedded in local religious and ethnic communities use organizational practices to solve social and institutional problems of their members. The copyright practices of these organizations encourage apprenticeship, youth empowerment and entrepreneurship in Nigeria. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that goes beyond macro-level analysis to investigate the interactional dynamics between formality and informality at the firm, community, and state levels. The study is also first of its kind to use copyright practices as an analytical lens to explore the interaction between informality and formality.

Factoring Future Generations Into Universities' Strategic Intent: Could a Law Help?

Wales is the first country in the world to have put into law the protection of future generations through its Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015; the first country to have a legal mechanism through the Act to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals and the first country to have put the Brundtland definition of sustainable development into law. What does this mean for the values taught in Welsh universities, and how can the university role be repurposed in the interests of future generations? Building on her research for the book #futuregen: Lessons from a Small Country which was published this year, Jane Davidson, who, in her previous role as Minister in Welsh Government, proposed what is now the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, will explore the opportunities from this new values framework to transform the university sector, in particular, the student experience in Wales, and whether there are further lessons that would be valuable elsewhere.