Conflicts, trust toward the acquirer from emerging economies and post-acquisition cooperation intention

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of inter-group conflicts on the trust toward the acquirer and then further on cooperation intention after acquisitions in cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As), in the lens of the social classification theory. Two types of conflicts (realistic conflicts and symbolic conflicts) and a mediating mechanism (trust toward the acquirer) exhibit different effects on cooperation intention. The research further examines two moderating coping strategies (localizing management and assigning trustworthy expatriate managers) and tests their effectiveness in promoting trust toward the acquirer and increasing cooperation intention in cross-border M&As.Design/methodology/approachThe research hypotheses were empirically tested in the context of post-acquisition of Chinese companies' cross-border M&As. In total, 600 questionnaires were provided to the research participants of 37 acquired firms/units from advanced economies of 12 Chinese companies, and 209 valid questionnaires were collected (the response rate is 34.83%). Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to verify data validity and hierarchical multiple regression analyses were employed to test relational and moderating effects.FindingsThis research demonstrates that both realistic and symbolic conflicts can reduce the intention to cooperate, but the latter does not have a significant influence. The results also uncover that whether employees from acquired firms trust in their acquirers mediates the relationship between realistic conflicts and cooperation intention. Moreover, management localization (a measurement of whether local/original managers are retained with a high degree of freedom and autonomy after M&As) and trustworthiness of expatriate managers (a measurement of whether the assigned expatriate managers is trustworthy) positively moderate the relation between realistic conflicts and trust toward the acquirer. In addition, trust toward the acquirer mediates the interaction of realistic conflicts and management localization on the cooperation intention of the acquirers' employees.Originality/valueThis study examines how inter-organizational conflicts influence trust toward the acquirer and then cooperation intentions in the context of Chinese companies' M&A behavior of targets from developed countries and gain supportive evidence, which enriches the literature on the management of international M&As. By introducing two management localization and trustworthiness of expatriate managers into the model, the research deepens our knowledge of how to build trust toward the acquirer in cross-border M&As.

Unequal Inclusion: The Production of Social Differences in Education Systems

The article raises the question of whether and how education systems produce social differences internally rather than reproducing pre‐existing “external” inequalities. Linking Niklas Luhmann’s theory of inclusion/exclusion with Charles Tilly’s theory of categorical inequalities, and based on empirical data from various qualitative studies, the article identifies an “observation regime” epistemically constituting the social classification of students and legitimising organisational closure mechanisms in the school system. As an alternative to the “reproduction paradigm,” a research approach guided by differentiation theory is proposed that takes into account that educational inequality operationally arises on the “inside” of the educational system and is caused by unequal inclusion processes.

Religion in Social Classification and Social Orders: A Study of Catholicism in A Tibetan Village in Yunnan

"This article attempts a new perspective upon Catholicism in a Chinese Tibetan village> Cizhong of Yunnan Province. The article reviews the discussion on social classification by Durham and Bourdicu>and argues that Catholicism? together with the other local religion——Tibetan Buddhism——functions as a social classification inside the village. Catholicism>as well as Buddhism>involves a whole set of rules for the practice of daily life>that arc followed by villagers in Cizhong. By this social classification? the village achieves harmony under a reasonable order. The article> based on months of fieldwork,argues two things： First, how Catholicism has become a “local“ religion; and second, how the social classification functions in village affairs. The former focuses on historical material and reveals that Catholicism has gradually transformed to a “native“ religion> in some sense>during the past century after it was brought there by French missionaries. ’I'his transformation can be seen in the change of missionaries^ image in local legends and villagers' narrative. The latter is based on current empirical material from fieldwork and demonstrates that villagers have created a new order out of the two sets of practices>one rooted in Catholicism and the other in Tibetan Buddhism, to manage social affairs and sustain balance or harmony in the village. Though the tension between the two religions still exists> a new order that shifts delicately between the two is practiced in most situations like funerals.

When Abangan Embraces Sufism: Religious Phenomenology to Counter Radicalism in Contemporary Java

Abangan is one of the socio-religious groups regarded as a marginal community among the trichotomy of santri and priayi. It has been known that abangan were not religious Muslim, and they are poor farmers as well as workers, backward and less educated people. Meanwhile, santri are more religious and priayi among Javanese society are middle-class people practising syncretic Islam. The thesis on “The Religion of Java,” by Clifford Geertz, was more than a half-century indicated religious and social classification in Javanese society. In the midst of political polarization of Indonesian reformation, transnational Islamic groups began to establish their movement widely. Transnational Islamic groups that promote radicalism and violent extremism clearly avoid local wisdom and mysticism. As a result, abangan has experienced dramatic religious and social change. This study aims to see how to face radicalism after reformation in the social and religious transformation of abangan in Java. Previous studies have shown that the phenomenon of radicalism affects religious intolerance addressed to minority groups like abangan. This research paper aims to examine how abangan reacts to radicalism and engages with Sufism and their devotion to tarekat. Abangan recently appears to convert and join the tarekat movement as an alternative discourse to encounter modernism and religious radicalism.

Afterword: On Racial Binaries, Racism, and Creolization

Author of the pathbreaking work on créolité in Louisiana, White by Definition: Social Classification in Creole Louisiana (1986), Virginia R. Dominguez responds to the articles presented in the special dossier, “Créolité: Identity, History, Culture/Kreyòl: métissage, hybridité, bricolage.” Her reflections situate articles by Jonathan Gosnell, Juliane Braun, and Angel Adams Parham in relation to the racial binary dominating Anglo-American history in the U.S., racism (old and new), the relevance of history to the present, and writers’ and intellectuals’ roles in fostering change for the better. Auteur du texte fondateur sur la créolité en Louisiane, White by Definition: Social Classification in Creole Louisiana (1986), Virginia R. Dominguez répond aux articles présentés dans le dossier spécial, “Créolité: Identity, History, Culture/Kreyòl: métissage, hybridité, bricolage.” Ses réflexions situent les articles de Jonathan Gosnell, Juliane Braun et Angel Adams Parham par rapport au binarisme racial qui domine l’histoire anglo-américaine dans les États-Unis, le racisme (ancien et nouveau), et la pertinence de l’histoire à l’actualité, ainsi que le rôle des écrivains et des intellectuels à travailler pour le changement.

Low-tech MALL for EFL intensive class among university students in remote areas

Covid-19 pandemic situation has forced EFL teachers and students to create innovation in online classroom activities. Through a case study at one of private universities in Indonesia, this research aim at exploring the implementation of mobile phone used in learning process in low tech Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL). The data were collected from observation, in-depth interview, and document review. The findings reveal that mobile phone has an imperative role in concocting student to be full-fledge community, stimulating the feeling of perception, unexceptional mindfulness and teaching of socio-political and social classification. Further, mobile phone and its supporting materials in students’ tools rely upon whether there is appropriate security to keep the device, stockpiling of internet data package, wellsprings of electric supply, gracefully of each provider signal, availability to flexibility access in various areas, especially mountainous to remote area. Regarding the challenges, the students experienced multi-layer intricacies: (a) learning facilities including absence of speed data transfer capacity, (b) students’ awareness and proficiency in English, and (c) techno pedagogical insight over lecturers. This study implies that enhancement on the student capacity at low tech level of learning through mobile phone provide meaningful learning assistance, particularly in term of efficiency during classroom activities

Secret Women

This chapter presents a case study of apparent clandestine prostitution in Zurich in 1392, embedded within an attempted prosecution of abortion of a single woman named Repplin. The chapter aims to investigate the ambiguities of the concept of clandestine prostitution and whether it offers a satisfactory means of engaging with the subjectivity of medieval women. In doing so it additionally seeks to participate in existing debates on sex and social classification in the Middle Ages in which prostitution has been central. The chapter ultimately argues that while prostitution offers a useful means of making visible the lives of marginal women, imposing categories upon past subjects is also fraught with problems. In arguing that the idea of prostitutes as ‘secret women’ can help the reader to understand the symbolic and material dimensions of Repplin’s case, the chapter also makes the case for resisting the attempt to fully ‘capture’ past subjects.

A Inconstância do Mundo. Brevíssimos Apontamentos sobre Identificações Socioculturais e seus Eixos

O artigo parte do princípio de que a literatura já acumulada abrange tantos materiais etnográficos e propostos teóricas que seja preciso um esforço para sistematizar esse conhecimento. Desse modo, a chamada “construção social da realidade” é bastante conhecida, no entanto, suas implicações não são suficientemente levadas em conta nos nossos esforços antropológicos. Portanto, se discute aqui alguns aspectos da ‘sociocriação da realidade sociocultural’, em particular, alguns aspectos selecionados da “inconstância do mundo”, para em seguida discutir a classificação social, no sentido geral, e oferecer um quadro sinóptico da “identificação e seus eixos de contínuos”. O quadro sinóptico resume uma grande literatura (impossível de ser citada toda), ensejando abstrair a complexidade real de um processo afeto-cognitivo fundamental e contribuir para a metodologia e teoria de análises futuras. Nesse sentido, essa contribuição visa oferecer uma sistematização, no nível bem abstrata e teórica e bem limitada, do processo da classificação sociocultural humana. The Inconstancy of the World. Brief Notes on Socio-Cultural Identifications and their AxesAbstract: The article assumes that the literature already accumulated encompasses so many ethnographic materials and theoretical proposals that an effort is needed to systematize this knowledge. In this way, the so-called “social construction of reality” is well known, however, its implications are not sufficiently taken into account in our anthropological efforts. Therefore, it discusses here some aspects of the “socio-cultural creation of the socio-cultural reality”, in particular, some selected aspects of the “inconstancy of the world”, to then discuss the social classification, in a general sense, and offer a synoptic picture of the “identification and their continuum axes ”. The synoptic table summarizes a great literature (impossible to be cited all), giving the opportunity to abstract the real complexity of a fundamental affective-cognitive process and to contribute to the methodology and theory of future analyzes. In this sense, this contribution aims to offer a systematization, at the very abstract and theoretical and very limited level, of the human socio-cultural classification process.Keywords: Reality; Partner-Creation; Classification; Identification Axes.

From Bondage to Citizenship: A Comparison of African American and Indian Lower-Caste Mobilization in Two Regions of Deep Inequality

The paper explores mobilization to reduce the deepest inequalities in the two largest democracies, those along caste lines in India and racial lines in the United States. I compare how the groups at the bottom of these ethnic hierarchies—India's former untouchable castes (Dalits) and African Americans—mobilized from the 1940s to the 1970s in pursuit of full citizenship: the franchise, representation, civil rights, and social rights. Experiences in two regions of historically high inequality (the Kaveri and Mississippi Deltas) are compared in their national contexts. Similarities in demographic patterns, group boundaries, socioeconomic relations, regimes, and enfranchisement timing facilitate comparison. Important differences in nationalist and civic discourse, official and popular social classification, and stratification patterns influenced the two groups’ mobilizations, enfranchisement, representation, alliances, and relationships with political parties. The nation was imagined to clearly include Dalits earlier in India than to encompass African Americans in the United States. Race was the primary and bipolar official and popular identity axis in the United States, unlike caste in India. African Americans responded by emphasizing racial discourses while Dalit mobilizations foregrounded more porously bordered community visions. These different circumstances enabled more widespread African American mobilization, but offered Dalits more favorable interethnic alliances, party incorporation, and policy accommodation, particularly in historically highly unequal regions. Therefore, group representation and policy benefits increased sooner and more in India than in the United States, especially in regions of historically high group inequality such as the Kaveri and other major river Deltas relative to the Deep South, including Mississippi.