This paper examines the decision by a multinational corporation (MNC) to relocate its business un... more This paper examines the decision by a multinational corporation (MNC) to relocate its business unit and/or corporate HQ overseas. We argue that business unit HQs move overseas in response to changes in the internal configuration of their unit's activities and the demands of the product markets in which they operate, whereas corporate HQs move overseas in response to the demands of external stakeholders, in particular global financial markets and shareholders. Using data on 125 business unit HQs and 35 corporate HQs, we test and find support for these arguments. The research highlights important differences between corporate-and business-level strategy, and it suggests ways in which the theory of the MNC needs to be reconsidered. This paper examines the decision by a multinational corporation (MNC) to locate its corporate or business unit headquarters overseas. It is concerned with understanding the factors that lead the executives of the MNC to shift their headquarters away from the traditional home country of operation, and in particular how the drivers for corporate HQ relocation are different from the drivers of business unit HQ relocation. The study is motivated by three lines of argument. First, the research contributes to our understanding of the role of the corporate HQ in the multi-business firm. There is a well-established distinction in the strategic management literature between
This study explores individual and country level environmental drivers of informal ‘seed’ investm... more This study explores individual and country level environmental drivers of informal ‘seed’ investment. We examine four types of informal investors based on business ownership experience (or no such experience) and close family relationship with investee (or no such relationship): ‘classic love money’, ‘outsider’, ‘kin owner’ and ‘classic business angel’ investors. At the environmental level, we are interested in the role of economic development, income tax policies, start-up costs, pro-enterprise government programmes, availability of debt financing, entrepreneurship education and culture. Using Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data from telephone interviews with 257 793 individuals in 31 countries, including 5 960 informal investors, we report drivers for the four types of seed investment. Descriptive statistics are consistent with prior research: informal investors are likely to be older males who work full-time, earn high incomes, perceive start-up opportunities in the environment, and believe that they have the skills to start their own businesses. At the environmental level, we find that countries with higher percentages of informal investors are significantly likely to have higher levels of economic development, higher business start-up costs, higher levels of entrepreneurship education, lower income taxes and lower power distance. Other environmental effects on the four populations of informal investors are reported and discussed, as well as implications for practice, policy and future research.
A growing body of ethics research investigates gender diversity and governance on corporate board... more A growing body of ethics research investigates gender diversity and governance on corporate boards, at individual and firm levels, in single country studies. In this study, we explore the environmental context of female representation on corporate boards of directors, using data from 43 countries. We suggest that women's representation on corporate boards may be shaped by the larger environment, including the social, political and economic structures of individual countries. We use logit regression to conduct our analysis. Our results indicate that countries with higher representation of women on boards are more likely to have women in senior management and more equal ratios of male to female pay. However, we find that countries with a longer tradition of women's political representation are less likely to have high levels of female board representation.
How do entrepreneurs working across multiple countries leverage individual experiences and instit... more How do entrepreneurs working across multiple countries leverage individual experiences and institutional environments to pursue international markets? This research utilizes Bourdieu's theory of practice as a sensitizing framework to explore transnational entrepreneurs' internationalization strategies. Four case studies reveal the ways in which transnational entrepreneurs rely on diverse sets of resources—economic, social, cultural, and symbolic capital—to navigate multiple institutional environments—cultural repertoires, social networks , legal and regulatory regimes, and power relations—when making strategic decisions about internationalization. Transnational entrepreneurs are uniquely positioned to internationalize directly and, in many cases, as an intermediary for local firms. As such, transnational entrepreneurs pursue a modern middleman role that transcends the multiple institutional environments in which they are embedded.
This article explores female entrepreneurial activities in 13 Latin American and Caribbean countr... more This article explores female entrepreneurial activities in 13 Latin American and Caribbean countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Jamaica, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay and Venezuela. Specifically, we explore the following research questions: What percentage of the female and male Latin American populations is involved in opportunity- and necessity-based entrepreneurial activities? And what quality of institutions is associated with female entrepreneurial activity opportunity and necessity rates? We comment on the impact of female entrepreneurship on economic development and conclude with implications for policy, practice and future research.
Does the knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship provide an explanation for the emergence ... more Does the knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship provide an explanation for the emergence of knowledge-based entrepreneurship in Ireland and Wales? To examine the reasons for different levels of knowledge-based entrepreneurship in these two regions we explore FDI and entrepreneurship policy. We outline key measures of knowledge creation, and evaluate the extent and nature of FDI activity and its relationship with entrepreneurship in general and knowledge-based entrepreneurship in particular. Policy implications include the need for more integrated policy directions for countries that are characterised by weak knowledge creating institutions yet wish to encourage knowledge-based entrepreneurship.
W e investigate relationships between operational capabilities and new venture survival. On the b... more W e investigate relationships between operational capabilities and new venture survival. On the basis of operations management and entrepreneurship literature, we develop a contingency framework of operational capabilities especially appropriate at different life phases of a new venture's evolution. We expect that in the first years of a new ven-ture's life, entrepreneurs should emphasize high inventory turnover to preserve working capital, support customer responsiveness, and aid firm adaptability. As new ventures grow, entrepreneurs should emphasize internal working capital generation via larger gross margins to support production ramp-up. Later, new venture entrepreneurs should emphasize employee productivity to buttress sustainable volume production. We analyze a 6-year longitudinal sample of 812 Swedish manufacturing new ventures using a gamma frailty-based Cox regression. The findings show that specific operational capabilities, while always supporting new venture survival, have exceptional influence in specific new venture life phases. The three hypotheses are confirmed, suggesting that higher inventory turnover, gross margin, and employee productivity further increase new venture survival likelihoods, respectively, in the venture's start-up, growth, and stability phases. This suggests a phased-capabilities approach to new venture survival. This study contributes to operations management and entrepreneurship theory and practice, and sets a foundation for future research on operations strategy for new ventures .
This manuscript offers a theory regarding two distinct avenues to new venture internationalizatio... more This manuscript offers a theory regarding two distinct avenues to new venture internationalization: a direct path described in much of the extant literature and an intermediated one in which new ventures and multinational firms create symbiotic relationships in order to expand internationally. The term ''born local'', as opposed to ''born global'', describes how new ventures are created from knowledge spillovers and other resources in a geographically bounded environment. The theory suggests that the greater the number of value chain activities and the greater the number of countries involved, the more likely that the new venture will pursue the intermediated mode of internationalization. We suggest that new ventures frequently specialize and use existing MNEs as conduits for international expansion; however the greater the perceived ex-post costs of protecting intellectual property, transaction costs, and extraction costs related to holdup , agency, and monopoly rents, the more likely the new venture will pursue a direct mode of internationalization.
Although a significant corpus of work focuses on the impact of search strategies on product innov... more Although a significant corpus of work focuses on the impact of search strategies on product innovations, we have a limited understanding of search strategies for process innovations, including the potential role of the industry environment. Process innovations are central to improving a firm's productivity and contributing to efficiency and gross domestic product growth. As a result of the complexity of identifying, developing, and implementing process innovations, firms increasingly draw on external sources of knowledge. Building on key tenets in the knowledge search, innovation, and industry environment literatures, we investigate search strategies, process innovations, and industry dynamics in a sample of 505 firms spanning 23 manufacturing industries. We find that search breadth is negatively related to process innovation outcomes and that search depth is positively related to process innovation outcomes. Furthermore, high industry process heterogeneity mitigates the negative impact of search breadth on process innovation such that firms employing broad search strategies in highly process heterogeneous industries are more likely to introduce process innovations. In industries with greater productivity growth, the positive relationship between search depth and process innovation is stronger. Acknowledgments: Both authors contributed equally to this paper. We thank Steve Michael and the anonymous reviewers for their insightful feedback and suggestions on prior versions. We are grateful to Alan Kitson and
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how directors’ roles and social identities are ... more Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how directors’ roles and social identities are shaped by gender and board life stage, using pre- and post-crisis Iceland as the setting. Recent theoretical work suggests the importance of directors’ monitoring and resource provision roles at certain board life stages; however, there is limited empirical evidence of directors’ identification with these roles as well as social role identification as a member of the board.
Design/methodology/approach – The authors contribute empirical evidence from interviews with 23 corporate directors in Iceland on individual identification with the director role of monitoring and resource provision, relational identification with the CEO role and social identification as a member of the board.
Findings – Prior to the crisis, male directors identified more strongly with resource provision and with their social roles and less strongly with monitoring roles. Compared to their male counterparts, pre-crisis female directors identified more strongly with monitoring and did not identify with their social roles. After the crisis, mature boards’ male director role identities were little changed; male directors continued to identify with resource provision and social identification, rather than monitoring, roles. Compared to pre-crisis, post-crisis female directors described greater identity with their resource provision roles and reported that male directors resented their attempts to fulfill their monitoring roles. In post-crisis, newly formed diverse boards, male and female directors reported very similar role identities which reflected balanced monitoring and resource provision roles, for example providing the board with ethical individual identities and unblemished reputations. The findings of this paper indicate that board composition and life cycle stage might have more impact on director identity than a pre- or post-crisis setting. These findings suggest implications for theory, practice and future research.
Originality/value – This paper provides further empirical evidence of the roles male and female directors identify with on corporate boards. Its originality lies in the context of the board work in terms of newly formed and mature boards, before and after the financial crisis, with differing gender composition (male-dominated and gender-balanced boards).
Professor emeritus i ledelse og organisasjonsteori. Har en emeritusstilling ved Institutt for str... more Professor emeritus i ledelse og organisasjonsteori. Har en emeritusstilling ved Institutt for strategi og ledelse ved Norges Handelshøyskole og er fagredaktør for tidsskriftet Beta. E-post: Bjarne.Espedal@nhh.no AB STRA CT This article examines how social and contextual factors influence students' creativity at leading business schools. 193 business school students at The Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) and a top-tier American university, Indiana University (Kelley School of Business), answered a questionnaire about their expectations in a future employer. We find that the students are reluctant to creativity. This refusal is greater among Norwegian students than the US. Our findings are problematic because research shows that creativity is important for companies to develop new products and services. Based on our findings, employers who want to attract creative employees search for students that emphasizes autonomy, feedback and social support among employees and managers. Bonus reward for effort, however, appears also to have meaning.
We examine the survival of 404 new ventures founded during the 2008 recession. We find that indus... more We examine the survival of 404 new ventures founded during the 2008 recession. We find that industry explains a significant but small percentage of variance in survival (2.81 percent), and therefore focus on which operations-related actions could enhance ventures' odds of survival. We find marginally significant support for our hypotheses that a venture founded during a recession is more likely to survive if it increases its production efficiency, increases both its production efficiency and variable costs, or increases both its production efficiency and fixed costs in property, plant and equipment. Our findings demonstrate that operational decisions are key determinants of survival for ventures founded during a recession. Published by Elsevier B.V.
Female-led ventures that are market-expanding, export-oriented, and innovative contribute substan... more Female-led ventures that are market-expanding, export-oriented, and innovative contribute substantially to local and national economic development, as well as to the female entrepreneur’s economic welfare. Female-led ventures also serve as models that can encourage other high-potential female entrepreneurs. The supply of high-potential entrepreneurial ventures is driven by individuals’ entrepreneurial attitudes and institutional factors associated with a country’s conditions for entrepreneurial expansion. A systematic assessment of those factors can show policymakers the strengths and weaknesses of the environment for high-potential female entrepreneurship.
We examine entrepreneurs' economic, social, and environmental goals for value creation for their ... more We examine entrepreneurs' economic, social, and environmental goals for value creation for their new ventures. Drawing on ethics of care and theories of societal post-materialism, we develop a set of hypotheses predicting patterns of value creation across gender and countries. Using a sample of 15,141 entrepreneurs in 48 countries from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, we find that gender and cultural values of post-materialism significantly impact the kinds of value creation emphasized by entrepreneurs. Specifically, women entrepreneurs are more likely than men to emphasize social value goals over economic value creation goals. Individuals who start ventures in strong post-materialist societies are more likely to have social and environmental value creation goals and less likely to have economic value creation goals. Furthermore, as levels of post-materialism rise among societies, the relationship between value creation goals and gender changes, intensifying both the negative effect of being female on economic value goals and the positive effect on social value goals. In other words, post-materialism further widens the gender gap in value creation goals.
Business schools around the world must prepare their students for two realities: operating in an ... more Business schools around the world must prepare their students for two realities: operating in an English-speaking business world and working in teams. As yet, there is limited understanding of how operating in a native or a foreign language impacts students’ propensity to free ride in group settings. Building on general dual process theory of higher cognition and using a unique dataset of 276 Dutch business school students, we find that students are more inclined to free ride in a foreign language setting than in a native language setting. A student’s conscientiousness attenuates this relationship such that this effect is stronger for students who are less conscientious, and weaker and almost absent for those who are more conscientious. After a student decides not to free ride but to positively contribute to the group, the specific level of contribution is not affected by foreign language. We discuss implications for practice, policy, theory, and future research.
Despite 40 years of equal opportunities policies and more than two decades of government and orga... more Despite 40 years of equal opportunities policies and more than two decades of government and organization initiatives aimed at helping women reach the upper echelons of the corporate world, women are seriously underrepresented on corporate boards. Recently, fi fteen countries sought to redress this imbalance by introducing gender quotas for board representation. The introduction of board gender quota legislation creates ethical tensions and dilemmas which we categorize in terms of motivations, legitimacy, and outcomes. We investigate these tensions through four overarching theoretical perspectives: institutional, stakeholder, social identity, and social capital. We outline a future research agenda based on how these tensions offer greater focus to research on quotas and more broadly to ethics and diversity in organizations in terms of theory, anticipated ethical tensions, data, and methodology. In sum, our review seeks to synthesize existing multidisciplinary research and stimulate future enquiry on this expanding set of legislation.
This interview with Nobel Laureate Vernon Lomax Smith covers a variety of topics, from Vernon’s e... more This interview with Nobel Laureate Vernon Lomax Smith covers a variety of topics, from Vernon’s early formative experiences growing up on a Kansas farm in the Great Depression to his path-breaking scholarship in the area of experimental economics. We set the stage for the interview by summarizing Smith’s scholarly contributions and early life experience. Our interview begins with a discussion of Smith’s childhood education and experiences which shaped his attitude towards scholarship, entrepreneurship, markets, and work. We then turn to Smith’s lifelong nurturing of scholarly interests in multiple academic fields including engineering, economics, and philosophy, and probe how this multidisciplinary approach may have led him to eschew the standard thinking about the boundaries of economics and pioneer the field of experimental economics. As Smith has been a student or professor at more than a dozen universities in a career spanning more than seven decades, we probe his philosophies on business education, including the best models for business schools. We then discuss Smith’s ability to focus intensely— a phenomenon he labels “defective switching.” The final interview questions center on topics which have fascinated Smith throughout his career: Scottish Enlightenment economist Adam Smith, ethics, and management. Our conclusion highlights Smith’s contributions and their implications for business education, particularly small business economics and entrepreneurship.
ABSTRACT This special issue is dedicated to exploring the convergence and divergence of national ... more ABSTRACT This special issue is dedicated to exploring the convergence and divergence of national systems of industrial relations (IR) and human resource management (HRM). Faced with increasingly competitive environments, multinational firms may adapt certain management practices which are then transmitted across countries. Parts One and Two of this special issue have explored the convergence-divergence debate in international human resource management (IHRM) research. We now turn our attention to three texts published in 2004 which attempt to synthesise and integrate IHRM research for researcher, student and practitioner audiences. The two entitled International Human Resource Management are theory-based review texts situating IHRM in the greater context of international management. The first IHRM is the long-awaited second edition edited by Anne-Wil Harzing and Joris Van Ruysseveldt; the other a fourth edition textbook now authored by Peter Dowling and Denise Welch. HRM in Europe: Evidence of Convergence? is edited by Chris Brewster, Wolfgang Mayrhofer and Michael Morley and reports twenty-three European countries' research findings from the Cranet survey. We now review the three texts separately, paying special attention to contributions to comparative IHRM and the convergence versus divergence debate.
This paper examines the decision by a multinational corporation (MNC) to relocate its business un... more This paper examines the decision by a multinational corporation (MNC) to relocate its business unit and/or corporate HQ overseas. We argue that business unit HQs move overseas in response to changes in the internal configuration of their unit's activities and the demands of the product markets in which they operate, whereas corporate HQs move overseas in response to the demands of external stakeholders, in particular global financial markets and shareholders. Using data on 125 business unit HQs and 35 corporate HQs, we test and find support for these arguments. The research highlights important differences between corporate-and business-level strategy, and it suggests ways in which the theory of the MNC needs to be reconsidered. This paper examines the decision by a multinational corporation (MNC) to locate its corporate or business unit headquarters overseas. It is concerned with understanding the factors that lead the executives of the MNC to shift their headquarters away from the traditional home country of operation, and in particular how the drivers for corporate HQ relocation are different from the drivers of business unit HQ relocation. The study is motivated by three lines of argument. First, the research contributes to our understanding of the role of the corporate HQ in the multi-business firm. There is a well-established distinction in the strategic management literature between
This study explores individual and country level environmental drivers of informal ‘seed’ investm... more This study explores individual and country level environmental drivers of informal ‘seed’ investment. We examine four types of informal investors based on business ownership experience (or no such experience) and close family relationship with investee (or no such relationship): ‘classic love money’, ‘outsider’, ‘kin owner’ and ‘classic business angel’ investors. At the environmental level, we are interested in the role of economic development, income tax policies, start-up costs, pro-enterprise government programmes, availability of debt financing, entrepreneurship education and culture. Using Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data from telephone interviews with 257 793 individuals in 31 countries, including 5 960 informal investors, we report drivers for the four types of seed investment. Descriptive statistics are consistent with prior research: informal investors are likely to be older males who work full-time, earn high incomes, perceive start-up opportunities in the environment, and believe that they have the skills to start their own businesses. At the environmental level, we find that countries with higher percentages of informal investors are significantly likely to have higher levels of economic development, higher business start-up costs, higher levels of entrepreneurship education, lower income taxes and lower power distance. Other environmental effects on the four populations of informal investors are reported and discussed, as well as implications for practice, policy and future research.
A growing body of ethics research investigates gender diversity and governance on corporate board... more A growing body of ethics research investigates gender diversity and governance on corporate boards, at individual and firm levels, in single country studies. In this study, we explore the environmental context of female representation on corporate boards of directors, using data from 43 countries. We suggest that women's representation on corporate boards may be shaped by the larger environment, including the social, political and economic structures of individual countries. We use logit regression to conduct our analysis. Our results indicate that countries with higher representation of women on boards are more likely to have women in senior management and more equal ratios of male to female pay. However, we find that countries with a longer tradition of women's political representation are less likely to have high levels of female board representation.
How do entrepreneurs working across multiple countries leverage individual experiences and instit... more How do entrepreneurs working across multiple countries leverage individual experiences and institutional environments to pursue international markets? This research utilizes Bourdieu's theory of practice as a sensitizing framework to explore transnational entrepreneurs' internationalization strategies. Four case studies reveal the ways in which transnational entrepreneurs rely on diverse sets of resources—economic, social, cultural, and symbolic capital—to navigate multiple institutional environments—cultural repertoires, social networks , legal and regulatory regimes, and power relations—when making strategic decisions about internationalization. Transnational entrepreneurs are uniquely positioned to internationalize directly and, in many cases, as an intermediary for local firms. As such, transnational entrepreneurs pursue a modern middleman role that transcends the multiple institutional environments in which they are embedded.
This article explores female entrepreneurial activities in 13 Latin American and Caribbean countr... more This article explores female entrepreneurial activities in 13 Latin American and Caribbean countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Jamaica, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay and Venezuela. Specifically, we explore the following research questions: What percentage of the female and male Latin American populations is involved in opportunity- and necessity-based entrepreneurial activities? And what quality of institutions is associated with female entrepreneurial activity opportunity and necessity rates? We comment on the impact of female entrepreneurship on economic development and conclude with implications for policy, practice and future research.
Does the knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship provide an explanation for the emergence ... more Does the knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship provide an explanation for the emergence of knowledge-based entrepreneurship in Ireland and Wales? To examine the reasons for different levels of knowledge-based entrepreneurship in these two regions we explore FDI and entrepreneurship policy. We outline key measures of knowledge creation, and evaluate the extent and nature of FDI activity and its relationship with entrepreneurship in general and knowledge-based entrepreneurship in particular. Policy implications include the need for more integrated policy directions for countries that are characterised by weak knowledge creating institutions yet wish to encourage knowledge-based entrepreneurship.
W e investigate relationships between operational capabilities and new venture survival. On the b... more W e investigate relationships between operational capabilities and new venture survival. On the basis of operations management and entrepreneurship literature, we develop a contingency framework of operational capabilities especially appropriate at different life phases of a new venture's evolution. We expect that in the first years of a new ven-ture's life, entrepreneurs should emphasize high inventory turnover to preserve working capital, support customer responsiveness, and aid firm adaptability. As new ventures grow, entrepreneurs should emphasize internal working capital generation via larger gross margins to support production ramp-up. Later, new venture entrepreneurs should emphasize employee productivity to buttress sustainable volume production. We analyze a 6-year longitudinal sample of 812 Swedish manufacturing new ventures using a gamma frailty-based Cox regression. The findings show that specific operational capabilities, while always supporting new venture survival, have exceptional influence in specific new venture life phases. The three hypotheses are confirmed, suggesting that higher inventory turnover, gross margin, and employee productivity further increase new venture survival likelihoods, respectively, in the venture's start-up, growth, and stability phases. This suggests a phased-capabilities approach to new venture survival. This study contributes to operations management and entrepreneurship theory and practice, and sets a foundation for future research on operations strategy for new ventures .
This manuscript offers a theory regarding two distinct avenues to new venture internationalizatio... more This manuscript offers a theory regarding two distinct avenues to new venture internationalization: a direct path described in much of the extant literature and an intermediated one in which new ventures and multinational firms create symbiotic relationships in order to expand internationally. The term ''born local'', as opposed to ''born global'', describes how new ventures are created from knowledge spillovers and other resources in a geographically bounded environment. The theory suggests that the greater the number of value chain activities and the greater the number of countries involved, the more likely that the new venture will pursue the intermediated mode of internationalization. We suggest that new ventures frequently specialize and use existing MNEs as conduits for international expansion; however the greater the perceived ex-post costs of protecting intellectual property, transaction costs, and extraction costs related to holdup , agency, and monopoly rents, the more likely the new venture will pursue a direct mode of internationalization.
Although a significant corpus of work focuses on the impact of search strategies on product innov... more Although a significant corpus of work focuses on the impact of search strategies on product innovations, we have a limited understanding of search strategies for process innovations, including the potential role of the industry environment. Process innovations are central to improving a firm's productivity and contributing to efficiency and gross domestic product growth. As a result of the complexity of identifying, developing, and implementing process innovations, firms increasingly draw on external sources of knowledge. Building on key tenets in the knowledge search, innovation, and industry environment literatures, we investigate search strategies, process innovations, and industry dynamics in a sample of 505 firms spanning 23 manufacturing industries. We find that search breadth is negatively related to process innovation outcomes and that search depth is positively related to process innovation outcomes. Furthermore, high industry process heterogeneity mitigates the negative impact of search breadth on process innovation such that firms employing broad search strategies in highly process heterogeneous industries are more likely to introduce process innovations. In industries with greater productivity growth, the positive relationship between search depth and process innovation is stronger. Acknowledgments: Both authors contributed equally to this paper. We thank Steve Michael and the anonymous reviewers for their insightful feedback and suggestions on prior versions. We are grateful to Alan Kitson and
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how directors’ roles and social identities are ... more Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how directors’ roles and social identities are shaped by gender and board life stage, using pre- and post-crisis Iceland as the setting. Recent theoretical work suggests the importance of directors’ monitoring and resource provision roles at certain board life stages; however, there is limited empirical evidence of directors’ identification with these roles as well as social role identification as a member of the board.
Design/methodology/approach – The authors contribute empirical evidence from interviews with 23 corporate directors in Iceland on individual identification with the director role of monitoring and resource provision, relational identification with the CEO role and social identification as a member of the board.
Findings – Prior to the crisis, male directors identified more strongly with resource provision and with their social roles and less strongly with monitoring roles. Compared to their male counterparts, pre-crisis female directors identified more strongly with monitoring and did not identify with their social roles. After the crisis, mature boards’ male director role identities were little changed; male directors continued to identify with resource provision and social identification, rather than monitoring, roles. Compared to pre-crisis, post-crisis female directors described greater identity with their resource provision roles and reported that male directors resented their attempts to fulfill their monitoring roles. In post-crisis, newly formed diverse boards, male and female directors reported very similar role identities which reflected balanced monitoring and resource provision roles, for example providing the board with ethical individual identities and unblemished reputations. The findings of this paper indicate that board composition and life cycle stage might have more impact on director identity than a pre- or post-crisis setting. These findings suggest implications for theory, practice and future research.
Originality/value – This paper provides further empirical evidence of the roles male and female directors identify with on corporate boards. Its originality lies in the context of the board work in terms of newly formed and mature boards, before and after the financial crisis, with differing gender composition (male-dominated and gender-balanced boards).
Professor emeritus i ledelse og organisasjonsteori. Har en emeritusstilling ved Institutt for str... more Professor emeritus i ledelse og organisasjonsteori. Har en emeritusstilling ved Institutt for strategi og ledelse ved Norges Handelshøyskole og er fagredaktør for tidsskriftet Beta. E-post: Bjarne.Espedal@nhh.no AB STRA CT This article examines how social and contextual factors influence students' creativity at leading business schools. 193 business school students at The Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) and a top-tier American university, Indiana University (Kelley School of Business), answered a questionnaire about their expectations in a future employer. We find that the students are reluctant to creativity. This refusal is greater among Norwegian students than the US. Our findings are problematic because research shows that creativity is important for companies to develop new products and services. Based on our findings, employers who want to attract creative employees search for students that emphasizes autonomy, feedback and social support among employees and managers. Bonus reward for effort, however, appears also to have meaning.
We examine the survival of 404 new ventures founded during the 2008 recession. We find that indus... more We examine the survival of 404 new ventures founded during the 2008 recession. We find that industry explains a significant but small percentage of variance in survival (2.81 percent), and therefore focus on which operations-related actions could enhance ventures' odds of survival. We find marginally significant support for our hypotheses that a venture founded during a recession is more likely to survive if it increases its production efficiency, increases both its production efficiency and variable costs, or increases both its production efficiency and fixed costs in property, plant and equipment. Our findings demonstrate that operational decisions are key determinants of survival for ventures founded during a recession. Published by Elsevier B.V.
Female-led ventures that are market-expanding, export-oriented, and innovative contribute substan... more Female-led ventures that are market-expanding, export-oriented, and innovative contribute substantially to local and national economic development, as well as to the female entrepreneur’s economic welfare. Female-led ventures also serve as models that can encourage other high-potential female entrepreneurs. The supply of high-potential entrepreneurial ventures is driven by individuals’ entrepreneurial attitudes and institutional factors associated with a country’s conditions for entrepreneurial expansion. A systematic assessment of those factors can show policymakers the strengths and weaknesses of the environment for high-potential female entrepreneurship.
We examine entrepreneurs' economic, social, and environmental goals for value creation for their ... more We examine entrepreneurs' economic, social, and environmental goals for value creation for their new ventures. Drawing on ethics of care and theories of societal post-materialism, we develop a set of hypotheses predicting patterns of value creation across gender and countries. Using a sample of 15,141 entrepreneurs in 48 countries from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, we find that gender and cultural values of post-materialism significantly impact the kinds of value creation emphasized by entrepreneurs. Specifically, women entrepreneurs are more likely than men to emphasize social value goals over economic value creation goals. Individuals who start ventures in strong post-materialist societies are more likely to have social and environmental value creation goals and less likely to have economic value creation goals. Furthermore, as levels of post-materialism rise among societies, the relationship between value creation goals and gender changes, intensifying both the negative effect of being female on economic value goals and the positive effect on social value goals. In other words, post-materialism further widens the gender gap in value creation goals.
Business schools around the world must prepare their students for two realities: operating in an ... more Business schools around the world must prepare their students for two realities: operating in an English-speaking business world and working in teams. As yet, there is limited understanding of how operating in a native or a foreign language impacts students’ propensity to free ride in group settings. Building on general dual process theory of higher cognition and using a unique dataset of 276 Dutch business school students, we find that students are more inclined to free ride in a foreign language setting than in a native language setting. A student’s conscientiousness attenuates this relationship such that this effect is stronger for students who are less conscientious, and weaker and almost absent for those who are more conscientious. After a student decides not to free ride but to positively contribute to the group, the specific level of contribution is not affected by foreign language. We discuss implications for practice, policy, theory, and future research.
Despite 40 years of equal opportunities policies and more than two decades of government and orga... more Despite 40 years of equal opportunities policies and more than two decades of government and organization initiatives aimed at helping women reach the upper echelons of the corporate world, women are seriously underrepresented on corporate boards. Recently, fi fteen countries sought to redress this imbalance by introducing gender quotas for board representation. The introduction of board gender quota legislation creates ethical tensions and dilemmas which we categorize in terms of motivations, legitimacy, and outcomes. We investigate these tensions through four overarching theoretical perspectives: institutional, stakeholder, social identity, and social capital. We outline a future research agenda based on how these tensions offer greater focus to research on quotas and more broadly to ethics and diversity in organizations in terms of theory, anticipated ethical tensions, data, and methodology. In sum, our review seeks to synthesize existing multidisciplinary research and stimulate future enquiry on this expanding set of legislation.
This interview with Nobel Laureate Vernon Lomax Smith covers a variety of topics, from Vernon’s e... more This interview with Nobel Laureate Vernon Lomax Smith covers a variety of topics, from Vernon’s early formative experiences growing up on a Kansas farm in the Great Depression to his path-breaking scholarship in the area of experimental economics. We set the stage for the interview by summarizing Smith’s scholarly contributions and early life experience. Our interview begins with a discussion of Smith’s childhood education and experiences which shaped his attitude towards scholarship, entrepreneurship, markets, and work. We then turn to Smith’s lifelong nurturing of scholarly interests in multiple academic fields including engineering, economics, and philosophy, and probe how this multidisciplinary approach may have led him to eschew the standard thinking about the boundaries of economics and pioneer the field of experimental economics. As Smith has been a student or professor at more than a dozen universities in a career spanning more than seven decades, we probe his philosophies on business education, including the best models for business schools. We then discuss Smith’s ability to focus intensely— a phenomenon he labels “defective switching.” The final interview questions center on topics which have fascinated Smith throughout his career: Scottish Enlightenment economist Adam Smith, ethics, and management. Our conclusion highlights Smith’s contributions and their implications for business education, particularly small business economics and entrepreneurship.
ABSTRACT This special issue is dedicated to exploring the convergence and divergence of national ... more ABSTRACT This special issue is dedicated to exploring the convergence and divergence of national systems of industrial relations (IR) and human resource management (HRM). Faced with increasingly competitive environments, multinational firms may adapt certain management practices which are then transmitted across countries. Parts One and Two of this special issue have explored the convergence-divergence debate in international human resource management (IHRM) research. We now turn our attention to three texts published in 2004 which attempt to synthesise and integrate IHRM research for researcher, student and practitioner audiences. The two entitled International Human Resource Management are theory-based review texts situating IHRM in the greater context of international management. The first IHRM is the long-awaited second edition edited by Anne-Wil Harzing and Joris Van Ruysseveldt; the other a fourth edition textbook now authored by Peter Dowling and Denise Welch. HRM in Europe: Evidence of Convergence? is edited by Chris Brewster, Wolfgang Mayrhofer and Michael Morley and reports twenty-three European countries' research findings from the Cranet survey. We now review the three texts separately, paying special attention to contributions to comparative IHRM and the convergence versus divergence debate.
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Papers by Siri Terjesen
relationship): ‘classic love money’, ‘outsider’, ‘kin owner’ and ‘classic business angel’ investors. At the environmental level, we are interested in the role of economic development, income tax policies, start-up costs, pro-enterprise government programmes, availability of debt financing, entrepreneurship education and culture. Using Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data from telephone
interviews with 257 793 individuals in 31 countries, including 5 960 informal investors, we report drivers for the four types of seed investment. Descriptive statistics are consistent with prior research: informal investors are likely to be older males who work full-time, earn high incomes,
perceive start-up opportunities in the environment, and believe that they have the skills to start their own businesses. At the environmental level, we find that countries with higher percentages of informal investors are significantly likely to have higher levels of economic development, higher business start-up costs, higher levels of entrepreneurship education, lower income taxes and lower power distance. Other environmental effects on the four populations of informal investors are reported and discussed, as well as implications for practice, policy and future research.
policy, practice and future research.
Design/methodology/approach – The authors contribute empirical evidence from interviews with 23 corporate directors in Iceland on individual identification with the director role of monitoring and resource provision, relational identification with the CEO role and social identification as a member of the board.
Findings – Prior to the crisis, male directors identified more strongly with resource provision and with their social roles and less strongly with monitoring roles. Compared to their male counterparts, pre-crisis female directors identified more strongly with monitoring and did not identify with their social roles. After the crisis, mature boards’ male director role identities were little changed; male directors continued to identify with resource provision and social identification, rather than monitoring, roles. Compared to pre-crisis, post-crisis female directors described greater identity with their resource provision roles and reported that male directors resented their attempts to fulfill their monitoring roles. In post-crisis, newly formed diverse boards, male and female directors reported very similar role identities which reflected balanced monitoring and resource provision roles, for example providing the
board with ethical individual identities and unblemished reputations. The findings of this paper indicate that board composition and life cycle stage might have more impact on director identity than a pre- or post-crisis setting. These findings suggest implications for theory, practice and future research.
Originality/value – This paper provides further empirical evidence of the roles male and female directors identify with on corporate boards. Its originality lies in the context of the board work in terms of newly formed and mature boards, before and after the financial crisis, with differing gender composition (male-dominated and gender-balanced boards).
local and national economic development, as well as to
the female entrepreneur’s economic welfare. Female-led
ventures also serve as models that can encourage other
high-potential female entrepreneurs. The supply of high-potential entrepreneurial ventures is driven by individuals’
entrepreneurial attitudes and institutional factors associated with a country’s conditions for entrepreneurial
expansion. A systematic assessment of those factors can
show policymakers the strengths and weaknesses of the
environment for high-potential female entrepreneurship.
student decides not to free ride but to positively contribute to the group, the specific level of contribution is not affected by foreign language. We discuss implications for practice, policy, theory, and future research.
relationship): ‘classic love money’, ‘outsider’, ‘kin owner’ and ‘classic business angel’ investors. At the environmental level, we are interested in the role of economic development, income tax policies, start-up costs, pro-enterprise government programmes, availability of debt financing, entrepreneurship education and culture. Using Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data from telephone
interviews with 257 793 individuals in 31 countries, including 5 960 informal investors, we report drivers for the four types of seed investment. Descriptive statistics are consistent with prior research: informal investors are likely to be older males who work full-time, earn high incomes,
perceive start-up opportunities in the environment, and believe that they have the skills to start their own businesses. At the environmental level, we find that countries with higher percentages of informal investors are significantly likely to have higher levels of economic development, higher business start-up costs, higher levels of entrepreneurship education, lower income taxes and lower power distance. Other environmental effects on the four populations of informal investors are reported and discussed, as well as implications for practice, policy and future research.
policy, practice and future research.
Design/methodology/approach – The authors contribute empirical evidence from interviews with 23 corporate directors in Iceland on individual identification with the director role of monitoring and resource provision, relational identification with the CEO role and social identification as a member of the board.
Findings – Prior to the crisis, male directors identified more strongly with resource provision and with their social roles and less strongly with monitoring roles. Compared to their male counterparts, pre-crisis female directors identified more strongly with monitoring and did not identify with their social roles. After the crisis, mature boards’ male director role identities were little changed; male directors continued to identify with resource provision and social identification, rather than monitoring, roles. Compared to pre-crisis, post-crisis female directors described greater identity with their resource provision roles and reported that male directors resented their attempts to fulfill their monitoring roles. In post-crisis, newly formed diverse boards, male and female directors reported very similar role identities which reflected balanced monitoring and resource provision roles, for example providing the
board with ethical individual identities and unblemished reputations. The findings of this paper indicate that board composition and life cycle stage might have more impact on director identity than a pre- or post-crisis setting. These findings suggest implications for theory, practice and future research.
Originality/value – This paper provides further empirical evidence of the roles male and female directors identify with on corporate boards. Its originality lies in the context of the board work in terms of newly formed and mature boards, before and after the financial crisis, with differing gender composition (male-dominated and gender-balanced boards).
local and national economic development, as well as to
the female entrepreneur’s economic welfare. Female-led
ventures also serve as models that can encourage other
high-potential female entrepreneurs. The supply of high-potential entrepreneurial ventures is driven by individuals’
entrepreneurial attitudes and institutional factors associated with a country’s conditions for entrepreneurial
expansion. A systematic assessment of those factors can
show policymakers the strengths and weaknesses of the
environment for high-potential female entrepreneurship.
student decides not to free ride but to positively contribute to the group, the specific level of contribution is not affected by foreign language. We discuss implications for practice, policy, theory, and future research.