Documents business strategy 248 results

"What can donation strategies tell us about corporate political preferences, as seen from the perspective of power resource and varieties of capitalism theories? This article tests six hypotheses within an Olsonian framework for corporate donations to political parties with new data from the 100 largest German firms between 1984 and 2005. The findings reveal that only a minority of firms donate, and donation amounts are surprisingly small given the financial assets of these companies, which suggests the presence of a collective action dilemma with small selective and arguably larger collective benefits. Management ties between firms are an important way of making firms overcome the collective action dilemma. Firms distribute their donations if any – mainly on the right side of the political spectrum, particularly if the firms are personally interwoven with other large companies or if they are family owned. However, some firms, particularly those belonging to the automobile sector, donate across the political spectrum."

"Based on the related literature in economics, organizational sociology and the sociology of finance, this article constructs a novel conceptual explanation for corporate short-termism, that is, the tendency of corporate managers to sacrifice long-term investments to improve short-term earnings (STEs). We theorize about how such corporate short-termism emerges, at least partly, from systemic, self-reinforcing processes across various communities of actors including investors, the media and managers themselves. In doing so, we refute the common notion that corporate short-termism is caused by an inherent preference of investors or other actors to focus on STEs. Consequently, the systemic perspective offered by this article questions some conventional assumptions about the roots of corporate short-termism and emphasizes the influence of coordination mechanisms and behavioural biases in giving rise to self-reinforcing loops."

"Institutional systems exert important influences on firms' development of innovative capabilities. This article examines studies of firms' innovative competencies within the comparative capitalisms (CC) literature. This research provides theoretically sophisticated assessments of firms' innovative capabilities in different countries. It takes into consideration a range of institutional areas, such as corporate governance and labour market regimes. However, CC studies differ significantly along three key analytical dimensions. First, some studies focus more extensively on firms and firms' objectives than others. Second, research examines institutions at the macro, meso and micro levels to varying degrees. Finally, studies adopt different assumptions on the variability and dynamism of a firm's institutional setting; such variability can include the importance of foreign institutional resources to firms' innovative capabilities. Future CC research should pay greater attention to theorizing firms' innovation-related requirements and detailing their specific institutional settings, including their access to domestic and foreign institutional resources. Concepts and insights from the wider innovation and international business literatures can help achieve these objectives. By drawing on these related fields, CC studies of innovative capabilities will be able to assess in theoretically robust ways the challenges that internationalization and what this article calls ‘institutional outsourcing' pose for analysts and firms."

"In this paper we examine the sourcing strategies of clothing firms in the developed economies of the UK and Germany in the context of their national institutional framework. We argue that, as a result of their embeddedness in divergent national structures, these firms pursue different sourcing strategies and make different locational choices. We place particular emphasis on the different mix of arms' length and relational contracting that firms develop, and on the divergent degree of control over the manufacturing process and the product that they retain. We suggest that the construction of global production networks and control over supplier firms is mediated by co-ordinating firms' product strategy and the degree of dependence on national retailers this engenders. UK and German firms and their networks differ not only from each other but also from the US case which is often taken as representative of the industry."

"This paper explores the relative importance of global forces and national political-economic institutions for companies' willingness and ability to engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR). The globalist hypothesis postulates that a company's CSR efforts are a function of the dictates of the global market place: strong anti-globalization and anti-corporate sentiments generate a need for a positive reputation to obtain a ‘social license to operate'. The institutionalist hypothesis postulates that a company's CSR efforts are a function of institutional factors in the national political-economic system: companies based in political-economic systems with strong institutions for social embedding of the economy have comparative institutional advantages for success in CSR. The hypotheses are examined quantitatively by testing an index of national CSR performance against well-established political-economic indicators. The final analysis, based on qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), reveals causal heterogeneity and indicates two separate pathways leading to CSR success."

"Firms in the same political economy specialize in the pursuit of the same competitive strategy—so the argument of the competitiveness literature. The reason is that national institutions provide specific input factors which, in turn, are required for that strategy. To test this chain of reasoning, I identify the strategy of pharmaceutical firms in Germany, Italy, and the UK. Contrary to the expectations of the literature, I find that the firms in each economy pursue the same strategy variety. Seeking to understand how deviant firms can compete despite comparative institutional disadvantages, I analyse the importance of diverse labour-market institutions for the provision of particular skill types which, in turn, are needed for these strategies. These analyses show that firms succeed in circumventing institutional constraints at the national level by relying on two functionally equivalent institutions: open international labour markets and atypical contracts."

"What do we know about the politics of corporate governance in emerging markets? Although the state-level institutions have been amply explored, firm-level dynamics remain under-theorized. Complementing the orthodox emphasis on external finance as causal force behind the adoption of ‘minority shareholder protections', the article outlines an alternative mechanism for firms operating in political settings with heightened risk of state intrusion. The Anglo-Saxon governance institutions can serve domestic managers as a strategy to build alliances with foreign stakeholders so as to counteract a dirigiste government. Empirically, the author seeks to explain the implementation of internationally accepted standards of corporate governance by Russia's big business between 1999 and 2004. The project disaggregates ‘corporate governance' into specific institutions and examines their quality at the firm level. The causal inference links the shift in state policy vis-à-vis corporate property to the improved treatment of minority owners by the company insiders."

"Can corporate social responsibility (CSR) complement or even replace unalloyed market forces, or state regulation and intervention? This article examines the scope of CSR amongst a test case of transnational food manufacturing corporations. It focuses on the determinants of CSR that stem from the financialization of business strategies and how these define and prioritize social commitments and roles within such firms' internal organization. CSR policies, shareholder-value strategies and the rationalization of UK operations amongst four of the biggest global firms show a bias towards ‘external' and brand-related priorities rather than ‘internal' ones of job security and the social capital of workplace communities. The negotiated closure of two specific plants confirms an incompatibility between treating employees as stakeholders and, on the other hand, CSR as a business strategy. The ‘financialized' approach to shareholder value shapes business strategy to prioritize corporate brand image and reputation rather than attempting sustainable operations and stakeholder partnerships. "