Documents Economy and Society 8 results

"This article analyses the network epistemologies that underlie several frameworks for studying global economic organization. Specifically, the embedded network of the new economic sociology is compared with various global chain constructs that seek to emphasize the connectedness of actors and activities across space. I argue that the micro-sociological foundations of the new economic sociology make embeddedness a problematic concept for analysing economic organization at a global level. I then contrast the embedded network as a trust-based governance structure with the construct of the global commodity chain, which understands network governance in terms of power relations or ‘drivenness'. Finally, I explain how the recent theory of global value chain governance by Gereffi, Humphrey and Sturgeon (2005) departs from the macro-sociological tradition that oriented earlier chain frameworks: this theory, which focuses on the coordination of inter-firm dyads in a global value chain, returns to a micro-oriented understanding of governance, but one that draws more from transaction cost theory than from the new economic sociology."

"This study seeks to go beneath the generalizations that constitute characterizations of national economies in order to examine local and sectoral diversity _ in particular, forms of capitalist organization at the level of localized sectors. It reports on the findings of research based on detailed case histories of local economies in four different types of production: modernized craft manufacturing (furniture), mass production (motor vehicles), high-technology production (biopharmaceuticals) and high-tech services (television film-making). In each case a local economy in Germany (usually seen counter-factually as an example of a particularly national system) was compared with one elsewhere in Europe: respectively, southern Sweden, Hungary (compared with eastern Germany) and the UK (for two studies). In the analysis, companies act rationally in response to sector-specific challenges, being partly bound by the existing institutional framework that they encounter, but partly acting to alter it. Two possibilities are distinguished and found in the cases. In the first (structurally conservative) case, arrangements of governance in the national innovation and production system prove to be beneficial for the companies and their aim to stand up to international competition. Insofar as national institutions help companies to deal with competition on their markets, they will probably try to preserve these arrangements. In the second (innovative) case, companies turn away from the national context and develop their own local governance structure. If the national institutional structure is seen as not adequate or ‘non-fitting' to deal with sectorally specific terms of competition, then the internal and external coordination of companies _ in reaction to challenges posed by the market _ is likely to deviate from the national structure. In some instances evidence of ‘creative incoherence', where local deviation from the national model provides a creative impulse, is found. "

"While institutional theory has tended to ignore the diversity of firms within national models of capitalism, recent change in the Japanese model of capitalism has been associated with a growing diversity of corporate governance practices. The article builds on previous empirical results to propose an empirical mapping of corporate governance practices in Japan using a cluster analysis of a large sample of Japanese firms in 2002. Alongside the traditional Japanese pattern, the empirical results show that two new ‘hybrid' models of corporate governance have emerged characterized by different linkages between corporate ownership and finance, board practices, and employment patterns. These changes reflect both a loosening of past institutional constraints related to main bank finance and growing responsiveness to diverse organizational and sector-level contingencies. "

"This article aims to explore the impact of globalization and in particular multinationals on diversity within national varieties of capitalism. Do the actions of multinationals create more diversity within national systems, do they reduce diversity or do they have relatively little impact on diversity within national systems? The article argues that there are distinctive structures of institutional diversity across different national systems. Therefore, the question is not how do MNCs impact on institutional diversity per se but how do they impact on these different structures of diversity? In order to develop this argument, the article also differentiates types of multinational. The article uses the distinction between market-seeking, resource-seeking, efficiency-seeking and strategic asset-seeking in order to identify a range of different MNC activity across manufacturing, professional and financial sectors. These different sorts of MNC activity vary across time and contexts in terms of their significance. The article looks in detail at four different models of capitalism and examines how the entry of different sorts of multinationals with distinctive objectives impacts on the relationships between key social actors which underpin and reinforce these models. In this way, it suggests how institutional diversity within different types of capitalism may evolve under the impact of MNCs and globalization "

"The article examines internal diversity within national models of capitalism in Europe, with a particular concern with firm financing and corporate governance patterns. It is suggested that a relatively small number of firms have shifted to a new institutional context consisting of common international institutions and practices, while the large majority of firms continue to operate in a more slowly evolving set of domestic institutions or rules. Examining changes since the early 1990s in firm financing and corporate governance, the article finds preliminary evidence to support the thesis of increasing diversity, but also that national patterns of firm finance are still distinct. Rising diversity challenges the long-term viability of coordinated market economies in Europe. "

"At the heart of debates around internal diversity within specific national contexts lie the questions of social action and the relative impact of institutional concentrations at spatial, industrial and specific hierarchical levels. Internal diversity represents the product of specific historical legacies and the uneven nature of change, the effects of transnational players and regulation, the operation of complementarity, and of regional and sectoral dynamics. This article introduces a range of perspectives on conceptualizing internal diversity within national manifestations of capitalism, and provides a framework for the subsequent articles that constitute this special issue."

"Despite the resilience of national institutions and practices there are increasing signs that national systems of corporate governance are giving way to an idealized American model of shareholder activism and liquid equity markets. These pressures are ideologically backed by 'shareholderism', which consists of three claims: a prudential, a functional and a moral claim. The prudential one claims superior efficiency for shareholder control and market allocation of capital. The functional one bases its claim for shareholder control on the contribution of risk-carrying capital. The moral one is based on a liberal doctrine of ownership that grounds exclusive control rights in titleholders. This paper addresses the functional and moral claims. It argues that public equity markets do not contribute capital and that the Lockean conception of property is both untenable and morally reprehensible. Instead corporate democracy is proposed as a way to accommodate the connicting claims of stakeholders. To do so an intelligent division of democratic labour is required. The paper ends with a sketch of such a model, through short outings to the real world of Dutch corporate governance "

"Policymakers seeking to reform social security systems have frequently confronted a central tension: how to reconcile welfare retrenchment with the political challenges of implementing unpopular reforms. One way in which policymakers have responded to this tension is by repurposing existing institutions to serve new ends. We investigate the system of Universal Credit (UC) in the United Kingdom as an example of conversion. UC expands the reach of ‘active citizenship' policies to a much larger population than ever before. However, far from producing uniform outcomes, UC's implementation has been marked by chaos and ultimately failure for individuals and communities. We argue that UC exemplifies a broader shift from social security to state-sanctioned social insecurity as policy reforms come to mimic the insecurities and risks commonly associated with the market."