Documenti di Didattica
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Documenti di Cultura
Given similar circumstances, the structure of an organization that is, the basic patterns of control,
coordination and communication can be expected to be very much the same wherever it is located.
Contingency theorists posit merely a stable relationship between contingencies and structure across different
societies. Hence contingency theory is commensurate with international differences in degree, but not in kind.
The contingency approach only elucidates properties of formal structure and neglects informal structures and
It operates at a high level of abstraction and generality.
Globalization Theory
Economic internationalization and the spread of capitalist market relations
Globalization has been defined as the production and distribution of products and services of a
homogenous type and quality on a worldwide basis.
Linguistic, trade and cultural barriers become less important
Stateless MNCs (Multinational Corporations)
Four possible scenarios:
1. Convergence of economies towards the Anglo- American neoliberal market system.
2. Greater specialization of economies implies that, under pressure of globalization and integration, the
domestic will adapt by specializing more vigorously in what it does best.
3. Incremental path-dependent adaptation focuses on institutions and rules out convergence of one
societal system towards the other. The argument is based the socially constructedness of institutions,
in the sense that they embody shared cultural understandings (shared cognitions, interpretive
frames) of the way the world works
4. Hybridization implies some change in a pathdeviant manner. Hybridization is argued to result from the
process of integration into the global system of individual companies.
Recursiveness: means that to understand or to explain the disposition of actors, one has to 'go back' to culture
and institutions.
Two major sorts of recursiveness:
1. A cross-referencing between what actors have in mind and the more systemic or structural settings
they take for granted
2. Societies are integrated by a continuous cross-referencing between what we call spaces, which are
imagined spaces, differentiated and demarcated around a central meaning, purpose or function
addressed by actors, within a space.
Institutionalist Approach
Focuses on comparisons that highlight differences that cannot be attributed to different goals, contexts,
environments or strategies of enterprises.
Definition of institutions: the humanly devised constraints that structure political, economic,and social
interaction. They consist of both informal constraints (sanctions, taboos, customs, etc.),also known as culture,
and formal rules (constitutions, laws, property rights)
Three types of institutional support:
1. The regulative (formal rules and incentives constructed by the state and other empowered agents of
the collective good),
2. Normative (informal rules associated with values and explicit moral commitments), and
3. Cognitive (abstract rules associated with the structure of cognitive distinctions and taken-for-granted
understandings).
Different sets of institutions result in divergent organization and management practices, and different
advantages and disadvantages for engaging in specific types of activity.
Culturalist Approach:
Characteristics of management and organization are influenced by basic values, norms and beliefs
which differ between social groups
Social groups can be defined by nations, ethnicities, professions, organizations ....
Like institutions, cultures change only slowly
Two different approaches:
quantitative, looking at dimensions (etic)
The etic, or outside, perspective follows in the tradition of behaviorist psychology and
anthropological approaches that link cultural practices to external, antecedent factors, such as
economic or ecological conditions.
Etic models describe phenomena in constructs that apply across cultures.
Measuring institutions:
Typological approach: assumes that institutional systems are integrated wholes
Institutional systems can be compared and contrasted, but not measured
Examples typological approach:
Varieties of capitalism
Business systems
Dimensional approach: assumes that the characteristics of institutional systems can be described using
a small number of underlying dimensions
Allows for positioning institutional systems in a multidimensional space and measuring the distance
between two systems
Example dimensional approach:
Country institutional profiles (Kostova: quality management)
Country institutional profiles (Busenitz et al.: entrepreneurship)
Elements of culture
Values - what someone desires or regards to be important
Beliefs - what someone considers to be true or false
Attitudes positive and negative judgments
Self-perceptions
Cognitive abilities
Stereotypes
Cultural elements exit at deeper and at more superficial levels
Analysis at the level of culture should not be mixed up with analysis at the
individual level
Within-society analysis
Across society analysis
Pan-cultural analysis
Ecological fallacy
Reverse-ecological fallacy
Conclusion:
Basic characteristics of subsistence economy seem to influence cultural values in such a way that
survival of the group is promoted (adaptive culture view):
Hunting, gathering: Individual achievement
Agriculture, animal husbandry Obedience, responsibility
Where do cultures come from? (2)
Ideational view: cultures are shared symbolic systems that are cumulative creations of the mind,
rather than responses to environmental conditions, and may be functional or detrimental
Cognitive view: A societys culture consists of whatever one has to know or believe in order to
operate in a manner acceptable to its members
Material conditions constrain, but do not explain the ideational contents of cultures, which are
cumulative creations of mind
Cultures are systems of shared symbols and meanings, existing not only in peoples heads, but
also out there (in other peoples heads)
Apart from adaptive and ideational influences, some traits are hardwired
In-group out-group distinction
Theory of mind
Assumption of agency
Use of abstraction in language
Use of symbols
Use of personal names
Property
Myths and rituals
Control of fire
etic research
Geert Hofstede: Cultures Consequences
Study based on >100,000 IBM employees in >40
countries
Inductive + deductive analysis
Distinguishes 4 dimensions:
1. power distance:
a. The degree to which the less powerful members of a society accept and expect that
power is distributed unequally
2. uncertainty avoidance:
a. the degree to which the members of a society feel uncomfortable with uncertainty and
ambiguity
3. individualism-collectivism:
a. preference for a loosely-knit social framework in which individuals are expected to take
care of only themselves and their immediate families
versus
b. preference for a tightly-knit framework in society in which individuals can expect their
relatives or members of a particular in-group to look after them in exchange for
unquestioning loyalty.
4. masculinity-femininity:
a. preference in society for achievement, heroism, assertiveness and material rewards for
success. Society at large is more competitive.
versus
b. preference in society for cooperation, modesty, caring for the weak and quality of life.
Society at large is more consensusoriented.
5. (later: long versus short-term orientation):
a. Societies that prefer to maintain time-honoured traditions and norms while viewing
societal change with suspicion
versus
b. Societies that take a more pragmatic approach and encourage thrift and efforts in
modern education as a way to prepare for the future
Linked to a variety of phenomena
Shalom Schwartz:
Study of teachers and students in 40 countries
More deductive than Hofstedes work
Seven dimensions:
1. Embeddedness (security, conformity, tradition)
2. Intellectual autonomy (self-direction)
3. Affective autonomy (pleasure, exiting, varied life)
4. Hierarchy (legitimate ascribed power differences)
5. Egalitarianism (social justice, equality, responsibility)
6. Mastery (ambition, self-assertion, change/.exploit the world)
7. Harmony (unity with nature, protect the world, peace)
Ronald Inglehart
Two very broad dimensions:
traditional authority vs secular-rational authority
God is very important in respondents life .91
It is more important for a child to learn obedience and religious faith than
independence and determination .89
Abortion is never justifiable .82
Respondent has strong sense of national pride .82
Respondent favors more respect for authority .72
survival values vs self-expression values
respondent gives priority to economic and physical security over self-expression
and quality-of-life .86
Respondent describes self as not very happy .81
Respondent has not signed and would not sign a petition .80
Homosexuality is never justifiable .78
You have to be very careful about trusting people .56
Representative samples
Ingleharts four waves allow to study globalization of culture
Robert House (Globe)
GLOBE dimensions (Practices & Values)
Power distance (~ Hofstede)
Uncertainty avoidance (~ Hofstede)
Humane orientation (fair, altruist, generous, caring behavior encouraged)
Institutional collectivism (collective distribution of resources and collective action encouraged)
In-group collectivism (pride, loyalty and cohesiveness in/to orgs and families encouraged)
Assertiveness (assertive, confrontational and aggressive behavior in relations accepted)
Gender egalitarianism (gender inequality is minimized)
Future orientation (future-oriented behaviors are encouraged)
Performance orientation (performance improvement and excellence is encouraged)
Correlates of modernity (Yang, 1988)
Egalitarian attitudes Individualistic orientation
Belief in gender equality Achievement motivation
Tolerance and respect for others Educational orientation
Low integration with relatives Need for information
Preference for urban life Self-reliance
Secularized beliefs Behavioral Flexibity
Drivers of modernization
Industrialization Drivers of postmodernization
Mass education and literacy Servitization of the economy
Urbanization (from rural to urban Flexibilization of employment
mobility) Suburbanization
From extended to nuclear family Market liberalization
Mass media Growth of non-traditional households
Division of church and state Increasing equality of the sexes
Entry more women into paid workforce
Findings
Japanese consensus process is sequential, with formal meeting at the end
Dutch consensus process is synchronic and iterative, including formal meetings
Japanese consensus based on harmony plus strong sense of hierarchy
Dutch consensus: pragmatic meeting of particularistic minds
Both groups see the other as more hierarchical
Japanese consensus is more comprehensive; Dutch consensus lacks in detail
Culturally informed respondents do not only provide data, but also valuable explanations
Co-operative strategies
Licensing: contractual agreement to use a technology, trademark, brand or business model
Strategic alliances: contractual cooperation between independent companies in order to realize
common goals (nonequity based)
Joint ventures: cooperation between independent companies in order to realize common goals on
the basis of common ownership and contract (equity-based)
Acquisitions: cooperation between companies in which at least one looses independence (equity-
based)
Tentative conclusions
The structure of an MNC needs to fit its environment and its strategy
MNC structure influences the use of coordination mechanisms and the cost of coordination
At high risk levels (political risks and investment climate) cultural distance leads to preference for
WOS
At low risk levels (investment climate) cultural distance leads to preference for equity JVs
Class 10: Society & Economic Development
Institutions are in fact a liberating force
The only way individual freedom can be obtained is through a collective adherence to duties that define
and protect individual rights for everyone
Institutions free organizations and individuals from the need to contrive new patterns of acting in each
situation they encounter
The game has rules that must be obeyed. Within the rules, several different strategies are always possible
An example of misplaced trust from Coleman (1990, Foundations of Social Theory, p. 94): It begins with the
assent by a high school girl to be walked home by a boy. She further assented, at his request, to take a shortcut
through the woods. He then made a sexual advance, which she resisted. She was thereupon roughed up and
sexually assaulted.
Social/macro-level/abstract/thin trust
World Value Survey (WVS) asks: Generally speaking, would you say that most people can be trusted
or that you have to be very careful in dealing with people?
Also named generalized trust
Institutional trust
The trust people have in institutional systems
WVS asks individuals to rate their confidence in the parliament, government, civil service, political
parties, armed forces, police, press, churches, labor unions, the justice and education systems
Social trust arises from the institutional environment of laws, norms and standards
Fukuyama (1995, Trust: The Social Values and the Creation of Prosperity):
A society with a strong institutional basis is often a high-trust society
The economic function of trust
It reduces transaction costs and the need for monitoring
Not only the cost of striking a deal but also the cost of enforcing any deal that is made
Social trust and its associated institutions are indispensable to a vibrant market economy
When institutions are weak, people have to rely more on personal trust
Putnam (2000, Bowling Alone) finds that in the southern Italian regions trust is more likely to be restricted
to the closed social circle (i.e. family and friends). Why?
Why is guanxi so important in doing business in China?
International comparison
Two most researched archetypes
The Anglo-Saxon model: equity finance, dispersed ownership, active markets for corporate control
The Rhineland model: debt financing, concentrated blockholder ownership, inactive markets for
corporate control
In two business systems/institutional environments
Liberal business system/market-based capitalism
Coordinated business system/relational capitalism
Anglo-Saxon (Ryanair) vs. Rhineland (Volkswagen)
1. Finance
Anglo-Saxon: more equity finance
Rhineland: more bank/debt finance
2. Ownership structure
Anglo-Saxon: dispersed, more ownership by investment funds
Rhineland: concentrated, more cross-shareholding with other companies, more ownership by
banks/govt./founding families
3. Relationship between stakeholders and management
Anglo-Saxon:
o Arms length
o The management maximizes shareholder value
o Short-termism: buy low, sell high
Rhineland:
o Close relationships with stakeholders
o The management balances the interests of stakeholders
o Stable, long-term relationships
4. Governance structure
Anglo-Saxon:
o Unitary board: Board of Directors
o US: CEO-Chairman duality
o UK: CEO-Chairman separation is more often
o Shares and share options to motivate managers
Rhineland:
o Dual board: Supervisory Board (50% each from employees and shareholders) and
Management Board
o Employees have a strong voice
o Managers are not paid as high as in Anglo-Saxon
5. Corporate restructuring
Anglo-Saxon
o Takeover as a credible threat
o Takeover to rescue a failing company, and as a result more mergers and acquisitions in
Anglo-Saxon countries
Rhineland
o Hostile takeovers are less common
o Strong employee opposition to takeover
o When in crisis, assisted by major shareholders, banks, and sometimes the government
Defining innovation
Innovation = invention + commercialization
Not always by the same person or company
Xeroxs Palo Alto Research Centre invented PC graphics interface and mouse, but Apple commercialized
them
(Generally) positive effects on the economy/society
Zipper by Whitcomb Judson in 1893
Fords moving-assembly line in 1913 cut the labor input to assemble a Model T from 106 man-hours to 6
Measuring innovation
Inputs: R&D expenditure, R&D labor force
Outputs: new products/processes/services, patents
Imitation expands a firms existing knowledge set but not the worlds existing knowledge set
Innovation expands not onlybut also
Imitation through the adoption of existing technology is an effective learning
Factor-driven
Rely on basic factors (unskilled labor or natural resources) to make simple goods/services
Compete on price
Use technology from other countries
Efficiency-driven
Rely on heavy capital investment to make more advanced goods/services
Compete on quality
Use AND improve foreign technology
Innovation-driven
Rely on advanced factors (highly skilled labor and cutting-edge technology)
Compete on innovative products/services
Create new technology
Wealth-driven
Shift from wealth creation to wealth redistribution
Excessive demands for social welfare
Little motivation to compete and innovate
The resource curse: A negative relationship between natural resource abundance and long-term economic
Development
Revenues from natural resource exports appreciation of the real exchange rate divert factors of
production from manufacturing into other activities such as retailing and real estate
Outcome: deindustrialization and lower long-term productivity growth
Other reasons: reduced urgency and incentive to invest in efficiency enhancers and innovation
Another name: the Dutch disease by a 1977 issue of The Economist
Latecomer countries may grow rapidly by exploiting technology already employed by advanced
countries
Technology licensing, technology transfer, reverse engineering
But nothing can substitute serious effort to learn, assimilate, and adapt foreign technology (see the
Hyundai example)
The role of the government
During the catch-up stage: take a more active and even leadership role in technology development
(because the target is clear and the technology already exists)
As a country approaches the technological frontier, its time for the government to take a back seat
and play a merely facilitating role. Why?
IP protection may also vary over stages of development
A weak IP regime is beneficial in the early phase of catch-up but, when the country comes near the
frontier, a strong IP regime becomes advantageous (Odagiri et al. 2010)
E.g., US, Japan, South Korea
Social network
Social network: A finite set of actors and the relations defined on them
Relations (ties): friends, classmates, colleagues, etc.
Main reasons for networking: to acquire information or resources, to reduce uncertainty, and to enhance
legitimacy
Actors network positions
Isolates, peripheral actors, central actors
Centrality tends to be positively correlated with status, power, and access to information/resources
Embeddedness
Granovetter/Uzzi: economic action is embedded in networks of social relations
Structural embeddedness: high connectivity among actors and high network density
Relational embeddedness: the relationship among actors is characterized by trust, obligation, and
identification
Cognitive embeddedness: shared values, interpretations, and systems of meaning
But over-embeddedness (too much network closure) leads to lock-in
A lack of openness to opportunities and developments outside the network
Network homogeneity
Groupthink
A lack of adaptability to radical shifts in the environment
In short, ties that bind may turn into ties that blind
Networks of companies
Competition and cooperation are two sides of the same coin
Firms have to cooperate in order to remain competitive
Firms should not ask themselves whether to compete or to cooperate, but rather on what dimensions to
compete and cooperate
Also see Porter (1998: 79): Clusters promote both competition and cooperation
Hamel et al. (1989: 133): You cant run from strategic alliances
Cluster
Globalization: increasing international flow of
Goods and services (international trade)
Capital (foreign direct investment)
People
Knowledge
Thurow (1996) The Future of Capitalism
Anything can be made anywhere, everything can be sold everywhere
Levitt (1983) The globalization of markets, HBR
Global village
Clusters: geographic concentrations of interconnected companies and institutions in a particular field (p.
78)
Note geographic proximity facilitates networking
Institutions here refer to universities, training schools, trade associations, government agencies, etc.
A clusters boundaries are defined by the linkages and complementarities across industries and
institutions (p. 79)
Different from Industrial Districts: A concentration of firms in a particular industry within a local region
Why clusters are critical to competition
Clusters and productivity
Better access to employees and suppliers
Access to specialized information
Complementarities
Access to institutions and public goods
Better motivation and measurement due to local rivalry
Clusters and innovation
Clusters and new business formation
A cluster may decline because of
External market/technology shifts
Collective inertia/rigidity