This research examines institutional transformation of the board of directors in Canada to a collaborative model in which the board, in addition to its monitoring function, provides a service role by acting as a sounding board to management and providing advice and counsel to management on strategic issues. This thesis also examines how director search, likely initiated by the ‘Enron’ scandals, led to some boards adopting a new model of practice that directors deemed more efficacious and possessing legitimacy, bringing together the old and the new institutionalism in institutional change processes. Legitimacy was drawn from guidance from a professional association for directors that outlined how boards could become strategic asset to the firm that was consistent with a stewardship model of governance that saw boards collaborative with management. It is also argued in this thesis that following the Enron scandal, directors searched for a model of practice that would be more efficacious such that their fears of liability were reduced. In searching for and adopting a new model of practice, the collaborative board, it is also argued that adoption requires coupling to the technical core (enacted), as opposed to symbolic, if it is to be effective. This research studies directors and senior management of public firms of the TSX Composite by way of survey methods. The findings provide support that the board is evolving in Canada to a new collaborative model and that the model of practice appears to be enacted (coupled) as opposed to symbolic (decoupled). Further, the results did not find that collaborative boards are impaired in their monitoring function and support is found that the board’s monitoring role may actually be enhanced. These results are discussed as well as future research directions and limitations of the study.

Aim: The aim is to identify the institutional pressures affecting audit firms in different local contexts. Theoretical approach: We develop a model by using institutional theory, socialization theory and other relevant literature. We use this model to identify differences in the socialization process in different audit firms and different local contexts. We also identify the strength of some institutional pressures in the local context. Empirical methodology: We conduct qualitative interviews with eight auditors working in large and small firms in three different local contexts Conclusions: We find that the socialization process in audit firms is dependent on both the size of the audit firm and on the local context in which it is located. We also identify that mimetic pressure between firms of different sizes is stronger in a local context with low client diversity than in a local context with high client diversity.

In order to expand global market share and enhance the benefits of economics of scale, Trans-National Media Corporations (TNMCs) exploits overseas markets actively. The Chinese region which contains more than one billion audience is regarded as an important target market by TNMCs. Taiwan TV industry which allows foreign investments is always the leading region of Chinese film industry and popular culture. On condition that analyzing the glocalization strategy of foreign satellite channels in Taiwan, we can construct the best operation strategy among Chinese regions. Therefore, we use case study method to investigate not only the business strategies of Star Ltd. Group¡¦s Channel[V] and Viacom¡¦s MTV Taiwan channel but also the synergy that parent company integrates from local resource. The research method for collecting data combines qualitative and quantitative method. Use literature analysis and in-depth interview for qualitative approach that acquire industrial data. And use questionnaire for quantitative that analyze the market response of audience to see whether they accept the positioning and strategy of Channel[V] and MTV or not. Finally, develop research conclusion and suggestion base on case study method. Regarding research framework, we apply I-R framework and Institutional Theory as our theoretical basis. And divide three strategic perspectives to compare the operation of Channel[V] and MTV. We find that they operate in different ways among glocalization strategy and programming production strategy. The differentiation of Channel positioning leads to competitive strength. Besides, monitoring advertisement sales, product placement, road shows, integration of channel resource, and cross-media marketing campaigns can promote firm¡¦s operational performance. We hope our research conclusion and will help the following researchers and industrial managers.

Even though software testing takes more than 40% of the total development cost, especially the massive amount of devoted efforts and resources, software testing is nevertheless the least respectable part in many software projects when comparing to design and development. The challenge becomes bigger as the software becomes more complicated. This has been further compounded by lacking of appropriate attention and suitable resource allocation. As a result, it becomes a global concern and issue on how software testing can be more effective to guard the software quality control. Software testing techniques have evolved for decades and almost reached the maturity level. Why software testing is not successful is mostly related to lacking of enough respect by management. Therefore, creating a software testing institution is necessary to put enough control on the process and to establish a regulation for implementation. This research employs software testing theory standards, institutional theory and control theory to come out with an ideal software testing institution. A case study is used to validate the ideal software testing institution. Software testing theories are to create a software testing process, which can be divided into planning, design and execution phases. Institutional theory is to create a regulation and as a basis for implementation. Control theory is to empower control mechanisms on testing to ensure the progress comply with the final goals. The ideal software testing institution provided by this research is appropriate for joint-development outsourcing project. When both customer and vendor are involved in testing, it¡¦s recommended to define separate test plans with consistent schedule to prevent from resource idle or inconsistency between software and documentation. Since both parties will produce software source code and documentation, it¡¦s also recommended to define the working model and version control rules as a basis for cooperation. Finally, Employing configuration management can avoid unnecessary conflicts and confusion.

<p>By investigating the business environment in Sub-Saharan Africa from an institutional theory perspective, the purpose of this thesis is to explain organizational response to the forces of this particular institutional environment. Coercive, normative and mimetic pressures serve as the basis for explaining the institutional environment. The organizations respond to these pressures by seeking legitimacy from the environment.</p><p>The study is based on a qualitative research method relying on qualitative secondary data. Additionally a questionnaire was sent out to a limited number of experts to validate the findings.</p><p>The main conclusion of this thesis is that networks are formed on the basis of norms and cultural processes working upon organizations in order to counter balance malfunctioning regulatory institutions. It has been revealed that organizations cannot rely solely on their response to coercive pressures for legitimacy. Normative aspects in networks are formed through repeated transactions that create trust and reputation between business partners that lead to legitimacy. Moreover, it is difficult for organizations to construct a proper response to cultural pressures since they stem primarily from heritage and ethnicity.</p>

Crowdfunding is an online fundraising technique, where individuals or groups ask for contributions from a large number of people, i.e. “the crowd”. Crowdfunding first appeared in 2003 and has doubled its financial scope every year since 2011. Yet, very little is known about it, especially from a societal perspective. In this thesis I have attempted to understand how the organizations surrounding crowdfunding have structured themselves into an organizational filed, and also how “the crowd” might have granted this field special characteristics. This since “the crowd” is an element not earlier taken into consideration when studying field emergence. I have conducted a content analysis with data from 170 crowdfunding platforms and 190 media articles. I found that several events coincided in 2009 and opened up for the emergence of the crowdfunding field, and also that the understanding of crowdfunding’s purpose has shifted since 2003, from culture projects to start-ups. Regarding the special characteristic of the field it seems like the online nature enabled a fierce structuration pace, and also that “the crowd” constitutes an entity that cannot be captured by our traditional understanding of fields. The results suggest that when “the crowd” takes on functions in a field, the functions become invisible, and this has implications for future research regarding organizational fields.

Background: A great deal of research on charter schools has examined the neoliberal origins of charter schools, the academic performance of charter school students, charter school governance, and the balance between autonomy and accountability. However, there is a lack of research that has investigated the formal processes by which the accountability side of the equation is carried out, particularly in the area of charter renewal. No study has yet analyzed the weight given to factors used by charter authorizers in making high-stakes accountability decisions, and to whether modifying variables related to the population served impact the outcomes of these decisions. Also, while some studies have looked at charter school operations through the lens of institutional theory, no study has yet looked at changes made by charter operators in the face of high-stakes authorizer scrutiny, and whether those changes may impact the outcomes of the decisions. Purpose: To examine the factors explicitly considered by the board of the largest charter authorizer in the U.S., and determine whether the outcomes have been consistent with the established criteria, whether the outcomes show evidence of being affected by the nature of the population served by the charter school, and to look for evidence that changes suggested by institutional theory have an predictive value in understanding the outcomes of high-stakes authorizer decisions. Setting: Charters in Arizona authorized and considered for renewal by the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools (ASBCS, the Board) during the period from June 2010 to November 2012. Participants: 117 Arizona charters granted by the ASBCS which were considered by for renewal during the study period. Research Design: Quantitative study. Data Collection and Analysis: Data were collected from the public records provided to the Board during the period of operation leading up to renewal, and provided to the Board during the renewal consideration. Analysis was conducted using multinomial logistic regression analysis with the IBM SPSS 22 statistical software package. Findings: Academic performance over the years immediately preceding the renewal consideration and the number of compliance actions taken over that same period significantly predicted whether the outcome of the renewal decision would be renewal without conditions, renewal with conditions, or denial. Several factors which had been suggested by the literature as having predictive value, including improvement in academic performance and financial viability, did not prove to have significant predictive value. Certain factors related to the population served by the charter, including socioeconomic status, grades served, and size of the school population, had predictive value in ways that generally supported the literature. Mimetic isomorphic changes as identified in this study did not prove to have significant predictive value regarding the outcome of the renewal decision. Findings regarding consistently low performing schools and the overturning of denial decisions on appeal lead to questions regarding the market efficacy assumptions made by neoliberal charter proponents. Conclusions: This study reinforces the importance of charter authorizers having clear, measureable criteria for high-stakes decisions, and for charter operators to understand those criteria and how they affect the operations of the schools.

No description available.

The widespread use of Corporate Philanthropy (CP) in the US and the UK has resulted in a significant body of literature on the phenomena and its use. However, the literature generated around CP is criticised for being of an economic nature and for being biased toward the context of developed Western countries. This thesis suggests that the context of developing countries is important in relation to the non-economic nature of CP, due to the existence of intense religious beliefs and values. However, there has been little attempt to explicitly examine how the institutional pressures within this context shape the CP of a non-economic and more precisely of an altruistic nature, and how firms act in response to these influences. This thesis leverages institutional theory by proposing that stakeholders – including communities, competitors, NGOs and politicians – may impose coercive and mimetic pressures encouraging isomorphic field-level CP of a non-economic nature in a context of intense Islamic beliefs, values and norms. However, the way in which firms perceive and act upon these pressures may differ depending on specific factors related to the firm itself, including the identity of the firm, the competitive position of the firm, and shareholder pressures. These differences between firms result in the adoption of different CP strategies as decided by each firm, expressing its appropriate responses to field pressures. This study uses a qualitative methodology using data collected from 27 of the key personnel responsible for CP decisions (shareholders and managers) in the Kuwaiti banking sector. Questions were developed to assess the relationships between institutional pressures at the field and organisational levels of analysis. Data was collected through multiple sources such as in-depth interviews, documentation, and archival records. The contributions of the thesis are in relation to: a) the institutional theory; b) gaining more understanding of CP in developing countries; C) offering a robust understanding of altruistic CP influenced by an Islamic context; and d) practical implementations of CP in Islamic banks.

Purpose: This PhD research examines how two different institutional logics of corporate governance have shaped the discourse on executive remuneration. Corporate Logic implies executives are intrinsically motivated and will act in the best interests of shareholders as long as their total remuneration is competitive and fair. On the other hand, Investor Logic implies executives are extrinsically motivated (opportunistic) and will only act in the best interests of shareholders if short- and long-term incentive schemes are designed appropriately. Approach: The research has an interpretive methodology and consists of three phases. First, the diffusion of both Logics is examined through a content analysis of a large sample of corporate governance codes of practice and corporate annual reports. Second, how both Logics are embedded in the remuneration principles and practices that are recommended by code issuers and adopted by companies is scrutinised using discourse analysis. Third, how both Logics have shaped the beliefs and decision-making of non-executive directors, executives, and others is studied using discourse analysis. Findings: Both Logics are embedded in the discourse on executive remuneration, although there has been a strengthening of Investor Logic over time. Both Logics co-exist as distinct from compete in the discourse because it has become taken-for-granted that executives should be remunerated comparably to other executives (Corporate Logic) and in line with shareholder returns (Investor Logic). Directors and others manage tension between Corporate Logic and Investor Logic by prioritising (or ordering) the Logics. Theoretical implications: The research shows how competitive and institutional pressures influence how remuneration decisions are made and reported. However, institutional change is complex because companies influence and are influenced by code issuers and others. Practical implications: As both Logics are embedded in the beliefs of companies, code issuers and others, executive remuneration practices have become unnecessarily complex and convoluted. The case for a simpler approach to executive remuneration is advanced.