Entrepreneurship has traditionally attracted governments’ attention because of its potential correlation with economic growth. Despite the large amount of research done regarding entrepreneurship, little is known about the relationship between a country’s institutions and its level of entrepreneurship. The purpose of this study is to find out if there are institutional explanations to why some countries seem to promote entrepreneurship better than others. This report examines to what extent institutions derived from Varieties of Capitalism affect the degree of entrepreneurship in a country. The institutions are education, labour regulation, and financing structure. This will be done through a set of regression analysis based on data from a large number of countries. The results of the analysis show that there is a positive correlation between vocational education and the level of entrepreneurship. In contrast to the theory Varieties of Capitalism this study could not find support that labour regulation and financing structure had a direct effect on entrepreneurship. The results indicate that the relationship between institutions and entrepreneurship is complex and that there is need for further examination.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Changing the behaviour of firms to take environmental concerns into account is seen as unlikely without effective regulations. However, corporations are increasingly keen to represent themselves as ‘green’, including those in the world’s largest manufacturing sector: the car industry. Given rising concern for the environment and environmental sustainability since the 1990s this thesis asks: what motivates car firms to actually make environmental commitments? Answering this question has implications for whether these commitments are ‘real’ and if so whether they are occurring in response to material factors (e.g. state regulations and consumer demand) versus normative factors (e.g. social attitudes and internal company strategies). In order to answer it, the thesis applies the insights of the institutional varieties of capitalism approach to the German, United States and Japanese car industries, and specific firms within them, in respect of the environmental issue of climate change from 1990 to 2004. Empirical national data is analysed, as well the environmental reporting of individual firms and interviews with key personnel. The main findings are that what leads the car industry to see environmental issues as central to their business interests hinges on the impact of differing national institutional factors. Specifically, it is a matter of whether firms have a liberal market economy (LME) as their home base, in the case of US firms, or a coordinated market economy (CME) as their home base, in the case of German and Japanese firms. US car firms react more to the material imperatives of consumer demand and state regulations. German and Japanese firms are more mindful of normative factors for their initiatives, such as social attitudes (especially for German firms) and internal company strategies (especially for Japanese firms). They have more of a partnership approach with government. Therefore, car firms have very distinct ‘lenses’ through which they see the environmental performance of the cars they produce. As such, the thesis concludes that the variety of capitalism of nations has implications not just for the type of products that economic actors such as car firms produce, and the competitive advantages they develop, but also the way they address related issues arising as a result of their activities, including environmental issues.

This study adopts a comparative institutional approach to address the question of why corporate social performance (CSP) tends to vary cross-nationally. Using a sample of 1551 firms from 20 different countries, I test the relationships between key institutional variables suggested in the varieties of capitalism literature (see Hall & Soskice, 2001) and corporate social performance. Specifically, I test the relationships between coordination in corporate governance and labour relations and CSP. To provide a comprehensive measure of CSP, I separately measure different dimensions of CSP (social and environmental) and categories of CSP(processes and outcomes). The results indicated that the market economy firms are embedded within produces differences in how they perform on social and environmental dimensions. In particular, national level coordination in corporate governance was found to produce differences in both the processes firms adopt to address social and environmental issues and the outcomes and impacts of firm actions on social and environmental dimensions. These institutional factors were found to be stronger predictors of CSP than both cultural differences and differences in industry composition. The results of this study lend support to the argument that CSP is driven by institutions at the national-level. I discuss the implications of these findings and chart out a course for futureresearch in the area.

This study adopts a comparative institutional approach to address the question of why corporate social performance (CSP) tends to vary cross-nationally. Using a sample of 1551 firms from 20 different countries, I test the relationships between key institutional variables suggested in the varieties of capitalism literature (see Hall & Soskice, 2001) and corporate social performance. Specifically, I test the relationships between coordination in corporate governance and labour relations and CSP. To provide a comprehensive measure of CSP, I separately measure different dimensions of CSP (social and environmental) and categories of CSP(processes and outcomes). The results indicated that the market economy firms are embedded within produces differences in how they perform on social and environmental dimensions. In particular, national level coordination in corporate governance was found to produce differences in both the processes firms adopt to address social and environmental issues and the outcomes and impacts of firm actions on social and environmental dimensions. These institutional factors were found to be stronger predictors of CSP than both cultural differences and differences in industry composition. The results of this study lend support to the argument that CSP is driven by institutions at the national-level. I discuss the implications of these findings and chart out a course for futureresearch in the area.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Changing the behaviour of firms to take environmental concerns into account is seen as unlikely without effective regulations. However, corporations are increasingly keen to represent themselves as ‘green’, including those in the world’s largest manufacturing sector: the car industry. Given rising concern for the environment and environmental sustainability since the 1990s this thesis asks: what motivates car firms to actually make environmental commitments? Answering this question has implications for whether these commitments are ‘real’ and if so whether they are occurring in response to material factors (e.g. state regulations and consumer demand) versus normative factors (e.g. social attitudes and internal company strategies). In order to answer it, the thesis applies the insights of the institutional varieties of capitalism approach to the German, United States and Japanese car industries, and specific firms within them, in respect of the environmental issue of climate change from 1990 to 2004. Empirical national data is analysed, as well the environmental reporting of individual firms and interviews with key personnel. The main findings are that what leads the car industry to see environmental issues as central to their business interests hinges on the impact of differing national institutional factors. Specifically, it is a matter of whether firms have a liberal market economy (LME) as their home base, in the case of US firms, or a coordinated market economy (CME) as their home base, in the case of German and Japanese firms. US car firms react more to the material imperatives of consumer demand and state regulations. German and Japanese firms are more mindful of normative factors for their initiatives, such as social attitudes (especially for German firms) and internal company strategies (especially for Japanese firms). They have more of a partnership approach with government. Therefore, car firms have very distinct ‘lenses’ through which they see the environmental performance of the cars they produce. As such, the thesis concludes that the variety of capitalism of nations has implications not just for the type of products that economic actors such as car firms produce, and the competitive advantages they develop, but also the way they address related issues arising as a result of their activities, including environmental issues.

Exploring the construct of social-responsibility orientation across three Asian and two Western societies (Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and the United States), we show evidence that top-level executives in these societies hold fundamentally different beliefs about their responsibilities toward different stakeholders, with concomitant implications for their understanding and enactment of responsible leadership. We further find that these variations are more closely aligned with institutional factors than with cultural variables, suggesting a need to clarify the connection between culture and institutions on the one hand and culture and social-responsibility orientations on the other.

Exploring the construct of social-responsibility orientation across three Asian and two Western societies (Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and the United States), we show evidence that top-level executives in these societies hold fundamentally different beliefs about their responsibilities toward different stakeholders, with concomitant implications for their understanding and enactment of responsible leadership. We further find that these variations are more closely aligned with institutional factors than with cultural variables, suggesting a need to clarify the connection between culture and institutions on the one hand and culture and social-responsibility orientations on the other. (authors' abstract)

This thesis examines the relationship between institutional context and firm performance, from both a theoretical and empirical perspective. The aim is to engage with the debate seeking to explain the observed diversity in the forms of economic organisation prevailing in socio-economic systems. The focus of the empirical work is on investigating the effects of the structure and behaviour of banking institutions on firm performance, in the Italian context. The analysis is comparative in the sense that confronts cooperative and capitalist business structures. The analytical framework is institutionalist in emphasising the institutionally embedded nature of economic performance, and the historical and cultural dimensions of economic behaviour. The institutional complementarity approach is used to investigate the hypothesis that the relative performance of different firm structures is context dependent. The main conclusions are that the economic performance of cooperative firms is strongly conditioned in a sense of institutional complementarity by the degree of development and competition characterising the financial domain. Rejected are the pessimistic predictions of conventional accounts that democratic firms are unequivocally unviable. Instead, there are relations of context dependency, of institutional complementarity that influence the viability of firm types. The overall conclusion is that the dynamics governing the evolution of socio-economic systems are much more complex than mainstream economics suggests; productive organisations may assume a multiplicity of forms. The theoretical claims of a universalistic history in which all production systems must follow the same line of development must be abandoned. This brings about major policy implications at the regional, national and international levels.

The aim of this research is to examine the extent to which the offshoring and outsourcing practices in Multinational Corporations, when the headquarters are registered and located in either the UK or Germany; are embedded in the institutional contexts of their respective home countries. There are six research questions relating to differences in approach and choice of location, ownership and coordination, employment practice, cultural proximity, trade union influence and finally the extent of re-shoring. These are primarily assessed through the 'varieties of capitalism' perspective. A comparative case study approach has been adopted with a focus on two sectors; airlines and engineering; in each case a major UK and German organisation are compared. Fourteen in-depth, semi-structured interviews took place in both the home countries and overseas locations in Europe, India and Asia. The sample size is small, however, each was with a senior executive and the transcripts revealed 'rich data' for compiling the case studies and answering the research questions. The contribution to original thinking is a conceptual framework posited by proposing a taxonomy to analyse the relationship between coordinated and liberal market economies and the components of the offshoring and / or outsourcing process. Reference is made to theory drawn from the resource based view, global production networks, dynamic capabilities, embeddedness as well as varieties of capitalism to focus on competences, spatial dimensions and power. It is this collective approach that is considered to be novel. Qualitative analysis is deployed to re-construct the actual framework for each industry sector. Constructs (Reichertz, 2004) combining abduction, deduction and induction are used to develop propositions that lead to conclusions. The similarities between the two UK companies and the two German companies confirms the usefulness of the taxonomy and allows for its extension to other firms and sectors. Key findings and conclusions from the two case studies are that German organizations are less inclined to outsource (in both sectors) preferring to reduce costs and retain control through captive offshoring. The UK businesses were less risk adverse and more flexible and agile in their sourcing policies. There was evidence that the UK companies regarded outsourcing and offshoring as options for closer co-operation that may lead to strategic alliances and mergers or acquisition. The relationships with trade unions/works council was also found to be very different, with a reluctance by management in Germany to progress radical initiatives. Other differences in terms of autonomy and division of labour were found. From an institutional perspective the German CME's cases were less able to deploy outsourcing and offshoring strategies with the degrees of freedom that the UK LMEs typically enjoyed. CMEs are constrained by their policies, interconnectedness and style of working. A number of ambiguities are highlighted. The thesis argues that the outsourcing and offshoring practices are embedded to a high degree in the institutional practices of the home countries. Finally, the empirical novelty lies in the 'rich data' generated by valuable insights from the senior executive interviewees to which the researcher was privileged to have access.

I Sverige finns ingen lagstadgad minimilön och alla löner sätts av arbetsmarknadens parter, det finns en mängd olika modeller för hur lönebildningen kan ske men vanligtvis sker processen genom förhandling och avtal mellan representanter för arbetstagare och arbetsgivare från ett fackförbund och arbetsgivarorganisation. Hur löner sätts och huruvida den sätts på central nivå mellan fackförbund och arbetsgivarorganisation eller på lokal nivå mellan arbetsgivare och lokal facklig representant har stor betydelse för alla avlönade arbetstagare.  I den här uppsatsen analyseras orsakerna till fackförbundet Kommunalarbetarförbundet och Transportarbetarförbundets val av lönebildning. Kommunalarbetarförbundet har främst individuell lönesättning och Transportarbetarförbundet har kollektiv lönesättning genom ett tarifflöneliknande system. Båda förbunden organiserar arbetare och har en gemensam bakgrund inom arbetarrörelsen, samt ingår i den fackliga sammanslutningen LO. Syftet med uppsatsen är alltså att undersöka varför förbunden har valt så olika typer av lönebildning. Den tidigare forskning som används för att försöka förklara detta utfall är Korpi och Shalevs maktresursteori, samt Hall och Soskice:s Varieties of Capitalism-teori. Maktresursteorin används för att försöka förstå om förbundens val påverkats av den maktresurs de har, medlemsantal. Varieties of Capitalism-teorin används för att försöka förstå om den sektor och bransch de respektive förbunden verkar och verkat inom har påverkat dagens utfall.  Resultaten som funnits i undersökningen är att det visat sig vara så att maktresursteorin i detta fall stämmer på så vis att medlemsantal spelar roll för förbundets makt och för aktörernas bild av förbundets makt, men att teorin i detta fall inte kunnat förklara förbundens val av lönepolitik. Istället har Varieties of Capitalism-teorin visat sig kunna förklara utfallen i båda fall, vilken bransch förbundet verkar i förefaller ha haft stor inverkan på vilket val av lönebildning som gjorts. Transportarbetarförbundet verkar i en hårt konkurrensutsatt bransch och har därför valt att behålla sina kollektiva löner som avtalas centralt, medan Kommunal valde att decentralisera sin lönebildning på grund av olikheter i lön mellan medlemmar som verkade i olika branscher.