This article analyzes political strategies of MNC subsidiaries in emerging markets. We find that institutional pressures from public and private non-market actors in the emerging market lead to increased political activism. Furthermore, we find that these relationships become stronger, when the external pressures are joined by strong firm-internal pressures. Our findings contribute to the scarce literature on firms' political strategies in emerging markets. They also support recent criticism of institutional theory's strong focus on isomorphism as the most important legitimacy-conveying mechanism. We argue that the isomorphism-based either-or logic gives way to stronger agency of the subsidiary and to a logic of active negotiation and social construction of the subsidiary's legitimacy in the emerging market. Our findings show support for this idea as political activism is one such way how the subsidiary's legitimacy can be built and nurtured.

In today’s society of increased globalization and digitalization openness has become a buzzword. This raises questions about what we mean by openness and how it is interpreted in various contexts. This thesis has two aims; to explore how openness is interpreted in planning, politics and political decision-making, and to develop an analytical tool to assess openness in different contexts. A new institutional theory framework that centers on the interplay between institutions and actors has been used, and three empirical case studies in a Swedish context were conducted to analyze how openness is interpreted in planning in metropolitan regions, in politics through the political parties and in political decision-making in the Stockholm region. The research concludes that openness in planning, politics and political decision-making is interpreted along two inter-linked narrative lines: ’openness to people’ and ’openness to knowledge, information and ideas’. It was more common to talk about peoples’ accessibility to public services and participation in different parts of society (’openness to people’) than to talk about issues of transparency and ’openness to knowledge, information and ideas’. The institutional framework shows how openness is interpreted at different institutional levels. To what degree openness is expressed at different institutional levels vary by context. In planning for instance, openness is mainly interpreted in terms of governance, whereas in politics and political decision-making, openness is interpreted in an inter-play between culture and norms, institutions, governance and practice. The institutional framework complementary context-specific theories and elaborated into an analytical model, was found useful to explain what mechanisms are at play when dealing with openness in planning, politics and political decision-making, and can be applicable in future research of openness in other geographical or organizational contexts. / <p>QC 20170914</p>

Drawing on institutional perspective – institutional change, institutional legitimacy and the three institutional pillars – this doctoral study is developed to disentangle a complexity of successive industry reforms that have shaped a development of British railways in general and a growing idea of a railway privatization in particular. This adds to the body of knowledge, which so far has tended to focus on enhancing the sector’s performance outcomes, by arguing that performance improvement is not a whole story of the railway’s privatization. Indeed, as an archival research in British railway’s reform (1960s - 1980s) has revealed, a growing idea of a private sector’s involvement was constructed as the governments at the times sought to draw and (re-) draw boundaries among interest groups in order for British railways to de-lock from a historical development path of nationalization industry. Furthermore, the study also found that the idea of privatization was dynamically legitimized and maintained by the government’s reform agenda that blended a performance rationale with political and socio-economic conditions of British railway at the times. Indeed, this historical-institutional analysis in British railway’s reform suggests that a privatization of British railways is more socially and politically complex than generally understood as the government’s attempt in making an efficient railway sector. As such, in order to advance this field of study both academic scholars and the industry practitioners should pay more attention on the influence of institutional dynamics that shapes a performing of British railway rather than narrowly focusing a performance improvement issue.

This article unpacks the notion of institutional complexity and highlights the distinct sets of challenges confronting hybrid structural arrangements. The framework identifies three factors that contribute to the experience of complexity - namely, the extent to which the prescriptive demands of logics are incompatible, whether there is a settled or widely accepted prioritization of logics within the field, and the degree to which the jurisdictions of the logics overlap. The central thesis is that these "components" of complexity variously combine to produce four distinct institutional landscapes, each with differing implications for the challenges organizations face and for how they might respond. The article explores the situational relevance of an array of hybridizing responses and discusses their implications for organizational legitimacy and performance. It concludes by specifying the boundary conditions of the framework and highlighting fruitful directions for future scholarship.

The purpose of this study was to understand the governance of Olympic Games legacy. Legacy is broadly described as “all planned and unplanned, positive and negative, intangible and tangible structures created by and for a sport event that remain for a longer time than the event itself” (Preuss, 2007a, p. 86). The specific objectives of this study were: a) to map the historical evolution of legacy throughout the modern Olympic Movement (OM) (i.e., 1896-current day) in order to contextualize and conceptualize the major trends (e.g., changes in legacy, network actors/stakeholders, governance structures and processes) over time; b) to understand, explain, and compare/contrast the network governance of Olympic legacy, using Australian and Canadian case settings; and c) to critically analyze the overall structure and process of the governance of legacy within the OM focusing specifically on the aspects of performance, transparency, accountability, and participation to build a framework and provide policy recommendations for the governance of legacy in mega-events. In order to accomplish these objectives, a historical review of legacy within the OM and two descriptive case studies (Sydney 2000 and Vancouver 2010) were built using interviews and archival materials. Findings showed how the growth of the Games has culminated in the increased use and importance of legacy, leading to greater concept complexity. This resulted in the emergence of several trends including: new legacy themes, heightened interconnectedness, and formalization of governance mechanisms. Institutional theory was then applied to further explore the emergence of legacy and its habitualization, objectification, and sedimentation as an accepted norm in the Olympic Field. The examination of the legacy governance networks in the two cases showed four legacy network governance phases: legacy conceptualization, legacy planning and implementation, legacy transfer, and post-Games legacy governance, as well as a number of governance mechanisms (e.g., contracts, policies) that had an impact on the overall governance of the event’s legacy. Finally, a critical analysis of the governance of Olympic Games legacy was completed. The end result of the research project was a theoretical framework detailing the levels and fluidity of legacy governance in the OM.

This research aimed to explore the influence of the institutional context on the growth-potential of new businesses in South Africa. The purpose of this study is to highlight the major responsibility of bureaucracy to enable high-growth entrepreneurship in emerging economies by building a favourable economic, social and legal environment, known as the institutional context.An adapted research model was defined through an extensive literature review of prior studies in the fields of both institutional theory and entrepreneurship theory. An online survey was administered to many South African entrepreneurs via a number of databases across the country. The responses were then collected and analysed by means of a multiple regression analysis to test the six hypotheses of the research model.The results revealed that all the identified institutional factors were found to have significant influences on high-growth entrepreneurship in the intended directions, while access to technology was found to have the largest influence, and the regulatory framework also contributed substantially. This implies that the bureaucracy of the country has to consider all the identified factors when attempting to design a supportive institutional environment to stimulate high-growth entrepreneurship. However, the greatest results will be achieved by focusing specifically on the access to an extensive technological infrastructure and an effective regulatory framework. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

This research is a qualitative, autoethnographic study of antifragility in fragile spaces. It was written using data from Applied Theatre workshops, rehearsals and exercises; as well as questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and open discussions in focus groups with at-risk learners from Quintile 1-3 high schools, their educators, senior management staff, parents, caregivers and peers. Methodologically, social constructionism functioned as the schematic map that positioned the writing/writer between the self and others, and provided the philosophical scaffolding necessary to elucidate data analysis and interpretation. Institutional theory and organisational culture centered the analytical framework once thematic analysis had been conducted across the data sets. This reflexive, feminist paper exhumes and explores fragile spaces in Western Cape Quintile 1-3 schools, using drama and conscious, performed acts of vulnerability (on and off stage) as a means of activating antifragility in the performer and the observer. The data collection took place in the Western Cape in South Africa, and specifically refers to learners and their networks and blended learning ecosystems in that context. Noted conversants include Brown, Taleb and Butler. The findings of this study include a shift in how we define “success” in a fragile environment and an acknowledgment of antifragility as a strategy that is always in motion. Static achievement and a singular definition of learner excellence are shown to be the undesirable opposite of iterative antifragility and adaptive, holistic executive function and socio-cultural competence; and learner wholeness (as experienced and embodied by the learner themselves) is referred to as “flourishing”.

In light of the global mining industry’s record profits in 2011, this inquiry explored the institutional drivers of mining multinational’s subsidiaries overall performance. Using a lens of institutional theory, this inquiry explored why the subsidiaries of emerging mining multinationals have outperformed the subsidiaries of developed mining multinationals in emerging markets.The inquiry used Mann-Whitney U hypothesis testing to compare the financial performance of 46 emerging mining subsidiaries and 39 developed mining subsidiaries. The inquiry ran eight multiple regression models to test subsidiary performance variables against institutional variables obtained from the 2011/2012 Fraser Institute annual survey of mining companies.The findings support and add to the institutional and international business literature. Emerging multinational enterprises and their subsidiaries possess dynamic institutional capabilities which allows them to better manage institutional uncertainty than developed multinational enterprises and their subsidiaries in emerging markets. An institutional development model has been developed to assist managers of multinational enterprises reduce their institutional uncertainty in emerging markets. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

This study explored the role of institutions in countries that have improved their competitiveness in a short time period, under the framework of institutional theory. This study investigated how informal and formal institutions have evolved and interacted. The purpose of the study was to build on institutional theory by exploring the role and interaction of institutions in nations that have undergone institutional changes. A literature review was done to provide a foundation for the study. Case studies of Singapore and Finland – countries that have improved their competitiveness in a short time period – were done in this study. A number of documents in the public domain were observed: internet resources, reports, and studies on Singapore and Finland. The study concluded that countries that have improved their competitiveness achieved their goals through their own institutional mix and through interactions among institutions. Active interactions among institutions were based on broad coalition among actors and the directions of interactions in each country differed. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

The energy industry is facing serious pressure to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The purpose of this study was to investigate if there is a statistically significant correlation between certain institutional factors and type of environmental strategy employed by companies in the energy industry. The academic foundation upon which strategy was studied is Institutional Theory. Institutional theory is embedded in the school of sociology and prescribes that behaviour is a function of social norms and routines. At the organisational level, this translates to a high degree of interdependency between organisations and the environment which they operate in. The institutional factors selected for analysis in this study were economic growth, gross domestic product per capita, unemployment, poverty, income inequality, human development index, and national competitiveness. The environmental strategy of energy companies was categorised in two broad measures namely; carbon dioxide reduction and carbon independence. The study has found that there is no significant correlation between any of the institutional factors and combination of carbon reduction and independence strategies. However, an important finding is that the statistical significance of the bi-variate regression analysis increased considerably when national competitiveness was used as an explanatory variable of strategy.From this, it is concluded that it is critical to understand which institutional factors are expected to be determinants of strategy in the energy industry. More importantly, it is concluded that as energy is a primary requirement for national competitiveness, strategy in the energy industry is determined by a combination of factors and not just a single variable. This is an important distinction which must be clear in the mind of both policy makers and business leaders in the energy industry especially those who are seeking to expand into new markets. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted