Comparative International Management

Comparative International Management Summary book + lectures 1 - 12 (2024 Tilburg University) Arndt Sorge / Niels Noorderhaven 3rd edition 2023 English

9781032194875 

Pages book: 520

This summary: 68

Reading time: 180 min. 1 / 4

Contents Lecture 1: Introduction to the Approaches to Comparative International Management.........3 Contingency an uncertain occurrence, unexpected event, emergency.......................................4 Particularistic Theories – cultural approach.........................................................................................4 Antecedent condition......................................................................................................................................5 Particularistic Theories – institutional approach................................................................................5 Globalization.......................................................................................................................................................7 Lecture 2: Institutions.........................................................................................................................................8 Lecture 3: The Societal Environment and Economic Development...............................................10 The Economist’s point of view..................................................................................................................10 The Weber Thesis..........................................................................................................................................11 Deterrence scaring off..................................................................................................................................12 Lecture 4: Comparative Corporate Governance.....................................................................................15 Corporate Governance – a societal explanation of major capitalist models...........................16 The Anglo-Saxon Model...............................................................................................................................16 The Rhineland model....................................................................................................................................17 The Japanese model of corporate governance...................................................................................20 Lecture 5&6: National Cultures and Management................................................................................26 Methodological Dilemmas..........................................................................................................................27 The Etic Approach..........................................................................................................................................30 Hofstede’s defence.........................................................................................................................................32 Hierarchy versus egalitarianism..............................................................................................................34 Cultural clusters..............................................................................................................................................37 The Emic Approach.......................................................................................................................................37 National Cultures and Cross-cultural Negotiations..........................................................................37 Lecture 7: Managing Resources: National Innovation Systems.......................................................39 Technological Advancement: a Taxonomy..........................................................................................39 The American Innovation System...........................................................................................................42 The Japanese Innovation System.............................................................................................................44 The German Innovation System...............................................................................................................46 The French innovation system.................................................................................................................48 Parochialism.....................................................................................................................................................49 Lectures 8,9,10&11: Multinational Corporations: Structural Issues..............................................51 The Internationalization Processes of MNCs......................................................................................52 Coordination and Control within MNCs................................................................................................57 Knowledge Management in the MNC.....................................................................................................60 The MNC and Cultural and Institutional Differences.......................................................................62 Lecture 12: Networks and Clusters of Economic Activity..................................................................65 Balancing Competition and Cooperation..............................................................................................65 Networks from a Theoretical Perspective............................................................................................66 Network Theory: structural hole theory..............................................................................................67 2 / 4

Embeddedness................................................................................................................................................69 From Networks to Clusters........................................................................................................................69 Porter’s concept of clusters........................................................................................................................70

Lecture 1: Introduction to the Approaches to Comparative International

Management Introduction to the theoretical debate Comparative international management is concerned with the study of management and organization in different societal settings. Consequently, comparisons focus on the interplay between societal settings on the one hand, and various management and organizational forms and processes on the other.This course focuses on the differences in management and organizations that are caused by nationally determined variables and that exist despite similarities in technology, environment, strategies, etc.Theories that try to answer how we can explain differences can be divided into

two categories: (1) universalistic theories, and (2) particularistic theories.

Universalistic theories claim that the phenomena of management and organization are subject to the same universal ‘laws’ everywhere in the world.Particularistic theories, conversely, posit that organization and management in different countries can differ fundamentally, and that different explanations are necessary for different countries.Universalistic theories tend to predict that cross-national differences in management and organization will disappear in the future, driven by globalization. Worldwide competitive pressure stimulates ‘best practices’, regardless of nationality of the company, management or employees. Existing cross-national differences are seen as temporary disequilibria.Particularistic theories predict that cross-national differences in management and organization will persist. The reason is that management and organization reflect expectations and preferences that differ between countries.Furthermore, these theories imply that history matters, as national systems of management and organization are path-dependent.Contingency theory is an influential universalistic approach. Two important particularistic approaches are the cultural and institutional approaches.Universalistic and particularistic theories should not be seen as mutually exclusive; rather they usefully complement each other. For example, contingency theory permits researchers to highlight cultural or societal differences by controlling for the stable relationships identified between countries such as size, degree of dependency, production technology, or availability of products. However, cultural and institutional approaches could also be seen as complementary and could best be integrated into one single framework. Within the cultural approach there has been made little effort to accomplish this, however institutional researchers are more and more incorporating culture into their theoretical ideas. They only lack the analytical tools to address the concept of culture in a satisfactory way. The approach adopted in this course is to use a framework that integrates institutional and cultural perspectives. 3 / 4

Universalistic Theories – contingency perspective The contingency approach was developed by the Aston School from the 1960s onwards (Hickson & Pugh). Structural contingency theory refers to research done on organizational structure and posits that – given similar circumstances – organizational structure can be expected to be very much the same wherever it is located. This theory further posits that if organizations want to be successful, they should structure in response to a series of demands or contingencies posed by the scale of operations.Contingency an uncertain occurrence, unexpected event, emergency Table 2 – page 5.Mechanistic structure; hierarchical, centralized, formalized; low rate of market & technological change Organic structure; participatory, decentralized, unformalized; high rate of market and technological change Each of the contingencies (environment, technology, and size) affects a particular aspect in structure change of contingencies; change in structure. Organizations move their structures into alignment with each of the contingencies mentioned  structure and contingencies are associated.Cultural and societal specifics are perceived as negligible. Contingency theory claims that variance in structure is due to contingencies and not to societal or cultural location. Deviations are explained by the fact that some organizations (in some cultures) need to catch up their structure with contingencies.

Strengths:

1.The theory is straightforward and the methodology is highly standardized 2.The various dependent and independent variables are operationalized so that they can be quantified and measured precisely

Weaknesses:

1.It does not give a clear explanation for the correlation between structure and contingencies 2.The theoretical status of contingencies has remained uncertain 3.Contingency theory focuses on formal structures and neglects informal structures 4.It evolved from western traditions of rational design of organizations and from research in Anglo-American institutional settings.Particularistic Theories – cultural approach The cultural approach has developed as an opposite of the contingency approach to overcome the biases of culture-free researchers that did not take into consideration the behaviour of people within the organization. The development was also stimulated by globalization; non-static structures & individual cross-cultural interactions.Cross-cultural research takes place at two distinct levels of analysis:

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