The purpose of this article is to reassert the status of language as a topic of major interest to researchers in the light of the rise of the transnational corporation.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to reassert the status of language as a topic of major interest to researchers in the light of the rise of the transnational corporation.
Design/methodology/approach
This article reviews recent literature and case study evidence in order to track an important shift taking place in the status of language management.
Findings
The emergence of the transnational corporation transforms the nature and significance of language from a minor issue into one that impacts on a company's core competencies.
Research limitations/implications
The literature remains sparse and case studies limited in number. In depth investigation into the language management practices of transnational corporations is called for in order to test the hypotheses of this paper.
Practical implications
Language will generate greater interest as a research topic as the transnational model is implemented, and more sophisticated language management practices will emerge as a result, with the promise of delivering a competitive advantage.
Originality/value
The inter‐relationship between language management and the transnational model of global corporations has not been asserted in the literature up to this point.
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This article outlines the development of a records continuum model initially developed as a teaching tool to communicate evidence‐based approaches to archives and records…
Abstract
This article outlines the development of a records continuum model initially developed as a teaching tool to communicate evidence‐based approaches to archives and records management. The continuum is being used in Australia as a metaphor to assist in getting records management ‘right’ in recordkeeping environments built around electronic communications, and the model supports this endeavour. It extends the concept of the continuum beyond metaphor, representing the case for viewing it in its fuller spacetime meanings as a worldview. In this form, the continuum is potentially a technologically driven paradigm shift within all information management and systems practice. There is a new game developing and the concept of the continuum can help us re‐organise our knowledge for that game. This article will discuss the diversity of records management theory and practice. It will look at the meanings of the continuum and my own model of it, including the differences between a worldview and a detailed view. Three other continuum models are presented. A continuum ‘patrol and control’ strategy for analysis is outlined briefly, and represents a point at which my own approach to the continuum is taking off into more detailed practical considerations in records management education and training.
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Marc Oberhauser and Marcus Conrad
Self-inflicted crises (SIC)– either intentionally induced or at least carelessly accepted – can tremendously damage a corporation’s reputation and legitimacy in the eyes of the…
Abstract
Self-inflicted crises (SIC)– either intentionally induced or at least carelessly accepted – can tremendously damage a corporation’s reputation and legitimacy in the eyes of the stakeholders. While academia usually advices companies to accept full responsibility, practice shows that by far not all companies rely on such a responsible strategy. In practice, corporations choose various response strategies ranging from apologies, over diminishing approaches to full denials. By investigating a large data set embracing several countries and industries covering 696 cases of SIC, the authors analyze how corporations respond to such events and compare these response strategies across countries and types of crises.
This book chapter follows a domain-spanning approach by combining corporate social responsibility (CSR), crisis management, and stakeholder management to investigate how companies aim at solving crises. Drawing on attribution theory and situational crisis communication theory, the results reveal that corporations often do not follow the prevailing recommendation to take responsibility. The authors find that in the majority of cases, internationally active corporations try to deny or diminish their responsibility for the crises. Hence, the findings suggest that the concept of CSR is not working in the case of SIC since not only the existence of such corporate behavior but also the use of denial and diminish strategies contradicts the idea of corporate responsibility. Moreover, the authors shed light on possible differences and preferences toward a specific response strategy between countries and between different types of crises.
The authors contribute to the growing literature in the field of crisis management and crisis response strategies by investigating a large data set embracing several countries and industries. In this regard, the study differs from previous qualitative studies and experimental research as it is based on a large cross-country and cross-company set of secondary data. Thereby, the study allows drawing conclusions for a wide range of corporations and countries, hence increasing its general applicability.
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Steven A. Brieger and Dirk De Clercq
The purpose of this paper is to provide a better understanding of how the interplay of individual-level resources and culture affects entrepreneurs’ propensity to adopt social…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a better understanding of how the interplay of individual-level resources and culture affects entrepreneurs’ propensity to adopt social value creation goals.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a sample of 12,685 entrepreneurs in 35 countries from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, it investigates the main effects of individual-level resources – measured as financial, human and social capital – on social value creation goals, as well as the moderating effects of the cultural context in which the respective entrepreneur is embedded, on the relationship between individual-level resources and social value creation goals.
Findings
Drawing on the resource-based perspective and Hofstede’s cultural values framework, the results offer empirical evidence that individual-level resources are relevant for predicting the extent to which entrepreneurs emphasise social goals for their business. Furthermore, culture influences the way entrepreneurs allocate their resources towards social value creation.
Originality/value
The study sheds new light on how entrepreneurs’ individual resources influence their willingness to create social value. Moreover, by focussing on the role of culture in the relationship between individual-level resources and social value creation goals, it contributes to social entrepreneurship literature, which has devoted little attention to the interplay of individual characteristics and culture.
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Zhiying Lian, Ning Wang and Gillian Oliver
The purpose of this paper is to report findings from an investigation on the information culture and recordkeeping in two Chinese companies, exploring the interaction between…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to report findings from an investigation on the information culture and recordkeeping in two Chinese companies, exploring the interaction between information culture and recordkeeping.
Design/methodology/approach
On the basis of systematic literature review, this research investigates the information culture and recordkeeping in two Chinese companies by conducting in-depth interviews with the staff of the two companies.
Findings
The attitude of the leadership and the staff towards records and information is different in the result-oriented information culture and rule-following culture. If a company aims to stay innovative and competitive, an information culture that can facilitate the good governance of records and information should be developed, and information professionals can play a key role in working towards this.
Originality/value
As a qualitative study of information culture and recordkeeping in Chinese companies, this paper provides the insight into the interaction between information culture and recordkeeping, demonstrates the impact of information culture on information governance and identifies the factors influencing information culture in an organization.
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Derrick Boakye, David Sarpong, Dirk Meissner and George Ofosu
Cyber-attacks that generate technical disruptions in organisational operations and damage the reputation of organisations have become all too common in the contemporary…
Abstract
Purpose
Cyber-attacks that generate technical disruptions in organisational operations and damage the reputation of organisations have become all too common in the contemporary organisation. This paper explores the reputation repair strategies undertaken by organisations in the event of becoming victims of cyber-attacks.
Design/methodology/approach
For developing the authors’ contribution in the context of the Internet service providers' industry, the authors draw on a qualitative case study of TalkTalk, a British telecommunications company providing business to business (B2B) and business to customer (B2C) Internet services, which was a victim of a “significant and sustained” cyber-attack in October 2015. Data for the enquiry is sourced from publicly available archival documents such as newspaper articles, press releases, podcasts and parliamentary hearings on the TalkTalk cyber-attack.
Findings
The findings suggest a dynamic interplay of technical and rhetorical responses in dealing with cyber-attacks. This plays out in the form of marshalling communication and mortification techniques, bolstering image and riding on leader reputation, which serially combine to strategically orchestrate reputational repair and stigma erasure in the event of a cyber-attack.
Originality/value
Analysing a prototypical case of an organisation in dire straits following a cyber-attack, the paper provides a systematic characterisation of the setting-in-motion of strategic responses to manage, revamp and ameliorate damaged reputation during cyber-attacks, which tend to negatively shape the evaluative perceptions of the organisation's salient audience.
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Abstract
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Claretha Hughes, Lionel Robert, Kristin Frady and Adam Arroyos
Jonathan Calof, Dirk Meissner and Konstantin Vishnevskiy
This paper aims to provide a detailed case study of a corporate foresight for innovation (CFI) project done by the Higher School of Economics’ (HSE) (Moscow, Russia) corporate…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide a detailed case study of a corporate foresight for innovation (CFI) project done by the Higher School of Economics’ (HSE) (Moscow, Russia) corporate foresight (CF) unit for a large state-owned Russian service company. It demonstrates how CFI methods lead to recommendations and how these recommendations result in decisions.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing from being part of the project team, review of the project documents and interviews, the case describes a multi-phased CFI project which incorporated several CF methods. Techniques used for the project itself included grand challenges and trend analysis, analysis of best practices through use of benchmarking and horizon scanning, interviews, expert panels, wild card and weak signals analysis, cross impact analysis, SWOT and backcasting. The project used a broad-base of secondary information, expert panels consisting of company experts and HSE CF team personnel, interviews with senior management and an extensive literature review using HSE’s propriety iFORA system.
Findings
In all 17 CFI recommendation and over 100 implementation recommendations were made; 94 per cent of the CFI recommendations were accepted with most implemented at the time this case was written. The case also identifies five enabling factors that collectively both helped the CFI project and led to a high rate of recommendation acceptance and one factor that hindered CFI project success.
Practical implications
The case study provides detailed information and insight that can help others in conducting CF for innovation projects and establishes a link between CF methods and innovation-based recommendations and subsequent decisions.
Originality/value
In-depth case studies that show academe and practitioners how CFI leads to recommendations and is linked to subsequent decisions have been identified as a gap in the literature. This paper therefore seeks to address this need by presenting a detailed CF case for a corporate innovation project.
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Nicholous M. Deal, Milorad M. Novicevic, Albert J. Mills, Caleb W. Lugar and Foster Roberts
This paper aims to find common ground between the supposed incompatible meta-historical positioning of positivism and post-positivism through a turn to mnemohistory in management…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to find common ground between the supposed incompatible meta-historical positioning of positivism and post-positivism through a turn to mnemohistory in management and organizational history.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on the idea of creative synthesis and positioning theory, the authors interject concepts from cultural memory studies in historical research on business and organizations to encourage management historians and organization theorists interested in joining the dialogue around how the past is known in the present. Using notions of “aftermath” and “events,” the idea of apositivism is written into historical organization studies to focus on understanding the complex ways of how past events translate into history. The critical historic turn event is raised as an exemplar of these ideas.
Findings
The overview of the emergence of the controversial historic turn in management and organization studies and the positioning of its adherents and antagonists revealed that there may be some commonality between the fragmented sense of the field. It was revealed that effective history vis-à-vis mnemohistory may hold the potential of a shared scholarly ethic.
Originality/value
The research builds on recent work that has sought to bring together the boundaries of management and organizational history. This paper explains how mnemohistory can offer a common position that is instrumental for theorizing the relationships among the past-infused constructs such as organizational heritage, legacy and identity.