Fahim Anwar, Bella B. Nujen and Hans Solli-Sæther
This paper aims to provide a focused review of international business (IB) literature on research and development (R&D) internationalization, assessing the progress and proposing…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide a focused review of international business (IB) literature on research and development (R&D) internationalization, assessing the progress and proposing future research directions.
Design/methodology/approach
Total 167 peer-reviewed articles from IB journals (following the ABS list 2021 from 4* to 2) published between 1996 and 2022 are critically reviewed using a science-mapping approach. This paper used Bibliometrix R-package to analyze the retrieved bibliometric data. Additionally, a strategic diagram was developed to comprehend the maturity stage of various R&D internationalization concepts.
Findings
Most studies on R&D internationalization are influenced by perspectives from advanced-economy multinational enterprises (AMNEs), while perspectives from emerging-economy multinational enterprises (EMNEs) are underrepresented. Considering the characteristics of emerging economies, firms from these locations might embark on and develop their R&D internationalization strategies differently. Investigating the emerging economy perspectives will enrich the understanding of R&D internationalization strategies for both AMNEs and EMNEs. Additionally, bringing different underutilized theoretical perspectives will help to untangle the anomalies observed in extant literature.
Originality/value
This paper is among the few to scrutinize the IB literature on R&D internationalization by applying a unique combination of bibliometric techniques and a content analysis approach. By complementing existing reviews and providing fresh insights into the phenomenon, it offers a conceptual framework that can be used as a basis for further research on R&D internationalization.
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Julia V. Bondeli, Malena I. Havenvid and Hans Solli-Sæther
This paper aims to explore corrupt exchange as a type of socioeconomic interaction in private–public relationships and its effects on material flow in connected private-private…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore corrupt exchange as a type of socioeconomic interaction in private–public relationships and its effects on material flow in connected private-private relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on a case study of a private–public network of an import firm in Russia. It focusses on corrupt exchange in routine interactions between the firm’s managers and officials in three regulatory authorities.
Findings
The study reveals how different types of corrupt exchange between firm managers, officials and intermediaries serve as a problem-solving tool that facilitates material flow through bureaucratic gates.
Research limitations/implications
The paper contributes to the industrial marketing and purchasing research by showing how the social capital concept is useful for explicating mechanisms of socioeconomic interaction in business networks and how the interaction context conditions actors’ roles and interdependencies.
Practical implications
The paper raises practitioners’ awareness of corrupt exchange in business networks and enables them to anticipate and manage upcoming challenges in bureaucratic procedures.
Social implications
The study shows how networks’ non-transparent and manipulative tendencies may provide favourable conditions for corruption in the business landscape.
Originality/value
The study provides a unique empirical insight into the socioeconomic mechanisms of corrupt exchange in business networks. It contributes theoretically by conceptualising corrupt officials as taking on the role of quasi-business actors in the personal possession of administrative authority as a resource and by using a novel conceptualisation of social capital to study private–public interaction in business networks.
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Bella Belerivana Nujen, Deodat Edward Mwesiumo, Hans Solli-Sæther, Andrea Blindheim Slyngstad and Lise Lillebrygfjeld Halse
The purpose of this study is to delineate key aspects of backshoring readiness and discuss how such aspects contribute to a smooth shift-back from global sourcing operations. It…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to delineate key aspects of backshoring readiness and discuss how such aspects contribute to a smooth shift-back from global sourcing operations. It aims to answer the following questions: which factors constitute backshoring readiness and how these factors affect the backshoring transition.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on theory departure from the organizational readiness field and the emerging field on backshoring, a conceptual model is developed. A multiple qualitative case study is then conducted to exemplify the backshoring readiness factors delineated in the study.
Findings
The study indicates that due to previous outsourcing, limitations concerning the availability of firms’ capabilities are affected by ownership structures and that backshoring appears to be time-sensitive. The study delineates three key aspects of backshoring readiness and proposes a comprehensive understanding of readiness as an important construct to enhance successful backshoring.
Research limitations/implications
The findings are limited by the nature of this conceptual study, the restriction to a high-cost context and the small number of cases. Therefore, conclusions and proposed recommendations need to be further investigated in preferably larger samples of case studies.
Practical implications
By introducing contextual variables that go beyond traditional cost considerations, this work should be of special interest for both practitioners and academics, because the absorptive capacity for the exploitation of cutting-edge knowledge is globally scarce and hence rather expensive in Western countries compared with traditionally low-cost countries. Another practical contribution of this study is the conceptual backshoring readiness framework itself, as it can guide firms acquainting themselves with the resource availability in their home environment.
Originality/value
The research defines key resources needed to facilitate backshoring readiness in a conceptual framework developed from literature, which is then exemplified by a case study. This framework conceptualizes backshoring readiness as aspects of requirements to knowledge, technology and supplier infrastructures. Furthermore, the readiness framework developed provides firms and their managers with six recommendations that can enable a rigorous evaluation of a firm’s readiness to embark on backshoring and reflect on the aspect of fitness of its current strategies.
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Julia V. Bondeli, Malena Ingemansson Havenvid and Hans Solli-Sæther
This paper aims to refine conceptual treatment of the social facet in business relationships and reinforce its significance in the industrial marketing and purchasing (IMP…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to refine conceptual treatment of the social facet in business relationships and reinforce its significance in the industrial marketing and purchasing (IMP) research tradition by integrating the concept of social capital in its original interpretation into the actor-resource-activity (ARA) model.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper begins by indicating some typical conceptual challenges associated with application of social capital in IMP. This is followed by a conceptual clarification that explores the origin and the essence of social capital in economic sociology. Finally, the paper proposes integrating social capital in its original interpretation into IMP’s ARA model and presents four propositions on how social capital is created in interaction between business actors.
Findings
The paper shows how bridging Bourdieu’s theory of social capital with the IMP approach may solve the identified conceptual challenges. This paper’s main contribution is a cyclical model depicting how social capital is created in business networks. It is integrated into the ARA model and designed specifically for studying the social facet of business relationships.
Research limitations/implications
The paper is expected to aid IMP researchers in empirical contexts where the social component in business relationships is particularly prominent. As such, the novel approach presented could be used to further understand how social exchange processes are related to relationship governance, relationship initiation and development.
Originality/value
The proposed model shows how social capital is generated through the dynamic interplay in the social facets of actor, activity and resource dimensions, emphasising its creation dynamics. The model integrates insights from the classic works in economic sociology to strengthen the social side of IMP’s socioeconomic interface and is intended to be used as a tool for empirical application.
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Hans Solli‐Sæther and Petter Gottschalk
This research is concerned with the validation of a maturity model for information technology outsourcing relationships. The paper aims to focus on this research.
Abstract
Purpose
This research is concerned with the validation of a maturity model for information technology outsourcing relationships. The paper aims to focus on this research.
Design/methodology/approach
This research is validating the cost, resource and partnership stages, respectively, as maturity stages in outsourcing relationships developed and proposed by Gottschalk and Solli‐Sæther.
Findings
First, stages of growth and benchmark variables were validated. Then, the evolving path of growth was examined. Limited support for the stage of growth model was found.
Practical implications
This paper suggests a broad range of organizational activities and structures to guide development from one stage of maturity to the next. To stimulate growth developments, individuals and organizations have to understand and experience transitional events in relationship maturity.
Originality/value
Validation procedure linking stages to benchmark variables is presented. Future empirical research should rephrase some of the authors benchmark variables as well as measurement issues concerned with stages of growth.
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Petter Gottschalk and Hans Solli‐Sæther
The purpose of this paper is to show how stages of growth models have been applied to a number of organizational phenomena in management research. One class of models consists of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to show how stages of growth models have been applied to a number of organizational phenomena in management research. One class of models consists of maturity models for IT outsourcing relationships. There is a need for an improved theoretical foundation for stage models.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a literature review of theory research as well as stage research, a stage of growth theory is proposed in this paper. Also, a procedure for stages of growth modeling is suggested.
Findings
A theoretical foundation for stages of growth models enables trust worthier modeling.
Research limitations/implications
Future research modeling organizational phenomena can follow the suggested modeling procedure. This paper can be used in teaching by discussing industrial management phenomena along stages of growth by applying dominant problems and benchmark variables.
Practical implications
In strategy work, this paper helps in providing a framework for assessing current stage as well as determining future strategic direction for an industrial organization.
Originality/value
Theory development in this paper includes four important propositions on which this theory is based.
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Petter Gottschalk and Hans Solli‐Sæther
The purpose of this research paper is to present a maturity model for IT outsourcing relationships.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research paper is to present a maturity model for IT outsourcing relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on organizational theories and outsourcing practices, this research identified cost stage, resource stage and partnership stage as maturity stages in outsourcing relationships.
Findings
First, relationships focus on economic benefits, then there are concerns about access to competence, and finally the development of norms and alliance management are the main focus. Benchmark variables for each stage are suggested. Future research might apply this framework to empirically test the evolution of IT outsourcing relationships.
Practical implications
Managing successful IT outsourcing relationships requires a consistent understanding of maturity stage between vendor and client in the relationship.
Originality/value
This paper suggests that a long‐term IT outsourcing relationship will shift focus as it matures. The original value of the paper is the theory‐based stage model having implications for managers in understanding the current and desired situation for an outsourcing relationship.
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The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into how individuals are affected by an outsourcing arrangement. The aim of this exploratory case study was to develop an…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into how individuals are affected by an outsourcing arrangement. The aim of this exploratory case study was to develop an understanding of individual level role stress and work outcomes among transferred employees in IT outsourcing relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
A research model was developed based on role theory. Through a field survey conducted in one outsourcing vendor, the research confirms the hypothesis that proposes role stress as prevalent among transferred information technology (IT) employees.
Findings
Perceived role stress was found to influence behavioural work outcomes measured as task performance, turnover intention, and affective commitment. The effect of role stress on work outcomes indicates that carefully crafted outsourcing strategies must take into account the unique position of transferred IT employees since the outsourcing arrangement may affect their work outcome.
Originality/value
The original value of the paper is the use of role theory to extend the scientific research and theory of outsourcing and inform managers of outsourcing decisions. The study is applied at the individual level, which is new in the sense that most outsourcing studies are applied at the organisational level.
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Lise Lillebrygfjeld Halse, Bella Belerivana Nujen and Hans Solli-Sæther
Based on in-depth case studies from a high-cost environment, we identify context-specific aspects as important motivating factors for decision-makers re-evaluating the previous…
Abstract
Based on in-depth case studies from a high-cost environment, we identify context-specific aspects as important motivating factors for decision-makers re-evaluating the previous offshoring decisions. This chapter sheds light on the complexity of backshoring motives by adding a meso level, illustrating how case companies’ sourcing decisions evolve alongside the institutional context at a regional level. Further, the chapter provides a deeper understanding of the motives that underlay backshoring decisions and argues that these motivating factors differ from a broader set of drivers that can be found within the existing frameworks of backshoring.
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Petter Gottschalk and Hans Solli‐Sæther
The purpose of this empirical study of financial crime in business organizations is to create insights into management competence, applications of information technology and use…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this empirical study of financial crime in business organizations is to create insights into management competence, applications of information technology and use of information sources to combat financial crime.
Design/methodology/approach
This empirical research was carried out by a web‐based questionnaire combined with a letter to the largest business organizations in Norway.
Findings
Executives demonstrate competence in crime prevention by introducing control mechanisms and reporting routines. However, when suspicion of crime occurs, executives are not competent in carrying out interviews, investigate documents and find electronic evidence.
Practical implications
Executives need to focus less on routines and regulations and more on information sources and knowledge management.
Originality/value
Both descriptive statistics as well as correlation analysis in this paper provide new insights into the extent of financial crime, as well as competence, information sources and systems in a developed economy such as Norway.