Quang Vinh David Evansluong, Marcela Ramirez-Pasillas, Allan Discua Cruz, Maria Elo and Natalia Vershinina
Quang Evansluong, Marcela Ramirez Pasillas and Huong Nguyen Bergström
The purpose of this paper is to conduct an inductive case study to understand how the opportunity creation process leads to integration.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to conduct an inductive case study to understand how the opportunity creation process leads to integration.
Design/methodology/approach
It examines four cases of immigrant entrepreneurs of Cameroonian, Lebanese, Mexican and Assyrian origins who founded their businesses in Sweden. The study relies on process-oriented theory building and develops an inductive model of integration as an opportunity creation process.
Findings
The suggested model shows immigrants’ acculturation into the host society via three successive phases: breaking-ice, breaking-in and breaking-out. In the breaking-ice phase, immigrants trigger entrepreneurial ideas to overcome the disadvantages that they face as immigrants in the host country. In the breaking-in phase, immigrants articulate their entrepreneurial ideas by bonding with the ethnic community. In the breaking-out phase, the immigrants reorient their entrepreneurial ideas by desegregating them locally. The paper concludes by elaborating theoretical and practical implications of the research.
Originality/value
Immigrants act when they are socially excluded and discriminated in the labor market by developing business ideas and becoming entrepreneurs. By practicing the new language and accommodating native customers’ preferences, immigrants reorient their entrepreneurial ideas. The immigrants tailor their ideas to suit their new customers by strengthening their sense of belonging to the local community.
Details
Keywords
Olof Brunninge, Markus Plate and Marcela Ramirez-Pasillas
Purpose – This chapter explores the m+eaning and significance of family business social responsibilities (FBSRs) using a metasystem approach, placing emphasis on the role of the…
Abstract
Purpose – This chapter explores the m+eaning and significance of family business social responsibilities (FBSRs) using a metasystem approach, placing emphasis on the role of the family.
Design/Methodology/Approach – We employ a revelatory case study to investigate the complexity of family business (corporate) social responsibility. The main case, a German shoe retailer, is supplemented by other case illustrations that provide additional insights into FBSR.
Findings – To fully understand social responsibility in a family firm context, we need to include social initiatives that go beyond the actual family business as a unit. This FBSR connects family members outside and inside the business and across generations. As FBSR is formed through individual and family-level values, its character is idiosyncratic and contrasts the often standardized approaches in widely held firms.
Practical Implication – Family businesses need to go beyond the business as such when considering their engagement in social responsibility. Family ownership implies that all social initiatives conducted by family members, regardless if they are involved in the firm or not, are connected. This includes a shared responsibility for what family members do at present and have done in the past.
Details
Keywords
Anna Blombäck and Marcela Ramírez‐Pasillas
The purpose of this paper is to explore and analyze the logics at work when companies decide what corporate features to communicate; which eventually also accounts for their…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore and analyze the logics at work when companies decide what corporate features to communicate; which eventually also accounts for their corporate brands' identities.
Design/methodology/approach
As a case in point, the paper focuses on the concept of “family business” and investigates the rationale among companies to make particular reference to being such a company on their web sites – a decision the authors interpret as part of the corporate brand identity formation. Interviews are carried out with 14 CEOs in 12 small and medium‐sized family enterprises in a Swedish context. The paper employs a discourse analysis to distinguish patterns of corporate feature selection.
Findings
The results highlight how decisions that define corporate brand identity are not necessarily a consequence of rigorous marketing planning, but are sometimes made without concern for marketing matters. Three logics for the selection and formation of corporate brand identity features are identified: the habit, organic and intended logics. On account of these findings, a three logics model of corporate brand identity formation is developed, proposing differences between intuitive, emergent and strategic processes. In the intuitive process, managers construct brand identity based on tradition, instinctive beliefs and self‐perception. In the emergent process, the decision surfaces from active interplay between self‐perception among managers and the company's identity. In the strategic process, the decision is a product of an explicit brand strategy with focus on corporate communications.
Research limitations/implications
The sample size is small. No large firms are included. The paper focuses on one corporate feature, namely, being a family business.
Originality/value
Research on corporate brand identity is still largely conceptual. Drawing on empirical findings, this paper contributes to available theory and to practical insight.
Details
Keywords
Charmine E. J. Härtel, Neal M. Ashkanasy and Wilfred J. Zerbe