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The purpose of this paper is to discuss the transnational entrepreneurial activities of Colombian emigrants to the USA in the context of the Colombian government’s policies and initiatives aimed at encouraging and facilitating emigrants’ transnational entrepreneurship. It examines the profile of Colombian emigrants, the entrepreneurial transnational activities they pursue and the actual and potential role of the government in instigating and shaping these activities.

The paper analyzes data obtained from focus groups with migrant families and interviews with governmental officials and an expert researcher. It also evaluates secondary data sources relevant to the subject of the paper.

The impact of transnational activities of Colombian migrants upon Colombian economy and society is much lower compared with the activities of migrants in other countries and with the potential these activities could have for contributing to the economic development of Colombia. Possible causes of this include: the specific characteristics of the Colombian emigrant and entrepreneur profile, the fragmentation of transnational networks of the migrants and the lack of governmental strategies to support the development of transnational activities of migrants.

The paper contributes to the debates on emigrant–state relation through offering an analysis of migrant entrepreneurship, technology and knowledge transfer and investment activities of Colombian emigrants in the home country. It also provides recommendations for policy action and concrete government programs that might encourage greater involvement of Colombian migrants in high value-adding activities that could benefit the country’s development.

This paper aims to suggest a shift in thinking about how to improve gender inclusion in organizations, as well as offering a number of practical action points.

This paper takes a perspective based on the authors’ own ongoing research, as well as synthesis of existing insights into gender inclusion in organizations.

To retain top talent and improve organizational climate, the authors need to re-think how the authors measure the success of organizational inclusion policies. Specifically, the paper suggests moving from numbers and targets to looking at the quality of gender inclusion in the workplace. The paper explains why this shift in thinking is important and how to approach it in practice.

The paper provides strategic insights into and practical thinking about ways in which progressive organizations can continue to improve gender equality.

The paper makes a provocative call for a change of perspective on gender inclusion in organizations based on cutting-edge research and puts forward action points in an accessible format.

This editorial article aims to introduce the special issue of Critical Perspectives on International Business entitled “Critical perspectives on fair trade”.

The editorial provides a brief overview of the subject of fair trade, with an emphasis on the critical arguments that have been put forward in relation to the fair trade movement. It then locates the four papers included in this special issue within extant debates on fair trade.

While the fair trade movement has been attracting the attention of scholars for over a decade, there is still space and scope for academic debate, and especially for empirical studies focusing on different aspects of fair trade initiatives. This special issue contributes to addressing the current gap in critical studies of fair trade.

Further research on fair trade is needed to inform both academic thinking and policy.

The editorial fulfils an informative role of introducing the readers to the topics covered in the articles included in the special issue.

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualise the relationship between novels and organizational change and to introduce this special issue of the Journal of Organizational Change Management.

The themes of the special issue are discussed and each paper is introduced.

The relationship between novels and organizational change is a complex, iterative one that should be understood in its historical, political, economic and cultural context. If so understood, novels can enhance our understanding of organizational processes.

Although literature and representation in general have been discussed in studies of organization and management before, the specific literary form of the novel has not been theorised in relation to the question of novelty and organizational change.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the debate on the consequences of globalization, in particular the increasing disparity between the wealth of nations and individuals in society. It discusses mechanisms which lead to perpetuation and reinforcement of the situation in which, despite being characterized by inequalities and fragmentation, societies remain by and large cohesive and stable.

This article engages with the so‐called “Polanyi problem” and with Polanyi's and other authors’ responses to it. In the discussion, the analytical approach is adopted by reference to Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, in particular his concept of soma.

Using the metaphor of soma, developed into four interrelated dimensions, illustrations of social and organizational processes, which ensure sustainability of, and cohesion within, a society based on inequality and fragmentation, are indicated. It is argued that the existence of stratified societies, and inequalities of wealth within and between them, is accompanied by phenomena which support and sustain them.

Drawing upon literary fiction can offer valuable insights into issues pertinent to contemporary academic debate.

Engagement with Huxley's work provides an alternative way of contributing to the globalization debate and, in particular, to the literature addressing the so‐called “Polanyi problem”.

The purpose of this paper is to explore Thomas Pynchon's novel Against the Day as a symptomatology of organization and examine the (un)easy relationship between the novel and organization.

The novel is explored through three interrelated readings: first, the novel is considered as a representation of the gruesome nature of capitalist ordering; Second, the novel's textual strategies are examined to consider its co‐implication and knotting into the very logic of organization it abhors; Third, the novel is read as a search for other spaces haunting the broken machine of capitalist organizing.

The paper shows how Pynchon's writing and critique of capitalist organizing occupies an indeterminate space characterised by the ambivalence of ambivalence, where deciding upon its final meaning is a reductivist strategy ill suited to this complex text. Instead the novel functions through a complex process of displacement and emplacement.

Theoretically, the paper extends further the understanding of the relationship between literature and organization, challenging reductivist readings of this relationship to explore how the novel simultaneously emplaces and displaces the reader so that critique, as well as convention, are thoroughly unsettled.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the post‐colonial literature by addressing the phenomenon of language spread in relation to the spread of languages other than Polish within the Polish society since the end of the eighteenth century until the present.

The subject discussed here is approached from an historical perspective, through reference to literature and secondary data regarding the policies, practices and examples of language spread and linguistic imperialism in Poland throughout the history.

Through a comparative analysis across different periods in history, discussion of the Polish experience of language spread offers insights into its mechanisms and consequences for the society. It also shows how, since the collapse of socialism, Poland's socio‐economic transition has been accompanied by an increasing importance of the English language in the country, and how at present, the knowledge of English and access to it influences and is influenced by the existing social structures.

An awareness of the processes of language spread and of responses to them can help us better understand the historical mechanisms of transition from one set of social relations to another, and contribute to the understanding of post‐socialist change.

By applying the notions of language spread and linguistic imperialism to a geographical context different from that of the former British Empire, and by including, in addition to English, the historical spread of two other languages, namely German and Russian, within the Polish society, this paper contributes to the body of post‐colonial literature.

The purpose of this paper is to address the intensive spread of the English language in Central and Eastern Europe as an aspect of postsocialist transition.

The paper analyses the discourses and ideologies related to the spread of English in postsocialist Poland, drawing on insights from critical discourse analysis and language ideology. The empirical material discussed comprises newspaper articles dealing with the topic of language policy in Poland, with a focus on the media campaign, “battle for English”.

The paper finds that the spread of English is facilitated by powerful discourses propagating the knowledge of English together with the ideology of neo‐liberal economic and social transformation. The exploration of the discourses inherent in the story of the “battle for English” enables the links between the linguistic practices applied by individual actors and the ideologies conveyed by the discourses found in mainstream media to be made explicit.

An awareness of the mechanisms of discourse and ideology allows us to question both the drive behind and the social impact of the spread of English in Central and Eastern Europe.

The paper offers a novel theoretical and empirical contribution to the understanding on postsocialist transition.