The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual framework for the intermediation of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Governments may apply different form of support with the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual framework for the intermediation of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Governments may apply different form of support with the aim of increasing corporatization and internationalization of SOEs. The paper suggests a strategy based on institutional intermediation as the more efficient to drive corporatization and internationalization.
Design/methodology/approach
The research selected cases concerning SOEs in different industries in Europe in search of recurrences from a novel theoretical perspective. Among them, a case study concerning the Italian Space Agency explores the development of an institutional intermediary.
Findings
Government supports to SOEs appear in different forms and contribute to different results. A typology of the most recurrent forms shows three different types of actions governments have taken to support internationalization of firms. Intermediation seems the most suitable to trigger corporatization and internationalization.
Research limitations/implications
The study explores institutional intermediaries as a novel supporting strategy for governments. It proposes a novel concept based upon a single case study. Further research needs to test and verify the institutional intermediaries’ impact drawing on a larger sample and different contexts.
Originality/value
So far, few attempts have linked corporatization to globalization. The paper tries to fill this gap between corporatization and internationalization of SOEs. Its value is the provision of a novel view that includes institutional intermediaries as instrumental to governments’ strategy that aims to bridge the two components.
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Giuseppe De Luca and Matteo Landoni
The chapter presents the process of decision-making and the practice of international expansion of a family business in the nineteenth century. The Swiss family business Legler…
Abstract
The chapter presents the process of decision-making and the practice of international expansion of a family business in the nineteenth century. The Swiss family business Legler moved to the area near Bergamo, Italy, in 1875, and expanded its operation over multiple generations. This chapter explores the cognitive dimension of the internationalisation process, how culture and family ties are used to understand risk and opportunities, and how a family business interprets push and pull factors under the lens of cultural self-representation and meaning creation. The historical analysis shows the importance of economic, cultural, and family-driven factors in the process of decision-making and in the practice of going abroad and making internationalisation successful and long-lasting.
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Matteo Landoni, Daniela Bolzani and Alessandro Baroncelli
This chapter provides insights into the activities carried out by alumni in the domain of academic entrepreneurship. Given the increasing role of alumni in the support to…
Abstract
This chapter provides insights into the activities carried out by alumni in the domain of academic entrepreneurship. Given the increasing role of alumni in the support to entrepreneurial learning in universities and the scant evidence about their actual engagement into these initiatives, it explores the alumni organisations affiliated to the population of 58 alumni organisations in 55 higher education institutions (HEI) in Italy, particularly for the activities designed to support entrepreneurship. The authors explore and define services related to entrepreneurship for and from the alumni. Among others, alumni organisations or clubs help members in accessing networks with their peers for career opportunities and role modelling. The authors contribute to the increasing literature about the entrepreneurial university by documenting the activities carried out by alumni organisations to foster entrepreneurship at their parent HEI and promoting an entrepreneurial ecosystem. Universities must take into consideration that peer support can be as important for spreading entrepreneurial initiatives within universities as other more formal supporting measures.
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Paul Jones, Nikolaos Apostolopoulos, Alexandros Kakouris, Christopher Moon, Vanessa Ratten and Andreas Walmsley
Universities are increasingly looking at entrepreneurship as a way to bridge theory and practice. This is important in these challenging times when unexpected events and…
Abstract
Universities are increasingly looking at entrepreneurship as a way to bridge theory and practice. This is important in these challenging times when unexpected events and occurrences take place. It is becoming more important for universities to respond in an entrepreneurial manner to new trends to capitalise on learning and research opportunities. The aim of this chapter is to discuss how universities are acting in an entrepreneurial way by responding to educational and social challenges. This will help to understand fruitful new areas of teaching, research, service and engagement that can occur in a university setting based on entrepreneurial thinking.
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En Xie and K.S. Redding
The purpose of this paper is to introduce the special issue on state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the contemporary global business scenario. Against the theoretical background of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to introduce the special issue on state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the contemporary global business scenario. Against the theoretical background of and the invited themes for the special issue, the paper presents a summary of key findings and practical implications of the accepted papers and suggests future research directions.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is conceptual, which organized through utilitarianism or legitimism; SOEs scenario 1 – hungry fox, hunting bears; SOEs scenario 2 – dancing elephant, flying bears; what do we know and what we wish to explore; what have been examined; what we need to study further; closing note by bears’ well-wishers; and protocol of the special issue.
Findings
By deeply looking into emerging economies (China, India), developed economies (Denmark, Italy, Sweden), transition economies (Tunisia) and diverse sectors (public transport, space), coupled with cross-country sample data, the nine accepted papers have discussed several interesting findings and recommended numerous implications for the policymakers and SOEs’ managers. Drawing upon the interdisciplinary literature, empirical and qualitative papers would deepen the understanding of the growth strategies and performance of SOEs, and the application of management theories such as institutional theory, agency theory, social exchange theory, managerial grid theory, incomplete contracts theory and public governance view, among others. The issue also brings a review-cum-citation analysis paper on the impact of privatization on the performance of SOEs.
Originality/value
The papers have made unique contributions to the public economics, new public management, international business and organizational development literature by critically analyzing the burgeoning phenomenon of the changing dynamics and globalization of SOEs.
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Xinyue Zhou, Zhilin Yang, Michael R. Hyman, Gang Li and Ziaul Haque Munim
Amirali Shalwani and Brian Lines
The Project Management Body of Knowledge recommends the use of issue logs as a best practice to minimize the potential project cost and schedule growth. Although the broader topic…
Abstract
Purpose
The Project Management Body of Knowledge recommends the use of issue logs as a best practice to minimize the potential project cost and schedule growth. Although the broader topic of project control has been widely studied in the construction literature, the specific application of issue logs has remained relatively understudied. This study aims to analyze the extent and consistency with which construction teams utilize issue logs and the corresponding project performance outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
A dataset of 5,635 individual issues was gathered from the final issue logs of 881 small building projects delivered via the design–bid–build method. Differences between groups were determined using the Kruskal–Wallis H test with post hoc testing via the Mann–Whitney U test with pairwise comparison.
Findings
The results showed that, on average, project teams who used issue logs to a greater extent achieved a 3.1 to 4.3% reduction in cost growth and a 5.3 to 12.3% reduction in schedule growth. This result shows that issue logs can be used to improve construction project performance in the areas of cost and schedule.
Originality/value
This result provides a contribution to practitioners, wherein project teams should be encouraged to establish their issue management practices early in the project schedule to encourage greater issue log usage for the remainder of the project.
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Federico Caviggioli, Lucio Lamberti, Paolo Landoni and Paolo Meola
Evidence from previous literature indicates that adopting a new innovative technology has a positive impact on a company’s business performance. Much less work has been carried…
Abstract
Purpose
Evidence from previous literature indicates that adopting a new innovative technology has a positive impact on a company’s business performance. Much less work has been carried out into examining whether a technology adoption has impact on corporate reputation. This paper aims to examine the latter topic in a context where social media is the channel used to share news about the introduction of a new technology. The empirical setting of the study consists of five retail companies located in the USA that decided to include Bitcoin as a payment platform.
Design/methodology/approach
Twitter data were used to measure how sharing news about the adoption of new technology could affect the reputation of the companies selected, keeping a clear distinction between the volume of data relating to social media responses and the sentiment expressed in the tweets. A panel vector autoregression model was used to incorporate series of data relating to news items, volume and sentiment.
Findings
The results show that the news about the adoption of a new technology has a positive impact on both the volume of tech-related tweets and the sentiment expressed in the tweets themselves, although the patterns of these two effects are different. The resulting impact decreases after a few days, both in volume and in sentiment.
Research limitations/implications
The analysis has limitations that future research could address by extending and diversifying the examined companies and the social media used as data sources. The research suggests that managers in medium-sized companies can leverage on the introduction of new technologies that have a direct impact on their customers and gain reputational benefits in terms of immediate visibility.
Originality/value
The research introduces an additional dimension of analysis to the current stream of corporate reputation. Although the literature has already covered the dynamics of response to events on Twitter, by focusing on the adoption of the new Bitcoin technology, the paper provides novel insights.