Search results

This paper aims to develop a conceptual framework and presents a number of propositions relating to why and how multinational companies (MNCs) engage in social innovations. The central focus is on the role of MNC knowledge, networks and power for their involvement in social innovations.

The authors combine literature on social innovations, business innovations and MNC literature, and present a number of propositions dealing with the link between MNC knowledge, networks and power-relations and their potential involvement in social innovations.

The authors emphasize that when social innovations are embraced by MNCs, the way that these corporations use their knowledge, networks and existing power-relations needs to be adapted to the new conditions present in the social innovation arena.

The main limitation of this work is that the propositions are based on anecdotal evidence and that they are restricted to literature revolving around a few theoretical concepts (knowledge, networks, power). Against this, the authors suggest that to address the call for more empirical work on MNCs engagement in social innovation, these concepts could be used as a starting point in future empirical investigations.

The paper brings together and outlines a theoretical framework based on three theoretical approaches to the MNC as suggested by the literature: the knowledge-based MNC, differentiated MNC and political MNC. Based on these three perspectives, the key contribution of this paper is to develop a broader understanding of why and how MNCs engage in social innovation and the potential underlying liabilities for this involvement.

Purpose – The chapter aims at enhancing our understanding on how the headquarters involvement and subsidiary entrepreneurship during the innovation development process of multinational corporation (MNC) subsidiaries affect the outcome of the innovation in terms of their home market- and organisational performance.

Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on cross-sectional questionnaire survey data from 87 innovation projects in 64 MNC subsidiaries located in Europe, East Asia and the United States.

Findings – Subsidiary entrepreneurship during the innovation process has a positive impact on the subsidiary's market performance and a negative impact on its organisational performance, whereas the involvement of corporate headquarters has a negative impact on the market performance, and a positive impact on the organisational performance.

Research implications – The research provides a starting point for further research on the relationship between the management of innovation processes among MNC subsidiaries and the performance outcomes of such processes.

Practical implications – The study implies that there is a need for corporate managers to take into account the entrepreneurial endeavour of subsidiaries when formulating corporate innovation strategies.

Originality/value: Integrates a top-down and bottom-up perspective on the strategic management of innovation development processes in MNC subsidiaries.

Surprise family vacations have become increasingly prevalent in today’s digitally mediated consumer culture. Drawing on a performance-based view of tourism, this paper aims to explore the performance practices and embodied experiences by which young consumers are the recipients of last-minute surprise vacations.

YouTube offers a space for examining surprise family vacations, as captured in real time by consumers. The visual elements and verbal discourses of 139 surprise family vacation reveal videos were analyzed using a hermeneutical approach.

Findings suggest that surprise family vacations are characterized by three performance practices in which embodied tensions arise between normative expectations and unanticipated experiences: executing the reveal (scripted act versus improvised act), announcing the destination (absolute ideal versus relative ideal) and reacting to the surprise (initial acceptance versus initial rejection).

By exploring a phenomenon in which children’s anticipation for a vacation is largely absent or limited, surprise family vacations reveal culturally idealized norms and performative practices in family tourism. Positioning a family vacation as an offering or surprise for the children is distinct from previous research, which suggests family vacations are co-created. Children of all ages experience tourism-related stresses and anxieties.

The primary practical contribution for marketers lies in revealing how the material and performative practices of a family vacation begins even before a family enters its tourist destination. Service providers and retailers may provide offerings for families to support surprise family vacations, particularly in an increasingly digital culture. This study also reveals opportunities for parents to strategically discuss surprise vacations with their kids.

This study captures the liminal moment in which a child’s tourism journey begins. By using YouTube as a resource for digital ethnography, researchers can better understand how families discuss, negotiate and mediate tourism-oriented concepts, through their lived experiences.

This chapter explores the perceptions that custodians of African cultures such as parents, grand-parents, village chiefs, and other community leaders hold regarding what higher education institutions ought to achieve for their children, and the extent to which these final ends are being, or can be, achieved through teaching and learning in cyberspace. Using the African context of Botswana as a reference point, the chapter situates learning and teaching practices online in the context of culture. After exploring the literature on cultural worldviews, African expectations of higher education, and online pedagogy and technology, the chapter documents the understandings and perceptions of the final ends that higher education institutions ought to pursue held by 39 village chiefs, community leaders, and parents from different cultural groups and communities. Evidence from phenomenological interviews revealed that Africans held that Afro-communal purposes for higher education in which promoting virtue, supporting culture, facilitating cooperation, and contributing to socio-economic development were seen as the paramount final ends for higher education institutions. The findings support Metz’s (2019) theoretical model of the ends of African higher education institutions. The chapter argues that, for online pedagogy in African universities and colleges to be successful, it should be grounded in collectivism where emphasis is given to the use of synchronous communication systems for the delivery of learning experiences, pedagogical practices are framed within community of practice, students are exposed to education for morality to foster a deeper sense of being real humans, and a socio-economic development agenda is emphasised.

The use of recycled aggregates (RA) has been explored to lead to a more sustainable future. The paper investigates on a sustainable concrete mix incorporating steel fibres (SF) and RA to provide an alternative to traditional natural aggregate concrete for structural applications. This paper aims to explore the feasibility of combining RA and SF in structural applications in terms of strength, cost and industry perspectives.

A mixed research approach is established with two phases. Phase 1 aims to identify an optimum material combination that satisfies the structural strength requirements and to identify the costs in its optimum combination. Phase 2 involves qualitative interviews with key industry parties to explore their perspective and identify various enablers and barriers for this material.

The optimum combination of 30 per cent RA replacement and 0.3 SF volume content has been identified through laboratory testing. It was noted that there would be a direct additional cost because of SF addition. However, when other benefits such as reduction in transportation costs and landfill dumping fees were considered, an overall cost saving could be achieved. Consequently, the key industry practitioners’ perspectives for this material have been gathered through qualitative interviews. Several enablers and barriers were identified through these interviews.

Even though, there are various research attempts on improving RA for structural purpose by adding different additives, a holistic study that incorporate cost effects and the industry perspectives was lacking and is addressed in this current study. In particular, industry perspectives lead to refocus research directions and get closer to the realisation of a sustainable construction industry.

This paper aims to explain the discrepancy between pro-environmental intentions and behaviors with moderating effects of two socio-cultural values (espoused individualism and faith in others) on the link between intentions and actual behaviors to save electricity.

An online survey of 303 consumers in Hong Kong with a structured questionnaire was used to collect the data to test all the hypothesized relationships.

Attitude toward saving electricity has a significant positive effect on the intentions to save electricity, but subjective norms and perceived behavioral control have no such effect on intentions but do positively affect the actual electricity saving behavior. Finally, the link between intentions and behavior to save electricity is negatively moderated by espoused individualism and positively by faith in others.

This study was conducted with a sample of consumers in Hong Kong; hence, its findings may not be generalizable to other countries.

This study provides new insights into the link between pro-environmental intentions and behaviors by looking beyond the theory of planned behavior and exploring the moderating role of socio-cultural values on the intention-behavior link.