Seong-jin Choi, Jiyoung Shin, Paul Kuper and Lu-Yao Zhang
This research investigates how and why firms adopt inclusive diversity activities, identifying the mechanisms behind firms involved in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender…
Abstract
Purpose
This research investigates how and why firms adopt inclusive diversity activities, identifying the mechanisms behind firms involved in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT)–friendly pursuits. By integrating resource dependence theory, institutional theory and stakeholder theory, the authors argue that a firm's LGBT friendliness is affected by marketing orientation and the external political environment.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses the Corporate Equality Index, as reported by the Human Rights Campaign, of 460 (1,540 firm-year observations) firms in the United States between 2006 and 2019.
Findings
This study finds a significant, positive relationship between a firm's marketing orientation and LGBT-friendly activities. This research also determines that this relationship is weakened by state-level diversity policies and country-level political uncertainty.
Originality/value
The study results provide unique theoretical and practical implications for the debate on inclusive corporate policy in similar global markets.
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Hyung Rok Yim, Jiangyong Lu and Seong-jin Choi
Firms influence a government to their advantage in one of two ways: either through lobbying a government to change the rule, or through bribing bureaucrats to circumvent the rule…
Abstract
Purpose
Firms influence a government to their advantage in one of two ways: either through lobbying a government to change the rule, or through bribing bureaucrats to circumvent the rule. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether and under what conditions do corporate political activities facilitate firm growth in a multinational context, especially in developing economies.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is based on the data of the World Bank’s Enterprise Survey, conducted by the World Bank in the 2002 to 2006 period in 12 countries. To deal with a multilevel structure, the authors applied multilevel regression as the main analysis method.
Findings
The analysis reveals that both political activities are prevalent in emerging markets, but they play very different roles on firm growth. The authors also find that the effect of lobbying is more pronounced in politically durable countries where firms can secure their vested benefits by lobbying.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to the corporate political activities literature by investigating the distinguishing and contingent role of bribery and lobbying on firm performance.
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Shufeng Xiao, Alfredo Jiménez, Sukyoon Jung, Byung Il Park and Seong Jin Choi
How much variance in firm performance can be attributed to firms’ corporate political activities (CPA)? Under what conditions does CPA contribute to firm performance? To theorize…
Abstract
Purpose
How much variance in firm performance can be attributed to firms’ corporate political activities (CPA)? Under what conditions does CPA contribute to firm performance? To theorize and empirically tackle these questions, we build on the resource-based view (RBV) to theorize how CPA might improve or hinder firm performance, and specifically examine the direct relationship between firms’ investments in lobbying activities and their performance. We also expect firm growth rate to moderate the relationship between lobbying and performance.
Design/methodology/approach
We empirically test our hypotheses using large-scale longitudinal panel data from publicly traded US firms from 2008 to 2018.
Findings
Our analyses support our predictions of the double-edged sword effect of lobbying on firm performance. Moreover, our results show that this effect is steeper for firms with higher growth rates.
Originality/value
Our study contributes meaningful insights to strategy scholarship on the influence of nonmarket strategies, highlighting the relevance of firm-specific conditions in shaping the performance outcomes of such strategies. In particular, we make a contribution by identifying a nonlinear relationship between lobbying and firm performance, which is amplified in fast-growing firms compared to stagnant ones.
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Alfredo Jiménez, Secil Bayraktar, Jeoung Yul Lee and Seong-Jin Choi
This paper aims to investigate the multi-faceted impact of host country risks on the success of private participation in infrastructure projects. The authors make a distinction…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the multi-faceted impact of host country risks on the success of private participation in infrastructure projects. The authors make a distinction between exogenous and endogenous risks, differentiating those that are completely beyond the control of the firm from those in which firms might exert some degree of influence to reduce the negative repercussions.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on logistic regression analyses, the authors analyze a sample of 10,350 private participation in infrastructure projects in 126 countries from 1997 to 2014.
Findings
The authors find that higher levels of exogenous risk are associated with a lower probability of project success, whereas they find no significant effect for endogenous risk.
Originality/value
By pointing to this differential effect, this study makes a contribution to the current debate in the literature on private participation projects.
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Khan-Pyo Lee and Seong-Jin Choi
This paper aims to present inter-firm networks in China by examining the impacts of previous market ties, nonmarket ties, and more importantly their interaction on the formation…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present inter-firm networks in China by examining the impacts of previous market ties, nonmarket ties, and more importantly their interaction on the formation of exchange relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors test their hypotheses using inter-firm exchange relationships between 19 automakers and 312 suppliers in China. The authors conducted empirical tests with multilevel logit model.
Findings
The authors find that both previous nonmarket ties and market ties have positive impacts on the formation of the next exchange relationships, while market ties and nonmarket ties are substitutes in the exchange relationships formation.
Originality/value
This paper provides unique theoretical framework on how firms in emerging markets promote the knowledge exchange with help of market and nonmarket ties. Especially, our findings on the substitute effects between networks have important practical implications to understand the historical development of exchange relationship in transition economies, such as in China.
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Young-Myon Lee and Michael Byungnam Lee
While the origin of Korean Industrial Relations goes back 150 years when the country opened its seaports to foreign countries, it didn’t emerge as a field of study until 1950s…
Abstract
While the origin of Korean Industrial Relations goes back 150 years when the country opened its seaports to foreign countries, it didn’t emerge as a field of study until 1950s when academics began to write books and papers on the Korean labor movement, labor laws, and labor economics. In this paper, we sketch this history and describe important events and people that contributed to the development of industrial relations in Korea. Korean industrial relations in the early 20th century were significantly distorted by the 35-year-Japanese colonial rule (1910–1945). After regaining its independence, the U.S. backed, growth-oriented, military-based, authoritarian Korean government followed suit and consistently suppressed organized labor until 1987. Finally, the 1987 Great Labor Offensive allowed the labor movement to flourish in a democratized society. Three groups were especially influential in the field of industrial relations in the early 1960s: labor activists, religious leaders, and university faculty. Since then, numerous scholars have published books and papers on Korean industrial relations, whose perspectives, goals, and processes are still being debated and argued. The Korean Industrial Relations Association (KIRA) was formed on March 25, 1990 and many other academic and practitioner associations have also come into being since then. The future of industrial relations as a field of study in Korea does not seem bright, however. Issues regarding organized labor are losing attention because of a steadily shrinking unionization rate, changing societal attitude toward labor unions, and the enactment of new and improved laws and regulations regarding employment relationships more broadly. Thus, we suggest that emerging issues such as contingent workers, works councils and tripartite partnership, conflict management, and human rights will be addressed by the field of industrial relations in Korea only if this field breaks with its traditional focus on union and union–management relations.
Drawing on the international business and IHRM literature, this study investigated the effects that employment regulation and its nature of enforcement have on foreign investment…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on the international business and IHRM literature, this study investigated the effects that employment regulation and its nature of enforcement have on foreign investment in emerging markets.
Design/methodology/approach
Panel regressions with time fixed effects were conducted for the period 2002–2017 using regulatory, human capital, and economic data for 34 developing nations. Robustness checks also were performed by varying the measures for key predictors along with the modes of analysis (i.e., Pooled OLS with clustered standard errors, generalized estimating equations (GEE), and instrumental variable (IV) regression with the generalized method of moments (GMM) approach).
Findings
Although the totality of restrictions did not have an impact, FDI inflows were negatively related to the process strength of enforcement. This suggests investors place greater emphasis on de facto exposure than on de jure enactments, favoring nations less willing or able to push for compliance. In addition, while GDP growth had a positive impact on inward investment, the opposite was found for licensing restrictions and labor productivity. The remaining controls failed to display consistent relationships with foreign investment.
Research limitations/implications
Data constraints precluded the inclusion of additional economies and years before 2001. It also was not possible to directly evaluate the influence of labor costs without a standardized measure for developing nations. This entered at best indirectly in GDP per capita, which was tested.
Practical implications
These findings have important implications for social responsibility, suggesting more aggressive monitoring is needed of investment criteria and government relations. At a minimum, social auditing and reporting should better document overt commitments to rights-adherence and compliance-partnering. CSR stakeholders can work in tandem, tracking enforcement more closely and lobbying governments to discourage policies of lax enforcement.
Originality/value
This is the first study to assess how legal stock and its manner of enforcement influence FDI inflows. Improving on earlier studies, employment law was measured with a broad legal scale that was annually adjusted. Enforcement was evaluated in two different forms, both as process strength and administrative capacity – the former drawing investors' attention.