The Dynamic Response Process to Conflicting Institutional Demands in MNC Subsidiaries: An Inductive Study in the Sub-Saharan African E-Commerce Sector

Global Strategy Journal

Volumn 7, Issue 1, 2017, Pages 104-124

  Holm, Alison E ^a   Decreton, Benoit ^b   Nell, Phillip C ^b,c   Klopf, Patricia ^b  

^a OECD   (France)

^b VIENNA UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS   (Austria)

^c Copenhagen Business School ^*  (Denmark)

Author keywords

e commerce; headquarters subsidiary relations; institutional duality; MNC; Sub Saharan Africa

Indexed keywords

EID: 85012115859     PISSN: None     EISSN: 20425805     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1002/gsj.1145     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (61)

1. African Development Bank. 2013. Recognizing Africa's informal sector. Available at: http://www.afdb.org/en/blogs/afdb-championing-inclusive-growth-across-africa/post/recognizing-africas-informal-sector-11645/ (accessed22 July 2016).
2. Battilana J, Dorado S. 2010. Building sustainable hybrid organizations: the case of commercial microfinance organizations. Academy of Management Journal 53(6): 1419–1440.
3. Birkinshaw J, Brannen MY, Tung RL. 2011. From a distance and generalizable to up close and grounded: reclaiming a place for qualitative methods in international business research. Journal of International Business Studies 42(5): 573–581.
4. Brenner B, Ambos B. 2013. A question of legitimacy? A dynamic perspective on multinational firm control. Organization Science 24(3): 773–795.
5. Bromley P, Powell WW. 2012. From smoke and mirrors to walking the talk: decoupling in the contemporary world. Academy of Management Annals 6(1): 483–530.
6. Crilly D, Zollo M, Hansen MT. 2012. Faking it or muddling through? Understanding decoupling in response to stakeholder pressures. Academy of Management Journal 55(6): 1429–1448.
7. Cuervo-Cazurra A. 2012. Extending theory by analyzing developing country multinational companies: solving the Goldilocks debate. Global Strategy Journal 2(3): 153–167.
8. DiMaggio P, Powell WW. 1983. The iron cage revisited: collective rationality and institutional isomorphism in organizational fields. American Sociological Review 48(2): 147–160.
9. Durand R, Jacqueminet A. 2015. Peer conformity, attention, and heterogeneous implementation of practices in MNEs. Journal of International Business Studies 46(8): 917–937.
10. Egels-Zandén N. 2014. Revisiting supplier compliance with MNC codes of conduct: recoupling policy and practice at Chinese toy suppliers. Journal of Business Ethics 119(1): 59–75.
11. Eisenhardt KM. 1989. Building theories from case study research. Academy of Management Review 14(4): 532–550.
12. Eisenhardt KM, Graebner ME. 2007. Theory building from cases: opportunities and challenges. Academy of Management Journal 50(1): 25–32.
13. Faulconbridge J, Muzio D. 2016. Global professional service firms and the challenge of institutional complexity: ‘field relocation’as a response strategy. Journal of Management Studies 53(1): 89–124.
14. Forbes. 2014. How African economics killed “the leapfrog effect”. Forbes 22 October. Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/abdelmalekalaoui/2014/10/22/how-african-economics-killed-the-leapfrog-effect/#5919075238b7 (accessed 4 January 2017).
15. George G, Corbishley C, Khayesi JN, Haas MR, Tihanyi L. 2016. Bringing Africa in: promising directions for management research. Academy of Management Journal 59(2): 377–393.
16. Gibbs GR. 2008. Analyzing Qualitative Data. SAGE Publications: London, U.K.
17. Greenwood R, Díaz AM, Li SX, Lorente JC. 2010. The multiplicity of institutional logics and the heterogeneity of organizational responses. Organization Science 21(2): 521–539.
18. Greenwood R, Raynard M, Kodeih F, Micelotta ER, Lounsbury M. 2011. Institutional complexity and organizational responses. Academy of Management Annals 5(1): 317–371.
19. Hallett T. 2010. The myth incarnate recoupling processes, turmoil, and inhabited institutions in an urban elementary school. American Sociological Review 75(1): 52–74.
20. Hillman AJ, Wan WP. 2005. The determinants of MNE subsidiaries’ political strategies: evidence of institutional duality. Journal of International Business Studies 36(3): 322–340.
21. Hirsch PM, Lounsbury M. 1997. Ending the family quarrel toward a reconciliation of “old” and “new” institutionalisms. American Behavioral Scientist 40(4): 406–418.
22. Hirschman AO. 1970. Exit, Voice, and Loyalty. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA.
23. Hofstede G. 2015. Cultural dimensions. Available at: https://geert-hofstede.com/ (accessed 16 July 2016).
24. Institutional Profiles Database. 2012. Available at: http://www.cepii.fr/institutions/EN/ipd.asp (accessed 15 July 2016).
25. Jeune Afrique. 2016. CDiscount Met Un Terme à Ses activités Au Cameroun et Au Sénégal. Jeune Afrique 6 July. Available at: http://www.jeuneafrique.com/339379/economie/cdiscount-met-terme-a-activites-cameroun-senegal/ (accessed 4 January 2017).
26. Klingebiel R, Stadler C. 2015. Opportunities and challenges for empirical strategy research in Africa. Africa Journal of Management 1(2): 194–200.
27. Kostova T, Nell PC, Hoenen AK. Understanding agency problems in headquarters-subsidiary relationships in multinational corporations a contextualized model. Journal of Management. Forthcoming.
28. Kostova T, Roth K. 2002. Adoption of an organizational practice by subsidiaries of multinational corporations: institutional and relational effects. Academy of Management Journal 45(1): 215–233.
29. Kostova T, Roth K, Dacin MT. 2008. Institutional theory in the study of multinational corporations: a critique and new directions. Academy of Management Review 33(4): 994–1006.
30. Kostova T, Zaheer S. 1999. Organizational legitimacy under conditions of complexity: the case of the multinational enterprise. Academy of Management Review 24(1): 64–81.
31. Kraatz MS, Block ES. 2008. Organizational implications of institutional pluralism. In The SAGE Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism, Greenwood R, Oliver C, Suddaby R, Sahlin K (eds). SAGE Publications: London, U.K.; 243–275.
32. Manyika J, Cabral A, Moodley L, Moraje S, Yeboah-Amankwa S, Chui M, Anthonyrajah J. 2013. Lions Go Digital: the Internet's Transformative Potential in Africa. McKinsey Global Institute: New York.
33. Marano V, Kostova T. 2016. Unpacking the institutional complexity in adoption of CSR practices in multinational enterprises. Journal of Management Studies 53(1): 28–54.
34. Meyer KE, Mudambi R, Narula R. 2011. Multinational enterprises and local contexts: the opportunities and challenges of multiple embeddedness. Journal of Management Studies 48(2): 235–252.
35. Mintzberg H, Waters JA. 1985. Of strategies, deliberate and emergent. Strategic Management Journal 6(3): 257–272.
36. Moore F. 2011. Holistic ethnography: studying the impact of multiple national identities on post-acquisition organizations. Journal of International Business Studies 42(5): 654–671.
37. Narula R. 2012. Do we need different frameworks to explain infant MNEs from developing countries? Global Strategy Journal 2(3): 188–204.
38. Narula R. 2014. Exploring the paradox of competence-creating subsidiaries: balancing bandwidth and dispersion in MNEs. Long Range Planning 47(1): 4–15.
39. Nell PC, Puck J, Heidenreich S. 2015. Strictly limited choice or agency? Institutional duality, legitimacy, and subsidiaries’ political strategies. Journal of World Business 50(2): 302–311.
40. Oliver C. 1991. Strategic responses to institutional processes. Academy of Management Review 16(1): 145–179.
41. Pache AC, Santos F. 2010. When worlds collide: the internal dynamics of organizational responses to conflicting institutional demands. Academy of Management Review 35(3): 455–476.
42. Pache AC, Santos F. 2013. Inside the hybrid organization: selective coupling as a response to competing institutional logics. Academy of Management Journal 56(4): 972–1001.
43. Pfeffer J, Salancik GR. 1978. The External Control of Organizations: A Resource Dependence Approach. Harper and Row Publishers: New York.
44. Raaijmakers AG, Vermeulen PA, Meeus MT, Zietsma C. 2015. I need time! Exploring pathways to compliance under institutional complexity. Academy of Management Journal 58(1): 85–110.
45. Saka-Helmhout A, Deeg R, Greenwood R. 2016. The MNE as a challenge to institutional theory: key concepts, recent developments and empirical evidence. Journal of Management Studies 53(1): 1–11.
46. Strauss A, Corbin J. 1990. Basics of Qualitative Research (Vol. 15). SAGE Publications: Newbury Park, CA.
47. Suchman MC. 1995. Managing legitimacy: strategic and institutional approaches. Academy of Management Review 20(3): 571–610.
48. Tempel A, Edwards T, Ferner A, Muller-Camen M, Wächter H. 2006. Subsidiary responses to institutional duality: collective representation practices of US multinationals in Britain and Germany. Human Relations 59(11): 1543–1570.
49. The Economist. 2016. E-Commerce firms like Jumia have to beat multiple handicaps. The Economist 16 April. Available at: http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21696788-e-commerce-firms-jumia-have-beat-multiple-handicaps-virtual-headaches (accessed 4 January 2017).
50. The New Yorker. 2016. An e-commerce challenge in Africa: selling to people who aren't online. The New Yorker 30 June. Available at: http://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/e-commerces-african-challenge-selling-to-people-who-arent-online (accessed 4 January 2017).
51. Tilcsik A. 2010. From ritual to reality: demography, ideology, and decoupling in a post-communist government agency. Academy of Management Journal 53(6): 1474–1498.
52. Transparency International. 2015. Corruption perceptions index. Available at: http://www.transparency.org/cpi2015 (accessed 16 July 2016).
53. UNCTAD. 2015. Unlocking the Potential of E-Commerce for Developing Countries. United Nations Publications: New York.Information Economy Report
54. Universal Postal Union. 2014. UPU postal statistics. Available at: http://www.upu.int/en/resources/postal-statistics/2014-results.html (accessed 7 July 2016).
55. Uzo U, Mair J. 2014. Source and patterns of organizational defiance of formal institutions: insights from Nollywood, the Nigerian movie industry. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal 8(1): 56–74.
56. Van Nes F, Abma T, Jonsson H, Deeg D. 2010. Language differences in qualitative research: is meaning lost in translation? European Journal of Ageing 7(4): 313–316.
57. Welch C, Piekkari R, Plakoyiannaki E, Paavilainen-Mäntymäki E. 2011. Theorising from case studies: towards a pluralist future for international business research. Journal of International Business Studies 42(5): 740–762.
58. World Bank. 2011. World Development Indicators. World Bank Group: Washington, DC.
59. WorldPay. 2011. Your global guide to alternative payments. (2nd edn). Available at: http://www.nocash.info.ro/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/worldpay-alternative-payments-2nd-edition-report.pdf (accessed 7 July 2016).
60. Yin RK. 1994. Case Study Research: Design and Methods (2nd edn.). SAGE Publications: Beverly Hills, CA.
61. Zilber TB. 2011. Institutional multiplicity in practice: a tale of two high-tech conferences in Israel. Organization Science 22(6): 1539–1559.