5 - Literature review and theoretical context

Abstract

This chapter surveys the existing literature as it relates to this book. Four broad categories of literature are identified as particularly important. First, legal transplant theory and other theories that adopt a socio-legal approach to the study of regulatory change are relevant to the problem examined in this book, which is whether, and which, regulatory reforms aimed at promoting greater gender equity on company boards might successfully be adopted in China and/or India. Second, there is that body of literature relevant to understanding how regulatory/institutional change occurs within a given cultural/institutional context. Institutional theory considers the processes by which structures, including rules, norms and routines, become established as authoritative guidelines for social behaviour. It inquires into how those elements are created, diffused and adopted over space and time. Although the focus is typically on the perpetuation of stability and order, institutional theory also seeks to understand processes of conflict, reform and change in social structures (Meyer & Rowan, 1977; DiMaggio & Powell, 1983; Powell & DiMaggio, 1991; Scott, 1987, 2004). Dutch social psychologist and management scholar Hofstede and other cross-cultural scholars have examined the way in which institutions and social structures (norms, values, practices and rules) differ between nations at a fundamental, cultural level. The insights of cross-cultural scholars inform the use of institutional change theory and legal transplant scholarship as a framework for this book. Hofstede and other cross-cultural scholars have emphasised the importance of gender roles in national cultures, and drew upon a broader tradition of gender studies literature in their work. This broader tradition of gender studies literature, particularly as it relates to gender and leadership, has also helped to inform this book.