Administrative Heritage Research Articles

International resource configuration of product-related services in the digital age – An analysis of its antecedents

PurposeAlthough many manufacturers depend on international sales, and product-related services continue to increase in importance, little is known about how manufacturers should deliver their product-related services across borders. This paper examines the international configuration decision of industrial service offerings across borders by investigating the impact of different service characteristics and the servitization strategy on this decision. Additionally, the paper sheds light on how digitalization and administrative heritage impact this decision.Design/methodology/approach116 industrial goods manufacturers from Switzerland and Germany were surveyed.FindingsServitization leads companies to centralize their service resources in their home countries. However, most service characteristics do not impact decisions regarding centralization, except for knowledge intensity, which leads to more centralization of resources. This implies that the resource configuration does not depend on each service individually but on the overall service strategy. Furthermore, the digital readiness of the host country directly and positively impacts resource centralization. Notwithstanding other variables, larger companies tend to decentralize service resources more than smaller companies.Originality/valueThis paper is among the first to study the international configuration impact of servitization and of individual service characteristics, thereby adding important knowledge regarding the provision of product-related services in the international context. Additionally, different aspects of digitalization are included to analyze its impact on companies and host countries.

Dynamic capabilities and internationalization of authentic firms: Role of heritage assets, administrative heritage, and signature processes

We study MNEs that tie their long-lasting competitiveness and internationalization to the deployment of their heritage assets, administrative heritage, and signature processes built in their home markets. When faced with changes, these “authentic” firms scan for and buffer against threats to their signature processes, use their heritage endowment to focus on their capacity to maintain and defend their niches, and preserve their capacity for stability. We complement the traditional dynamic capabilities perspective by redefining its boundary conditions. Furthermore, authentic firms resist and limit local adaptation of process and products, and internationalize only if opportune by deploying preservation capabilities.

It’s a Relationship Business! An Embedded Network’s Internationalization as a Process of Sense-Giving and Sensemaking: The Case of Japan, Shipping Industry

Abstract This is an exploratory study, it seeks to understand internationalization of a business group as a process of sense-making on the individual level. The focus of the enquiry is a Japanese shipping group, bulk cargo segment and seeks to answer the question how a network’s administrative heritage enables and/or inhibits the performance of relationship management processes in the context of multiple embeddedness and internationalization. The study finds, that the industry at large and the Japanese Business Group (JBG) as institutions act as enablers for the effective management of existing relationships worldwide by delegating action to the field through standardized processes and shared understandings. As for identifying and developing new relational opportunities, JBG as an institution inhibits coordination and sensemaking capabilities by its strict vertical power hierarchy and a concentration of authority and resources in headquarters.

How foreign knowledge spillovers by returnee managers occur at domestic firms: An institutional theory perspective

Instead of treating the spillover process as a black box, this paper conducts a qualitative study of foreign knowledge spillovers by returnee managers at Chinese firms. Unlike mainstream spillover studies which adopt economics approaches, this paper uses an institutional theory perspective and regards returnee managers as boundary spanners. Results show that returnee managers' boundary-spanning activities in the form of social interaction, including building relationships with colleagues and transforming their identities from outsiders to insiders, help gain legitimacy for their new roles. Their boundary-spanning activities in the form of grafting foreign knowledge, including understanding existing knowledge resources, introducing foreign knowledge to colleagues, and integrating foreign knowledge with domestic firms, help gain legitimacy for foreign knowledge. Foreign knowledge' contributions in new product development at product, process, and cultural perspective levels reinforce its institutionalization at domestic firms. Absorptive barriers include domestic firms' administrative heritage and returnee managers' arduous relationship with others.

Under Armour: repositioning for the global stage

Synopsis Over the last two decades, Under Armour (UA) has emerged from being the “underdog” in the sports apparel and footwear industry to being a leader in the industry, with a fierce attention to performance and great skill at picking up-and-coming athletes who emerge as superstars. This case underscores its administrative heritage, competitive strategy, and growth potential as a global player in a highly competitive industry. It addresses the tension between being a performance brand while launching lines for women vs technology applications and conflicts between its growth strategy and macro-economic forces. It highlights areas in which it has succeeded against macro-economic forces and where it has not. Research methodology The research relies primarily on secondary sources and countless studies of UA and its major competitors. Primary research is based on databases, videos of UA’s Chief Executive Officer, Kevin Plank, and articles from Bloomberg to The Baltimore Sun (UA’s headquarters) on the history, growth and future of UA. It also includes observations and site visits to one of its signature brand house stores as well as intensive research and directed studies with students in the USA and China. Relevant courses and levels The case can be applied to undergraduate, graduate or executive business classes in: business policy and strategy; general management; (sports) marketing; leadership or organisational behaviour classes.

The maturing of entrepreneurial firms: Entrepreneurial orientation, firm performance, and administrative heritage

A large body of research has exhibited the positive effect of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) on firm performance. However, research that attempts to explore what happens to high EO firms when they mature is sorely needed. Every firm establishes a heritage over time that impacts future capabilities. In the current research, we build on the international business literature to examine how a firmʼs administrative heritage moderates the long-term effects of the EO-performance relationship, examined through the firmʼs asset specificity, founder tenure, and home culture embeddedness. From this, implications are derived for EO retention and the firmʼs awareness of administrative heritage and how to shape it to their advantage.

Non-traditional international assignments, knowledge and innovation: an exploratory study of women’s experiences

For many multinational corporations (MNCs), sustainable competitive advantage resides in an MNC’s ability to innovate; that is, to create new knowledge, integrate it with an existing knowledge base and exploit the resulting knowledge bundles across national borders. Traditionally, a key mechanism by which knowledge is transferred across borders and recombined works through expatriate assignments. There is, however, a growing trend towards alternative forms of international assignments, such as flexpatriates, commuters, frequent flyers and self-initiated expatriates. We ask how the use of such non-traditional international assignments affects knowledge creation and transfer in MNCs and hence innovation, which we construe as both idea generation and implementation. Our exploratory study draws on the experiences of five women living in Spain who undertook various forms of international assignment in MNCs with differing administrative heritages, working in consultancy and engineering fields. Our findings point to variations in the type and quality of knowledge generated across different forms of international assignments, and draw attention to the socially embedded, informal interactions underpinning much knowledge transfer and recombination. Our findings are also suggestive of a gendered element to knowledge creation and transfer, and how these activities may be perceived by the senior management of MNCs. Our concluding conjecture is that within each form of international assignment, women’s contributions to the innovative efforts of MNCs may have somewhat less to do with formal management practices, and may even, at times, be in spite of them.

The Size and Composition of Corporate Headquarters in Multinational Companies: Empirical Evidence

Abstract Based on a six country survey of nearly 250 multinationals (MNCs), this paper is the first empirical analysis to describe the size and composition of MNC headquarters and to account for differences among them. Findings are that: MNC corporate headquarters are more involved in “obligatory” and value creating and control functions than in operational activities; there are no systematic differences in the determinants of the size and composition of corporate headquarters between MNCs and purely domestic companies; as the geographic scope of an MNC increases two offsetting phenomena occur — headquarters decrease their influence over operational units which ceteris paribus reduces the size of headquarters, but the relative size of obligatory functions at headquarters increases with increased country heterogeneity. The net effect is that the size of corporate headquarters expands as MNC geographic scope increases. The notion of “administrative heritage” is validated as MNCs from different countries have substantially different corporate headquarters — US headquarters are large (255 median staff for a 20,000 FTE MNC) and European headquarters smaller (124). Implications are drawn that countries will lose activities if domestic firms are acquired by foreign MNCs, and that MNCs need to allow more subsidiary autonomy as their geographic scope increases.

Globalising the international mobility function: the role of emerging markets, flexibility and strategic delivery models

This paper reports on a study of functional delivery strategies used in international mobility (IM) functions as they support the organisation in its pursuit of globalisation. This study is based on 47 interviews with International Mobility Directors across a variety of sectors. It examines how these managers use three strategies to manage local responsiveness (emerging market strategy as an industrial push force; flexibility strategy as an environmental demand or pull force; and strategic HR delivery model as an administrative heritage, organisational capability and infrastructure force) to enhance the ability of the IM function to perform globally as the organisation seeks to both co-ordinate (develop linkages between geographically dispersed units of a function) and control (regulate functional activities to align them with expectations) mobility activity across borders.

Internationalisation of Companies

The cost to operate worldwide was very high in the olden days and most countries had no knowledge about the culture, language and demands of foreign countries. This was the main reason behind failure of internationalization. However, over the last few decades, most companies have started to run for globalisation and this in turn has resulted in internationalisation of most business organizations (Margardt, 2007). The internationalisation of a firm is a complicated process rooted in the history of the firm and its administrative heritage as well as in its general strategic planning. The main aim of this literature is to find out the reasons why companies choose to go international, especially in grocery retailing and the civil aerospace manufacturing business. Theories of internationalization inherently deal with questions of business development and strategy which this work tries to analyse from the perspective of the two industries. Internationalisation has been defined as developing networks of business relationships in numerous countries by ways of extension, penetration and integration, which requires the commitment of resources and the adaptation to international markets. For companies to stay competitive in their respective environment they need to go international (Hart, 1999). This literature reviews the various drivers of internationalisation along with the importance of alliances and joint ventures in today’s world.

Restructuring Managerial Labour in the USA, the UK and Japan: Challenging the Salience of ‘Varieties of Capitalism’

AbstractThis article provides a cross‐national, qualitative investigation into the experiences of middle managers in large organizations in the USA, the UK and Japan, following organizational restructuring. Despite well‐documented national differences in administrative heritage, institutional regimes or ‘varieties of capitalism’, our data point towards considerable similitude across the three countries in terms of a general expression of the need for change, and the concrete impacts of organizational reforms on managerial work. Specifically we analyse the changing nature of work roles, career paths, working hours and spans of control of mid‐level managers in five large firms in each of the three countries. The data demonstrate that middle managers in all three countries face fundamental changes to key areas of their work experience. In Japan, although changes do not amount to a genuine shift towards ‘Anglo‐Saxon’ institutions or business practices, the robust use of organizational reforms with very similar aims and underpinning assumptions to those used in the USA and the UK entails similar impacts in terms of work processes of middle managers across the three nations. This shared experience involved the augmentation of middle management skill levels, responsibilities and span of control, but alongside the downgrading of career expectations, and increased workload and work intensity. We argue that these changes are in keeping with some, but not all, of the features explained and predicted in Bravermanian labour process theory.

The rise of the Japanese multinational enterprise: then and now

Japanese multinational enterprises (MNEs) have evolved since the1980s when they first came to prominence. The rise and degree of their success are not uniform stories and Japanese MNEs vary greatly by size, sector and administrative heritage. Their degree of integration with world capital markets is low and management styles and innovation systems are idiosyncratic. Pressures on Japanese MNEs to increase flexibility and openness have resulted in unusual hybrid structures.

THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL ASPECTS OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF TRANSITION FROM PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION TO NEW PUBLIC MANAGEMENT

The transition from traditional Public Administration (PA) to New Public Management (NPM) and the implementation of NPM ideas are closely related to Human Resources (HR) in public institutions. Therefore, HR are expected to meet the following requirements; fundamental changes in behaviour and competence, orientation to results, openness to changes and innovations, personal responsibility, participation in decision making, flexibility, team work and cooperation, turn back to a citizen as a client, etc. In order to achieve a consistent shift, a lot of attention should be devoted to the reconstruction of Human Resource Management (HRM). More than that, it is necessary to rely on modern ideas of HRM. Having systemized scientific literature, the article aims to formulate HRM characteristics, which are prominent in the transition process, and analyze their manifestation in HRM of Lithuanian municipalities. The methods of the research are the following; analysis of scientific literature, logical analysis, survey and conclusion making. The article claims that HRM, which meets the principles of NPM, is based on decentralization, participation and acquisition of private sector experience while applying managerial methods. In order to carry out the quantitative analysis, HRM characteristics are formulated considering the historical situation in Lithuania as the soviet administrative heritage which influenced the approach to HRM, work regulations and skills. In addition, the analysis focuses on the transition process which determined the formation of diagnostic indicators. Here it is aimed to find out which form of management is dominant in Lithuanian municipalities; either Personal Management (PM) or modern HRM or the form of management which encompasses the elements of the both. The survey was carried out in 12 different municipalities of Lithuanian cities and districts.

Global strategy in the international advertising industry

The strategic behaviour of international advertising agencies is studied using Yip's global strategy framework. In most cases, firms seek broad international engagement to leverage agency advantage; the development of uniform international management systems has a high priority; and “responsive” advertising output is common. Many agencies have developed IT systems to facilitate international communication and integration, and significant uniformity of branding and positioning policy is the norm. However, uniform patterns of industry-specific behaviour are not evident in many of the areas investigated, with wide variance in agency strategy at the firm level. These differences indicate that factors such as firm resources and administrative heritage are frequently at least as important as the industry environment in affecting strategy in international markets. The behaviour identified is also generally consistent with an industry environment where market drivers are very important, with most agency clients demanding consistent performance and quality internationally, along with responsiveness. Yip's framework, which emphasises the impact of industry structure on firm conduct, is useful in indicating how the environment tends to drive some dimensions of strategy in a ‘characteristic’ direction. However, it is also evident that more account needs to be taken of ‘resource-based’ theory, and thus the impact of idiosyncratic firm resources, when seeking to understand strategic behaviour in the industry.

Leadership, administrative heritage and absorptive capacity

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify critical success factors for the management of change in transition economies.Design/methodology/approachFour longitudinal case studies of Russian oil companies covering a ten‐year period from 1995, based on 71 in‐depth interviews. Examines organisational change from a resource‐based and organisational learning perspective.FindingsExplains how top managers firstly, break with administrative heritage to increase absorptive capacity and secondly, leverage administrative heritage for rapid implementation of change. Intra‐ and cross‐case analyses demonstrate that absorptive capacity increases and organisational change occurs where the top management team has radically different skills and mindsets from the dominant logic of the post‐Soviet organisation, an entrepreneurial orientation and the capability to drive through change due to a top‐down management style.Research limitations/implicationsThe research is restricted to four case studies. However, the critical success factors identified could apply to any large, conservative and bureaucratic organisation undergoing change. This represents an interesting avenue for research on organisational turnaround in the West.Practical implicationsAn understanding of the critical success factors for dealing with administrative heritage will assist managers in transition economies and in turnaround situations in the West.Originality/valueThe speed of change in the Russian oil industry provided a unique setting for research into organisational change in transition economies. On the basis of cross‐case analyses, a new theoretical framework was developed to explain the change process.

Exploitation and exploration learning and the development of organizational capabilities: A cross-case analysis of the Russian oil industry

We use a cross-case analysis of four Russian oil majors to develop a framework explaining the relationship between exploitation and exploration learning, and the development of organizational capabilities in transition economies. Our research explains how the changing top management style influences organizational learning over time. In the first stage of organizational transformation an authoritarian management style initiates a break with the administrative heritage of the organization to facilitate exploitation learning and the development of operational capabilities. These are required for survival in the new conditions of a market economy. In the second stage a more participatory management style fosters exploration learning and the development of strategic flexibility, required for sustainable competitive advantage. We demonstrate that exploitation and exploration learning do not coexist in the initial stages of transformation but are sequential. We found that the western-derived constructs of organizational learning add to our understanding of the process of organizational transformation in a transition context. Our study of the Russian oil industry also provides new ways to think about the processes of organizational learning in western companies, particularly large bureaucratic ones, anchored in their administrative heritage and needing to undergo organizational transformation.

Sugar and Copper: Postcolonial Experiences of Australian Multinationals

Between 1973 and 2002, three of Australia's largest multinational companies exited from postcolonial Fiji and Papua New Guinea. Although neither host government wished the companies to leave, the tensions that arose during the course of decolonization made their departure inevitable. Prior to independence, conflicts between Fijians and Indians and decisions about grants of land and mineral rights to foreign firms had been mediated by colonial administrators. After independence, these contentious issues were resolved through domestic political processes. Ultimately, the companies were unable to overcome the limitations of their shared administrative heritage, based on nationalistic chauvinism, that desensitized them to the importance of race relations and communal rights to land within their host countries.

Administrative Heritage: An Exploratory Study of Large Australian Firms

In this study we address the existing gap in the literature on the strategic evolution of Australian MNCs and the effect their administrative heritage, developed in the domestic market, had on their ability to compete internationally. We explore the administrative heritage of eleven large Australian-owned firms in four industries and conclude that these firms had a distinct administrative heritage—domestic portfolio mentality and reliance on strategic assets for competitive advantage, coupled with limited FDI traditions. We contend that the firms' administrative heritage explains in part their lack of success in international markets. Our findings support the propositions advanced by other scholars (e.g. Bartlett & Ghoshal 1989; Collis 1991) that a firm's administrative heritage establishes unique constraints on strategic choice.

Brand corrosion: mass‐marketing's threat to luxury automobile brands after merger and acquisition

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to explore the practical implications of brand management decisions, particularly those involving the combination of luxury and mass‐market brands within the same organization through merger or acquisition. The aim of the paper is to expand brand theory by linking it to administrative heritage in the context of the increasingly integrated global automobile industry.Design/methodology/approach – Integrated case studies of Jaguar, Mercedes‐Benz, and Saab illustrate the effects of brand extension and dilution through the lenses of brand development, luxury brands, and administrative heritage theories. The recent history of acquisitions and mergers involving luxury automobile brands provides background to the in‐depth examination of these three specific instances. Conclusions are reached by comparing and contrasting the experiences of these firms relative to their mass‐market siblings.Findings – The blending of luxury and mass‐market automobile brands in one corporate...

Subsidiary Initiative in Indian Software Subsidiaries of MNCs

In this paper, the author investigates intrapreneurship in software subsidiaries of multinational corporations in India using an analogous concept—subsidiary initiative— that has been used in the international business literature. Subsidiary initiative is a discrete, proactive undertaking by an operational unit situated outside the home country that advances a new way for the corporation to use or expand its resources. Based on an analysis of published case studies written on the Indian software subsidiaries of Motorola, Philips, and Siemens, the author finds that subsidiary initiative played a visible role in obtaining business at the early stages of the subsidiary�s evolution when organizational credibility was lacking and the liability of the country of origin had to be overcome. Subsidiary initiative is also critical if the subsidiary wishes to reposition itself in its market, i.e., in the network of the multinational parent. Barriers to subsidiary initiative include the following: administrative heritage of the subsidiary difficulties in the evaluation of business potential lack of funds to develop new capabilities the attrition of qualified people. Moving to a higher position on the value curve is impeded by the nature of past relationships with internal customers and the strong bargaining position of these customers. These barriers are accentuated by asymmetries in the flexibility allowed to product divisions and subsidiaries. High levels of subsidiary initiative are associated with low levels of integration and high levels of autonomy. This is contrary to earlier research done on multinational subsidiaries in the developed country context. The author proposes that the explanation for this contrast lies in the different contexts in which these subsidiaries operate. Specifically, subsidiary initiative in the Indian context is an outcome of subsidiary managers seeking to cope with the environment in which they operate.The distinctive features of this environment include: the pressure of retaining and motivating engineers with multiple career options pressures from the media and wider social expectations a desire to control one�s destiny when there is a realization that India�s time has come. The author also finds a new trend in the organizational arrangements of software subsidiaries within multinationals in that some multinational parents are allowing subsidiaries to chart their own destiny in return for dilution of a part (or whole) of their stake in the subsidiary. Based on this trend, he proposes a new model titled ‘Competitiveness for Growth Opportunities’ for the subsidiary-parent relationship to replace the existing ‘Loyalty for Security in the MNC Network’ model. In conclusion, the author argues that more multinational corporations will have to shift to this new model to achieve the level of agility required to compete in an era of rapid changes in technology and enhanced competition.