Diverse Institutional Contexts Research Articles

The rise of open innovation in Chinese academia: a systematic review of the literature

The recent open innovation (OI) literature underscores the importance of understanding how OI is implemented across diverse institutional contexts. China has captivated OI scholars, representing a distinctive business environment that challenges established theories and frameworks. Building on translation theory, this study systematically reviews how scholars affiliated with Chinese institutions have conceptualized the concept of OI. We used a systematic approach to analyze a final sample of 202 articles, unveiling insights into themes, approaches, and implications. Our primary findings highlight a concentration on themes such as external knowledge search for enhancing firms' performance, the escalating role of innovation ecosystems, and the significance of local business, traditional Chinese culture, and innovation policies in shaping these dynamics. In contrast to recent trends in the broader international OI literature, concepts such as the role of users, universities, platforms, and social innovation are not extensively explored. Lastly, we suggest various avenues for future research to enrich OI scholarship.

Consumerist discourses on social media and language teacher educator identity tensions

AbstractThis study investigates the impact of social media discourses, espoused by neoliberal and consumerist ideologies, on a language teacher educator's (LTE) identity negotiation. Through a collaborative case study, it examines Hassan's (the second author) experiences with social media in the Iranian English language teaching (ELT) context over three years. The data consist of extensive email discussions and four online meetings between the authors over one year. The analysis of Hassan's narratives reveals dominant social media discourses emphasizing sameness, omniscience, and commercialized luxurious lifestyles. These discourses often equate social media visibility with professional qualifications, pressuring Hassan to conform to trends that conflict with his sense of professionalism and authenticity. Hassan's emotional struggles and identity tensions led to critical reflection and ongoing negotiation of his professional identity. The findings underscore the need for professional development programs that support LTEs in navigating the pressures of self‐branding while maintaining their professionalism. Additionally, the study calls for further research into the long‐term effects of social media on professional identity and well‐being across diverse cultural and institutional contexts.

Online sustainability education: purpose, process and implementation for transformative universities

PurposeUniversities strategically organize themselves around sustainability, including transformative goals in teaching and learning. Simultaneously, the role of online education has become more prominent. This study aims to better understand the purpose and process of creating online sustainability education (OSE) and to identify challenges and opportunities for implementing these courses and programs to achieve universities’ broader transformative sustainability goals.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a multiple case study design to research three universities in diverse geographical and institutional contexts (Finland, the USA and Colombia). Qualitative data was collected by interviewing program-related experts (n = 31) and reviews of universities’ strategic documents.FindingsThe findings suggest that despite important advances, further attention is merited regarding aligning the purpose of OSE with student learning outcomes, clarifying the values underlying the process of online program/course creation and developing transformative and process-oriented approaches and pedagogies to implement OSE. The authors also highlight emerging challenges and opportunities in online environments for sustainability education in different institutional contexts, including reaping the benefits of multilocality and diverse student experiences regarding sustainability issues.Originality/valueThere is a paucity of studies on university-level sustainability education in relation to online environments. This research expands on the existing literature by exploring three different geographical and institutional contexts and shedding light on the relationship between the practical implementation of OSE and universities’ broader sustainability goals.

Brother, We Got You: A collective impact approach to addressing Black college men's mental health

AbstractHigher education administrators, faculty, and staff across diverse institutional contexts grapple with college students' persisting and increasing mental health concerns. Further, recent research has discussed mental health challenges Black collegians encounter, exacerbated by the COVID‐19 pandemic. Mental health issues among Black college students vary based on several factors (e.g., institutional type, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality). Research has demonstrated the various mental health trepidations Black men navigate at institutional campuses. Informed by a collective impact framework, we explored how higher education institutional stakeholders can collaboratively labor to drive solutions for promoting Black college men's mental health and well‐being. This article begins by broadly reviewing the literature on Black men's mental health in and outside collegiate settings. Next, we discussed the collective impact framework and how it can aid in expanding and advancing transformative mental health programs and services for Black college men. This article concluded with implications for future practices and programmatic considerations within collegiate environments.

Understanding Employer Attractiveness for Generation Z in the IT Industry

Purpose: This research delves into understanding the selection criteria of Generation Z, specifically those with an IT education background, in choosing potential employers. The study aims to bridge the gap in knowledge regarding employer attractiveness from the perspective of this emerging workforce cohort.
 Design/Method/Approach: A quantitative approach was employed, utilizing a survey method to gather data. The study predominantly targeted students from an Austrian business school, resulting in a sample size of 156 respondents. The survey included a Conjoint Analysis to evaluate various employer attributes.
 Findings: The findings highlight the significance of workplace flexibility, Work-Life Balance, and meaningful, varied job tasks for Generation Z. Salary emerged as a crucial factor influencing their choice of an attractive employer. While symbolic attributes were slightly more critical than instrumental ones, no significant impact of professional experience on the perceived relevance of symbolic attributes was found.
 Theoretical Implications: The study enriches the Instrumental-Symbolic Framework by validating the importance of symbolic attributes for Generation Z.
 Practical Implications: Practitioners can leverage these insights to tailor their Employer Branding strategies to attract Generation Z, focusing on flexible work arrangements, meaningful work, and competitive salaries.
 Originality/Value: This research provides new insights into the preferences of Generation Z in the IT sector, highlighting the nuanced differences in their employer selection criteria compared to previous generations.
 Research Limitations/Future Research: The study’s limitations include its focus on two specific educational institutions and the lack of rural-urban differentiation among respondents. Future research could explore these criteria across diverse geographic and institutional contexts.
 Paper Type: Empirical
 JEL Сlassіfіcatіon: J24, M12, M51

Legitimacy spillovers and hybrid rhetoric in crowdfunded microloans

Microfinance institutions (MFIs) operate in diverse institutional contexts and serve as the backbone for microenterprises typically excluded from traditional financial markets. At the same time, MFIs and the microenterprises they support solve tangible social problems, such as alleviating hunger, lifting people out of poverty and creating more sustainable communities. When appealing for resources, MFIs work with microenterprises to create rhetoric that communicates both the financial needs and the social good that supporting them can do. Building on previous research concerning the hybrid rhetoric of microenterprises and the literature rooted in organisational legitimacy, we take a multi-level approach and assess whether country stability and MFI financial performance influence the hybrid rhetoric of microenterprises.

INTEGRATION OF ENGINEERING AND POLITICS IN WATER MANAGEMENT: A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO ENHANCING PUBLIC

This article explores the evolving concept of water governance across various nations, serving as a reference for effective and sustainable water management. Aligned with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) No. 6, which focuses on Clean Water and Sanitation, Indonesia faces unique challenges due to its dual climate patterns of rainy and dry seasons. These climatic variations necessitate sound water resource management to address water shortages during droughts, prevent drought-related disasters and mitigate flood risks during the rainy season. Utilizing a literature review methodology, this research aims to comprehend the development of knowledge in the water governance concept, incorporating both technical and political dimensions in policy formulation. The findings underscore the significance of collaboration, cooperation, and participation among the government, community, and private sector in implementing effective water governance. Embracing the governance paradigm, the key takeaway is the need for collective efforts to establish robust water resource management, thereby ensuring the success of the clean water and sanitation program nationwide by 2030. However, it is crucial to acknowledge that not all variants of water governance models can be universally applied, considering the diverse institutional contexts and political cultures across different regions in Indonesia. Despite these challenges, this research underscores the importance of a holistic approach that integrates both technical and political aspects in water management policies, providing a foundation for achieving sustainable water access and sanitation goals.

Size matters: Unpacking the relationship between institutional investor size and private equity asset allocation within diverse institutional contexts

This study examines the relationship between institutional investors’ size and their inclination towards private equity investments, hypothesizing a U-shaped pattern. It also explores how this relationship is influenced by the institutional context. Using a dataset of 5668 firms across 52 countries from 1991 to 2017, we observe that small and large institutional investors exhibit a stronger preference for private equity compared to intermediate-sized counterparts. Smaller investors show heightened interest in private equity within favorable contexts, while larger investors pursue such opportunities in unfavorable contexts. Our research offers valuable insights for policymakers and investors of diffferent sizes making private equity investments in diverse institutional contexts.

Foreign direct investment, domestic investment, and the role of institutions in Central, Eastern, and South-Eastern Europe

The paper examines the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and domestic investment in Central, Eastern, and South-Eastern European (CESEE) countries from 1995 to 2021. The primary hypothesis posits that FDI exerts a positive influence on domestic investment, with variations observed across diverse institutional contexts. The research utilises fixed effects and a one-step difference generalised method of moments (GMM) to determine whether FDI leads to an increase or decrease in domestic investment in CESEE countries. The findings indicate that FDI has a favourable and statistically significant influence on domestic investment. However, the coefficients for FDI are less than one, indicating that while FDI stimulates overall investment, it does not create a crowding-in effect where the rise in total investment surpasses the FDI inflows. When the data is split on the basis of institutional quality, it is evident that FDI continues to positively impact domestic investment in high and low-institutional- quality settings. The coefficients for FDI in both subgroups are less than one, implying that institutional quality does not substantially change the correlation between FDI and domestic investment. These results indicate the positive and significant impact of FDI on domestic investment, without crowding-in effects for the entire sample of CESEE economies and both subgroups that differ in institutional quality.

Institutionalisation of public participation in China's urban regeneration from the perspective of historical institutionalism: Three-stage cases in Guangzhou

Research into public participation in urban regeneration holds a significant position in global urban research, with a considerable body of literature describing the practices of multiple stakeholders' participation in diverse institutional contexts. In the centralised dynamic context for China's urban regeneration, the institutional arrangements and practices of public participation and the evolution processes between them still remain “black boxes”. This paper aims to clarify the institutionalisation process of public participation in China's urban regeneration. Using the historical institutionalism perspective, this research adapts the institutionalisation framework proposed by Burns and Scapens (2000) to the analysis of participatory governance in China's planning context. It analyses three phases of urban regeneration in Guangzhou and provides corresponding case studies for an in-depth analysis. The findings reveal that the success of public participation in urban regeneration varies across phases, mainly due to the degree of government power sharing and the inclusion of non-governmental actors in decision-making through genuinely participative interactions. This research develops an institutionalisation analysis framework and notes that the proposed institutionalisation path only partially applies to public participation in China's urban regeneration. The institutionalisation of public participation from the institutional realm to the realm of action in China's regeneration practices departs from hysteresis, which is the opposite of synchronisation in historical institutionalism. The root cause of this inefficient institutionalisation and its separation from practice is the imbalance in the allocation of power resources. These findings provide institutionalisation insights into the interrelationships between the evolution of policy and practices of public participation.

The Costs of Court Curbing: Evidence from the United States

Canonical models of interbranch relations assume that incumbents undermine well-respected courts at their own peril. Although court-curbing proposals are frequent in diverse political and institutional contexts, there have been few efforts to examine the electoral costs of interbranch aggression. Drawing upon vignette and conjoint experiments, we find some evidence that the public will punish incumbents for attacks on courts. However, the size of the effect varies: it is largest among individuals who hold the court in high esteem and can be mitigated by copartisanship with the proposer. Moreover, once information about partisanship and issue positions is available to respondents, the effect of supporting court curbing is smaller than other considerations. These results have implications for the public’s willingness to safeguard the institutional separation of powers via the electoral connection and suggest that politicians may engage in activities that erode democracy without a broad loss of public support.

Opening the ‘black box’: Organisational Adaptation and Resistance to institutional isomorphism in a prime-led employment services programme

The UK’s Work Programme (2012-18) was a major employment services programme, inspired by new public management principles. A relatively small number of directly commissioned ‘prime providers’ were paid by the central Government largely according to the number of job-outcomes their service users achieved but were given a ‘black box’ to design their own services and subcontracting arrangements. Drawing on an empirical study of subcontracted service providers, and focusing on those from the third sector, the paper shows that within this prime-led commissioning model, subcontractors came under sustained pressure to adjust their operational practices. We draw on institutional isomorphism to show that isomorphic pressures were experienced because of both the design and implementation of the Work Programme. Although there were strong pressures pushing towards convergence, however, the different starting positions of subcontractors meant that these changes were not entirely deterministic and some attempts at resistance were observed amongst third sector providers. Their diverse institutional contexts, including positioning and wider interest in the field, shaped how they navigated and responded to isomorphic pressures, ultimately mitigating homogenisation. The paper contributes a more sophisticated understanding of the ways in which provider organisations experience, interpret and respond to structural pressures within an evolving quasi-market. The findings have implications for public service reform programmes featuring quasi-markets that are intended to encourage innovation and a diversity of provision, particularly when promoting mission-led, third sector organisations (TSOs).

From Compliance to Progress: A Sensemaking Perspective on the Governance of Corruption

The governance of corruption is increasingly important in a global business environment involving ever more frequent transactions across diverse institutional contexts. Previous scholarship has theorized a fundamental tension between the enforcement of organizational compliance and the achievement of social ends, finding that efforts to remedy policy-practice decoupling in the governance of corruption and other complex global issues can exacerbate means-ends decoupling. However, these studies have tended to apply a rather static lens to a highly evaluative and processual phenomenon, meaning we still lack in-depth understanding of the dynamics underlying the interactive communicative processes of sensemaking and negotiation involved in working out the problems of both means-ends and policy-practice decoupling across different institutional contexts. To address this gap, we present a longitudinal qualitative study of the governance of corruption that identifies the emergence of locally contingent and open-ended sensemaking processes arising from and surrounding problems of decoupling. Specifically, we identify four key sensemaking mechanisms across different contexts and periods that ultimately shifted the focus of the actors away from a compliance-based approach toward a new shared understanding of progress as achievement, i.e., the mechanisms of localized theorizing, leveling, recalibrating, and public criticizing. Based on these findings, we develop a model to explain the role of sensemaking in the governance of corruption and the dynamics of decoupling. Funding: This work was supported by Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung [Grants 100018_137789 and 100018_159485].

Experimenting with Urban–Rural Partnerships for Sustainable Sanitation in India: Learning from Practice

Local government partnerships for producing services are ubiquitous in many countries. However, the approach has rarely been applied in India—likely owing to a history of centralized planning and independent urban and rural governance systems. Nonetheless, the country’s transforming sanitation landscape could benefit from intergovernmental partnerships for scaling services with speed and efficiency. The ongoing national sanitation program has espoused the approach in theory but the body of practice to support its wide deployment is sparse. This paper critically reviews one of the first experiments with the approach for producing sanitation services in the Dhenkanal district, Odisha, India. We ask the question: what can Dhenkanal’s case tell us about the challenges and opportunities for delivering sanitation services through local-level intergovernmental urban–rural partnerships in India? As part of our practice research, we supported the district government pilot the approach. The data, consultations, and observations underpinning the experiment form the basis of our insights. We find that the urban–rural partnership increased access to sanitation services among rural households within a short period, lowered service charges, and clarified institutional responsibilities. The experiment highlighted issues relating to planning, responsibility, accountability, and financing that need tackling in order to strengthen the model going forward. We recommend that evolving a definitive model(s) of intergovernmental partnerships would require experimenting with the approach in diverse institutional contexts and granting governments the flexibility to recreate and renegotiate the form of the partnership.

Tell Me about Yourself

AbstractThis article describes an autoethnography project used in an undergraduate creative writing course and discusses its pedagogical benefits. Drawing on results from a survey and interviews with former students and a supporting librarian, the article considers how the assignment might be adapted for diverse institutional contexts.

From the world of women to the ethnography of institutions. A retrospective trace

This article reconstructs the professional journey of its author and, taking morality and values in politics as its guiding thread, seeks to trace various theoretical and methodological developments relevant to the contemporary anthropological debate. From this perspective, it presents the investigations undertaken during her career and their connections to publications, courses, and supervisions at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, research groups and laboratories, as well as national and international networks with which these were (and are) articulated. As the title suggests, it sets out from studies of the feminist movement, followed by investigations in diverse institutional contexts with the inclusion of government policy forums set up under the principle of participatory citizenship.

‘Smile and Nod’ or More? Reassessing the Role of the Silent Supervisor in the Doctoral Viva

Aim/Purpose: The study examines the perspectives of convenors, examiners, supervisors, and candidates to gather their views on the presence of the supervisor in oral examinations (doctoral viva) and to reassess the role of the mainly silent supervisor in the doctoral viva. Background: Supervisors are central to candidates’ doctoral journey, and their roles have been well documented. However, supervisors’ role in the doctoral viva remains elusive, insignificant, and misunderstood. Methodology: The study adopts a qualitative survey method and qualitative interviews to examine the perspectives of 94 participants, including conveners, examiners, supervisors, and candidates. Data were collected through in-depth interviews and an open-ended survey and was later analyzed using a qualitative approach. Contribution: The findings have implications for the doctoral viva and policies that seek to make it a collegial and equitable practice. Findings: The findings offer two main explanations that warrant supervisors’ physical presence in oral examinations: psycho-emotional support and procedural/regulatory purposes. Supervisors’ voices serve psycho-emotional and technical purposes and aid in dialogue and knowledge construction. Recommendations for Practitioners: It is recommended that practitioners need to move on from the customary ‘smile and nod’ role of supervisors to allowing their voices to be heard, perhaps at the end of the viva. This would not only facilitate candidates’ performance by offering affirmation and assurance through psychological and moral support but also provide an opportunity for discussion. Recommendation for Researchers: This study furthers our understanding of the ‘anatomy of a doctoral viva’ and examines a comprehensive picture of the supervisor’s role in a doctoral oral exam from all stakeholders’ perspectives. Impact on Society: The role of supervisors in the doctoral viva, beginning from the medieval period, has consistently evolved. The research provides a fresh outlook on supervision where the supervisor is not only recommended to be present during the viva, but also to play an active role. Future Research: Future research should include diverse cultural, institutional, and disciplinary contexts to advance our understanding of the supervisor’s role during oral exams. Also, whether supervisors should have a more active role independent of what a convenor may desire should be investigated.

Governing public health emergencies during the coronavirus disease outbreak: Lessons from four Chinese cities in the first wave.

The ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has had a far-reaching impact on urban living, prompting emergency preparedness and response from public health governance at multiple levels. The Chinese government has adopted a series of policy measures to control infectious disease, for which cities are the key spatial units. This research traces and reports analyses of those policy measures and their evolution in four Chinese cities: Zhengzhou, Hangzhou, Shanghai and Chengdu. The theoretical framework stems from conceptualisations of urban governance and its role in public health emergencies, wherein crisis management and emergency response are highlighted. In all four cities, the trend curves of cumulative diagnosed cases, critical policies launched in key time nodes and local governance approaches in the first wave were identified and compared. The findings suggest that capable local leadership is indispensable for controlling the coronavirus epidemic, yet local governments' approaches are varied, contributing to dissimilar local epidemic control policy pathways and positive outcomes in the fight against COVID-19. The effectiveness of disease control is determined by how local governments' measures have adapted to geospatial and socioeconomic heterogeneity. The coordinated actions from central to local governments also reveal an efficient, top-down command transmission and execution system for coping with the pandemic. This article argues that effective control of pandemics requires both a holistic package of governance strategies and locally adaptive governance measures/processes, and concludes with proposals for both a more effective response at the local level and identification of barriers to achieving these responses within diverse subnational institutional contexts.

Expanded Possibilities for Teaching Asian Medicines

Abstract Asian Medicine is inaugurating a new type of article in this issue, the pedagogical forum. For our launch of this new format, forum editors Zanolini and Hanson invited a range of scholars and practitioners teaching East Asian medicine within diverse institutional contexts to contribute. Their different approaches to teaching can be more broadly applied to any medical tradition in Asia.

Exploring city climate leadership in theory and practice: responding to the polycentric challenge

ABSTRACT This article has a twofold aim inspired by observed gaps in urban climate governance theory and practice. First, it explores city leadership strategies of securing a closer correspondence between climate policy goals and observed realities on the ground. Second, it presents an in-depth and nuanced theoretical understanding of urban climate leadership inspired by four bodies of public administration leadership theory, reflecting leadership as an understudied field in the urban climate governance literature. Being largely exploratory and conceptual in nature, the article aims more specifically to identify the contribution of different public leadership theories and strategies to our understanding of city climate leadership, the explanatory reach and limitations of the theories and the potential interdependency between the leadership strategies. The practice of climate leadership in the city of Oslo is used as an illustrative case. The results show that each body of theory shed light on relevant aspects of climate leadership practices in diverse institutional contexts. By applying a careful mix of these leadership strategies and instruments, city leadership adds the stringence, predictability and motivation needed for multiple public and private actors to engage collectively and bridge policy gaps. However, social, institutional and physical constraints related to the complex, polycentric character of urban climate governance represent phenomena that fall outside the scope of the leadership theories. This point to limitations in the theories’ explanatory reach that give direction to future research.