External Institutional Pressures Research Articles

Research on the impact of management control on corporate social responsibility and business performance—The case of listed companies in Vietnam

Purpose: There have been many studies on corporate social responsibility. Still, research on the dual relationship showing the impact of management control on corporate social responsibility and business performance has not been exciting researchers. The article also identifies and measures the elements of management control that affect compliance with corporate social responsibility and business performance. At the same time, the paper also analyzes the influence of compliance with corporate social responsibility on business performance. From the research results, listed companies will see the importance of designing management control and complying with corporate social responsibility to maximize the business’s profits. Findings: The article demonstrates the practicality of institutional theory in the relationship between management control, corporate social responsibility, and business performance. Institutional theory influences the relationship between management control, CSR, and business performance by highlighting the role of external institutional pressures, legitimacy, and conformity to societal norms. Companies that strategically integrate institutional expectations into their management control systems can enhance their CSR efforts, improve their reputation, and contribute to better business performance. Methodology: We collect data on 195 manufacturing enterprises listed on the Vietnam stock market in 6 sectors. This study’s main data analysis method is the structural equation modeling method (SEM). The article used AMOS software to evaluate and measure the influence of each factor. Practical implications: The article has analyzed five aspects of management control to corporate social responsibility and business performance: Size of the Board of Directors (BOD), percentage of independent members in the BOD, and concurrence. CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors, state ownership ratio and foreign shareholder ownership rate. The results show that a company with a CEO who is not the Chairman of the BOD will have a higher level of CSR compliance than a company with a CEO who is also the Chairman of the BOD. The larger the Board size, the higher the level of CSR, but This has not been verified for the company’s business performance. The higher the foreign ownership ratio, the better the CSR compliance; however, this has the opposite direction for the state ownership rate. The higher the percentage of independent members on the Board of Directors, the lower the level of CSR compliance. In terms of impact on business performance in the enterprise: The higher the company’s compliance with corporate social responsibility, the better it’s business performance. A company with a CEO who holds the position of BOD will have lower business performance than companies with a CEO who does not hold the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors. Companies with a high percentage of state ownership will have lower business performance. The higher the percentage of independent members on the Board of Directors, the lower the business performance. Originality: This attests that the research paper I submitted is the result of my original and independent work. I have duly acknowledged all sources from which the ideas and quotations have been obtained. The project does not contain any plagiarism and has not been sent elsewhere for publication.

System Identification of Enterprise Innovation Factor Combinations—A Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis Method

High-tech manufacturing enterprises, as innovative entities, are a key focus of national attention. Currently, such enterprises are facing both internal governance pressure and external institutional pressure. Unlike traditional studies that mostly use regression equations, this article uses the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis method to examine how high-tech manufacturing enterprises can coordinate their internal governance mechanisms and external institutional pressures to achieve optimal innovation. This improves the complex mechanism of the multiple factors jointly explaining corporate innovation, and also helps to elucidate the nonlinear relationship between internal governance factors, external institutional factors, and corporate innovation, effectively enriching research methods and results. However, there has not been any research on the issue of enterprise innovation from the perspective of coordinating the two, which urgently needs to be addressed. This article examines how high-tech manufacturing enterprises can reconcile their internal governance mechanisms with external institutional pressures to achieve optimal innovation. The results showed that (1) a single factor cannot constitute the necessary conditions for innovation in high-tech manufacturing enterprises, but executive and shareholder governance have universality in the innovation in high-tech manufacturing enterprises; (2) in the absence of political advantages, high-tech manufacturing enterprises should focus on the coordinated development of internal governance, making board, executive, and shareholder governance the core conditions for innovative development; (3) with political advantages as the main focus and market attention as a supplement, high-tech manufacturing enterprises promote innovative development by combining executive and shareholder governance. This finding indicates a significant substitution effect between government legitimacy and board governance, and confirms that the importance of obtaining government legitimacy for high-tech manufacturing innovation is higher than market legitimacy. This article enriches the research on enterprise innovation by linking internal corporate governance with external institutional pressure, expands the research on the coordination relationship between institutional pressure and corporate governance, and has enlightening significance in revealing the collaborative path for innovation in high-tech manufacturing enterprises.

The impact of organizational-level political connection on environmental strategy in private firms

Encouraging private firms in emerging economies to adopt environmental strategies presents a significant challenge. Previous literature has extensively explored environmental strategies but has not sufficiently delved into the influence of organizational-level political connections. Using a national sample survey of Chinese private firms in 2016, this study investigates the impact of Party branch on firm's environmental strategies. Our findings reveal that the presence of Party branches significantly boosts green innovation and environmental protection investment among private firms. Furthermore, these effects are positively reinforced by environmental regulatory pressure and public environmental pressure. This study underscores the crucial role of organizational-level political connections, specifically Party branches, in transmitting and coordinating external institutional pressures, thereby fostering firms' environmental strategies.

What motivates firms to adopt a green supply chain and how much does it matter?

This study integrates the elaboration likelihood model, institutional theory, and the image management perspective to identify the internal and external forces that can effectively drive firms to adopt a green supply chain. Using survey data from a sample of 246 firms in the Chinese manufacturing sector, we empirically examine how the internal green process and green product innovation of firms and different types of external institutional pressures contribute to their adoption of a green supply chain, which in turn can explain the variation in their environmental and new-product development performance. Results of our structural equation modeling analysis reveal that the internal green process and green product innovation of firms and three types of external institutional pressures (i.e., coercive, normative, and mimetic pressures) play an important role in driving green supply chain adoption. Moreover, firms can improve their environmental and new-product development performance by adopting a green supply chain. In addition, though the image management motivation of firms tends to play a negative moderating role in the relationship between their green process innovation and green supply chain adoption, such motivation positively moderates the contribution of coercive pressure to their green supply chain adoption. Our findings can help explain why emerging-market firms tend to adopt a green supply chain and do not follow the pattern predicted by classical strategic management theories. The results of our study clearly demonstrate the determinants and consequences of the adoption of a green supply chain of firms and confirm that their green supply chain adoption can exert a positive effect on their environmental and new-product development performance. Overall, our research highlights the importance of recognizing internal innovation and external institutional forces in driving the green supply chain adoption of firms, which in turn will contribute to their environmental and new-product development performance. In this regard, our study extends the stream of research on green supply chains and sheds new light on the importance of abandoning the conventional supply chain and adopting a green one. Our study also provides important implications for research, practice, and policymaking.

Corporate Political Activities and Political Environments in International Business

This article summarizes my dissertation on corporate political activities and political institutional environments in international business. It addresses how firms are affected by random (crisis), regular (election), and firm-induced changes in their political environment. The three key findings of my dissertation are that internal and external institutional pressures are not independent of each other; firms´ international and national diversification act as safeguards when political events occur; and non-pivotal corporate political activities are oftentimes underestimated. In its entirety, the dissertation not only sheds light on various political challenges, but also on firms’ strategies in addressing those challenges.

The embedded construction of price fairness evaluations: a case study of Air Greenland

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate how fairness evaluations are constructed in a B2B context.Design/methodology/approachThis paper conducts a field study of Air Greenland and its internal and external customers based on strong structuration theory (Stones, 2005). The authors employ context and conduct analysis to analyze how fairness evaluations emerge across four levels of structuration.FindingsThe paper finds that fairness evaluations emerge as a result of the interaction between external institutional pressures, agents' internal structures, and situated reflection and outcomes. The construction of fairness evaluations was embedded in contradictory institutional structures, where groups of actors constructed different evaluations of fair profits, procedures and prices. Actors furthermore worked on changing position-practice relations which shifted relations, external structures and affected outcomes and fairness evaluations.Originality/valueThis paper offers a conceptualization of embedded agency as emerging across the four levels of structuration. This contributes to debates in strong structuration theory through conceptualizing and analyzing how actors may be both be constrained and oriented by structures while reflexively adapting structures across the four levels of structuration. The paper extends extant pricing fairness research by illustrating how actors' construction of fairness flexibly develop fairness evaluations while responding to legitimacy and societal demands, including the needs of particular customer groups.

Institutional isomorphism and sustainable HRM adoption: a conceptual framework

PurposeThere is a major lacuna in sustainable human resource management (HRM) research regarding the theoretical context of its adoption or implementation. Consequently, the purpose of this study is to examine the relative influence and interactive effects of different levels of institutional isomorphisms on sustainable HRM adoption.Design/methodology/approachThis study applies the conceptual method and anchors the discussions on the institutional theory and the extant literature on the antecedents of sustainable HRM implementation.FindingsInternal and external institutional isomorphisms will have complementary (synergies) or substitution (trade-offs) effects on sustainable HRM adoption. Furthermore, external institutional isomorphic pressures related to societal values and culture and stakeholders’ sustainability demands are likely to have greater influence on sustainable HRM implementation relative to the internal institutional isomorphic pressures related to managerial sustainability values and attitudes; sustainability-related HRM competencies; resource availability; and perceived sustainability benefits.Originality/valueThis study proposes a novel multi-level conceptual model on the implementation context of sustainable HRM for testing empirically. Furthermore, this study generates insight on how different levels of institutional isomorphic pressures relatively and interactively (synergies versus trade-offs) affect sustainable HRM adoption. This is significant because there is a view that HRM as a discipline is theoretically weak. Although the field has advanced theoretically, one of the areas that need more theorisation is the context of HRM. Hence, this study advances the theoretical context of sustainable HRM implementation through the perspectives of the institutional theory.

Sustainability in Multinational Companies: The Alignment Between Subsidiaries and Headquarters

Based on institutional theory, this paper aims at understanding what is the impact of multinational companies’ (MNCs) internal and external institutional environments on the alignment between subsidiaries and headquarter intentions about Corporate Sustainability (CS). With a quantitative study focusing on the hotel industry, with primary data collected in 19 countries, we assess the impact that internal and external institutional pressures have on the alignment. In doing so, we contribute to the debate about the transfer of sustainability practices within MNCs, highlighting organizational and environmental conditions that ease the spread of sustainability within multinational organizations, and the effective value that their CS policies have on the effective implementation of such practices.

Companies to promote CSR impact on employees: High‐performance work systems as a moderator

AbstractCorporate social responsibility (CSR) has been of much public concern in recent years. This study uses the Conservation of Resources Theory to discuss the measures that organizations can take to ensure that resources are not lost when they face institutional pressures. We distributed questionnaires to Taiwanese small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in two phases. The results reveal the following measures pertinent to enterprise management bodies: (1) SMEs faced with external institutional pressure must promote CSR strategies to secure existing organizational resources; (2) spreading awareness on and taking actions for CSR promotion by SMEs, in response to changes in the external institutional environment, can improve corporate image and increase employees' intention to stay; and (3) measures concerning high‐performance work systems can help unleash the full potential of human resource management and facilitate enterprises to introduce CSR. Some important theoretical implications emerge in this study. Based on the Conservation of Resources Theory, we argue that the stressor faced by SMEs is not a threat, but a factor that creates or preserves organizational resources. Through the application of this theory, we enrich the CSR model. Further, the feasibility of high‐performance work systems, as a moderator of institutional pressure, is determined.

Green supply chain practices: The role of institutional pressure, market orientation, and managerial commitment

Degradation of the natural environment has raised major concerns about organization sustainability. The growing trend towards integrating responsible environmentalism into the supply chain has required many organizations to pivot to adopting green supply chain practices. In this paper, we assert that the external environment exercises institutional pressure on organizations to adopting a market orientation, aided by managerial commitment, that espouses green supply chain practices as a strategic resource. A survey of 196 manufacturing managers, largely from the United States, United Kingdom, and India, found that institutional pressure had a significant impact on marketing orientation and market orientation had a significant impact on green supply chain practices. Managerial commitment played a key role in strengthening the relationship between market orientation and green supply chain practices. Lastly, the survey found no difference among United States, United Kingdom, and India manufacturers. We postulate that this no difference could be attributable to the tightly coupled systems found within manufacturing.

Institutional Pressures and Servitization Paradox: The Moderating Effect of Organizational Identity Orientations.

It is believed in many studies that the servitization of manufactures is driven by internal economy, but the situation in China may be somewhat different. In this study, we consider the influence of external institutional environment on manufacturers’ servitization and the final performance, and discuss the moderating effect of organizational identity orientation on firms’ response to external institutional pressures. We conduct a survey where we collect responses from 312 manufacturers in China. Regression analyses are performed to test whether institutional pressures (normative pressure, mimetic pressure, and coercive pressure) coming from the external institutional environment have a positive effect on the level of manufacturing servitization or not. Moreover, we study if this positive effect is moderated by the individualistic identity orientation and the relational identity orientation. We also examine the impact of servitization strategy on manufacture’s market performance and financial performances. Furthermore, we separate out the influences comes from institutional pressures by using a new estimated method and try to explain the cause of “servitization paradox.” Our study is innovative in that it bridges the servitization and institutional theory, and provides practical guidance for the adoption of manufacturing servitization strategy.

Teachers’ Emotional Labor in the Context of New College Entrance Exam Reform in Mainland China

Abstract This study was designed as an explorative qualitative study aiming to investigate Chinese high school teachers’ emotional labor when implementing policies related to the New College Entrance Exam (ncee). Findings are mainly generated from analysis of in-depth interviews. First, as a by-product of the ncee reform, disruptive changes in curricula and school management have brought about negative emotions on the part of teachers. The negative emotions led to teachers’ pessimist attitude towards the ongoing ncee reform. Second, teachers’ negative emotions were intentionally managed and controlled by themselves for different reasons. On the one hand, teachers inhibited negative feelings for building a compassionate climate in classroom teaching. On the other hand, teachers performed to be “emotional-free” in front of students’ parents and school managers. The study suggests that the intensified external institutional pressures, rather than changed classroom teaching, made teaching an alienated labor, depriving teachers’ sustainable commitment to the ncee reform.

A Study on the Impact of Institutional Pressure on Carbon Information Disclosure: The Mediating Effect of Enterprise Peer Influence.

Enterprises should bear the main responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions. Disclosing carbon emission information is one of the important ways for enterprises to deal with climate change. Taking China’s A-share listed companies from 2014 to 2018 as the research sample, we study the impact of external explicit institutional pressure and implicit institutional pressure on corporate carbon information disclosure and analyze the mediating effect of enterprise peer influence in carbon disclosure. The empirical results show that external institutional pressure, namely environmental regulation and Confucian culture, has a significant positive impact on enterprise carbon information disclosure. Enterprise peer influence has a certain mediating effect between external institutional pressure and carbon information disclosure. The government should formulate and improve the carbon information disclosure institution and strengthen external supervision through the joint participation of all sectors of society.

Champions of Social Procurement in the Australian Construction Industry: Evolving Roles and Motivations

There has been a recent proliferation of social procurement policies in Australia that target the construction industry. This is mirrored in many other countries, and the nascent research in this area shows that these policies are being implemented by an emerging group of largely undefined professionals who are often forced to create their own roles in institutional vacuums with little organisational legitimacy and support. By mobilising theories of how organisational champions diffuse innovations in other fields of practice, this paper contributes new insights into the evolving nature of these newly emerging roles and the motivations which drive these professionals to overcome the institutional inertia they invariably face. The results of semi-structured interviews, with fifteen social procurement champions working in the Australian construction industry, indicate that social procurement champions come from a wide range of professional backgrounds and bring diverse social capital to their roles. Linked by a shared sense of social consciousness, these champions challenge traditional institutional norms, practices, supply chain relationships, and traditional narratives about the concepts of value in construction. We conclude that, until normative standards develop around social procurement in the construction industry, its successful implementation will depend on external institutional pressures and the practical demonstration of what is possible in practice within the performative constraints of traditional project objectives.

Institutional pressure and open innovation: the moderating effect of digital knowledge and experience-based knowledge

Purpose When considering the influence of external social, technical and political environments on organizations’ open innovation behavior, especially in emerging markets, institutional theory is especially salient. This study aims to answer the question of how to integrate organizations’ external institutional pressures and internal knowledge structure to mitigate the challenges in the open innovation process. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a sample of 2,126 observations from the 2012 World Bank Enterprise Survey. A multivariate regression model is designed to explore the impact of external institutional pressure (i.e. coercive pressure, mimetic pressure and normative pressure) on open innovation, as well as the moderating effect of digital knowledge and experience-based knowledge. Findings The results show that institutional pressure has a positive role in promoting open innovation; digital knowledge weakens the positive relationship between institutional pressure and open innovation; experience-based knowledge strengthens the positive relationship between institutional pressure (especially coercive pressure) and open innovation. Originality/value This study combines institutional theory and knowledge management to enriches insights into open innovation in emerging markets. Beyond recognizing the inherent multidimensionality of the concept of institutional pressure, this study creates an integrated path for the legitimacy acquiring of enterprises through the knowledge structure design (i.e. digital knowledge and experience-based knowledge). It also deepens the institutional pressure to enable the implementation of digital knowledge to manage open innovation processes.

"The Worst Place in the World for Women"

This paper explores the nature of conflict-related sexual violence committed by the State Armed Forces (FARDC) in the Democratic Republic of Congo, through the application of the general strain theory. Findings show that sexual violence committed by the FARDC is commonly used as a form of personal catharsis and emotional release from perceived strains, as opposed to resulting from sexual desires or external institutional pressures. Further, the most influential contextual elements present in the local context of the FARDC, and which particularly encourage the propagation of sexual violence, include female FARDC soldiers receiving desired military positions, the centrality of strains to personal notions of masculinity and aspirations, the dismantling of social cohesion through patronage networks, and a lack of behavioural coping options. In turn, these factors reduce the efficiency of non-criminal coping strategies. Hence, interventions aimed at reducing the propagation of conflict-related sexual violence may benefit from more bottom-up and inductive approaches improving the individual circumstances of soldiers as opposed to solely focusing upon organisational change and military reform.

Two Routes to CSR: Mixing Religion, State, and Market

Religion, as a critical component in both personal value system and wider institutional order, is relatively under-investigated in strategic management. Drawing on institutional complexity and Weber’s classical thinking, we propose that firms with religious top executives are embedded in the tension of religion, market, and state logic, which further shapes their conflicting interpretations of external institutional pressures and variation in practicing CSR. Based on a matched two-year survey of firms across multiple industries and regions, we find that religious CEOs perceive lower normative pressure from industry peers but higher coercive pressure from the government, which mediate the different effects of CEO religiosity on corporate social responsibilities (CSR). Furthermore, we find that when firms are positioned in the hub of a business ecosystem, both the negative effect of religious belief on normative pressure and positive effect on coercive pressure becomes weaker; when firms are located in the environment with high regional marketization, only the negative effect of religious belief on normative pressure becomes weaker. We contribute by uncovering a more complicated but nuanced mechanisms through which CEO religiosity affect CSR and revealing the double-edged nature of business embeddedness with religious categories.

Informing cybersecurity strategic commitment through top management perceptions: The role of institutional pressures

Given the financial consequences of security breaches, security risk management has gained more attention in board rooms and garnered more involvement from top management. We undertake a study to understand the top managers’ role in cybersecurity strategy, specifically with cyberinsurance. This study draws from institutional and upper echelons theories to explain how top managers’ values and perceptions mediate the impact of external institutional pressures on the commitment to use cyberinsurance as a risk management strategy. We empirically test proposed hypotheses using data collected from executive-level managers of various firms and perform semi-structured interviews of six case sites as post hoc analysis. The results suggest that institutional pressures positively affect top managers’ perceptions of job security, breach risk, financial risk, transaction cost, and regulatory oversight. In turn, these perceptions influence their commitment to cyberinsurance. We find that values and perceptions of personal relevance have a significant impact on their strategic decisions. The findings emphasize the critical role that top management plays in mediating the influence of institutional pressures on cybersecurity strategy. Implications for research and practice, along with limitations and future directions, are discussed.

The impact of the EU Directive on non-financial information: Novel features of the Italian case

Purpose This paper aims to examine the European Union (EU) 95/2014 Directive’s impact on large public companies. It chose Italy as a pivotal country that made non-financial information assurance mandatory, going beyond the EU Directive’s original requirements. Specifically, it investigates how the UE Directive fosters institutionalisation of the non-financial reporting (NFR) process in organisations. Design/methodology/approach Two large public companies in Italy are used as case studies. Data are gathered from annual and integrated reports, institutional websites and semi-structured interviews with the managers and employees involved in different organisational positions. The authors adopted the neo-institutional theory as a theoretical lens to identify the organisations’ response to the (external) institutional pressures influencing corporate reporting practices. Findings The findings demonstrate how the EU Directive fostered changes to large public companies’ reporting practices and external pressures contributed to influencing changes to internal organisational practices in terms of new internal processes, procedures and structures. These changes are motivated by the companies’ need to guarantee reliable information to be produced in their non-financial reports. Practical implications This paper helps academics and policymakers to advance NFR practices by understanding regulatory factors that can foster changes in the internal reporting process and responsibility within organisations. Originality/value The findings provide some empirical insights to foster reflections on the EU Directive’s effectiveness in changing reporting practices. This paper contributes to enriching the literature on institutional theory in shaping mandatory non-financial disclosure by identifying the institutional pressures influencing the effectiveness of regulations to change NFR practices.

Factors Determining Social Media Marketing Adoption of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the Northern Province, Sri Lanka

MSMEs are the backbone of any nation. After the end of the civil war in 2009, people from the Northern Province of Sri Lanka started MSMEs, and that should be run on the virtual market and the physical market for business survival. This study explores the factors determining social media marketing adoption by MSMEs in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. In this study, data were collected from 10 owners or managers of MSMEs in the research area using multiple case study-based qualitative methods of indepth interviews. The research samples were selected using the purposive sampling technique. There were 12 factors explored such as perceived ease of use, internal and external influencers, technological factors, external institutional pressures, business sustenance, usage of smartphones, observability of market happenings, links among social media platforms, unique features, two-sided benefits, two-way cost reduction and new normal context as findings of the study.