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Multinational companies transfer managerial practices such as quality management globally. Studies from different perspectives have examined cultural, institutional, and organizational challenges in practice transfer, however, little is known about the micro-processes of intercultural transfer, especially in complex cultural settings as Brazil. Integrating the recontextualization perspective and Scandinavian institutionalist transfer-as-translation approach, this book explores micro-processes of transfer from German MNC to Brazilian subsidiaries from a multiple cultures perspective. Findings show the complementary nature of micro-processes of translation and recontextualization, embedding them into a process model of four stages: Preparation, translation, recontextualization, and institutionalization. Intercultural transfer can be considered an iterative and multi-level process in which practices diffuse from individuals, to teams, to the organization. The book contributes to international management by cross-fertilizing the two approaches, by highlighting cultural and institutional particularities of the Brazilian context using a culturally sensitive methodology, and by showing the transformative power of managerial practices on organizations and ecosystems. About the author Madeleine Bausch completed her PhD at University of Passau, Germany. Since March 2022, she is a researcher at the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Chile.

In this article, we propose a phenomenon-based approach as a suitable way of handling multiple paradigms in practice. We implement the phenomenon-based approach by means of active categorization to be differentiated into three steps – differentiation, integration, and patterning – and apply this approach to international knowledge transfer (IKT) in multinational enterprises (MNE). Via differentiation, we classify the IKT literature into six theoretical perspectives. Via integration, we identify power as the common element underlying knowledge transfer in MNEs. This leads us to conceptualize power as an influence on IKT through the paradigms and power assumptions of the Burrell-Morgan matrix and the characteristics of power proposed by Clegg. Via patterning, we draw implications for phenomenon-based multi-paradigm research, such as the dominance of regulative and functionalist power-assumptions over interpretive and critical ones and structural power lenses over rules of practice. We deduce recommendations and propose research questions for multi-paradigm research. With our conceptual frame, we enable researchers and practitioners to conceptualize power in more sophisticated ways. We contribute to multi-paradigm studies in Cross Cultural Management by exemplifying the benefits and implications of a phenomenon-based approach as a way to handle multiple paradigms in practice and propose further fields of application.

Cross-cultural management (CCM) research comprises a variety of disciplines with different thematic, paradigmatic, and methodological assumptions. Since there has been no systematic analysis of the development of topics, paradigms, and methods, this article draws a landscape of these analyzing 777 articles published in two leading journals between 2001 and 2018. Results show that corporate culture, human resource management, and cultural dimensions are main topics in CCM and that positivist and quantitative papers outweigh interpretive and qualitative articles. We examine a convergence of the positivist and interpretive paradigm in 2016 and 2017, what might indicate a possible upcoming paradigmatic shift in CCM. However, positivist articles rise again since 2017. Using computer-aided tools, this study serves as a basis for future literature reviews.

As a border-transcending discipline, the advancement of international management research depends on collaboration between scholars, universities, and nations to account for the diversity and complexity of management phenomena. Yet, relatively little is known about how international management has evolved as a field of research. We address this gap by examining the evolution of collaboration patterns on three levels of analysis, applying the concepts of cumulative advantage, preferential attachment, and isomorphic behavior in a diachronic network analysis. Based on 6,874 articles published between 1990 and 2016 in eight international management journals, our analysis shows that collaboration is driven by a few key players on each level. Although the US and UK still represent hubs, semi-peripheral actors from Europe and Asia enter the landscape. Nevertheless, non-western actors are still underrepresented. We tie this effect to the expertise-based hegemonic status of American and British business schools and dynamics of cumulative advantage on country-level.