Suchergebnisse

International joint venture (IJV) research largely omits social and cognitive processes and, hence, overlooks their potentially important implications. This paper presents a four-year longitudinal investigation into the social identification and social enactment processes in a British-Italian, shared management joint venture. Using social identification and social enactment theories as conceptual anchors, the study reveals that national social identities were the dominant sense-making vehicle used by team members, although multiple sources of social identification were possible and present in this IJV. Contextual changes occurred that could be expected to favor organizational (IJV-based) social identities, but the dominant use of nationality-based identities did not change. Our findings suggest that social identity enactments (using particular boundaries to define primary social identities) by team members mediate the relationship of contextual variables, both environmental and structural, with group and organizational outcomes (such as role investment and job satisfaction). Our empirical results shed light on unresolved debates in the IJV literature, e.g., the implications of cultural distance and shared management for IJV performance. This study also contributes to social identity theory by highlighting promising directions for development of contextual and longitudinal dimensions in that research stream.

This study expands theoretical research on negotiated culture by testing basic assumptions in the context of a German-Japanese joint venture. Data collected by semi-structured interviews are analyzed using textual analysis software to uncover key issues that became catalysts for negotiation. Results include a model of cultural negotiation linking organizational events with issue domains as points of departure for negotiations. Results show that aggregate models of cultural difference are useful only to the extent that they serve as latent conceptual anchors guiding individuals' cultural responses to events. The study shows that structural/contextual influences together with individuals' culturally determined sense-making with regard to specific organizational events are more useful determinants of negotiated outcomes. Authors conclude that, while it is unlikely we can predict organizational culture formation in complex cultural organizations, we can understand the process of cultural negotiation and as a result be better prepared to monitor and manage in culturally diverse settings.

Over the past 5 years, a new and unexpected form of interest representation has developed in the European Union: subnational governments that mobilize directly in Brussels. The authors propose explanations for this phenomenon, drawing on theories of public choice, resource mobilization, and multilevel governance. The first set of hypotheses is concerned with the material and cultural resources that may induce a subnational government to organize in the European arena. The second set of hypotheses explains regional representation as an outcome of overlapping competencies, tensions, and conflicts in a system of multilevel governance. Logistic analysis of the probability of regional representation provides support for the second set of hypotheses. The authors find that subnational representation is positively associated with the degree of overlap between the competencies of subnational and supranational governments and with the political distinctiveness of a region and the relative strength of citizens' regional identity.