http://repub.eur.nl/res/aut/23921/ List of Publications en http://repub.eur.nl/static-eur/img/logo.png http://repub.eur.nl http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/38795/ 2012-07-01T00:00:00Z For companies that are internationalizing through foreign acquisitions, a major consideration is likely to be access to the technical and social knowledge of the local environment that executives of the acquired companies possess. Despite the importance of this consideration, the literature has not sufficiently addressed the issues it raises. Investigations of the factors that affect the departure of executives of acquired companies have until recently tended to overlook the question of the knowledge that leaves with them. The present paper discusses executive retention in cross-border acquisitions from a knowledge-based perspective. It analyzes three cases of such acquisitions in Brazil. The results show how knowledge can play a critical role in the acquirer's decision to retain or release owners and/or executives after the acquisition. In addition to conventional variables, the characteristics of the knowledge of the acquired companies' owners and/or executives emerge as essential to explain their retention. This paper argues that evaluating the knowledge the acquired company's owners and/or executives possess, especially regarding its degree of tacitness, is one basis for decisions on their retention. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/32830/ 2012-06-14T00:00:00Z This paper aims to offer new theoretical and empirical insights into co-evolutionary development. Theoretically, it advances a political perspective which focuses on the role of power and how this can be translated into influence as an evolutionary driver through the relational framework between an organization and external parties. Empirically, the paper elaborates this perspective by reference to how China's largest container terminal evolved within a changing environment, and how its evolution in turn impacted on the evolution of its sector. In this case, the key relational framework was that between the organization and government institutions. Application of a political perspective to the case study suggests a theoretical model that can inform future research and practice. © 2012 The Authors Journal of Management Studies http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/37915/ 2012-02-01T00:00:00Z Social capital may be defined as social relationships that confer actual or potential benefits. It can therefore beunderstood as a particular type of resource. Recent research has drawn attention to how connections andrelationships (networking) both at home and abroad can be crucially important for small and medium-sizedenterprises (SMEs) seeking to export or invest abroad. However, relatively little is known about how SMEsinitiate, develop and maintain network relationships. This paper reports a study of 32 British SMEs exporting, orattempting to export, to Brazil and of domestic institutional agencies whose role was to facilitate businessconducted between British and Brazilian SMEs. The study explored both the functions of social capital for theSMEs and the process whereby it was developed. Its findings confirm the value of social capital in internationalentrepreneurship. It can provide information, interpretation, market opportunities, and some degree of protectionagainst the risks associated with foreignness, newness and smallness. The study also confirms the vitalimportance of personal trust in sustaining social capital between small firms. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/37872/ 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z Abstract This study considers how decision-makers in smaller firms interpret the means and conditions of internationalization, and how different modes of interpretation are likely to inform action choices in this process. Drawing on 58 qualitative interviews with the leaders of Brazilian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the clothing industry located in the state of Paraná, the results support the contention that different understandings given to the means/conditions of internationalization are associated with different action choices. More specifically, the results indicate that: (a) interpretation changes the criteria and parameters by which rational choices on internationalization are made; (b) a comprehensive explanation of internationalization on the basis of situational characteristics is likely to be inconclusive without taking into account decision-makers’ interpretations; (c) particular meanings given to internationalization are likely to inform choice in different ways, (d) managers act on the basis of their inter-subjectively negotiated, shared and sustained reality; and (e) investigative proximity with practitioners is pivotal in order to comprehensively account for their interpretations. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/26034/ 2011-06-01T00:00:00Z This paper offers a new insight into how organizations engage with external complexity. It applies a political action perspective that draws attention to the hitherto neglected question of how the relative power organizational leaders enjoy within their environments is significant for the actions they can take on behalf of their organizations when faced with external complexity. It identifies cognitive and relational complexity as two dimensions of the environment with which organizations have to engage. It proposes three modes whereby organizations may engage with environmental complexity that are conditioned by an organization's power within its environment. It also considers the intention associated with each mode, as well as the implications of these modes of engagement for how an organization can learn about its environment and for the use of rationality and intuition in its strategic decision-making. The closing discussion considers how this analysis integrates complexity and political action perspectives in a way that contributes to theoretical development and provides the basis for a dynamic political co-evolutionary approach. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/20083/ 2010-09-01T00:00:00Z This paper draws on a risk analysis framework in order to develop a systematic understanding of the risks perceived by partners, and to investigate the implications of risk perception for the configuration of control, in the post-formation governance of international joint ventures. The key variables in this framework consist of six situational factors which are considered as potential antecedents of perceived risk: conflict, opportunism, cultural difference, dependence, partner fit, and ownership share; partner's perception of risk; and post-formation governance as a set of outcome variables. The framework is tested using a sample of international joint ventures located in Taiwan. The findings show that conflicts between partners, opportunistic behavior by the local partner, cultural differences, and perceived partner misfit are related to foreign partners' risk perceptions. This study suggests that when foreign partners face likely performance and partnership risks after an IJV is established, they tend to resort to tighter post-formation governance measures in order to increase or maintain their confidence in their joint ventures. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/20805/ 2010-09-01T00:00:00Z This article develops a firm-level analysis of how the quality of employment relations following acquisition by private equity firms (PEFs) is contingent upon the strategic intent of those firms and the post-acquisition organizational choices they make. The efficiency gains that PEFs seek in acquired companies are expected to encourage restructuring towards a minimalist organization. However, the form such an organization takes is seen to depend on whether PEF strategy is oriented primarily towards extracting short-term value from acquired assets rather than towards renewing and developing those assets. Contrasts in the process of restructuring and in organizational form associated with these two strategies will have different implications for the quality of employment relations. The way in which PEFs restructure the companies or units they acquire is the key intervening factor between the strategic intent of PEFs and impact they have on the quality of employment relations.