Ekaterina Turkina

Social Capital, Networks, Trust and Immigrant Entrepreneurship: A Cross-Country Analysis

Purpose - This study is devoted to the empirical assessment of the macro-level impact of social capital on immigrant entrepreneurship (the general levels of immigrant entrepreneurship, as well as high-value added immigrant entrepreneurship).Design/methodology/approach - The paper applies multiple regression analysis to the data on immigrant entrepreneurship and high-value added immigrant entrepreneurship provided by OECD. The measures of the independent variables (the components of social capital) are based on World Value Survey.Findings - The results reveal that social capital does play a significant role in high-value added immigrant entrepreneurship in particular and immigrant entrepreneurship in general. With strong statistical significance, three social capital factors – networking, interpersonal trust, and institutional trust – provide an explanation for variations in immigrant entrepreneurship across countries.Originality/value - Although the literature has long pointed out the importance of social capital as a determinant of economic activity, entrepreneurship researchers have focused much attention on the impact of personal, economic, and politico-administrative factors while leaving social capital factors largely unexamined. Thus study offers a systematic analysis of the effects of social capital on immigrant entrepreneurship and high-value added immigrant entrepreneurship at a macro level and discusses policy-making implications.

Psychic Distance and Country Image in Exporter–Importer Relationships

Conflicting evidence on the issue of psychic distance (PD) in international business relationships has suggested the existence of misunderstood boundary conditions to its effect. This article argues that country image (CI) is a contingent factor to the effect of PD. Expectancy–value theory provides the theoretical foundations, and structural equation modeling analyses for a sample of 358 exporter–importer relationships in the global wine industry provide empirical support for this argument. Product-related CI mitigates the negative impact of PD on the relational exchange orientation (REO) between firms. Specifically, a high level of PD dampens REO when product-related CI is poor, whereas a strong product-related CI helps firms facing such PD conditions to build REO. People-related CI has an indirect effect on REO through product-related CI. This study helps explain the “paradox of distance” and offers a fresh perspective on how to handle the issue of PD when relevant.

Cross‐Border Inter‐Firm Networks in the European Union's Eastern Neighbourhood: Integration Via Organizational Learning

The European Union (EU) is seeking to generate stronger integration in the wider Europe without further enlargement by involving its immediate neighbours in various regional partnerships. What are the effects of such co-operation across the eastern borders of the EU and what are the prospects for bringing this regions countries closer to the EU without offering them the possibility of formal EU membership? Using the tools of social network analysis and regression methods, this article investigates the effect of the EUs external governance on the previously neglected societal level by focusing on cross-border inter-firm networks. The findings show that the diffusion of organizational practices is occurring within these networks which have emerged as the result of EU governance efforts abroad. The article explores the causal mechanisms of this diffusion, and also identifies factors that impede or catalyze the transfer of organizational practices. It also points to the relevance of neofunctionalism in explaining integration between the EU and its eastern neighbours.

Cultural distance and entry modes : implications for global expansion strategy

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to take a strategic perspective on how MNEs in the retail sector decide to enter a new market. Drawing on transaction cost theory, the contingency approach and resource-based theory, the implications of the interplay between global strategy, cultural distance and entry mode strategies are examined by means of an analysis of Carrefour’s global expansion. Design/methodology/approach – To account for the shortcomings of prior research, a hypothesis in the relationship between entry modes and cultural distance is tested empirically using a sample of 44 foreign market entries by Carrefour over the 40 last years. The paper uses a quantitative approach, i.e., logistic regressions. To measure cultural distance, the authors rely on the GLOBE dimensions and the Kogut-Singh Index. Findings – The findings suggest a positive relationship between a resource commitment, entry mode strategy and cultural distance for Carrefour. However, these findings are contrary to the mainstream a...

Generational Differences in Values in Central and Eastern Europe: The Effects of Politico‐Economic Transition

This article explores the effects of post-communist transition and European enlargement on intergenerational politico-economic values in three groups of countries: Central and Eastern European countries that became European Union members; countries with EU membership prospects; and those that have no membership prospects, at least in the foreseeable future. The analysis indicates considerable differences between these three groups of countries and shows that over time Europeanization served as an intra-cohort mechanism of social change: it smoothed over intergenerational differences and led to a trend of convergence in values between new Eastern members of the EU and Western Europe. Europeanization also appears to have some harmonizing power on intergenerational differences in countries with EU membership prospects. At the same time, the rough post-communist transition process and the lack of consolidation mechanisms created considerable intergenerational differences in European countries without EU membership prospects, as revealed by the dominance of cohort replacement mechanism in these countries.

From Business to Politics: Cross‐Border Inter‐Firm Networks and Policy Spillovers in the EU's Eastern Neighbourhood

The European Union (EU) encourages cross-border inter-firm networks as a part of its external governance approach. What is the effect of these networks? Do they lead to regulatory convergence around EU standards in the eastern neighbourhood? Using original survey data, as well as data on regional enterprise-related regulations, this article argues that the density of interaction among private actors and between private actors and regional governments in such networks create conditions for private actors to lobby for regulatory change, resulting in approximations to EU standards. By testing the transnational mechanisms of policy change, the article points to the possibility of integration, even in the absence of membership prospects. However, the findings also indicate that the extent of regulatory change is conditioned by cross-border network structure as well as the institutional distance between the partnering regions.

The importance of networking to entrepreneurship: Montreal's artificial intelligence cluster and its born-global firm Element AI

While international business and economics literature once viewed companies as atomistic, disconnected units basing decisions solely on market incentives, recent studies have highlighted the import...

Civil Society Organizations in European Union External Relations: A Study of Interorganizational Networks in the Eastern Partnership and the Mediterranean

Abstract Networks of civil society organizations are a feature of the Eastern Partnership and the Union for the Mediterranean, the two strategies of the European Union (EU) for relations with the countries of the Neighborhood. We examine these structures as instances of interorganizational networks. We employ social network analysis and multiple regression to test empirically a number of hypotheses about these networks. Our results show that the networks are highly centralized around EU institutions, but we also find that gradually relations among all participants become more horizontal and cooperative, that EU institutions become less dominant over time, and that organizations from neighboring countries gain centrality. We also find that interorganizational cooperation is stronger in the southern than in the eastern Neighborhood.

Keeping Up with the Neighbours: Diffusion of Norms and Practices Through Networks of Employer and Employee Organizations in the Eastern Partnership and the Mediterranean

Using social network analysis and logistic regression, we analyse how inter-organizational networks facilitate co-operation and the transfer of best practice from EU-based organizations to organizations in the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) countries. More specifically, we examine networks of employer and employee organizations that participate in the Civil Society Forum of the Eastern Partnership and in TRESMED, a Mediterranean project. We find that networks are successful at disseminating principles and good practices of economic and social partnership, but also that dissemination proceeds slowly. In addition, we detect more co-operation among employer than among employee organizations, which reflects collective action difficulties facing organized labour more generally. Last, we find that inter-organizational co-operation is more intense in the Southern than in the Eastern neighbourhood, which is explained by contextual differences as well as by the EUs longer-term engagement with the Mediterranean than with the countries on its Eastern frontier.

Antecedents of SME embeddedness in inter-organizational networks: Evidence from China's aerospace industry

It is widely acknowledged that an small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) embeddedness in an inter-organizational network affects its performance, yet little is known which factors drive an SMEs network position. In this paper, we develop several theoretical hypotheses relating an SMEs size, age and partner diversity to its position in an inter-organizational network. Then, we test the hypotheses by conducting multiple regression analysis on a hand-collected dataset of inter-organizational linkages in Chinas aerospace industry. We find empirical support that size and egocentric diversity of direct partners are positively related to an SMEs centrality in the inter-organizational network. In contrast, we do not find evidence that an SMEs age is positively related to its network centrality. Finally, we discuss the implications of our findings for SME strategy.