George O. White

Contracts and conflict resolution strategies in foreign ventures: a transaction cost perspective

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a theory based on transaction cost economics to help explain how firms venturing into different foreign markets should properly formulate and implement contractual governance mechanisms to create greater efficiency, lower costs, and minimize conflict with partners.Design/methodology/approach – Defines and discusses a conceptual framework of the determinants regarding contracts and strategies used to manage conflict in foreign ventures through the integration of foreign venture conflict resolution, contract, and transaction cost economics literature.Findings – Suggests that perceived transaction costs will predict which contractual governance mechanism and which conflict resolution strategy a partner firm will choose when resolving conflict in a foreign venture. Postulates that consistency of conflict resolution strategy with contract type will impact the performance of the foreign venture, and that cultural distance, relative power, and interest alignment ...

Conflict resolution styles between co-workers in US and Mexican cultures

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate how national culture and proximity to national borders can influence the conflict styles that co‐workers use between themselves.Design/methodology/approach – In this experiment, samples were drawn from regions near the US Mexican border further north in the USA and further South in Mexico. Total n=549. Participants were presented with different conflict styles of co‐workers and asked how they would respond. A new measure of national origin was developed and used to assess affinity with a particular culture based on familial lineage.Findings – This study shows that conflict resolution styles of co‐workers in the USA are different from those in Mexico. Culture also moderates the relationship among the conflict resolution styles of the co‐workers themselves. Mexicans were generally more contending and less yielding to co‐workers than Americans. However, Mexicans were also more likely than Americans to respond to contending co‐workers by accommodating or b...

The Influence of Business Ties and National Culture on Foreign-Subsidiary Capability Building in an Emerging Market

ABSTRACT This study investigates the effects of formal and informal business ties on foreign-subsidiary capability-building activities. Data from 175 foreign subsidiaries in the Philippines shows that formal business ties are negatively related to capability building, whereas informal business ties are positively related to capability building. The authors also find that foreign-subsidiary home country assertiveness positively affects the positive relationship between informal business ties and capability building. These results indicate that in an emerging market, foreign-subsidiary capability building varies by the type of business ties being employed by a foreign subsidiary and that home-country assertiveness influences these outcomes.

Multinational Enterprises, Employee Safety and the Socially Responsible Supply Chain: The Case of Bangladesh and the Apparel Industry

This article address the issue of employee safety and the social responsibility of multinational apparel retailers who contract with Bangladesh manufacturers in their global supply chain. Both the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety and the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh have been identified as the two primary facilitators for global apparel industry efforts to actively address this serious human rights issue; thus, they have the potential to help drive the success of the industrys corporate citizenship efforts to successfully manage the issue of fire and building safety in Bangladesh. The article further explores these relationships within the context of the “global corporate citizenship” concept, and develops a rationale for the limits of a socially responsible supply chain. In the context of global corporate citizenship, the article describes the existing state of these two industry organizations remediation efforts to ensure a stable supply chain in Bangladesh, and offers an analysis of existing industry nonmarket strategy approaches to improving contractors factory fire and building safety environments for their employees. Lastly, a comprehensive set of nonmarket strategies for multinational apparel retailers is recommended when addressing their global corporate citizenship commitments to a safe working environment for Bangladesh garment manufacturing employees.

Cross-National Distance as a Determinant of Foreign Subsidiary Adaptive Capability Building

Integrating institutional theory with dynamic capabilities, this study examines the influence of cross-national distance as a determinant of multinational enterprise (MNE) wholly owned foreign subsidiaries (WOFSs) organizational adaptive capabilities in an emerging market environment. By employing data gathered from 175 WOFSs operating in the Philippines, we find that cross-national distance negatively affects a WOFS’s tendency to build organizational adaptive capabilities. In addition, our results reveal that the simultaneous presence of perceived corruption pervasiveness and manufacturing intensity diminish the negative relationship between cross-national distance and a WOFS’s propensity to develop organizational adaptive capabilities. Managerial implications and avenues for future research are offered.