Pauline Gleadle

Enterprising Selves: How Governmentality Meets Agency

The project of the special issue came about as a result of an ESRC seminar series based around Alvesson and Willmott’s (2002) discussion regarding the regulation of identity. Subsequently, we were involved in organizing in 2006 an EGOS sub-theme group in Bergen, Norway concerned with enterprising selves, which generated a set of debates that Graeme Salaman and John Storey review in the fi rst part of this special issue. To date, there has been relatively little work exploring the impact of enterprise initiatives on individuals’ identities (Storey et al., 2005) so this special issue aims to help address this gap. Further, emerging from these developments is a suggestion of a new orientation to the study of governmentality. Salaman and Storey argue that many scholars have approached enterprise from the perspective of bureaucracy and discipline. However, they contend that much of such research has involved a ‘misuse’ of discourse, in over-emphasizing its role to the exclusion of all else. In its place, Salaman and Storey argue for more nuanced and empirically based work exploring the ways enterprise is understood, valued, interpreted and deployed within organizations which are committed to achieving enterprise. Tara Fenwick responds in this debate and reinforces this idea, concurring that there is a need for ‘careful empirical tracings of complex everyday interactions of people, objects, spaces and meanings, analysing specifi c movements and moments of enterprise and its multiple potential effects’ (p. 331).

An exploratory study of an early stage R&D-intensive firm under financialization

Abstract The financialization literature considers the impact of financial markets on corporate strategy, governance, financial performance and the distribution of resources between various stakeholder groups. Capital market demands modify strategic priorities, governance and managerial narratives about performance because this helps justify value creation and value absorption in an era of shareholder value. The literature on financialization suggests that managers have a tendency to exaggerate performance to boost valuations especially when their interests align with those of the firm’s shareholders. In this exploratory study of an R&D-intensive firm “Medco” we consider the extent to which managerial narratives and corporate governance of this R&D-intensive firm reflect a process of financialization.

Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITS): A new business model in the FTSE100

Abstract This paper is about the Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) business model. REITs benefit from tax concessions and Fair Value Accounting (FVA) practices. REITs distributing over 90 percent of profits can obtain tax concessions for their shareholders. This encourages profit distribution at the expense of accumulating retained earnings in shareholder equity. The financial viability of REITs depends upon FVA because this records holding gains when property values are increased. These holding gains can be employed to generate additional financial leverage. However, REITs are exposed to property market volatility and this can quickly undermine solvency, credit ratings and financial stability.

Afterword: segmentation, reorientation and new exclusions

There are a number of ideas that have emerged across the papers within this special issue, which can provide the basis for our conclusions, albeit tentative. We have considered governmentality by focusing on an aspect rarely dealt with in management: that of the population (Foucault, 1991). Additionally, we contend that across the whole population, it appears that the role of segmentation has risen in importance, necessitating exploration of the rationality of ‘management’ of populations, in both the managerial and political senses. In the empirical papers in the special issue, a recurrent theme consists of how both organizations and the state engage with how best to segment the population. We argue that that this creates a need to revisit both theoretically and empirically the way in which populations are organized, considered and managed. Additionally, there arises an interesting need by those who govern: the need to wait and assess the response of the citizen. In a traditional welfarist position, the population has been regarded as an object with which it is unnecessary to interact, albeit the population needs to be understood with regards to demographic outcomes, say, of the ‘good’ done on their behalf (e.g. how many are healthy or ill). However, we argue that within ‘new governmentality’, there is a need to understand

Stakeholder interactions and corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices: Evidence from the Zambian copper mining sector

The purpose of this paper is to critically explore the interactions of key stakeholders and their impact upon corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices in the Zambian copper mining sector. In particular, the authors examine the power dynamics that emerge in the stakeholder interactions.,The authors analyse the stakeholder interactions based on the varying degrees of stakeholder salience and critical collaboration potential, and draw on rich evidence from 43 interviews with multiple stakeholders involved in CSR in the Zambia mining sector.,This paper finds stark power asymmetries in the relationship between the state, the civil society and mining companies which are exacerbated by a number of factors, including divisions within these key stakeholders themselves. Apart from power imbalances within and between stakeholders, the potential for critical collaboration at the local level is further challenged by the lack of commonly accepted social and environmental frameworks, transparency and accountability of the leadership of stakeholder groups. However, despite these power asymmetries some limited agency is possible, as civil society in particular co-opts previously dormant stakeholders to increase its own salience and, more importantly, that of the state.,This paper contributes to the literature on the key stakeholders’ interactions shaping CSR in developing countries by exploring these issues in a critical industry, the Zambian copper mining sector, on which the state economy is so heavily dependent.

The Role of Institutional Context in the Development of the SME Biotech Sector in Poland

Whilst Poland is argued to represent one of the largest and most entrepreneurial economies in CE with huge potential for development of the SME biotech industry, this sector remains relatively underdeveloped. In this paper, we explore reasons for this apparent anomaly, focusing on the interrelationships between institutional context and entrepreneurial behaviour. We adopt Smallbone and Welter’s (2009a, b) typology (Welter, Smallbone, 2011) of entrepreneurial behaviour in constructing a case study of the biotech SME industry in Poland, concluding that the sector faces particular institutional challenges which entrepreneurs react to in a variety of ways. We conclude that Poland presents serious obstacles to a knowledge-intensive sector such as biotech.