Soo Hee Lee

Introduction: Understanding organizational trust – foundations, constellations, and issues of operationalisation

This paper gives an overview of major issues in trust research, identifying common foundations and multiple constellations of organizational trust. In doing so, the paper also addresses important implications of theory development and empirical research. First, it provides a historical sketch of different approaches to understanding the phenomenon of trust, drawing upon various social science disciplines. Second, it discusses different levels of analysing trust in organizational settings. Third, it deals with important issues of operationalisation and measurement of organizational trust. Finally, it briefly summarises the contents of the five papers that follow this introductory paper in the special issue of JMP on “The micro‐foundations of organizational trust”.

Political Heterarchy and Dispersed Entrepreneurship in the MNC

We develop and test a new perspective on dispersed entrepreneurship within the multinational corporation (MNC). Various literatures suggest that corporate, subsidiary, and individual level factors can lead to entrepreneurial initiatives diffusing outward from a subsidiary to other MNC units. We extend this to include political heterarchy (mechanisms by which subsidiary managers enhance their power base through heterarchy) as both direct and moderating factor. Using a survey of 135 managers in a wide range of MNC subsidiaries, we find that a tolerance for local initiative (subsidiary level), subsidiary manager proactivity (individual level), and political heterarchy directly influence initiative diffusion. In terms of moderating effects, political heterarchy is seen to activate corporate level entrepreneurial strategy. We show how political heterarchy is central to dispersed entrepreneurship within the MNC and highlight the positive function of networked organizational politics in rejuvenating the international firm.

In Search of Social Capital in State-Activist Capitalism: Elite Networks in France and Korea

This paper argues that the absence of high trust social capital has not prevented firms from performing well in economies with the dirigiste tradition. Despite low general trust, France and Korea have recorded sound growth rates and innovation performance, thus contradicting the central argument of social capital theory. Drawing on the dirigiste tradition, we suggest that elite networks of France and Korea are an idiosyncratic form of social capital, nurtured through their institutional arrangements such as low trust, concentrated power relations and state-run elite education. The elite networks enhance the coordination efficiency of economic relations through state activism, constituting an alternative to high trust social capital.

Exploring the Internal and External Venturing of Large R&D-Intensive Firms

We explore the realized strategies of large RD (2) three firm-level venturing strategy types can be discerned, which are independent of the specific industry; and (3) change in realized strategy is a dynamic capability facilitated by firm-level factors. These results, albeit explorative, emphasize venturing in R&D industries as a dynamic capability that is influenced by firm-level characteristics rather than industry membership.

Government Policy and Trajectories of Radical Innovation in Dirigiste States: A Comparative Analysis of National Innovation Systems in France and Korea

Abstract Contrary to the argument that radical innovation is only compatible with institutional arrangements characteristic of liberal market economies, this paper shows how state-led economies successfully organize their innovation systems to promote radical innovation with a comparative analysis of two dirigiste states, France and Korea. The authors further analyse how government policies under similar institutional arrangements drive different trajectories of radical innovation, as illustrated by their relative competitiveness in the ICT sector. The two dirigiste economies have undergone substantial institutional changes adapting to globalization but sustained state initiatives in coordinating their relationship-based innovation systems, reinforcing the cooperation among the state, academia and industry.

Competing Rationales for Corporate Governance in France: Institutional Complementarities between Financial Markets and Innovation Systems

For foreign investors, it is vital to understand the unique institutional environment of state-centered stakeholder economies if they are to negotiate the best terms of return and to avoid unnecessary conflicts. French managers are expected to devise strategic choices responding to the competing rationales of governance. Managerial sense-making is essential for achieving sound long-term performance, upon which the legitimacy and sustainability of the constellation of selective governance rests. The French case reminds us of the importance of distinctive institutional traditions and dominant social rationalities to understand the underlying logic of governance reform. The comparative research on corporate governance needs to address not just the cross-country variations in institutional arrangements and practices, but also the clash of competing rationales for reform explicitly in comparative terms within a single country context.Our analysis of the French case shows that both converging and diverging forces of institutional change coexist, shaping selective responses to globalization. While the adoption of the shareholder model is necessary for resource acquirement from the global capital markets, resource allocation in the cooperative innovation systems reinforces the stakeholder model. The French case confirms the sustainability of distinctive institutional complementarities, albeit with selective adaptation based on a sense-making social compromise.This paper identifies the causes and consequences of corporate governance reform with reference to the French case. By disaggregating institutional complementarities into global and domestic dimensions, we analyze the path of institutional change compelled by financial efficiency and cooperative innovation. This paper identifies the causes and consequences of corporate governance reform with reference to the French case. By disaggregating institutional complementarities into global and domestic dimensions, we analyze the path of institutional change compelled by financial efficiency and cooperative innovation.Our analysis of the French case shows that both converging and diverging forces of institutional change coexist, shaping selective responses to globalization. While the adoption of the shareholder model is necessary for resource acquirement from the global capital markets, resource allocation in the cooperative innovation systems reinforces the stakeholder model. The French case confirms the sustainability of distinctive institutional complementarities, albeit with selective adaptation based on a sense-making social compromise.The French case reminds us of the importance of distinctive institutional traditions and dominant social rationalities to understand the underlying logic of governance reform. The comparative research on corporate governance needs to address not just the cross-country variations in institutional arrangements and practices, but also the clash of competing rationales for reform explicitly in comparative terms within a single country context.For foreign investors, it is vital to understand the unique institutional environment of state-centered stakeholder economies if they are to negotiate the best terms of return and to avoid unnecessary conflicts. French managers are expected to devise strategic choices responding to the competing rationales of governance. Managerial sense-making is essential for achieving sound long-term performance, upon which the legitimacy and sustainability of the constellation of selective governance rests.

Hybridizing food cultures in computer-mediated environments: Creativity and improvisation in Greek food blogs

This paper focuses on the ways in which food blogs influence the evolution of food cultures in computer-mediated environments. Food blogs provide a unique setting in which to study individual creativity and improvisation, as they make everyday food practices visible, pubic and transmittable. This paper proposes a cultural framework of human-computer interaction (HCI) and applies it to the context of food blogging. It stresses the effects of remediation on hybridisation of disciplines, roles and practices, which in turn lead to individual creative practices in the form of bricolage. Three case studies of Greek food blogs abroad are analysed to illustrate the proposed framework and to develop research implications for human-food interaction (HFI).

Comparative Corporate Governance: Beyond ‘Shareholder Value’

This paper serves as an introduction to the special issue on comparative corporate governance as well as providing a critical review of the literature on globalisation, comparative economic organisation and corporate governance systems. Despite the widespread rhetoric of global convergence and market-led institutional reform, we argue that national specificity and societal variance of institutional arrangements are still conspicuously resilient in reality and pertinent to issues of regulation, policy and business strategy. Our discussion focuses on the limitations of agency theory and its primary objective, shareholder value maximisation, on the one hand, and the determinants and consequences of institutional diversity across societies on the other. In particular, we suggest that the integration of the literature on employee participation and innovation systems into comparative institutional analysis will serve as a promising alternative to shareholder-centred theories and policy prescriptions while complementing the arguments based on legal and political origins of national systems. While the contributions to the special issue broadly share the basic tenets of our argument, they also address, in commendable rigour and depth, other issues, such as: trust and social relationships; societal and moral foundations of economic behaviour; institutional transferablity; and corporate control and power relations in society.

“Marketing from the Art World”: A Critical Review of American Research in Arts Marketing

ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is to provide an integrative review and future directions for research in arts marketing by highlighting the social and cultural mechanisms by which marketing research can be inspired, especially in the context of contemporary arts. We categorize previous research in arts marketing into three perspectives: Marketing of Arts Organizations; Marketing with Artworks/Artists; and Marketing from the Art World. With these three categories, this article also examines recent developments in the contemporary art market to discover emerging trends and issues. The primary contribution of the article lies in identifying Marketing from the Art World as a new perspective from which to explore central issues of marketing associated with the uncertainty and fluidity of the contemporary art market.

Can Newly Industrializing Economies Catch Up in the Science-Based Industries? A Study of the Korean Biotechnology Sector

This paper analyzes the Korean biotechnology sector with an analytical framework of National Innovation System (NIS). We examine whether newly industrializing economies (NIEs) can catch up with advanced economies in newly-emerging, knowledge-intensive industries such as biotechnology. We demonstrate that Korea is emerging as a key player in the global biotechnology scene in terms of R&D activities, catching up with other advanced countries, such as Japan, and keeping pace with regional competitors like Taiwan, Singapore and China. While the substantial increase in innovation capabilities lends support to the plausibility of the catching-up view, we also find that improvements and adaptations need to be made in transferring knowledge effectively from public to private sector and in commercializing biotechnology with the institutional support of private funding. Our study highlights the mechanisms by which collective competence of managing knowledge creation and diffusion is facilitated in a developing economy.