Stephan Manning

The Emergence of a Standards Market: Multiplicity of Sustainability Standards in the Global Coffee Industry

The growing number of voluntary standards for governing transnational arenas is presenting standards organizations with a problem. While claiming that they are pursuing shared, overarching objectives, at the same time they are promoting their own respective standards that are increasingly similar. By developing the notion of ‘standards markets’, this paper examines this tension and studies how different social movement and industry-driven standards organizations compete as well as collaborate over governance in transnational arenas. Based on an in-depth case study of sustainability standards in the global coffee industry, we find that the ongoing co-existence of multiple standards is being promoted by the interplay between two countervailing mechanisms: convergence and differentiation. In conjunction, these mechanisms are enabling the emergence and persistence of a market for standards through what we describe as meta-standardization of sustainable practices. Meta-standardization leads to convergence at the ‘rules of the game’ level, but allows also differentiation at the attributes level, which is enabling parties to create and maintain their own standards. Our study helps to advance the understanding of transnational governance by explaining the dynamics of competing and collaborating non-state actors in constituting a standards market.

The strategic formation of project networks: A relational practice perspective

This article develops a relational practice perspective on the strategic formation of project networks as organizational forms, based on structuration theory and an in-depth case study of a European researcher and his project network. Project networks are defined as strategically coordinated sets of longer-term, project-based relationships. As project entrepreneurs advance in their careers from project partners to coordinators, they learn to apply and combine certain practices through which they gradually transform part of their emerging professional networks into project networks with increased coordination capacity. These practices include: making and renewing project-based contacts, pooling potential project partners, and maintaining core project partnerships. This study advances our understanding of the institutional embeddedness of network agency and the micro-foundations of networks as organizational forms in project businesses and beyond.

New Silicon Valleys or a new species? Commoditization of knowledge work and the rise of knowledge services clusters

This paper explores knowledge services clusters (KSCs) as a distinct and increasingly important form of geographic cluster, in particular in emerging economies: KSCs are defined as geographic concentrations of lower-cost skills serving global demand for increasingly commoditized knowledge services. Based on prior research on clusters and services offshoring, and data from the Offshoring Research Network (ORN), major properties and contingencies of KSC growth are discussed and compared with both high-tech clusters and low-cost manufacturing clusters. Special emphasis is put on the ambivalent effect of commoditization of knowledge work on KSC growth: It is proposed that KSCs attract most projects if service commoditization is medium, whereas higher or lower commoditization either increases global competitive pressure or lowers demand and economies of scale and scope. KSC attractiveness is further related to the perceived availability of skills at relatively low costs, and cluster connectedness with client economies through corporate networks and professional communities. Findings not only advance current debates on clusters, global services sourcing, and the geography of knowledge production, but also have important policy implications.

Transforming Creative Potential in Project Networks: How TV Movies are Produced Under Network-Based Control

Project networks have been identified as dynamic, yet relatively stable organizational forms in project-based creative industries. They materialize in longer-term actor relationships which are actualized by and institutionalized through particular projects. This article examines how project networks transform creative potential for and beyond particular projects. The transformation process is enabled and constrained by the dialectic of network-based control which refers to the capacity of actors to reproduce relational power and autonomy within actor constellations in project networks. This study is empirically based on a qualitative analysis of two projects launched from project networks of two major German TV production companies. Theoretically, the study draws on concepts from structuration theory.

Customizing Clusters: On the Role of Western Multinational Corporations in the Formation of Science and Engineering Clusters in Emerging Economies

Western multinational corporations (MNCs) increasingly locate advanced functions, including product development and engineering, in emerging economies to gain access to lower-cost science and engineering (S&E) talent and specialized service providers. Over time, new S&E clusters have developed in emerging economies that are strongly oriented toward global MNC demands. This study investigates the role of foreign MNCs in the formation of these S&E clusters. It is proposed that pioneer MNCs promote the initial development of S&E clusters by customizing local institutions and business practices in accordance with their sourcing needs and based on their experience in other local business contexts, including their home country. As a result, these clusters may develop specialized resources and service capabilities that particularly attract follower MNCs of the same national origin that have similar sourcing needs. This study may inform both cluster formation research and policy making in emerging economies.

The Political Dynamics of Sustainable Coffee: Contested Value Regimes and the Transformation of Sustainability

The global coffee sector has seen a transformation towards more ‘sustainable’ forms of production, and, simultaneously, the continued dominance of mainstream coffee firms and practices. We examine this paradox by conceptualizing the underlying process of political corporate social responsibility (PCSR) as a series of long-term, multi-dimensional interactions between civil society and corporate actors, drawing from the neo-Gramscian concepts of hegemony and passive revolution. A longitudinal study of the evolution of coffee sustainability standards suggests that PCSR can be understood as a process of challenging and defending value regimes, within which viable configurations of economic models, normative-cultural values, and governance structures are aligned and stabilized. Specifically, we show how dynamics of moves and accommodations between challengers and corporate actors shape the practice and meaning of ‘sustainable’ coffee. The results contribute to understanding the political dynamics of CSR as a dialectic process of ‘revolution/restoration’, or passive revolution, whereby value regimes assimilate and adapt to potentially disruptive challenges, transforming sustainability practices and discourse.

The Rise of Hollywood East: Regional Film Offices as Intermediaries in Film and Television Production Clusters

Foster P., Manning S. and Terkla D. The rise of Hollywood East: regional film offices as intermediaries in film and television production clusters, Regional Studies. Prior research on project-based organizing in creative industries has emphasized the importance of regionally embedded institutions, creative networks and intermediaries in the development of regional project ecologies. Recently, film and television production in the United States has expanded beyond traditional clusters in Hollywood and New York to new locations in the United States, Canada and overseas, raising important questions about the dynamics of increasingly mobile creative project networks. Using data on the Massachusetts film and television industry between 1998 and 2010, it is argued that regional film offices play an increasingly important role as network intermediaries in connecting mobile creative professionals and project entrepreneurs from outside a cluster with labour pools, service providers and production locations inside a cluster on a project-by-project basis.

Convincing the Crowd: Entrepreneurial Storytelling in Crowdfunding Campaigns

This study examines the structure of entrepreneurial stories in pursuit of mobilizing resources from crowds. Based on a comparative analysis of Kickstarter crowdfunding campaigns, we examine in particular how, across different project types, project histories and potential futures are framed and interlinked in narratives to appeal to funders. We find that projects are narrated in different styles—as “ongoing journeys” or “results-in-progress”—to convey project value. The former style narrates projects as longer-term endeavors powered by creative initial ideas and a bold vision, inviting audiences to “join the journey”; the latter narrates projects more narrowly as a progression of accomplishments, engaging the audience instrumentally to support next steps. We find that styles are used and combined in different ways, reflecting the tangibility of project outcomes, the sophistication of technology, and the social orientation of projects. Also, successful differ from unsuccessful campaigns in using narratives more coherently. Findings inform research on narrative processes in entrepreneurship and innovation, and research on the mobilization of crowds.

Hybrid Models as Strategic Opportunity? The Global Challenge of Business Service Providers

This study contributes to research on catch-up strategies of firms in Africa by examining the strategic potential of hybrid business models which balance market profitability with social impact. We...

Political Dynamics of Sustainable Coffee and Contested Value Regimes

This article extends the notion of political CSR by examining how the practice and meaning of CSR are shaped through interactions between NGOs and corporate actors. Focusing on the evolution of coffee sustainability standards, we argue that political CSR can be understood as the process of challenging and defending “value regimes”, which align and stabilize viable configurations of cultural values, business models, and governance structures. Specifically, we show how the growth aspirations of challenger NGOs interact with strategies of corporate actors, under selection pressure from value regimes. In the coffee case, this process moved from initial confrontation to increasing interaction, integration and mutual transformation of challengers’ projects and mainstream value regimes. The findings suggest a dialectic process of endogenous change as value regimes assimilate and transform new practices and discourse. The results contribute to a more systemic understanding of political CSR, and inform debates on ...