Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T14:45:32.408Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Advancing Indigenous Management Theory: Executive Rationale as an Institutional Logic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2015

Gordon Redding  and
Michael A. Witt
Gordon Redding
Affiliation:
INSEAD, Singapore
Michael A. Witt
Affiliation:
INSEAD, Singapore
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

With this perspective paper, we seek to help open up an additional and, we believe, especially promising avenue for indigenous management research. We explore the potential for progress through the investigation of executive rationale, an institutional logic guiding managerial action and enabling strategies, structures, and formal integration mechanisms. Drawing on interviews with an elite group of executives including some of the world's most powerful managers, we illustrate variance in executive rationale across five major economies – Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and the United States – and suggest that action and structures in these economies are broadly aligned with the respective expressions of executive rationale. We consequently hold that indigenous management research may benefit from a focus on executive rationale in particular, and we propose a concrete research agenda.

Keywords

Chinaindigenous management theoryinstitutional logicnational business systemsrationale
Type
Articles
Information
Management and Organization Review , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , June 2015 , pp. 179 - 203
Copyright
Copyright © The International Association for Chinese Management Research 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Aglietta, M., & Bai, G. 2013. China's development: Capitalism and empire. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Aguilera, R. V., & Jackson, G. 2003. The cross-national diversity of corporate governance: Dimensions and determinants. Academy of Management Review, 28 (3): 447–465.Google Scholar
Archer, M. S. 1996. Culture and agency: The place of culture in social theory. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Berger, P. L., & Luckmann, T. 1966. The social construction of reality: A treatise in the sociology of knowledge. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Bergere, M. 2007. Capitalisme et capitalistes en Chine: Des origines a nos jours, xixe–xxie siecle. Paris: Perrin.Google Scholar
Bond, M. H., Leung, K., Au, A., Tong, K.-K., de Carrasquel, S. R., Murakami, F., Yamaguchi, S., Bierbrauer, G., & et al. 2004. Culture-level dimensions of social axioms and their correlates across 41 countries. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 35 (5): 548–570.Google Scholar
Brown, A. D., Colville, I., & Pye, A. 2015. Making sense of sense-making in organization studies . Organization Studies, 36 (2): 265–277.Google Scholar
Carney, R. W., & Child, T. B. 2012. Changes to ownership and control of East Asian corporations between 1996 and 2008: The primacy of politics. Journal of Financial Economics.Google Scholar
Chen, C. C., Chen, X. P., & Huang, S. 2013. Chinese guanxi: An integrative review and new directions for future research. Management and Organization Review, 9 (1): 167–207.Google Scholar
Cheung, Y. L., Stouraitis, A., & Wong, A. W. S. 2005. Ownership concentration and executive compensation in closely held firms: Evidence from Hong Kong. Journal of Empirical Finance, 12 (4): 511–532.Google Scholar
Cheung, Y. L., Rau, P. R., & Stouraitis, A. 2006. Tunneling, propping, and expropriation: Evidence from connected party transactions in Hong Kong. Journal of Financial Economics, 82 (2): 343–386.Google Scholar
Claessens, S., Djankov, S., & Lang, L. H. P. 2000. The separation of ownership and control in East Asian corporations. Journal of Financial Economics, 58 (2000): 81–112.Google Scholar
Dore, R. P. 1973. British factory, Japanese factory: The origins of national diversity in industrial relations. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Fang, T. 2010. Asian management research needs more self-confidence: Reflection on Hofstede (2007) and beyond. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 27 (1): 155–170.Google Scholar
Fang, T. 2012. Yin yang: A new perspective on culture. Management and organization Review, 8 (1): 25–50.Google Scholar
Farh, J. L., & Cheng, B.-S. 2000. A cultural analysis of paternalistic leadership in Chinese organizations. In Li, J. T. & Tsui, A. S. & Weldon, E. (Eds.), Management and organizations in the Chinese context: 94–127. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Feldman, S. P. 2013. Trouble in the middle: American-Chinese business relations, culture, conflict, and ethics. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Fligstein, N. 2001. The architecture of markets: An economic sociology of twenty-first-century capitalist societies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Godfrey, P. C., Merrill, C. B., & Hansen, J. M. 2009. The relationship between corporate social responsibility and shareholder value: An empirical test of the risk management hypothesis. Strategic Management Journal, 30 (4): 425–445.Google Scholar
Hall, P. A., & Soskice, D. 2001. An introduction to varieties of capitalism. In Hall, P. A. & Soskice, D. (Eds.), Varieties of capitalism: The institutional foundations of comparative advantage: 1–68. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hambrick, D. C., & Mason, P. A. 1984. Upper echelons: The organization as a reflection of its top managers. Academy of Management Review, 9 (2): 193–206.Google Scholar
Heilbroner, R. L. 1985. The nature and logic of capitalism. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management. 2012. Employers' intentions to hire remain steady for Q3 2012. [Cited 27 October 2012.] Available from URL: http://www.hkihrm.org/ihrm_eng/ih_pre_01.asp?id=158 Google Scholar
Jackson, G., & Sorge, A. 2012. The trajectory of institutional change in Germany, 1979–2009. Journal of European Public Policy, 19 (8): 1146–1167.Google Scholar
Jing, R., & Van de Ven, A. H. 2014. A yin‐yang model of organizational change: The case of Chengdu bus group. Management and Organization Review, 10 (1): 29–54.Google Scholar
Krug, B., & Libman, A. forthcoming. Commitment to local autonomy in non-democracies: Russia and China compared. Constitutional Political Economy: 1–25.Google Scholar
Lardy, N. R. 2014. Markets over Mao: The rise of private business in China. Washington, DC: Peterson Institute for International Economics.Google Scholar
Lemos, G. 2012. The end of the Chinese dream: Why Chinese people fear the future. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Leung, K. 2012. Indigenous Chinese management research: Like it or not, we need it. Management and Organization Review, 8 (1): 1–5.Google Scholar
Lewin, A. Y. 2014. Emerging economies open unlimited opportunities for advancing management and organization scholarship. Management and Organization Review, 10 (1): 1–5.Google Scholar
Li, J. 2012a. Cultural foundations of learning: East and West. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Li, P. P. 2012b. Toward an integrative framework of indigenous research: The geocentric implications of yin-yang balance. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 29 (4): 849–872.Google Scholar
Li, P. P., Leung, K., Chen, C. C., & Luo, J. D. 2012. Indigenous research on Chinese management: What and how. Management and Organization Review, 8 (1): 7–24.Google Scholar
Li, X. 2014. Can yin‐yang guide Chinese indigenous management research? Management and Organization Review, 10 (1): 7–27.Google Scholar
Lin, Y.-H., Chen, C.-J., & Lin, B.-W. 2014. The roles of political and business ties in new ventures: Evidence from China. Asian Business & Management, 13 (5): 411–440.Google Scholar
Lu, L., Cooper, C. L., Kao, S.-F., & Zhou, T. 2003. Work stress, control beliefs, and well-being in greater China: An exploration of sub-cultural differences between the PRC and Taiwan. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 18 (6): 479–510.Google Scholar
Luo, Y., Huang, Y., & Wang, S. L. 2012. Guanxi and organizational performance: A meta‐analysis. Management and Organization Review, 8 (1): 139–172.Google Scholar
Mantzavinos, C. 2004. Individuals, institutions, and markets: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Matten, D., & Moon, J. 2008. ‘Implicit’ and ‘explicit’ CSR: A conceptual framework for a comparative understanding of corporate social responsibility. Academy of Management Review, 33 (2): 404–424.Google Scholar
McCloskey, D. N. 2006. The bourgeois virtues: Ethics for an age of commerce. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
McCloskey, D. N. 2010. Bourgeois dignity: Why economics can't explain the modern world. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
McGregor, J. 2012. No ancient wisdom, no followers: The challenges of Chinese authoritarian capitalism: Westport, CT: Prospecta Press.Google Scholar
McNally, C. A. 2011. China's changing guanxi capitalism: Private entrepreneurs between Leninist control and relentless accumulation. Business and Politics, 13 (2): 1–28.Google Scholar
Meyer, K. E. 2006. Asian management research needs more self-confidence. Asia Pacific journal of management, 23 (2): 119–137.Google Scholar
Mokyr, J. 2009. The enlightened economy: Yale University Press New York and London.Google Scholar
Nakamura, H. 1964. Ways of thinking of Eastern peoples: India, China, Tibet, Japan. Honolulu: East-West Center Press.Google Scholar
Nee, V., & Opper, S. 2007. On politicized capitalism. In Nee, V. & Swedberg, R. (Eds.), On capitalism: 93–127. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Nisbett, R. E. 2004. The geography of thought: How Asians and Westerners think differently. . . And why. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
OECD. 2013. OECD.Stat: OECD.Google Scholar
Ostrom, E. 1990. Governing the commons: The evolution of institutions for collective action: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Quack, S., & Djelic, M.-L. 2005. Adaptation, recombination, and reinforcement: The story of antitrust and competition law in Germany and Europe. In Streeck, W. & Thelen, K. (Eds.), Beyond continuity: Institutional change in advanced political economies: 255–281. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ragin, C. C. 1987. The comparative method: Moving beyond qualitative and quantitative strategies. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Redding, G. 2005. The thick description and comparison of societal systems of capitalism. Journal of International Business Studies, 36 (2): 123–155.Google Scholar
Redding, G., & Witt, M. A. 2007. The future of Chinese capitalism: Choices and chances. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Redding, G. 2008. Separating culture from institutions: The use of semantic spaces as a conceptual domain and the case of China. Management and Organization Review, 4 (2): 257–290.Google Scholar
Redding, S. G. 1990. The spirit of Chinese capitalism. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Santos, F., & Eisenhardt, K. M. 2005. Organizational boundaries and theories of organisation. Organization Science, 16 (5): 491–508.Google Scholar
Sorge, A. 2005. The global and the local: Understanding the dialectics of business systems. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Stinchcombe, A. L. 1965. Social structure and organizations. In March, J. G. (Ed.), Handbook of organizations: 142–193. New York: Rand McNally.Google Scholar
Thornton, P. H., & Occasio, W. 2008. Institutional logics. In Greenwood, R. & Oliver, C. & Sahlin-Andersson, K. & Suddaby, R. (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of organizational institutionalism: 99–129. London: SAGE.Google Scholar
Tsui, A. S. 2004. Contributing to global management knowledge: A case for high quality indigenous research. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 21 (4): 491–513.Google Scholar
Weber, M. 1930. The protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism (Parsons, T., Trans.). London: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Wedeman, A. 2004. Great disorder under heaven: Endemic corruption and rapid growth in contemporary China. The China Review, 4 (2): 1–32.Google Scholar
Weick, K. E., Sutcliffe, K. M., & Obstfeld, D. 2005. Organizing and the process of sense-making. Organization Science, 16 (4): 409–421.Google Scholar
Welzel, C. 2013. Freedom rising: Human empowerment and the quest for emancipation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Westwood, R., Sparrow, P., & Leung, A. 2001. Challenges to the psychological contract in Hong Kong. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 12 (4): 621–651.Google Scholar
Whitley, R. 1999a. Divergent capitalisms: The social structuring and change of business systems. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Whitley, R. 1999b. Competing logics and units of analysis in the comparative study of economic organization. International Studies of Management and Organization, 29 (2): 113–126.Google Scholar
Whittington, R. 2006. Completing the practice turn in strategy research. Organization Studies, 27 (5): 613–634.Google Scholar
Witt, M. A., & Redding, G. 2009. Culture, meaning, and institutions: Executive rationale in Germany and Japan. Journal of International Business Studies, 40 (5): 859–885.Google Scholar
Witt, M. A. 2014a. Japan: Coordinated capitalism between institutional change and structural inertia. In Witt, M. A. & Redding, G. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of Asian business systems: 100–122. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Witt, M. A. 2014b. South Korea: Plutocratic state-led capitalism reconfiguring. In Witt, M. A. & Redding, G. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of Asian business systems: 216–237. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Witt, M. A., & Redding, G. (Eds.). 2014a. The Oxford handbook of Asian business systems. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Witt, M. A., & Redding, G. 2014b. China: Authoritarian capitalism. In Witt, M. A. & Redding, G. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of Asian business systems: 11–32. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
World Bank. 2012. Doing business 2013. Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
Xu, C.-G. 2011. The fundamental institutions of china's reforms and development. Journal of Economic Literature, 49 (4): 1076–1151.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Redding and Witt supplementary material

Appendix B

Download Redding and Witt supplementary material(File)
File 221.3 KB