This study focuses on the institutional factors that facilitate or impede the development of high... more This study focuses on the institutional factors that facilitate or impede the development of highperformance work organisations (HPWOs) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It is based on the premise that the adoption of institutional perspective across regional hubs is pertinent in revealing and capturing the various factors influencing the creation of high-performance organisations in Africa. We argue that regulatory, normative, socio-cultural institutional factors facilitate but also impede the development of HPWOs in SSA. Building on the highperformance work practices (HPWP) model, we uncover the interactive relationship between HPWPs and the ability-motivation-opportunities (AMO) model of human resource management and how organisations can deploy them for the attainment of HPWO status. The last decade has been particularly favourable for the emerging market of Africa in terms of economic growth. Apparently, the key drivers of this growth include a boost in the services sector, opening of new markets, technological advancements, regional economic integration (economic blocs) and infrastructural development. With the recent level of economic success, a population of more than 1 billion people [1] and several business opportunities in different flourishing sectors, the global economy is now looking at Africa for resources to sustain its development [2]. For this, Africa is beginning to capture the interest of management scholars and business leaders alike as an emerging market of new growth opportunities [2]. Despite the huge success of the last decade in Africa, most economies in the region still face some challenges. For example, some economies on the continent are largely agrarian, dominated by informal sectors and underpinned by resource-driven growth [2]. But it is possible for African countries to sustain their recent success as well as address their present challenges to become prosperous middle-income economies [3]. Indeed, some writers, have identified the role of high-performance work organisations in contributing to the development
This paper re-examines the main motives of foreign direct investment in Ghana. A number of studie... more This paper re-examines the main motives of foreign direct investment in Ghana. A number of studies in the literature have in the past examined the motives of FDI in Ghana and found that FDI inflow into the country was mainly for natural resource seeking purpose. But further regulatory changes coupled with increasing inflows of FDI into non-natural resource sectors of the economy necessitated the re-examination of the motives of FDI in Ghana. First the study shows that the main motive of FDI in Ghana has shifted from the traditional natural resource seeking to market seeking. Secondly, the paper finds that foreign firms now evaluate the fulfilment of multiple motives in African countries before deciding which country to invest. Thus, the availability of natural resource alone or large market size may not be enough to attract substantial amount of FDI as compared to a country that can meet a combination of foreign firms' multiple motives of market, efficiency, natural resources, and asset seeking reasons.
Despite the considerable research on strategic persistence, there remains a lack of understanding... more Despite the considerable research on strategic persistence, there remains a lack of understanding as to why companies persist with underperforming workers. Our study seeks to fill this gap in the literature by integrating the concepts of the paradox of success, external legitimacy, nepotism and the escalation of commitment perspectives to develop an integrated explanation for persistence with underperforming workers. Drawing on insights from two emerging economies in Africa: Ghana and Nigeria, we uncovered that persistence with underperforming workers stem from information hoarding, favouritism through tribalism and externally imposed constraints. Our study also articulates the underlying processes inherent in such persistence. The wider implications for theory and public policy are examined.
Purpose This paper aims to revisit the long-standing in the management literature argument of “ma... more Purpose This paper aims to revisit the long-standing in the management literature argument of “matching managers to strategy” in the new empirical context of the top management team (TMT) and firm internationalisation. The purpose of this paper is to examine the consequences of matching nationalities of the TMT members to the multinational corporations’ (MNC) countries of operation. Design/methodology/approach This research is based on the quantitative methods. The authors use the traditional regression analysis, with the ordinary least squares estimation, in the moderated multiple regression models. Findings The study findings point to the importance of the asset-based exposure to international environments for the benefits of the TMT nationality matching to materialise. They re-affirm the critical remarks on the early “matching managers to strategy” frameworks, which indicated that the effectiveness of matching is underpinned by the detailed specification of the matching contingencies that influence the matching process. Originality/value The measure of matching the TMT foreign nationals to the MNCs’ host countries constitutes a novel way of capturing the TMT internationalisation, as opposed to measuring the incidence of foreigners on the TMTs or the TMT nationality diversity variable. It therefore underlines the aspect of matching in terms of the cultural fit between the TMT nationalities and countries of MNCs’ operations.
Although corporate social responsibility (CSR) has gained increasing academic attention, we lack ... more Although corporate social responsibility (CSR) has gained increasing academic attention, we lack a solid understanding of how managerial perceptions underpin firms’ sustainability practices. This study interprets and sheds light on managers’ perceptions of sustainability activities under various stakeholder domains in Croatia through a multi-theoretical approach. Using 21 semi-structured interviews with managers, the study reveals that sustainability activities in the research context tend to focus more on environmental issues and customer service, as well as employees and supplier domains. The study further establishes three distinct levels of sustainability commitments by firms. These stages include sustainability as a minimal response, corporate culture-driven, and committed response. These findings, as a whole, are insightful and enable us to advance research on sustainability by elucidating how managerial perceptions underpin firms’ strategic sustainability activities. The cont...
Designing a modular product architecture and corresponding organization design may enable firms t... more Designing a modular product architecture and corresponding organization design may enable firms to internationalize more effectively and efficiently. Open and closed, integrated, and modular product architectures may be associated with increasing product market and firm internationalization. We postulate that the more open and modular the product architecture, the easier product market internationalization becomes. We hypothesize that an open and modular product architecture may permit international product markets to become "components" within a strategy of "modular internationalization." 1 | INTRODUCTION Over the past five decades, a great deal of international business research has focused on the process, scope, motivations, determinants, extent, methods, and speed of firm international expansion
International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics
Committees on a board of directors are now subject to recommendations by regulations in practical... more Committees on a board of directors are now subject to recommendations by regulations in practically all jurisdictions. At the same time, scholarly work on the topic has escalated since the mid-1990s. In this review article, we examine relevant literature on board committees of audit, compensation and nomination, as part of corporate governance research in general, over the period of 1988 to 2011. We observed an exponential growth in contributions over time, the majority of which can be attributed to management and accounting scholars. The audit committee is the most researched of all three committees, with the nomination committee being the least researched. An analysis of the literature generated a picture that included the following features: 1) the dominance of the agency theory; 2) a lack of other unifying theoretical frameworks; 3) a strong US-centrism; 4) the prevalence of quantitative research methods.
This study focuses on the institutional factors that facilitate or impede the development of high... more This study focuses on the institutional factors that facilitate or impede the development of highperformance work organisations (HPWOs) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It is based on the premise that the adoption of institutional perspective across regional hubs is pertinent in revealing and capturing the various factors influencing the creation of high-performance organisations in Africa. We argue that regulatory, normative, socio-cultural institutional factors facilitate but also impede the development of HPWOs in SSA. Building on the highperformance work practices (HPWP) model, we uncover the interactive relationship between HPWPs and the ability-motivation-opportunities (AMO) model of human resource management and how organisations can deploy them for the attainment of HPWO status. The last decade has been particularly favourable for the emerging market of Africa in terms of economic growth. Apparently, the key drivers of this growth include a boost in the services sector, opening of new markets, technological advancements, regional economic integration (economic blocs) and infrastructural development. With the recent level of economic success, a population of more than 1 billion people [1] and several business opportunities in different flourishing sectors, the global economy is now looking at Africa for resources to sustain its development [2]. For this, Africa is beginning to capture the interest of management scholars and business leaders alike as an emerging market of new growth opportunities [2]. Despite the huge success of the last decade in Africa, most economies in the region still face some challenges. For example, some economies on the continent are largely agrarian, dominated by informal sectors and underpinned by resource-driven growth [2]. But it is possible for African countries to sustain their recent success as well as address their present challenges to become prosperous middle-income economies [3]. Indeed, some writers, have identified the role of high-performance work organisations in contributing to the development
This paper re-examines the main motives of foreign direct investment in Ghana. A number of studie... more This paper re-examines the main motives of foreign direct investment in Ghana. A number of studies in the literature have in the past examined the motives of FDI in Ghana and found that FDI inflow into the country was mainly for natural resource seeking purpose. But further regulatory changes coupled with increasing inflows of FDI into non-natural resource sectors of the economy necessitated the re-examination of the motives of FDI in Ghana. First the study shows that the main motive of FDI in Ghana has shifted from the traditional natural resource seeking to market seeking. Secondly, the paper finds that foreign firms now evaluate the fulfilment of multiple motives in African countries before deciding which country to invest. Thus, the availability of natural resource alone or large market size may not be enough to attract substantial amount of FDI as compared to a country that can meet a combination of foreign firms' multiple motives of market, efficiency, natural resources, and asset seeking reasons.
Despite the considerable research on strategic persistence, there remains a lack of understanding... more Despite the considerable research on strategic persistence, there remains a lack of understanding as to why companies persist with underperforming workers. Our study seeks to fill this gap in the literature by integrating the concepts of the paradox of success, external legitimacy, nepotism and the escalation of commitment perspectives to develop an integrated explanation for persistence with underperforming workers. Drawing on insights from two emerging economies in Africa: Ghana and Nigeria, we uncovered that persistence with underperforming workers stem from information hoarding, favouritism through tribalism and externally imposed constraints. Our study also articulates the underlying processes inherent in such persistence. The wider implications for theory and public policy are examined.
Purpose This paper aims to revisit the long-standing in the management literature argument of “ma... more Purpose This paper aims to revisit the long-standing in the management literature argument of “matching managers to strategy” in the new empirical context of the top management team (TMT) and firm internationalisation. The purpose of this paper is to examine the consequences of matching nationalities of the TMT members to the multinational corporations’ (MNC) countries of operation. Design/methodology/approach This research is based on the quantitative methods. The authors use the traditional regression analysis, with the ordinary least squares estimation, in the moderated multiple regression models. Findings The study findings point to the importance of the asset-based exposure to international environments for the benefits of the TMT nationality matching to materialise. They re-affirm the critical remarks on the early “matching managers to strategy” frameworks, which indicated that the effectiveness of matching is underpinned by the detailed specification of the matching contingencies that influence the matching process. Originality/value The measure of matching the TMT foreign nationals to the MNCs’ host countries constitutes a novel way of capturing the TMT internationalisation, as opposed to measuring the incidence of foreigners on the TMTs or the TMT nationality diversity variable. It therefore underlines the aspect of matching in terms of the cultural fit between the TMT nationalities and countries of MNCs’ operations.
Although corporate social responsibility (CSR) has gained increasing academic attention, we lack ... more Although corporate social responsibility (CSR) has gained increasing academic attention, we lack a solid understanding of how managerial perceptions underpin firms’ sustainability practices. This study interprets and sheds light on managers’ perceptions of sustainability activities under various stakeholder domains in Croatia through a multi-theoretical approach. Using 21 semi-structured interviews with managers, the study reveals that sustainability activities in the research context tend to focus more on environmental issues and customer service, as well as employees and supplier domains. The study further establishes three distinct levels of sustainability commitments by firms. These stages include sustainability as a minimal response, corporate culture-driven, and committed response. These findings, as a whole, are insightful and enable us to advance research on sustainability by elucidating how managerial perceptions underpin firms’ strategic sustainability activities. The cont...
Designing a modular product architecture and corresponding organization design may enable firms t... more Designing a modular product architecture and corresponding organization design may enable firms to internationalize more effectively and efficiently. Open and closed, integrated, and modular product architectures may be associated with increasing product market and firm internationalization. We postulate that the more open and modular the product architecture, the easier product market internationalization becomes. We hypothesize that an open and modular product architecture may permit international product markets to become "components" within a strategy of "modular internationalization." 1 | INTRODUCTION Over the past five decades, a great deal of international business research has focused on the process, scope, motivations, determinants, extent, methods, and speed of firm international expansion
International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics
Committees on a board of directors are now subject to recommendations by regulations in practical... more Committees on a board of directors are now subject to recommendations by regulations in practically all jurisdictions. At the same time, scholarly work on the topic has escalated since the mid-1990s. In this review article, we examine relevant literature on board committees of audit, compensation and nomination, as part of corporate governance research in general, over the period of 1988 to 2011. We observed an exponential growth in contributions over time, the majority of which can be attributed to management and accounting scholars. The audit committee is the most researched of all three committees, with the nomination committee being the least researched. An analysis of the literature generated a picture that included the following features: 1) the dominance of the agency theory; 2) a lack of other unifying theoretical frameworks; 3) a strong US-centrism; 4) the prevalence of quantitative research methods.
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Papers by Richard Nyuur