Searching locally and globally: Applying Daniel Levinthal’s scholarship to international business

Daniel A. Levinthal has made several important contributions to the fields of strategy and management. His research has been pivotal in enhancing our understanding of interactions between the internal and external contexts that organizations face as well as the roles of experience, search, and learning processes. Despite substantial overlap between the core issues in international business (IB) and Levinthal’s work, the IB field has yet to fully embrace key tenets of his research. We aim to bridge this gap by providing a number of concrete suggestions for areas in which IB research may benefit from Levinthal’s work and vice versa

The institutional isomorphism in the context of organizational changes in higher education institutions

This article deals with the institutional theory and isomorphism, from the point of view of the processes of organizational change in higher education institutions. In a first phase, we analyze, through a questionnaire, the situations and causes of change in higher education institutions (HEI), more precisely in the knowledge field of Physical Education in Colombia. Afterwards, through a multiple case study, we analyze both the pressures of the environment that force HEI to change and the types of isomorphism. The results show the existence of three types of isomorphism in a process of change, where the national and institutional governments exert coercive pressures. Other HEIs in similar situations exert mimic isomorphism while specialized groups within HEIs exert normative isomorphism

El cambio organizativo en la educación superior en Colombia: perspectivas y retos

Este artículo presenta, de un lado, una perspectiva de las principales transformaciones y retos de la educación superior en Colombia y, de otro, los cambios organizativos que, en el marco de dichos retos, vienen desarrollando las instituciones de educación superior, así como un panorama frente a las estructuras administrativas y el perfil de formación de sus dirigentes. Para ello se desarrolló un análisis teórico y un estudio empírico que consistió en el diseño, validación y aplicación de un cuestionario a directores de programas del campo de la educación física en el país. Los resultados del análisis teórico dan cuenta de la evolución histórica de la educación superior en diversos momentos que la han marcado iniciando por la década de los 80, hasta el reciente intento de reforma de la Ley 30 y sus acciones posteriores. Los resultados del estudio empírico muestran la acreditación de programas y las reformas o ajustes curriculares como las principales situaciones de cambio, producto de las políticas del gobierno nacional. Un perfil de formación de los dirigentes, propio de la misma idiosincrasia de las instituciones de educación superior, constituido por profesores con formación profesional en el campo de la educación física y escasa formación posgradual en el área de la administración. Por lo inexplorado del tema en el campo de la educación física, el trabajo puede servir como punto de partida para otras investigaciones y abre futuras líneas como por ejemplo el análisis en otras regiones y/o campos de conocimiento

Contextualizing AMO explanations of knowledge sharing in MNEs: the role of organizational and national culture

Ability, motivation, and opportunity (AMO) approaches have dominated stud ies of knowledge sharing in multinational enterprises (MNEs). We argue that there is a need to consider both the national and organizational cultural contexts. Beyond their direct infuence on knowledge sharing with colleagues in other busi ness units (BUs), national and organizational culture signifcantly reinforce the positive relation between individual motivation and knowledge sharing. Thus, our multi-level approach to knowledge sharing in MNEs gives rise to a contextualized AMO approach that provides a novel and more potent understanding of variations in knowledge sharing. At the individual level, our approach includes the degree of ability in the sense of professional competence, intrinsic motivation, and oppor tunities to interact with colleagues in other BUs. At the organizational and coun try levels, we examine the direct and indirect efects of a collaborative culture on knowledge sharing. We employ data from an MNE that operates across a variety of regions, including the Nordic countries, Central and Eastern Europe, and Southeast Asia. The sample consists of 11,484 individuals nested in 1235 departments in 11 countries. As well as confrming the signifcance of individual competence, intrin sic motivation, and opportunities for interaction for knowledge sharing, our fndings reveal that both organizational culture and national culture are important factors for our understanding of knowledge sharing. This suggests that over and above recruit ing intrinsically motivated employees, managers can enhance knowledge sharing by developing collaborative organizational cultures at the departmental level

Com aprendre a treballar en equips integrats? El paper de l'aprenentatge cooperatiu en la formació de directius

En la literatura de dirección estratégica, la investigación que explica los resultados de los equipos enfatiza el papel de los procesos y, concretamente, del comportamiento integrador. Por otro lado, en educación superior el trabajo en equipo es una herramienta aceptada y en extensión pero con usos heterogéneos y resultados dispares. El objetivo de este trabajo es demostrar que el aprendizaje cooperativo, como parte integral del proceso de aprendizaje, permite adquirir un mejor nivel de comportamiento integrador a los miembros del equipo. Analizando el comportamiento integrador en 101 estudiantes que utilizaron aprendizaje cooperativo y comparándolos con 120 de un grupo de control demostramos esta relación

MNC's intermediate units and their choice of control mechanisms

This paper analyzes how MNCs' intermediate units¿those that exercise authority over other subsidiaries¿apply specific control mechanisms: centralization, formalization, outcome control, and socialization. We combine agency and network theory to explain how intermediate units' dual agency role¿as both principal and agent¿ and their network embeddedness form the choice of control mechanisms. More specifically, we propose hypotheses on how the intermediate units' internal and external relationships determine their choice of control mechanism. We study this issue in the context of Spanish intermediate units ¿owned by European MNCs¿ that exercise authority over subsidiaries in Latin America