13 research outputs found
Subnational location capital: the role of subnational institutional actors and socio-spatial factors on firm location
peer-reviewedFirms do not simply locate, but rather seek to accrue locationâbased advantages such as knowledge, market insidership and resource utilization. Adopting the lens of social capital, this paper explores how subnational institutional actors facilitate location capital for firms. Using qualitative case study analysis of six multinational companies (MNCs), we highlight the important role of subnational institutional actors in fostering three dimensions of subnational location capital â structural, relational and cognitive. We show that subnational location capital, defined as the economic and social assets accessible through relationships within a subnational location, enable firms to derive advantages via subnational engagement. These findings contribute to the growing literature on the dynamic interaction of firms with subnational location, particularly the nuanced role of subnational institutional actors with MNCs.peer-reviewe
"Courting the multinational": Subnational institutional capacity and foreign market insidership
peer-reviewedSignificant contemporary challenges face an internationalizing firm, including the non-ergodic nature of investment, and the liability of outsidership. Recent revisions to the Uppsala internationalization process model reflect these challenges, whereby âinsidershipâ is represented as realized, successful foreign market entry. Drawing upon socio-spatial concepts from international business and economic geography, this paper demonstrates the endogeneity of subnational institutions in shaping foreign market insidership within an advanced economy. Employing a multi-method research design with almost 60 subnational actors, the role and interaction of subnational institutions within the internationalization process are explored. Our findings illustrate how customized coalitions of subnational institutions effectively initiate, negotiate and accelerate insidership of inward investment within the foreign market both prior to and during formal entry. Key aspects of this dynamic include communicating tangible and intangible locational resources, initiating functional and relevant business relationships, and facilitating access to codified and tacit knowledge. This paper embellishes the Uppsala internationalization process model by demonstrating the capacity of subnational institutions to participate actively with foreign market insidership, and in so doing advances understanding of how the risk and uncertainty associated with foreign market entry are currently navigated.ACCEPTEDpeer-reviewe
Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19
IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19.
Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19.
DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 nonâcritically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022).
INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (nâ=â257), ARB (nâ=â248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; nâ=â10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; nâ=â264) for up to 10 days.
MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ supportâfree days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes.
RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ supportâfree days among critically ill patients was 10 (â1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (nâ=â231), 8 (â1 to 17) in the ARB group (nâ=â217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (nâ=â231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ supportâfree days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively).
CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes.
TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570
Synergistic networks between multinational subsidiaries and subnational actors: role, interaction and variation within a small, highly globalised economy
Location-specific assets and spatial attributes of foreign direct investment (FDI) are increasingly identified as an important condition for successful economic activity. Drawing upon a nascent interdisciplinary theoretical framework, this thesis seeks to integrate socio-spatial concepts from economic geography (EG) with research within international business (IB) to explore the dynamic engagement between subnational actors and FDI in a small, highly globalised economy. Adopting a multi-method research design, social network analysis (SNA) is combined with qualitative semi-structured interviews in 33 agencies, institutions and organisations across two regions within Ireland to determine the capacity of subnational actors to engage with FDI.
In order to first profile the role of subnational actors who interact with FDI, a structural configuration of the key actors at a subnational level is generated. Building upon this, the processes of relational engagement between subnational actors and FDI are explored. Finally, a cross regional comparison is used to highlight the subnational variation between these actors and FDI within a single country context. The empirical findings demonstrate the role of subnational actors, which are substantially organised and mobilised via customised coalitions in response to the needs of FDI during both attraction and retention of investment. Furthermore, the activities of these coalitions generate a unique sense of subnational empathy through formal and informal relational engagement with FDI. Finally, significant subnational differences are evident in terms of the administrative and colloquial demands on subnational actors which generate substantial spatial heterogeneities. Overall, the mechanisms of engagement between subnational actors contribute towards the initiation, securement and acceleration of inward investment within Ireland.
This study generates important contributions to theory and practice. In particular, the cross-fertilization of concepts from EG to IB enhances this theoretical interface while equally providing novel insights on the role, interaction and variation of subnational actors for foreign investment. Furthermore, this research offers a methodological blend of SNA and qualitative data to illustrate the structural configuration and relational interaction of subnational actors and FDI. Finally, significant policy recommendations are derived from this study in order to further enlighten the process of how interaction with FDI is navigated at a subnational level
Weathering the storm? Multinational companies and human resource management through the global financial crisis
Purpose - This paper aims to examine the impact of the global financial crisis on human resource management (HRM) in multinational companies (MNCs) in Ireland. It focuses on four key areas of BR, namely staffing, pay and benefits, industrial relations and the BR function.Design/methodology/approach - It uses a mixed methods approach involving four major data sources combining objective information reported on the impact of the GFC on HRM with subjective perspectives on HRM practice within MNCs.Findings - Specific findings are presented in regard to staffing, pay and benefits, industrial relations and role of BR function. The authors find extensive evidence to indicate that MNCs have been in the vanguard of organisations engaging in multidimensional restructuring programmes in response to the GFC, incorporating many initiatives in the domain of HRM. These include job cuts, short-term working, reduction in training and development expenditure, pay cuts and freezes, reduced benefits and changes in industrial relations. While the authors find that BR function has played a central key role in "delivering" responses to the GFC within MNCs, they also find evidence of a reorganisation of, and financial pressure on, the BR function itself.Originality/value - This paper contributes to and develops the extant literature on the impact of economic crisis on human resource management
Mapping networks: exploring the utility of social network analysis in management research and practice
Although social network analysis (SNA) offers an increasingly insightful perspective on the relational and structural properties of organizational activity, discourse on how to manage and coordinate its application is relatively scarce. Aimed largely at an applied network analyst, this paper presents a greater understanding of how SNA has been previously discussed in management studies, what the main points are and where these issues can be addressed prior to and during the research process to ensure network data are efficiently managed, analyzed and interpreted. Engaging with several practical concerns associated with SNA â including network boundary specification, data reliability, context of inquiry and network visualizations â a viable framework is developed that is accessible to managers, consultants or researchers in facilitating the structuring, collection, handling and analysis of network data. The discussion illustrates the relevance of this perspective for both a practitioner and a theoretical audience
Multinational companies and HRM in Ireland during recession: a retrospective from a highly globalized economy
This paper provides a retrospective
investigation of the impact of the recent great recession on human resource
management (HRM) in multinational companies (MNCs) in Ireland. Ireland
represents a particularly fitting location  within which to address this topic given
its standing as one of the world s most
economically globalized and MNC-dependent economies and also  because the country was very severely impacted
by the global financial crisis. Using both primary and secondary data from a
variety of sources, our analysis considers the impact of recession on HRM in
MNCs, with particular focus on employment, pay and benefits, industrial
relations and the role of the HR function. The findings suggest that HR
practitioners played a central role in implementing a series of initiatives,
many of which were operational in nature, to improve business performance. In
so doing we argue that practitioners in MNCs in Ireland have behaved as
archetypical conformist innovators during the recent recession, delivering
operational HR responses to improve their organization s bottom line
"Courting the multinational": Subnational institutional capacity and foreign market insidership
Significant contemporary challenges face an internationalizing firm, including the non-ergodic nature of investment, and the liability of outsidership. Recent revisions to the Uppsala internationalization process model reflect these challenges, whereby âinsidershipâ is represented as realized, successful foreign market entry. Drawing upon socio-spatial concepts from international business and economic geography, this paper demonstrates the endogeneity of subnational institutions in shaping foreign market insidership within an advanced economy. Employing a multi-method research design with almost 60 subnational actors, the role and interaction of subnational institutions within the internationalization process are explored. Our findings illustrate how customized coalitions of subnational institutions effectively initiate, negotiate and accelerate insidership of inward investment within the foreign market both prior to and during formal entry. Key aspects of this dynamic include communicating tangible and intangible locational resources, initiating functional and relevant business relationships, and facilitating access to codified and tacit knowledge. This paper embellishes the Uppsala internationalization process model by demonstrating the capacity of subnational institutions to participate actively with foreign market insidership, and in so doing advances understanding of how the risk and uncertainty associated with foreign market entry are currently navigated
Subnational location capital: the role of subnational institutional actors and socio-spatial factors on firm location
Firms do not simply locate, but rather seek to accrue locationâbased advantages such as knowledge, market insidership and resource utilization. Adopting the lens of social capital, this paper explores how subnational institutional actors facilitate location capital for firms. Using qualitative case study analysis of six multinational companies (MNCs), we highlight the important role of subnational institutional actors in fostering three dimensions of subnational location capital â structural, relational and cognitive. We show that subnational location capital, defined as the economic and social assets accessible through relationships within a subnational location, enable firms to derive advantages via subnational engagement. These findings contribute to the growing literature on the dynamic interaction of firms with subnational location, particularly the nuanced role of subnational institutional actors with MNCs
Firm-location dynamics and subnational institutions: creating a framework for collocation activities
The dynamic interaction between locational attributes and foreign direct investment (FDI) is an important condition for successful economic activity. Yet while significant research has identified the integral role of socio-spatial aspects to the duration, composition and performance of multinational enterprise (MNE) activity, there is limited understanding of how subnational regions coordinate with investment. This paper seeks to explore how subnational regions, and their composite institutions, function in coordinating - or not - to attract multinational investment and facilitate collocation advantages. Using case study analysis of two subnational regions within a single advanced economy, we illustrate the potential variation and implications of subnational institutional structure, posturing and engagement with FDI. Our findings are discussed in terms of the role of subnational variation for MNEs and insights to industrial policy for developed countries