The Status of University Business Schools Regarding Industry 4.0: From the Turkish Perspective

Industry 4.0, whose effects have been more and more noticeable in recent years, and the digital change it brings call for a new educational model that aligns university instructional processes and curricula with the demands of business. This approach, known as University 4.0, intends to promote more technology-based applications, the power of innovation, the training of skilled specialists to satisfy industrial needs, and the development of competences that can achieve multidisciplinary projects. It is of utmost importance to adapt late-industrializing nations’ educational systems, such as Turkey’s, to this change process. The aim of this research, which takes the Turkish context as a reference, is to reveal how the curricula and educational processes of business schools should be shaped with a perspective that takes into account the human resources requirements of industry 4.0. A decision-making technique that integrates QFD, Delphi, and DEMATEL methods was employed in the study. The results clearly show that the most important expectation for social stakeholders is to provide university-industry cooperation. However, some of the most pressing problems include applied learning through collaborative educational experiences, teamwork skills, changing roles and competencies of academics. The findings point out that the educational activities of business schools must be linked with industry expectations through technology-based training activities and teamwork

Board composition, family ownership, institutional distance and the foreign equity ownership strategies of Turkish MNEs

In much of the developing world, families represent the dominant form of firm ownership. This study investigates how this influences equity ownership strategies when firms venture abroad. Drawing on agency theory and institutional theory, we investigate the direct effect of board composition and family ownership on the equity-based ownership strategies of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in their affiliates, and how institutional distance may moderate this. Examining foreign affiliates of listed Turkish MNEs, we find that a high ratio of independent directors is negatively linked to levels of equity ownership of MNE affiliates. We also find that a high ratio of inside directors on the board is positively associated with the equity stake of MNEs in their affiliates. The significant interaction effect between board composition, family ownership and institutional distance helps explain the unexpectedly weak effects of institutional distance