No abstract

An institution is often considered to be a stable, taken-for-granted 'being'. The consequence is that agency is primarily associated with the rather exceptional creation or disruption of a relatively stable structure. In this article, we suggest an alternative ontology for understanding an institution as something unstable and always 'becoming'. This opens a range of new and distinct opportunities for theorizing and researching institutional work involved in the everyday practice of managing institutional complexity. It allows us, in this study, to contribute with a new form of agency in terms of the continuous, active work of managing novel contradictions. Further, it induces us to take a more fine-grained look at the accompanying dynamics of work, in addition to work itself, whereby we provide a novel way of accounting for whether work effort is amplifying or subsiding, and whether it is likely to result in greater or lesser volatility within -on the surface -an otherwise seemingly stable institution. The argumentation is supported by an ethnographic field study of the work of managing novel contradictions within a single South Korean credit card company in the aftermath of the Asian economic crisis in 1997.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to examine the collaboration strategies employed by collaborating small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and university researchers for initiating and optimizing the process and outcome of R&D collaboration. Design/methodology/approach -The paper is based upon a qualitative study of the total population of university departments and SMEs involved in collaborative research projects sponsored by a new governmental programme in Denmark, the aim of which was to build new R&D alliances between industry and universities. Findings -The findings show how partners choose to pursue difference short-or long-term strategies to optimize the process and outcome of university-industry (UI) collaboration. Some collaborations were thus informed by a short-term strategy aimed at achieving immediate R&D results. However, to a high extent, many SME partners relied upon a long-term strategy aiming at developing UI relations beyond the immediate project and practical learning. A variety of shifting strategies shape researchers' decisions during UI collaborations, which thus convey different notions of success.Research limitations/implications -The findings of the present research point to the importance of taking the diverse reasons and micro strategies informing collaborative efforts into account when studying UI collaborations. Practical implications -Different strategies may prove successful in optimizing the outcome of UI collaborations depending upon, e.g. partners' previous collaborative experiences. Policies should incorporate some openness towards the differential premises and reasons for UI collaboration. Originality/value -Relatively little research has addressed the development of UI relationships from the micro-level perspective of the discretionary decisions and strategies of collaborating researchers.

Purpose -Functionalist models of intercultural interaction have serious limitations relying on static and decontextualized culture views. This paper sets out to outline newer developments in anthropological theory in order to provide inspirations to a more dynamic and contextual approach for understanding intercultural communication research in cross-cultural management (CCM). Design/methodology/approach -The paper analyzes the established approaches to the cultural underpinnings of intercultural communication in CCM and examines how newer developments in anthropology may contribute to this research. Findings -The standard frameworks for classifying cultures in CCM are based on a view of culture as static, formal mental codes and values abstracted from the context of valuation. However, this view, underwriting the dominating research stream, has been abandoned in the discipline of anthropology from which it originated. This theory gap between intercultural communication research in CCM and anthropology tends to exclude from CCM an understanding of how the context of social, organizational and power relationships shapes the role of culture in communication. Practical implications -The paper proposes to substitute the view of culture as comprising of abstract values and codes as determinants of communication with concepts of culture as dynamically enfolded in practice and socially situated in specific contexts, in order to give new directions to theories on intercultural communication in CCM. Originality/value -Scant research has compared intercultural communication research in CCM with new anthropological developments. New insights from anthropology are analyzed in order to open up analytical space in CCM.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has attracted increasing attention in business and research. Studies have documented how management concepts such as diversity management are translated and adapted to differential local sociocultural contexts outside their countries of origin. More research is needed concerning how CSR concepts are translated and practiced locally within particular organizations. This research is based on an organizational ethnography of the management of multiple social, ethical and business logics of CSR in a Danish frontrunner firm. The study contributes with insights into the ongoing organizational management of potentially opposing logics in CSR. Findings show that managing contradictions of CSR is an ongoing challenge and accomplishment influencing whether ethical, social and business logics collide or reinforce eachother. The study shows that when ethics are framed as means to economic ends, some social responsibilities have a tendency to be disregarded in practice.