The authors argue that international collaborations are both vehicles for wider strategic change and development and contexts within which individuals pursue a process of development and change to move their separate organizations toward a functioning relationship. The authors explore two related aspects—trust building and identity construction—of that internal process of change and development, which, if successful, in turn allow the wider, strategic developments to progress. Drawing on an analysis of a case study of Sino—Australian business collaboration, the authors introduce three concepts relating to identity construction—identity characters, deference action, and identity fit—and show how they relate to a process in which identity—individual and collective—is constantly constructed and reconstructed in formal and informal settings during the trust building process. They argue that trusting attitudes can be reinforced through recognition of deference action and adaptation of identity to fit with collaboration circumstances.

Purpose Mergers and acquisitions being done by emerging market multinational corporations (EMNCs) increasingly attract scholarly attention. However, conclusions concerning the nature and the theoretical underpinnings of EMNCs’ post-acquisition integration vary significantly, calling for an assessment of the state of affairs in this field. This paper aims to critically review the extant studies on EMNCs’ post-acquisition integration and to make a comparison with advanced economy multinational corporations’ (AMNCs’) post-acquisition integration, in order to formulate an agenda for future research. Design/methodology/approach A sample of papers from 21 leading journals in the fields of international business, management, human resource management and strategy published between 1991 and March 2018 are included in the literature review. Qualitative content analysis was conducted. Findings The topics are clustered into the four themes of strategies and processes, influencing factors, acquisition performance and antecedents of post-acquisition integration of EMNCs. The literature on EMNCs and AMNCs converges with regard to the broad methodological and theoretical approaches that have been adopted. Yet, EMNCs and AMNCs diverge on the detailed strategies and behavioral patterns of post-acquisition integration, mostly as a consequence of country of origin factors. Originality/value The paper identifies a number of deficiencies within existing research and suggests how they can be addressed in future research. By doing so, the paper deepens the argumentation of the third camp in the “Goldilocks debate” (Cuervo-Cazurra, 2012) arguing that the phenomenon of post-acquisition of EMNCs is “just right” for theory extension and development.

According to the Federal Highway Administration, more than a quarter of the bridge decks in the United States are obsolete or deficient and most of them are made of reinforced concrete (RC). Precise decisions for bridge maintenance are in high demand due to the limited budget. Among various nondestructive evaluation techniques, ground penetrating radar (GPR) has gained its popularity for reasons such as high speed and fine resolution. Migration is an important intermediate process for GPR data analysis and its accuracy depends on the velocity or dielectric permittivity estimation of the subsurface. Velocity analysis for commonly adopted bistatic GPR systems is based on an iterative trial-and-error process, which involves a human decision process to obtain the properly migrated data. Besides, for heavily polluted data, it can be hardly possible to perform the visual inspection. Autofocusing techniques are rarely discussed in the field of GPR. In this paper, potential autofocusing metrics are nominated and evaluated by both simulation and experimental data. The effects of noise, aperture width, and crossing rebar signals on the metric performance are investigated and the results demonstrate that the higher-order metrics are the most robust and sensitive autofocusing metrics for the migration of GPR data from RC bridge decks.

PurposeThis study unpacks how organizational members construct a collective entrepreneurial identity within an organization and attempt to instill entrepreneurial features in the organization's existing identity.Design/methodology/approachThe study draws on the cases of two venturing units, perceived as entrepreneurial groups within their respective parent companies. Semi-structured interviews and secondary data were collected and analyzed inductively and abductively.FindingsThe data revealed that organizational members co-constructed a “corporate entrepreneur” role identity to form a collective shared belief and communities of practice around what it meant to act as an entrepreneurial group within their local corporate context and how it differentiated them from others. Members also clustered around the emergent collective entrepreneurial identity through sensegiving efforts to instill entrepreneurial features in the organization's identity, despite the tensions this caused.Originality/valuePrevious studies in corporate entrepreneurship have theorized on the top-down dynamics instilling entrepreneurial features in an organization's identity, but have neglected the role of bottom-up dynamics. This study reveals two bottom-up dynamics that involve organizational members' agentic role in co-constructing and clustering around a collective entrepreneurial identity. This study contributes to the middle-management literature, uncovering champions' identity work in constructing a “corporate entrepreneur” role identity, with implications for followers' engagement in constructing a collective entrepreneurial identity. This study also contributes to the organizational identity literature, showing how tensions around the entrepreneurial group's distinctiveness may hinder the process of instilling entrepreneurial features in an organization's identity.

This article explores the dynamic processes of collective identity formation among the participating organizational members in interorganizational collaborations that cross national boundaries. A longitudinal, qualitative multi-case study research approach was adopted in the empirical investigation of collective identity in three international business collaborations that involve a Sino-British strategic partnership, a Sino-Australian, and a Sino-Polish joint venture. Based on the analyses of the data collected from in-depth interviews, participant observation, and archival materials, a theoretical framework of collective identity (re)formation is developed. It suggests that two inseparable elements (states and processes) constitute a cyclic and enduring process of collective identity formation through partners’ orchestrating discursive resources involving a common sense of ‘we-ness’. The shifts between various states are driven by partners’ processes of negotiation, integration, solidification, and reformation of collective identity. A deconstruction process may also emerge, giving rise to the termination of the collaborative relationship. The research presented in this article advances the understanding of collective identity formation in the field of organizational identity by extending the discursive perspective of collective identity into the context of interorganizational collaborations that cross national borders. This research also provides further empirical evidence on the active role played by organizational members in the use of cultural narratives as strategic resources to express their identity beliefs, which differs from the deterministic view of culture in shaping organizational members’ behaviors.