The thick description and comparison of societal systems of capitalism

Abstract

Critiques of international business theory have recently pointed to weaknesses in the handling of context, of culture, and of policy implications. It is contended that the origins of such failings lie in the discipline's commonly accepted methodologies, and in turn that they have epistemological roots. As a route out of the dilemmas faced, a proposal is made to adopt more complete ways of handling determinacy, including the influences of history, culture, and the societal emergence of institutions. Business systems theory is drawn upon and a model proposed, developed from the work of Whitley. In this, culture is seen as underpinning formal institutions, which in turn underpin societal business systems. The use of the model relies on the ideas of Geertz on ‘thick description’ and of Ragin on holistic analysis. It is illustrated with a comparison of the American and French socio-economic systems, seen historically. Findings in strategy research about the geographically defined nature of firm supremacy in many industries are brought into the account, using the business systems literature. Consistent patterns of determinacy, as well as distinct and contrasting trajectories of business system evolution, are noted. A more complete and multidisciplinary form of explanation, grounded in socio-economics, is advocated as a means of meeting the challenges both of understanding and of policymaking at several levels. Journal of International Business Studies (2005) 36, 123–155. doi:10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400129

Organizational learning as a situated routine-based activity in international settings

“…This would address some of the failings, as outlined by Redding (2005), in international business scholarship, in particular the privileging of either context-free rational agency and determinacy, or the variable-based approaches to understanding contexts (Jackson and Deeg, 2008) over subtle and less explored influences of history, context and social meaning systems.…”

Internationalization by State-owned Enterprises (SOEs) and Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) after the 2008 Crisis. Looking for Generalizations

“…However, even after 25 years of transformational changes in the Middle and East European countries SOEs still coexist with private firms [Hall, Soskice, 2001: Redding, 2005 and are noticeable in other countries that did not go through the transition process. The role played by SOEs with regard to the internationalization of the whole economy varies by the type of capitalism prevailing in that country [Hall and Soskice, 2001;Amable, 2003;Crouch, 2005].…”

(Re)apresentando a Teoria Da Gestão Comparativa

“…A partir das características históricas descritas, considera-se que a escola colonialista da teoria da gestão comparativa emerge de duas estruturas mutuamente constitutivas, o capitalismo, como sistema econômico, e o colonialismo, como uma das práticas econômicas defendidas pela versão mercantilista do capitalismo (Cooke, 2003c;Jack & Westwood, 2009;Redding, 2005). entre o centro euro-americano e os demais países do mundo, rotulada, neste ensaio teórico, como escola neocolonialista da teoria da gestão comparativa (Engwall, 1996;Springhall, 2001;Westwood & Jack, 2007).…”