The global strategies of three major South African MNEs are examined with a view to understanding the applicability of existing theories to developing country firms and their emergence as global industry leaders.Emerging market MNEs are motivated by both defensive and offensive considerations. At the same time, home market domination allows potential contenders to develop competitive firm-specific advantages that are non-location based.We propose that successful emerging market MNEs start to build their global positions on the back of asset exploitation, but soon follow with asset seeking behavior. When country specific advantages are less important, contenders can accelerate their development of non-location based FSAs rapidly. Finally, leadership and domestic dominance may be more important than country specific advantages in explaining the success of emerging market MNEs.Keywords: Emerging markets; Globalization; MNEs; South Africa As more firms from emerging economies enter global markets, and strive for global leadership, questions arise regarding the applicability of existing theory and whether such firms follow the same evolutionary paths that their developed country counterparts followed in an earlier era. It is also uncertain whether they are following the same evolutionary paths as each other. The determinants of Korean FDI, for example, have been shown to be different from those of more advanced countries (Kimura and Lee, 1998); based on a strong export orientation, concentration on labor-intensive mature industries, and standard manufactured consumer markets. These o op pe en nU UP P

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Purpose -This research stems from the need by organisations to retain their key talent in the context of the change in the psychological contract manifested from the emergence of boundaryless careers. Many organisations have segmented their workforce to develop talent pools of high potential employees to meet the organisation's current and future critical skills needs. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of inclusion or exclusion in the talent pool on the psychological contract. Design/methodology/approach -The study presents findings from 195 employees from three different organisations, about 50 per cent of whom were in talent pools. Various instruments in the literature were used to measure the psychological contract and the other constructs of organisational citizenship behaviour, trust and turnover intention of employees in the talent pools in comparison to those not in talent pools. Findings -The study shows that being part of the talent pool has a positive impact on the relational psychological contract and organisational commitment but does not necessarily translate into trust and the intention to stay with organisations.Research limitations/implications -The study was conducted in three large firms with well-developed and entrenched talent management strategies. The results may be different in firms with less formal talent management strategies or those firms that do not use talent pools. Despite these limitations, the study is valuable in showing the differences in relationships between employees recognised as more important and those not recognised in the same way. Practical implications -Talent strategy should not ignore employees not in talent pools as they have shown that they display an aspiration to build long-term relationships with their employers and could represent a future source of potential. It is recommended that organisations should continue to segment their workforce to determine who should form part of the talent pool. Social implications -The results indicate the high complexity in understanding contemporary employment relationships and could be closely related to the previous findings on trust. Despite being identified as potential employees for development into linchpin and pivotal positions in their organisation, these employees were no different to employees not in talent pools when it came to trust and the intention to leave their organisation. Originality/value -Employees in talent pools and those not in talent pools were similar in their intention to leave their organisations in circumstances where their expectations were not met. This finding is contrary to the expectation and indicates that relational psychological contracts do not have a moderating impact on the intention to leave where expectations are not met.

This paper demonstrates the relevance of employee demographic variables as extended factors in the voluntary turnover process since these models currently do not sufficiently explain the factors impacting the turnover decision. Over 1000 managers and knowledge workers were surveyed using a cross-sectional questionnaire to identify potential similarities in demographic variables in the decision to leave the organisation. Findings indicate that various demographic variables (age, race and gender) influence whether pull or push factors are cited in the turnover process. In addition, it is found that the level of education has a stronger relationship to employee mobility than race, which contradicts the current sentiment in the South African labour market. Furthermore, it is concluded that demographic variables of employees should be considered in the extension of contemporary turnover models. The findings have implications for human resource management practices in organisations that are more dependent on knowledge workers. Consequently, the findings have implications for current prevailing theory on voluntary turnover research.

The study describes four approaches for configuring corporate HR strategy by firms from an emerging market when dealing with the integration-differentiation dilemma.Most research on strategic international HRM is on the perspective of the affiliate or discusses the degree of isomorphism between the HRM practices of the parent and affiliate. The authors apply a cross-case analysis of the cases of Nando's International, MTN International, Sasol and SABMiller, focus on the implementation of corporate HR strategies from the parent's perspective and show that MNEs differ in the scope and level of abstraction of their corporate HR strategies. It is further suggested that this is primarily due to differences in business model, the need to accommodate national culture, the type and role of organizational culture in the MNE, which impact on the level of convergence of HR management practices. In all of the cases, there is a large degree of variance in these factors.

The development of stronger team identity has previously been explained through the social identity aspect of belonging. Although this has contributed much to our understanding of sport fans, it has neglected an alternate explanation for team identity, specifically the search for distinctiveness. How then do fans develop stronger team identity by 'standing out' as opposed to 'fitting in'? This paper provides evidence of seven identity management strategies used by fans with a strong psychological connection to their chosen team. Saturation sampling was employed to interview 29 South African rugby union fans via semi-structured interviews, followed by a directed approach to content analysis. The results contribute a stronger explanation of how the psychological need for optimal distinctiveness functions within the attachment process towards stronger fan loyalty, and provides a more complete explanation for the way in which fans can 'stand out' while still belonging.

This paper sheds light on the reasons for the limited uptake of responsible tourism initiative memberships by hotels in South Africa, despite South Africa being regarded as a leader in the field of responsible tourism policy, with the drafting of responsible tourism guidelines by the South African Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT). The International Centre for Responsible Tourism’s conference (hosted in South Africa) preceding the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 resulted in the Cape Town Declaration, which was based on the guidelines developed by DEAT. There are currently two responsible tourism membership initiatives in South Africa. Non-experimental survey research was conducted among hotels about their understanding and implementation of responsible tourism practices. Sixty hotels responded to the survey, and it would appear that these hotels implement Corporate Social Responsibility/responsible tourism, though to varying extents. Many responding hotels do not participate in responsible tourism initiatives because of - amongst others - confusion about what the concept means, and a lack of awareness of such initiatives. This paper raises questions about the effectiveness of membership initiatives in promoting the implementation of responsible tourism practices and questions the importance of a common understanding and awareness of what responsible tourism entails in ensuring that policy is implemented.

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