This paper proposes a model to predict when the subunits of a multidivisional firm implement a practice adopted by the firm more or less extensively, focusing on the intraorganizational environment. Drawing on institutional arguments, I propose that a subunit’s extent of practice implementation is a combined result of coercive pressures from its headquarters, imitation of its peer units, and its own perception of the practice’s legitimacy. More specifically, I argue that a subunit will implement new practices related to corporate social responsibility (CSR) more fully (1) when the corporate mandate from the headquarters is more pressing, (2) when its peer subunits have implemented similar actions, and (3) when the practice is perceived as consistent with the subunit’s own values. Regression results further suggest that peers and headquarters influence a subunit’s extent of implementation of a practice only when the subunit perceives it as highly consistent with its own values—a finding that points to the importance of values for practice legitimacy and the need to rethink practice implementation within complex organizations.
Innovation-oriented cross-border collaborations are a means through which developing countries can upgrade technologically. However, the benefits accruing from cross-border collaborations can be asymmetric: while they may possess crucial resources, the developing country may gain little from the collaboration. This chapter examines the context of bioprospecting, defined as the search for biodiversity aimed at commercial exploitation of its biochemical or genetic elements. The well-documented exploitation of developing countries’ natural resources by international partners has made bioprospecting a ‘dark spot’ in the cross-border collaboration space. The chapter adopts an abductive configurational approach to investigate the sets of conditions that allow cross-border agreements to include knowledge transfer and innovation, through crisp-set qualitative comparative analysis. Based on an empirical analysis of fifty-nine cases, some policy recommendations about the need for international collaborations and investments to include greater respect for local communities’ fundamental rights and ecosystems are provided.
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