Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become of great interest to both researchers and practitioners alike with much discussion on whether the costs outweigh the performance implications. CSR has become a firm strategic tool (not only an ethical concept) as firms recognize that the customer value proposition and CSR is integrated with the focus on how to differentiate the firm from the view of the customer. We utilized market orientation (MO) theory as our foundation for our research as it explains how organizations adapt to their customer environment to develop competitive advantages. With the current customer focus on CSR, MO assists the field in identifying a possible firm differentiation. Our research found that firms that ranked high on CSR correlated positively to performance. We also found our theoretically developed constructs of firm customer orientation (CO) and firm market orientation correlated with the firm adopting CSR. The results also indicated that CSR positively mediates CO and MO to firm performance. As past research had mixed results over the direct relation of MO to performance, our research suggests that CSR may be the missing variable to explain the MO/Performance relationship.

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Distinct to expatriate managers at the subsidiary-level, inpatriate managers' influence at the headquarter (HQ)-level is controlled by the extent to which an inpatriate manager is able to 'win' status from HQ personnel. The primary goal of the paper is to conceptualize how organizational support, in the form of global talent management (GTM) practices, can alleviate inpatriates' difficulties in building social capital at HQ. Building social capital at HQ is vital for inpatriates to attain status in order to build the inter-unit social capital that enables them to pursue their boundary-spanning role across HQs and subsidiaries. Status inconsistency theory is put forward to recognize the personal, professional and structural incongruence of events and activities at HQ carried out with respect to inpatriates. We argue that inpatriate managers become empowered at HQ only when social capital is accumulated whereby social capital is driven by an acknowledgment of inpatriates as a legitimate staffing option. The relationship between GTM practices and social capital building needs to be managed properly by inpatriates themselves as well as by the organization. A future research agenda helping to build social capital of inpatriates through GTM infrastructure is discussed and propositions are offered throughout.

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Cataloged from PDF version of article.Purpose – One role of a foreign subsidiary within a multinational corporation’s (MNC’s) global\ud portfolio is to connect the MNC to foreign customers. To examine this key customer contact point,\ud this study aims to examine the linkages between local market conditions and strategic orientation, and\ud how strategic orientation influences knowledge management capabilities of MNC subsidiaries,\ud employing the Miles and Snow strategic orientation perspective.\ud Design/methodology/approach – A survey was conducted of 112 managers in foreign\ud MNC subsidiaries in Croatia. Data were analyzed with both discriminant analysis and MANCOVA.\ud Findings – The results indicate that in highly dynamic and competitively intense markets, MNC\ud subsidiaries primarily employ a Prospector orientation. Furthermore, the results indicate that there is\ud a significant difference in knowledge management capabilities among subsidiaries depending on their\ud strategic orientation, with the Prospector orientation most closely aligned with knowledge acquisition,\ud knowledge conversion and knowledge application.\ud Practical implications – The findings highlight the importance of strategic orientation in MNC\ud subsidiaries tailoring to local market conditions. The results suggest that MNC subsidiaries\ud undertaking a Prospector strategic orientation develop greater knowledge acquisition, conversion and\ud application capabilities.\ud Originality/value – This study conceptualizes the MNC subsidiary as a key marketing element of\ud the global MNC whole and examines the nuanced relationships between the host environment and\ud MNC foreign subsidiary strategic orientation as well as MNC subsidiary strategic orientation and\ud knowledge management relationshi

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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the intersection of two literature streams: that of strategy and supply chain management (SCM). This review should create a better understanding of “strategic SCM” by focussing on relevant theories in the strategic management field and their intersection with SCM to develop a joint research agenda. Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted a correspondence analysis on the content of 3,402 articles from the top SCM journals. This analysis provides a map of the intellectual structure of content in this field to date. The key trends and changes were identified in strategic SCM research from 1990-2014 as well as the intersection with the key schools of strategic management. Findings – The results suggest that SCM is key to a successful deployment of strategy for competing in the global marketplace. The main theoretical foundations for research in this field were identified and discussed. Gaps were detected and combinations of theoretical foundations of strategic management and SCM suggest four poles for future research: agents and focal firm; distributions and logistics strategic models; SCM competitive requirements; SCM relational governance. Research limitations/implications – Scholars in both the strategy and the SCM fields continue to search for competitive advantages. Much recent research indicates that strategic SCM can be a critical source for that advantage. One of the limitations of the research is that the analysis does not include every journal that published an article mentioning SCM. However, the 34 journals selected are reputed to be the most influential on SCM and focussed primarily on SCM. Practical implications – The map of the intellectual structure of research to strategic SCM highlights the need to combine different theoretical approaches to the complex phenomenon of SCM. Practitioners should consider the supply chain as an informal organization and should devote time and resources to build a shared advantage across the supply chain. They should also consider the inherent benefits and risks that sharing. Originality/value – The paper demonstrates that strategic SCM needs a balanced and rigorous combination of theoretical approaches to deliver more theory-driven evidences. The research combines both a qualitative analysis and a quantitative methodology that summarizes gaps and then outlines future research from a large sample of articles. This methodology is an original contribution to this field and offers some assistance for enlarging the sample of future literature reviews.

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