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Institutional Distances and E-commerce Firms’ Standardization of Online Offers and Services
A. Schütz, B. Swoboda
Trier University, Germany
E-commerce firms (ECFs) need to standardize or adapt their market operations in host countries while research has studied only website elements such as design or content. Surprisingly little is known about the degree of standardization of ECFs’ important online offers, such as assortments or prices, and of online services, such as customer chats or payment options. The authors close this gap by analyzing the standardization of both operations dependent on institutional distances, whose role in online markets is debatable. They analyze how distances (general formal or informal and added formal or informal) impact both decisions differently. This study refers to data on 1,921 standardization decisions of 207 leading ECFs. The results show that added formal insti-tutional distance is generally the main antecedent, while further institutional distances have dif-ferent effects on online offers and services. The results provide direct suggestions for managers interested in ECFs’ standardization decisions and the role of institutional distances.
An Exploratory Framework for Analysing Strategic Responses to Institutional Pressures in International Retailing
A. Aklamanu
Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, Ghana
The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework that incorporates institutional theory and Oliver’s (1991) framework of responses to institutional processes in a single industry, retail. The research literature on institutional theory and Oliver’s (1991) framework is used to predict retailers’ strategic responses to institutional pressures. We identify a set of institutional factors exerting pressures on transnational retailers in a host market and develop a conceptual framework along with ten propositions for further examination. These propositions are related to unique institutional dimensions - regulatory, normative, and cognitive institutions in the context of retailing. The paper's main contribution is the application of institutional theory and Oliver’s (1991) framework of strategic responses to institutional processes to highlight the specifics of international retailers’ strategic responses to regulatory, normative, and cognitive institutional pressures in international retailing.
Alternating Expectations Influence on Two Banks Internationalization Process
A. I. Hadjikhani1, P. Thilenius2
1Mälardalen University, Sweden; 2Uppsala University, Sweden
The aim of this paper is to enhance our knowledge on how executive expectation affect the firm’s internationalisation process, namely, by offering explanations to sudden major investments/ divestments that deviate the process from commonly presumed incrementality. The theoretical view developed in this study is founded upon Johanson and Vahlne’s (1977) internationalisation process model and complemented with the concept of executive expectation. Through a longitudinal comparative case study, enriched with archival data and interviews, this paper emphasises the dynamics of the firm’s internationalisation process. This aids to provide some answers on how changes in the composition of executives, such as the replacement of key personnel, can drive the firm’s internationalisation process into a different path when succeeding executives do not share similar expectations to their predecessors.
