Country institutional environments and international strategy: A review and analysis of the research

We review and analyze the growing body of literature that addresses the institutional context of international strategy. By examining articles in eleven major journals from January 2008 to July 2020, we identify six major categories of international strategies and implementation approaches: market entry and internationalization, political strategies, multinational technology and innovation, multinational corporate social responsibility, multinational headquarters and subsidiary relationships, and international human resources management. A parallel analysis of the relevant institutional variables categorizes institutions into eight types: economic institutions, political institutions, regulatory institutions, normative institutions, administrative institutions, cultural/cognitive institutions, demographic institutions, and knowledge institutions. These eight categories allow us to contextualize the institutional environment in which the six international strategies and implementation approaches are employed. Our review identifies important progress in international strategy research that has yielded a greater understanding of institutional impact on multinational activities. Yet, it also reveals that many areas of international strategy research remain fragmented, highlighting the need for future research and suggesting new directions for such investigations. Our analysis concludes by identifying knowledge gaps in each of the six strategy categories and making a series of suggestions for relevant future research.     

Flames and Debates: Do Social Media Affect Satisfaction with Democracy?

Media plays an important role in defining the quality of democracy in consolidated democracy. Internet, in turn, can wield effects on democracy and many scholars have investigated such relationship. Moving from this literature we use Eurobarometer data to estimate the effect of Internet on the satisfaction with the functioning of democracy among European citizens. The results show that Internet usage, per se, has no effect on the satisfaction with democracy. However, the consumption of online news can make the difference, even though this effect is positive when users consume news from online traditional media while social media has a negative effect, which is mediated by the level of online disagreement and the potential emergence of flames.     

Independent Decisiveness and the Arrow theorem

I show that the condition of Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives in Arrow's impossibility theorem can be weakened into Relational Independent Decisiveness. The condition of Relational Independent Decisiveness is essentially a translation of Sen's Independent Decisiveness into the traditional Arrovian framework. I also show by example that Relational Independent Decisiveness is indeed weaker than Arrow's Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives. Received: 30 October 1996 / Accepted: 22 May 1997     

“Because we all love K-Pop”: How young adults reshape symbolic boundaries in Paris,Manchester, and Philadelphia

In this paper, we examine how young adults who are consumers of K-Pop in three culturally diverse cities (Paris, Philadelphia, and Manchester) reshape their symbolic boundaries to face social challenges. Analyzing data from 132 interviews, we show how young adults mainly confront social exclusion in Paris, fight racism in Philadelphia and deal with xenophobia in Manchester. Although K-Pop adds to the dynamics of exclusion due to being perceived as culturally foreign, our participants use K-Pop as a resource to reshape social boundaries towards new forms of inclusion. They do this by relying on K-Pop as a cultural product that promotes inclusion, and on their affiliation with the K-Pop community on a local and global level.     

The relevance of educational poverty in Europe: Determinants and remedies

This paper explores the degree of educational poverty in European countries using data from OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). This research adopts the class of additive multidimensional poverty measures proposed by Alkire & Foster (2011) and investigates the degree of educational poverty in terms of incidence, breadth, depth and severity. Also, we analyse the impact of students’ characteristics and school-level factors on the probability of being educational poor in various learning dimensions. The findings reveal that between 2006 and 2015 the incidence of educational poverty became more relevant in many European countries, while most of them experienced a reduction of poverty depth and severity. Therefore, several policy scenarios are simulated in order to highlight the school factors that can be activate to alleviate the risk of educational poverty in the European countries that experienced the highest incidence of educational poor student.     

Interpersonal and Affective Traits of Psychopathy in Child Sexual Abusers: Evidence from a Pilot Study Sample of Italian Offenders

It has been demonstrated that psychopathy is a crucial construct for the understanding of criminal and violent behavior. However, research on psychopathic traits among child sexual abusers is still scant. In this study, the Psychopathy Checklist–Revised was used to assess psychopathy in a group of 87 Italian, male inmates who were convicted of violent crimes. Child sexual abusers (N = 23) scored higher on the Psychopathy Checklist–Revised interpersonal-affective factor compared to participants who did not perpetrate child sexual abuse. Notably, child sexual abusers showed a very high average score on the Psychopathy Checklist–Revised affective dimension; furthermore, they showed high scores on the two Psychopathy Checklist–Revised items excluded from its two factors–four facets structure (i.e., the items denoting devaluation of intimate relationships). The results of this study may positively inform the development of treatment strategies for child sexual abusers.     

The use of informal networks in Italy: Efficiency or favoritism?

A large body of literature considers the advantages of using informal networks to match workers to jobs. However, family ties may interfere with a genuine process of worker selection, favoring people with connections over more talented workers. We offer a simple model of favoritism to explain these risks and show firms’ trade-off in using informal channels. We then investigate empirically the determinants and consequences of using informal networks in Italy by using the Bank of Italy Survey. We find that informal networks tend to be used by low-educated individuals, in small firms, in low-productivity jobs and in less developed regions. Finally, we show that informal networks have a negative impact on wages, controlling for individual and firm characteristics.     

ON THE WINNER‐TAKE‐ALL PRINCIPLE IN INNOVATION RACES

What is the optimal allocation of prizes in an innovation race? Should the winner take all, or is it preferable that the original inventor shares the market with subsequent independent duplicators? Some recent papers in law and economics have argued that the latter, more permissive solution is socially preferable under mild conditions. We re‐examine that issue, arguing that a permissive regime may turn the innovation race into a waiting game, reducing the power of incentives, and may invite socially wasteful duplicative R&D expenditures. In a model that accounts for these effects, the winner‐take‐all system turns out to be preferable in a broad set of circumstances, especially in highly innovative industries. (JEL: K11, L1, O34)