Global, National and Local Practices in Multinational Companies

'This book reaches out to international business scholars in an effort to fill in the agency gap in knowledge transfer processes of multinational corporations. It constitutes an excellent response to Redding's (2005) call for greater attention and discern to the i) construction of meaning, ii) role of interested groups, and iii) impact of historical forces in international business scholarship.' - Organization Studies 'Many of the book's case studies are extremely interesting and insightful...the intended audience is clearly an academic one, appealing to those with an interest in the cutting-edge development of international business and international management as a field of study.' - Academy of Management Perspectives

BJRN AMBOS Lecturer, University of Edinburgh Management School, UK, and adjunct Professor, Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, Italy SUSANNE BLAZEJEWSKI Assistant Professor, Strategic Management and Organizational Behaviour, European University Viadrina, Germany TINA C. CHINI Research Fellow, London Business School affiliated with the Advanced Institute of Management Research (AIM), UK MIKE GEPPERT Reader in International Management Studies, Queen Mary, University of London, UK RAY LOVERIDGE Research Fellow and Director of the MSc (Management Research) Programme, Said Business School, University of Oxford, UK MICHAEL MAYER Reader in Strategic Management, University of Edinburgh, UK ANUPAMA MOHAN PhD and Research Fellow in International Business Strategy, Warwick Business School, UK FIONA MOORE Industrial Anthropologist and Senior Lecturer, Kingston University, UK ANNE TEMPEL Senior Lecturer of Organization Theory and Management, University of Erfurt, Germany HARTMUT WCHTER Professor of Human Resource Management, University of Trier, Germany PETER WALGENBACH Professor of Organization Theory and Management, University of Erfurt, Germany KAREN WILLIAMS Lecturer in Comparative Industrial Relations, School of Business and Economics, University of Wales, UK

List of Figures and Tables Notes on the Contributors Preface Introduction; M.Geppert & M.Mayer PART 1: MANAGERIAL PRACTICES AND THE ROLE OF NATIONAL INSTITUTIONS The Comparative Institutional Approach to Human Resource Management in Multinational Companies; A.Tempel & P.Walgenbach Employment Relations as a Resource in the Socio-Political Construction of Transnational Social Spaces by Multinational Companies; K.Williams & M.Geppert PART 2: PROBLEMS OF TRANSFERRING MANAGERIAL PRACTICES TRANSNATIONALLY Transferring Value-infused Organizational Practices in Multinational Companies; S.Blazejewski Variation of Practices across Multiple Levels within Transnational Companies; A.Mohan Knowledge Transfer Process in Multinational Companies; T.C.Chini & B.Ambos PART 3: SOCIAL PRACTICES AND 'INTERNATIONAL' PRACTITIONERS Governing the Outposts? Exploring the Role of Expatriate Managers in a Multinational Corporation; F.Moore Embedding the Multinational Enterprise; R.Loveridge Index