Christoph Dörrenbächer - Böcker

This edited volume focuses on the interplay between organizational identities and firm growth, an area which remains largely unexplored.

This edited volume focuses on the interplay between organizational identities and firm growth, an area which remains largely unexplored.

This unique book explores some of the key topics of international business through the context of a global industry, focusing on the challenges brewery companies face as they operate in globalized markets. It examines the strategies of individual firms to develop markets and explores new insights into recent company rivalries, both globally and locally. In addition, it offers detailed analysis of some of the major players in the industry through longitudinal studies.Drawing on a range of perspectives, the contributing authors explore six overarching themes: international market developments and firm performance; host country institutional effects; multi-point competition and rivalries; cross-border M&A integration and subsidiary development; leadership and internationalization; and boundless customer interfaces through such elements as social media and tourism.The Global Brewery Industry will prove insightful for scholars across international business, as well as providing an appealing case study for advanced students. It will be invaluable to those investigating the brewery sector specifically, or working with brewing firms.Contributors: M. Andersson, C. Dörrenbächer, J. Gammelgaard, M. Geppert, M. Gilles, M.W. Hansen, B. Hobdari, A.K. Hoenen, G. Hollinshead, K. Jakobsen, A. Kokko, A. Kuusik, J. Larimo, L. Lund-Thomsen, M. Maclean, E.S. Madsen, A.M. Munar, K. Pedersen, N. Pogrebnyakov, C. Ruhe, J. Smith, S. Takeshita, I.M. Taplin, S. Troll, U. Varblane, C. Williams, A. Zaby

The study of multinational companies (MNCs) has been split for many decades into two camps which hardly ‘talked’ to each other: a) predominantly economic and functionalist oriented International Business Researchers, and b) largely social constructivist and critical management oriented Organization Theorists. This volume intends to build bridges by bringing together leading international scholars from both camps, who provide new insights in the study of MNCs. In addition to the bridge-building exercise, the book aims to develop a more comprehensive organizational theoretical understanding as well as methodological plurality in the study of how MNCs function in the post-millennium era, both internally and externally, and also how they control their international operations across economic, institutional, cultural, linguistic, political and social divides. Key topics addressed in our volume include: historical perspectives on the study of MNCs, the role of increased financialization and marketization on MNCs, the new role of the HQ within contemporary MNC, the role of language in MNCs, discursive studies of MNCs, labour representation in MNCs as well as social movements and corporate social responsibility and MNCs.

The Promises and Properties of Rapidly Growing Companies contributes to contemporary thought on so-called gazelles – high performing market players that create many jobs and promise strong welfare effects.Moving away from the well-established idea of firm growth as a continuous process, the contributions of this edited volume add to the growing body of innovative gazelle related research in three ways: Firstly, systematically taking stock of the international gazelle growth literature and proposing a theoretical growth model, which supports the rare and temporal nature of gazelle growth. Secondly, empirically investigating German gazelles and the German gazelle policy stance, counterbalancing the current Anglo-American research bias. Thirdly, addressing lesser studied or omitted gazelle-related themes such as gazelles’ internationalization, the dark sides of gazelles’ growth, and gazelles’ corporate citizenship. The Promises and Properties of Rapidly Growing Companies is a valuable resource for academics, managers, policy makers and civil society actors concerned with firm growth, economic development and the corporate social responsibility of rapidly growing firms.

The transnational social space approach has been extensively utilized in migration studies and partly also in management studies. In the latter, a key research focus is on multinational enterprises (MNEs). This Research in the Sociology of Organizations volume reinvigorates and leverages the transnational social space approach to further develop it, addressing the role of MNEs in solving Grand Challenges.Taking an interdisciplinary approach by drawing on ideas outside of mainstream Organization Studies, such as Social Geography, Migration Studies, Political Economy, Economic Sociology, and International Business, papers take on the challenge of addressing ‘wicked problems’ like climate change, poverty, health, and inequality.Applying the transnational social space idea as an ‘envelop framework’, the papers broaden the scope of theorizing from various theoretical angles and disciplines and enlarge the empirical scope to fields where the MNE is not automatically the central unit of study. Also, paying attention to whether and how MNEs can shape and, in some cases, distort transnational social spaces as powerful players, the papers, taken together, investigate when, why, and how MNEs can be seen as part of the problem or the solution to grand challenges.