Melbourne Business School - Research Publications

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    Coping with Multilingualism: Internationalization and the Evolution of Language Strategy
    Welch, D ; Welch, LS (Wiley, 2019)
    Research Summary: In this article, we explore the interaction between internationalization and language strategy. We identify a range of language coping mechanisms that internationalizing firms use in response to the multilingualism they encounter. Learning outcomes and strategy implications of each of these mechanisms are identified. We then build a conceptual model to depict how, over time, interaction and influence between internationalization and language strategy become a two‐way, co‐evolutionary process. A key aspect is the role of management in shifting the firm from a reactive to a more proactive stance on language strategy. A case study is used to contextualize and illustrate the co‐evolutionary process over the long term. Case data demonstrate the constant adoption and adaptation of coping mechanisms that feed into language strategy as internationalization unfolds. Managerial Summary: This article links the internationalization process of firms with the exposure to multilingualism and the development of language strategy. We outline how internationalizing firms may utilize a range of language coping mechanisms—such as the adoption of a common corporate language—to handle multilingualism. These feed into the development of language strategy. The case of Fazer, the Finnish bakery, confectionary, and catering firm, provides an illustration of how language strategy co‐evolves over time as internationalization proceeds—in Fazer's case, many decades. Fazer's experience also demonstrates the importance of management and changes in top management in ensuring a more proactive language strategy is adopted and enforced. Adequate allocation of resources and a link to performance management were found to be critical in supporting strategic implementation.
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    Branded marketing events: engaging Australian and French wine consumers
    Altschwager, T ; Conduit, J ; Bouzdine-Chameeva, T ; Goodman, S (Emerald, 2017-03-13)
    Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to introduce the term branded marketing events (BMEs), and examine the role of its experiential components as a strategic tool for the facilitation of customer brand engagement. This study examines five experiential components of BMEs at events held in Australia and France to determine their respective impact on customer brand engagement. Design/methodology/approach: Surveys were distributed to attendees of ten events by six wine brands in South Australia, and six events in five sub-regions of Bordeaux. Findings: Findings suggest that BMEs influence customers’ brand engagement and brand purchase intention in both Australia and France. However, the experiential components within the events had differing effects. Australian customers were influenced by cognitive, sensorial, and relational experiences and their increased customer brand engagement strongly influenced brand purchase intention. French customers, however, required pragmatic event experiences to build brand engagement. Originality/value: Recognizing their mutual experiential and interactive foundations, this study integrates the research domains of marketing events, customer experiences and customer brand engagement, and contributes to the strategic understanding of how branded event experiences facilitate customer brand engagement.
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    Can genetic associations change with age? CFH and age-related macular degeneration
    Adams, MKM ; Simpson, JA ; Richardson, AJ ; Guymer, RH ; Williamson, E ; Cantsilieris, S ; English, DR ; Aung, KZ ; Makeyeva, GA ; Giles, GG ; Hopper, J ; Robman, LD ; Baird, PN (OXFORD UNIV PRESS, 2012-12-01)
    Genetic variation in the gene encoding complement factor H (CFH) on chromosome 1q31 has repeatedly been associated with an increased risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD); however, previous studies have had inadequate numbers of participants across a sufficiently wide age range to determine whether the association varies by age. We conducted a genetic case-control study using data from 2294 cases and 2294 controls selected from the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study, matched on age, sex and region of origin. Four consistently replicated CFH single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were genotyped: rs1061170 (Y402H), rs2274700, rs393955 and rs800292; their relationship with AMD prevalence was determined across the age range 48-86. A difference in genotype frequencies was seen across age groups, where the low-risk homozygote prevalence rose with each increasing age group. Associations with early AMD were strongly modified by age for three of the four SNPs (interaction P-value: 0.01-0.00003). An inverse association between the high-risk homozygote for each SNP and early AMD was observed in the younger age groups [odds ratios (OR) range 0.37-0.48 for age <55], reversing to a positive association with increasing age (OR 1.87-2.8 for age >75). The direction of associations for this gene change was from inverse to risk with increasing age. These findings have important implications for predictive models for AMD and potentially other age-related diseases which extrapolate risks from older cohorts, as they assume homogeneity of association by age, which might not exist.
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    HR managers as toxin handlers: The buffering effect of formalizing toxin handling responsibilities (vol 48, pg 695, 2009)
    Kulik, CT ; Cregan, C ; Metz, I ; Brown, M (JOHN WILEY & SONS INC, 2009-01-01)
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    Meanings on multiple levels: The influence of field-level and organizational-level meaning systems on diffusion
    Love, EG ; Cebon, P (WILEY, 2008-03)
    abstract  This study considers how organization‐level and field‐level meaning systems affect when firms adopt administrative innovations. We use a sample of over 1200 manufacturing sites to test hypotheses regarding the timing of adoption of Manufacturing Best Practice programmes. The results indicate that compatibility of the diffusing practice with the organization's internal meaning system is an important predictor of when firms adopt such programmes. However, the influence of such compatibility declines for later adopters – consistent with institutional pressures in the form of field‐level meaning systems playing an increasing role over time. We also find that this decline occurs for sites with high exposure to institutional pressures, but not for sites with lower exposure. The findings suggest that internal meaning systems and differential exposure moderate the role of institutional pressures in the diffusion of administrative innovations. We discuss implications for theory and research on institutionalization and the diffusion of innovations.
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    TRUST REPAIR AFTER AN ORGANIZATION-LEVEL FAILURE
    Gillespie, N ; Dietz, G (ACAD MANAGEMENT, 2009-01)
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    A bargaining perspective on strategic outsourcing and supply competition
    De Fontenay, CC ; Gans, JS (John Wiley & Sons, 2008-08-01)
    This article considers the outsourcing choice of a downstream firm with its own upstream production resources or assets. The novelty of the approach is to consider the outsourced function as involving resources consistent with the resource-based view of the firm. From a bargaining perspective, we characterize a downstream firm’s decision whether to outsource to an independent or to an established upstream firm. In so doing, the downstream firm faces a trade-off between lower input costs afforded by independent competition, and higher resource value associated with those who can consolidate upstream capabilities. We show that this tradeoff is resolved in favor of outsourcing to an established firm.
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    The separation/specification dilemma in contracting: The local government experience in Victoria
    O'Flynn, J ; Alford, J (BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, 2008)
    This article draws on evidence from case studies of local government contracting in the Australian state of Victoria. It argues that one of the key elements of competitive tendering – the separation of purchasers from providers – undermines another of its essential mechanisms – the specification of services – at the point where previously in‐house services are exposed to competition. The managers who are to become purchasers lack the requisite knowledge of services, which instead resides in the minds of the service delivery staff whose work is to be subjected to competitive processes. Separating purchasing from service‐provision ‘distances’ the staff from the managers, impairing employees’ willingness to share the relevant information. At the same time, the introduction of competition increases the probability that staff will withhold that knowledge, and makes it harder on probity grounds to maintain the type of collaborative relationship which might overcome their reluctance to share it.