IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/intman/v27y2021i1s1075425320305780.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Poison or antidote: How subnational informal institutions exacerbate and ameliorate institutional voids

Author

Listed:
  • Onuklu, Atilla
  • Hill, Theodore (TL)
  • Darendeli, Izzet S.
  • Genc, Omer F.

Abstract

We explore the mechanisms through which subnational informal institutions exacerbate or ameliorate voids in national formal institutions. Informed by a within-country, cross-sub-region case comparison, we find two exacerbating mechanisms: Competition between the logics embedded in national and subnational institutions and the sabotage of a formal national institution by a void in a subnational informal institution. We also find two ameliorating mechanisms: Strong subnational informal institutions substitute for weak national institutions and bridge voids in formal institutions. Finally, we identify the conditions of expectation alignment and engagement associated with the competition, sabotage, substitution, and bridging mechanisms. Our findings contribute to institutional theory by providing a more subtle and contingent understanding of the interaction between informal and formal, and subnational and national, institutions. Our results also suggest ways in which constrained managers and bureaucrats can reduce the effects of voids in national formal institutions.

Suggested Citation

  • Onuklu, Atilla & Hill, Theodore (TL) & Darendeli, Izzet S. & Genc, Omer F., 2021. "Poison or antidote: How subnational informal institutions exacerbate and ameliorate institutional voids," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(1).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:intman:v:27:y:2021:i:1:s1075425320305780
    DOI: 10.1016/j.intman.2020.100806
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1075425320305780
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.intman.2020.100806?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gerald Yong Gao & Janet Y Murray & Masaaki Kotabe & Jiangyong Lu, 2010. "A “strategy tripod” perspective on export behaviors: Evidence from domestic and foreign firms based in an emerging economy," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 41(6), pages 1090-1091, August.
    2. Ute Stephan & Lorraine M Uhlaner & Christopher Stride, 2015. "Institutions and social entrepreneurship: The role of institutional voids, institutional support, and institutional configurations," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 46(3), pages 308-331, April.
    3. Estrin, Saul & Prevezer, Martha, 2011. "The role of informal institutions in corporate governance: Brazil, Russia, India, and China compared," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 33552, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Jonathan Doh & Suzana Rodrigues & Ayse Saka-Helmhout & Mona Makhija, 2017. "International business responses to institutional voids," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 48(3), pages 293-307, April.
    5. John Seely Brown & Paul Duguid, 2001. "Knowledge and Organization: A Social-Practice Perspective," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 12(2), pages 198-213, April.
    6. Tarun Khanna & Krishna Palepu, 2000. "Is Group Affiliation Profitable in Emerging Markets? An Analysis of Diversified Indian Business Groups," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(2), pages 867-891, April.
    7. Douglass C. North, 1991. "Institutions," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 5(1), pages 97-112, Winter.
    8. repec:cup:maorev:v:15:y:2019:i:01:p:31-53_00 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Barnard, Helena, 2010. "Overcoming the liability of foreignness without strong firm capabilities -- the value of market-based resources," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 165-176, June.
    10. Miguel Rivera-Santos & Carlos Rufin & Ans Kolk, 2012. "Bridging the institutional divide : Partnerships in subsistence markets," Post-Print hal-02313074, HAL.
    11. Mair, Johanna & Marti, Ignasi, 2009. "Entrepreneurship in and around institutional voids: A case study from Bangladesh," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 419-435, September.
    12. Mike W Peng & Denis Y L Wang & Yi Jiang, 2008. "An institution-based view of international business strategy: a focus on emerging economies," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 39(5), pages 920-936, July.
    13. John Cantwell & John H Dunning & Sarianna M Lundan, 2010. "An evolutionary approach to understanding international business activity: The co-evolution of MNEs and the institutional environment," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 41(4), pages 567-586, May.
    14. Giebe, Thomas & Grebe, Tim & Wolfstetter, Elmar, 2006. "How to allocate R&D (and other) subsidies: An experimentally tested policy recommendation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(9), pages 1261-1272, November.
    15. Marianne Matthee & Wim Naudé, 2008. "The Determinants of Regional Manufactured Exports from a Developing Country," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 31(4), pages 343-358, October.
    16. Volpe Martincus, Christian & Carballo, Jerónimo, 2008. "Is export promotion effective in developing countries? Firm-level evidence on the intensive and the extensive margins of exports," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(1), pages 89-106, September.
    17. Alvarez, Roberto, 2004. "Sources of export success in small- and medium-sized enterprises: the impact of public programs," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 383-400, June.
    18. Leonidou, Leonidas C. & Katsikeas, Constantine S. & Samiee, Saeed, 2002. "Marketing strategy determinants of export performance: a meta-analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 51-67, January.
    19. Danny Miller & Jangwoo Lee & Sooduck Chang & Isabelle Le Breton-Miller, 2009. "Filling the institutional void: The social behavior and performance of family vs non-family technology firms in emerging markets," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 40(5), pages 802-817, June.
    20. Klaus E Meyer & Mike W Peng, 2005. "Probing theoretically into Central and Eastern Europe: transactions, resources, and institutions," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 36(6), pages 600-621, November.
    21. Bersant Hobdari & Peter Gammeltoft & Jing Li & Klaus Meyer, 2017. "The home country of the MNE: The case of emerging economy firms," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 34(1), pages 1-17, March.
    22. Sinéad Monaghan & Patrick Gunnigle & Jonathan Lavelle, 2014. "“Courting the multinational”: Subnational institutional capacity and foreign market insidership," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 45(2), pages 131-150, February.
    23. Estrin, Saul & Meyer, Klaus E. & Pelletier, Adeline, 2018. "Emerging Economy MNEs: How does home country munificence matter?," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(4), pages 514-528.
    24. Fischer, Eileen & Reuber, A Rebecca, 2003. "Targeting Export Support to SMEs: Owners' International Experience as a Segmentation Basis," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 69-82, February.
    25. Mudambi, Ram & Swift, Tim, 2009. "Professional guilds, tension and knowledge management," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 736-745, June.
    26. Musteen, Martina & Francis, John & Datta, Deepak K., 2010. "The influence of international networks on internationalization speed and performance: A study of Czech SMEs," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 197-205, July.
    27. Li, Jing & Xia, Jun & Shapiro, Daniel & Lin, Zhouyu, 2018. "Institutional compatibility and the internationalization of Chinese SOEs: The moderating role of home subnational institutions," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(5), pages 641-652.
    28. Gerald Yong Gao & Janet Y Murray & Masaaki Kotabe & Jiangyong Lu, 2010. "A “strategy tripod” perspective on export behaviors: Evidence from domestic and foreign firms based in an emerging economy," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 41(3), pages 377-396, April.
    29. Masaaki Kotabe & Michael R Czinkota, 1992. "State Government Promotion of Manufacturing Exports: A Gap Analysis," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 23(4), pages 637-658, December.
    30. Lianxi Zhou & Wei-ping Wu & Xueming Luo, 2007. "Internationalization and the performance of born-global SMEs: the mediating role of social networks," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 38(4), pages 673-690, July.
    31. Aya S Chacar & William Newburry & Balagopal Vissa, 2010. "Bringing institutions into performance persistence research: Exploring the impact of product, financial, and labor market institutions," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 41(7), pages 1119-1140, September.
    32. Rivera-Santos, Miguel & Rufín, Carlos & Kolk, Ans, 2012. "Bridging the institutional divide: Partnerships in subsistence markets," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 65(12), pages 1721-1727.
    33. Man Zhang & Qian Gao & Hyuk-Soo Cho, 2017. "The effect of sub-national institutions and international entrepreneurial capability on international performance of export-focused SMEs: Evidence from China and South Korea," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 85-110, March.
    34. Christian Volpe Martincus & Jerónimo Carballo, 2010. "Export Promotion: Bundled Services Work Better," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(12), pages 1718-1756, December.
    35. Sheila M. Puffer & Daniel J. McCarthy & Max Boisot, 2010. "Entrepreneurship in Russia and China: The Impact of Formal Institutional Voids," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 34(3), pages 441-467, May.
    36. Sjoerd Beugelsdijk & Ram Mudambi, 2013. "MNEs as border-crossing multi-location enterprises: The role of discontinuities in geographic space," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 44(5), pages 413-426, June.
    37. Johanna Mair & Ignasi Marti & Marc Ventresca, 2012. "Building Inclusive Markets in Rural Bangladesh : How Intermediaries Work Institutional Voids," Post-Print hal-02276707, HAL.
    38. John H Dunning, 1995. "Reappraising the Eclectic Paradigm in an Age of Alliance Capitalism," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 26(3), pages 461-491, September.
    39. George A Shinkle & Aldas P Kriauciunas, 2010. "Institutions, size and age in transition economies: Implications for export growth," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 41(2), pages 267-286, February.
    40. Riddle, Liesl & Hrivnak, George A. & Nielsen, Tjai M., 2010. "Transnational diaspora entrepreneurship in emerging markets: Bridging institutional divides," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 398-411, December.
    41. Osei-Tutu, Paul & Pregernig, Michael & Pokorny, Benno, 2015. "Interactions between formal and informal institutions in community, private and state forest contexts in Ghana," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 26-35.
    42. Weilei (Stone) Shi & Sunny Li Sun & Mike W. Peng, 2012. "Sub-National Institutional Contingencies, Network Positions, and IJV Partner Selection," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(7), pages 1221-1245, November.
    43. Majid Abdi & Preet S Aulakh, 2012. "Do country-level institutional frameworks and interfirm governance arrangements substitute or complement in international business relationships?," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 43(5), pages 477-497, June.
    44. Julian Birkinshaw & Mary Yoko Brannen & Rosalie L Tung, 2011. "From a distance and generalizable to up close and grounded: Reclaiming a place for qualitative methods in international business research," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 42(5), pages 573-581, June.
    45. Wilkinson, Timothy & Brouthers, Lance Eliot, 2006. "Trade promotion and SME export performance," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 233-252, June.
    46. Klaus E. Meyer & Saul Estrin & Sumon Kumar Bhaumik & Mike W. Peng, 2009. "Institutions, resources, and entry strategies in emerging economies," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 61-80, January.
    47. Yaprak, Attila & Yosun, Turkan & Cetindamar, Dilek, 2018. "The influence of firm-specific and country-specific advantages in the internationalization of emerging market firms: Evidence from Turkey," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 198-207.
    48. Chuan-Kai Lee & Annalee Saxenian, 2008. "Coevolution and coordination: a systemic analysis of the Taiwanese information technology industry," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 8(2), pages 157-180, March.
    49. Johanna Mair & Ignasi Marti & Marc Ventresca, 2012. "Building Inclusive Markets in Rural Bangladesh : How Intermediaries Work Institutional Voids," Post-Print hal-02312706, HAL.
    50. Torres, Miguel Matos & Clegg, L. Jeremy & Varum, Celeste Amorim, 2016. "The missing link between awareness and use in the uptake of pro-internationalization incentives," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 495-510.
    51. Izzet Sidki Darendeli & T L Hill, 2016. "Uncovering the complex relationships between political risk and MNE firm legitimacy: Insights from Libya," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 47(1), pages 68-92, January.
    52. Chetty, Sylvie & Blankenburg Holm, Desiree, 2000. "Internationalisation of small to medium-sized manufacturing firms: a network approach," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 77-93, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ke Xu & Xianli Xia, 2023. "The Influence of Farmers’ Clan Networks on Their Participation in Living Environment Improvement during the Time of Transition in Traditional Rural China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-22, May.
    2. Douglas Cumming & Sofia Johan & Zaheer Khan & Martin Meyer, 2023. "E-Commerce Policy and International Business," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 63(1), pages 3-25, February.
    3. Preuss, Lutz & Vazquez-Brust, Diego & Yakovleva, Natalia & Foroughi, Hamid & Mutti, Diana, 2022. "When social movements close institutional voids: Triggers, processes, and consequences for multinational enterprises," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 57(1).
    4. Chen, Xuchang & Wu, Changqi, 2023. "Subnational social trust and the internationalization of emerging market firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    5. Child, John & Karmowska, Joanna & Shenkar, Oded, 2022. "The role of context in SME internationalization – A review," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 57(1).
    6. Anisur Faroque & Olli Kuivalainen & Jashim Uddin Ahmed & Mahabubur Rahman & Hiran Roy & M. Yunus Ali & Md Imtiaz Mostafiz, 2021. "Performance implications of export assistance: the mediating role of export entrepreneurship," Post-Print hal-03545902, HAL.
    7. Röell, Christiaan & Osabutey, Ellis & Rodgers, Peter & Arndt, Felix & Khan, Zaheer & Tarba, Shlomo, 2022. "Managing socio-political risk at the subnational level: Lessons from MNE subsidiaries in Indonesia," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 57(3).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Paul, Justin & Parthasarathy, Sundar & Gupta, Parul, 2017. "Exporting challenges of SMEs: A review and future research agenda," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 327-342.
    2. Mike W. Peng & Sergey Lebedev & Cristina O. Vlas & Joyce C. Wang & Jason S. Shay, 2018. "The growth of the firm in (and out of) emerging economies," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 35(4), pages 829-857, December.
    3. Boddewyn, Jean J. & Peng, Mike W., 2021. "Reciprocity and informal institutions in international market entry," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 56(1).
    4. Jonathan Doh & Suzana Rodrigues & Ayse Saka-Helmhout & Mona Makhija, 2017. "International business responses to institutional voids," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 48(3), pages 293-307, April.
    5. Xu, Kai & Hitt, Michael A. & Brock, David & Pisano, Vincenzo & Huang, Lulu S.R., 2021. "Country institutional environments and international strategy: A review and analysis of the research," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(1).
    6. Luis Alfonso Dau & Aya S. Chacar & Marjorie A. Lyles & Jiatao Li, 2022. "Informal institutions and international business: Toward an integrative research agenda," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(6), pages 985-1010, August.
    7. Preuss, Lutz & Vazquez-Brust, Diego & Yakovleva, Natalia & Foroughi, Hamid & Mutti, Diana, 2022. "When social movements close institutional voids: Triggers, processes, and consequences for multinational enterprises," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 57(1).
    8. Juan M. Gil-Barragan & María José López-Sánchez, 2021. "The Fast Lane of Internationalization of Latin American SMEs: A Location-Based Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-20, March.
    9. Mike W. Peng & Joyce C. Wang & Nishant Kathuria & Jia Shen & Miranda J. Welbourne Eleazar, 2023. "Toward an institution-based paradigm," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 353-382, June.
    10. Robert E. Hoskisson & Mike Wright & Igor Filatotchev & Mike W. Peng, 2013. "Emerging Multinationals from Mid-Range Economies: The Influence of Institutions and Factor Markets," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(7), pages 1295-1321, November.
    11. Franczak, Jennifer & Lanivich, Stephen E. & Adomako, Samuel, 2023. "Filling institutional voids: Combinative effects of institutional shortcomings and gender on the alertness – Opportunity recognition relationship," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 155(PB).
    12. Dieleman, Marleen & Markus, Stanislav & Rajwani, Tazeeb & White, George O., 2022. "Revisiting Institutional Voids: Advancing the International Business Literature by Leveraging Social Sciences," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 28(3).
    13. Adomako, Samuel & Amankwah-Amoah, Joseph & Dankwah, George Obeng & Danso, Albert & Donbesuur, Francis, 2019. "Institutional voids, international learning effort and internationalization of emerging market new ventures," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 25(4).
    14. Alaydi, Sharif & Buck, Trevor & Tang, Yee Kwan, 2021. "Strategic responses to extreme institutional challenges: An MNE case study in the Palestinian mobile phone sector," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(3).
    15. Kafouros, Mario & Chandrashekar, Subramanya Prasad & Aliyev, Murod & Au, Alan Kai Ming, 2022. "How do formal and informal institutions influence firm profitability in emerging countries?," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 28(1).
    16. Conti, Claudio Ramos & Parente, Ronaldo & de Vasconcelos, Flávio C., 2016. "When distance does not matter: Implications for Latin American multinationals," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(6), pages 1980-1992.
    17. Buitrago R., Ricardo E. & Barbosa Camargo, María Inés, 2021. "Institutions, institutional quality, and international competitiveness: Review and examination of future research directions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 423-435.
    18. Sun, Sunny Li & Peng, Mike W. & Lee, Ruby P. & Tan, Weiqiang, 2015. "Institutional open access at home and outward internationalization," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 234-246.
    19. Liu, Xiaming & Yang, Na & Li, Linjie & Liu, Yuanyuan, 2021. "Co-evolution of emerging economy MNEs and institutions: A literature review," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(4).
    20. Mbalyohere, Charles & Lawton, Thomas & Boojihawon, Roshan & Viney, Howard, 2017. "Corporate political activity and location-based advantage: MNE responses to institutional transformation in Uganda’s electricity industry," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 52(6), pages 743-759.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:intman:v:27:y:2021:i:1:s1075425320305780. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/601266/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.