Resumo em Inglês:

Poor conceptualization of the export performance construct may undermine theory development efforts and may be one of the reasons behind the often conflicting findings in empirical research on the export performance phenomenon. This article reviews the conceptual and empirical literature and proposes a new analytical scheme that may serve as a standard for judging content validity and a guiding yardstick for drawing operational representations of the construct. A critical assessment of some of the most frequently cited measurement frameworks, followed by an analysis of recent (1999-2004) empirical research, leaves no doubt that there are flaws in the conceptualization and operationalization of the performance construct that ought to be addressed. A new measurement model is advanced along with some guidelines which are suggested for its future empirical validation. The new measurement framework allegedly improves on other past efforts in terms of breadth of coverage of the construct's domain (content validity). It also offers a measurement perspective (with the simultaneous use of both formative and reflective approaches) that appears to reflect better the nature of the construct.

Resumo em Inglês:

This paper, based on the international relations and international political economy literature, shows that the international management field has been influenced by certain national interests, particularly from the United States, and also that it reproduces a particular theory of globalization that benefits the interests of transnational corporations. One of the most concerning outcomes of this dominant perspective is the suppression of governance issues 'managed' by these corporations and the interests of other key agents, such as governments. The interdisciplinary approach outlined in this paper challenges the hegemonic influence of the globalist theory within the international management field. The approach proposed addresses the domains of management and governance by recognizing from a multidimensional perspective on globalization, the political and economic interfaces between public and private, and more specifically, between government and transnational corporations. This could make the knowledge produced by the field relevant not only to transnational corporations but also to local governments, local managers, public administrators and policy makers in developing countries.

Resumo em Inglês:

This article analyzes the internationalization strategies of companies in the food industry from Paraná State, in Brazil. The logic of analysis sought to corroborate the idea that internationalization is a strategic phenomenon cognitively mediated in the light of environmental pressures and resources within the organization. Therefore, the role of the environment, resources and interpretive schemes are analyzed and used to explain three strategic internationalization patterns found in the food industry of Paraná: domestic, reluctant and active international action. Based on those constructs, and from an institutional and cognitive perspective of analysis, the study contributes to the debate related to homogeneity, heterogeneity and organizational strategic action.

Resumo em Inglês:

Institutionalization processes have an ambivalent effect on organizational long-term success. Even though they foster organizational stability and permanence, they also bring about rigidity and resistance to change. As a result, successful organizations are likely to lose their competitive advantage over time. The paper addresses this issue through the investigation of the institutionalization processes of two long-lived companies: General Electric, a firm that has been a long-term success and its rival, Westinghouse, which was broken up after eleven decades of existence. The longitudinal, multilevel analysis of firms and industry has identified two different modes of organizational institutionalization. The reactive mode gives rise to rigidity and change resistance, much like institutional theory predicts; the proactive mode, on the other hand, neutralizes those negative effects of institutionalization processes. In the reactive mode, structure predominates. In the proactive mode, agency plays a major role in organizational institutionalization, and in managing the organization's relations with the environment, clearly contributing to environmental institutionalization.

Resumo em Inglês:

This article aims to demonstrate the analytical power of the imagery concept for an organizational analysis. The gaps in organizational studies justify building new reference pictures in the organizational culture, with imagery as a starting point, considering subjectivity as an object of the phenomenology investigation and imagery as an object of anthropology and sociology. The analytical perspective follows the sociology of the knowledge and, in this context, applications of anthropology, general sociology, analytical and social psychologies are presented. The result is an organizational imagery accessed by the objectivity of the subjects, through the language, where the images attributed to the reality emerge.