Japanese multinational companies (MNCs) have often been portrayed as highly centralised firms that limit the roles of overseas subsidiaries to the assembly and sale of standardised products designed and developed in Japan (see, e.g. Bartlett and Ghoshal, 1989: 51-2, 158-161). Their foreign...

Much recent work on firms' capabilities and competitive competences builds on Penrose's (1959) seminal contribution to the theory of the firm in emphasising their organisational nature, and the critical role of managerial routines in transforming resources into distinctive services (see, e.g....

Recent studies of sectoral specialisation and technological development across market economies have shown how contrasting patterns of technical change can be explained by the different institutional frameworks that have become established in distinct types of economy (see, e.g., Casper, 2000;...

A central tenet of economic sociology is that culture and regulatory institutions help to constitute the nature of economic actors and guide their actions, thus affecting economic outcomes (see, e.g., DiMaggio, 1994; Smelser and Swedberg, 1994). As socially organised agents operating in different...