DOCSLIB.ORG

How High Institutional Embeddedness Affects the Responses of a Mixed Owned Firm to an Environmental Jolt?

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
How High Institutional Embeddedness Affects the Responses of a Mixed Owned Firm to an Environmental Jolt? Master’s Thesis MSc in Business Administration – Strategy Track How high institutional embeddedness affects the responses of a mixed owned firm to an environmental jolt? Supervisor: Francesca Ciulli Anastasia Bakoglou-10602836 8-31-2015 How high institutional embeddedness affects the responses of a mixed owned firm to an environmental jolt? Statement of originality This document is written by Student Anastasia Bakoglou who declares to take full responsibility for the contents of this document. I declare that the text and the work presented in this document is original and that no sources other than those mentioned in the text and its references have been used in creating it. The Faculty of Economics and Business is responsible solely for the supervision of completion of the work, not for the contents. 1 | P a g e How high institutional embeddedness affects the responses of a mixed owned firm to an environmental jolt? Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................................... 3 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................... 4 Literature Review ........................................................................................................................................... 8 Institutional embeddedness ......................................................................................................................... 8 State Ownership ........................................................................................................................................14 Environmental jolt ....................................................................................................................................21 Strategic Response ....................................................................................................................................24 Methodology .................................................................................................................................................29 Research design ........................................................................................................................................29 Case Selection...........................................................................................................................................31 Data collection ......................................................................................................................................32 Results...........................................................................................................................................................34 PPC’s Background ....................................................................................................................................34 Electricity Market in Greece .....................................................................................................................37 2009: Realising the upheaval ........................................................................................................................38 2010: Untouched by the crisis.......................................................................................................................49 2011: On the edge .........................................................................................................................................57 Discussion .....................................................................................................................................................68 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................................73 Limitations ....................................................................................................................................................75 References .....................................................................................................................................................76 2 | P a g e How high institutional embeddedness affects the responses of a mixed owned firm to an environmental jolt? Abstract The study, building upon the concept of institutional embeddedness, aims to investigate how the latter, as a firm’s antecedent, affects and shapes the responses of a firm to an environmental jolt. Institutional embeddedness represents the degree to which a firm corresponds and fits to its environment by complying with the rules and norms imposed by the institutions. During times of upheaval the once enacted strategies might prove insufficient, ineffective and become obsolete. An environmental jolt, an economic crisis in particular, amplifies all weaknesses and rearranges the power held by economic actors. An exogenous disruption, interrupts the routines adopted by companies, even those that had held them successful and profitable. Nevertheless, the extent of the impact it is defined by the firm’s ties with the institutional environment in which it operates. Thus, this study aims to shed some light on how institutional embeddedness affect a firm’s responses to an environmental jolt by employing a longitudinal single case study. The unit of analysis is the Greek Public Power Company, partially owned by the Hellenic Republic. Its mixed ownership signals the degree of its institutional embeddedness and the ongoing economic crisis in Greece represents the ideal environmental jolt and context of study. The results suggest that high institutional embeddedness directly affects the firm’s strategy, initially by exposing the company to dangers and challenges its less embedded counterparts are not faced with and subsequently by dictating its responses and shaping its reactions to the environmental jolt. 3 | P a g e How high institutional embeddedness affects the responses of a mixed owned firm to an environmental jolt? Introduction “Oftentimes, to win us to our harm, The instruments of darkness tell us truths” William Shakespeare (Macbeth) What it certain about any crisis it that it sheds light to the most dark places. A crisis acts like a magnifying glass; it amplifies the smallest detail and highlights any vulnerability. The forces that stay quiescent during times of prosperity are awakened by the environmental jolt and impose pressures to organizations. Those that are well prepared have nothing to fear and they can even capitalize on the opportunities that might arise during a crisis (Wan and Yiu, 2009) but for those unwilling to adapt and adjust their actions to the circumstances can even become extinct (Miles and Cameron, 1982). It is by now an undeniable fact that the recent financial crisis kneeled even those companies that were “too big to fail” let alone those of less significant size. Nonetheless, it also brought to the forefront of discussions the need of state intervention; governments and central banks provided the necessary safeguards so as the crisis would not be further deteriorated (Kellermann, 2011). States’ intervention in economic life has been longed considered as a cause of market failures and many governments were induced by the World Bank to proceed in massive privatizations especially in the Eastern-European countries (Hamm et al., 2012). Nevertheless, scholars have argued how in times of upheaval, like the one we are facing now, states arise as those institutions entrusted by the public to bring the economy back to equilibrium. As Borisova et al. (2012) aptly describe: “the ongoing global financial crisis has led to the largest increase in state intervention since the Great Depression. Direct government ownership in public-traded corporations has increased dramatically since 2008”. This shift, 4 | P a g e How high institutional embeddedness affects the responses of a mixed owned firm to an environmental jolt? however, towards state ownership has several implications for firms and eventually, their performance (Borisova et al., 2012). In addition, Bortolotti and Faccio (2009), using a sample of firms from OECD countries, showed that the project of privatization is far from complete, since governments are owners of almost one-third of firms as they can still exercise control through golden shares. As a result, there is a need to explore how governments affect organizations by integrating these effects into strategic management theories (Pearce et al., 2009). So far, studies on state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have been focusing on emerging or transition economies (eg. Doh et al., 2004; Ramamurti, 2003; Puffer and McCarthy, 2007; Tian and Estrin, 2007), yet developed countries cannot be left outside considering the vast amount of SOEs performing in these economies (Okhmatovskiy, 2010). Moreover, studies focusing on SOEs are limited to the extent that they examine the implications of state vs. private ownership while they should also examine different forms of state ownership (Okhmatovskiy, 2010). Indeed, most firms, especially in developed countries, are only partly controlled by governments, making mixed-owned enterprises (MEs) the dominant model. Yet, only few studies have used MEs as their unit of analysis (e.g. Sun and Tong, 2003; Qi et al., 2000; Vining and Boardman, 1992). Moreover, extant literature has neglected an important aspect related to state-owned firms, which is their level of institutional embeddedness,
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Detailed Programme Last Update: 27.11.2019
    4th Annual Conference of the International Place Branding Association Volos, Greece, 27-29 November 2019 – Detailed Programme Last Update: 27.11.2019 Day 1 - Wednesday, November 27, 2019 Time slots Doctoral Colloquium Department of Planning & Regional Development 12:30 - 13:00 Registration 13:00 - 13:10 Welcome 13:10 - 15:30 Parallel PhD Discussion Sessions A1. PhD Discussion Sessions Room Γ5 Moderator: Robert Govers 13:10 - 13:45 A Journey through the Place Branding and Marketing Literature: What systematic analysis tells us Florida Clements Haiyan Lu, Wenting Ma, Qihui Yang 13:45 - 14:20 The Knowledge Generation in Place Branding: Based on case selection in literature from 2008 to 2018 and Martin de Jong 14:20 - 14:55 A Comparison of the Afro-Pessimistic Discourse and Perceptions of ‘Brand Africa’ Guido van Garderen 14:55 - 15:30 China’s Belt and Road Initiative in Ethiopia: Development or Fallacy? Chrysanthos Vlamis A2. PhD Discussion Sessions Room Γ3 Moderator: Mihalis Kavaratzis Evangelia Gkountroumpi and Alex 13:10 - 13:45 Place Branding through Competitive European Programs: The case of the island of Tilos Deffner Transmedia Tourism. Analysis, evaluation and characterisation of transmedia experiences for the design of new 13:45 - 14:20 tourist spaces Silvia Casellas 14:20 - 14:55 The Impact of Spatial Thinking on Tourism: The case of tourist maps Irini Nektaria Konstantinou 14:55 - 15:30 Analyzing the Impact of Cultural Heritage on the Place Brand Identity: The case of Budapest Lachin Namaz 15:30 - 16:00 Coffee 4th Annual Conference of the International Place Branding Association Volos, Greece, 27-29 November 2019 – Detailed Programme Last Update: 27.11.2019 16:00 - 18:20 PhD Discussion Session B1.
    [Show full text]
  • 2016 Greece Country Report | SGI Sustainable Governance Indicators
    Greece Report Dimitri A. Sotiropoulos, Kevin Featherstone, Roy Karadag (Coordinator) m o c . a i l o t o F – Sustainable Governance g i n n a v Indicators 2016 o j © Sustainable Governance SGI Indicators SGI 2016 | 2 Greece Report Executive Summary In the period under review, the progress which Greece had made up until mid- 2014 – fiscal consolidation and structural reforms – gave way to government volatility. This instability began with the parliamentary elections of January 2015, but was exacerbated by the 5 July 2015 national referendum, on the European Commission’s second-to-last proposal of reforms for Greece, called by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, leader of the new governing party Syriza. Just two months later (September 2015), political stability was further shaken when Tsipras was forced to call snap parliamentary elections as the radical left-wing faction of his left-wing party broke away, leaving the government coalition (between Syriza and the nationalist right-wing party ANEL) in danger of collapse. Prolonged negotiations between the Syriza-ANEL coalition government and the country’s creditors in the first half of 2015, combined with the previously mentioned political turmoil, brought economic activity to a standstill. As a consequence, the country’s economy, which had started growing in 2014, albeit by less than 1%, fell into depression. Capital controls were imposed on the banks when the government announced the aforementioned referendum. The Greek banking system was in dire need of recapitalization to a larger extent than previously understood. Even so, Greece’s democracy has been able to withstand long-term economic deterioration and acute political conflict.
    [Show full text]
  • 2018 Sanders Daniel 1158146
    This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ The domestic politics of crisis management a societal approach to government preference formation in the financial crisis Sanders, Daniel Ryan Awarding institution: King's College London The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 24. Sep. 2021 The domestic politics of crisis management: a societal approach to government preference formation in the financial crisis 1 Contents 1.1 Introduction ...................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Dissertation 11Th July 2019
    The Implications of the Economic and Monetary Union for Democratic Sovereignty: a comparative study of Germany and Greece Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences Eberhard Karls University Tuebingen by Sabina Musaeva born in Makhachkala, Russia Tuebingen 2018 Date of the oral examination: 17.09.2018 Dean: Professor Dr. rer. soc. Josef Schmid First Supervisor: Professor Dr. Hans-Juergen Bieling Second Supervisor: Professor Dr. Gabriele Abels Table of contents Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Approaches to European integration 1.1. Supranationalism vs. intergovernmentalism and the debate on 15 democracy in the EU 1.2. The new polity approaches – demoicracy vs. re-conceptualized empire 26 Chapter 2: Sovereignty, Legitimacy, and Democracy 2.1. Popular sovereignty: history, function, and features 46 2.2. Legitimacy, democracy, and democratic sovereignty 53 2.3. Deliberative democracy 58 Chapter 3: Methodology 3.1. Research question and operationalization 71 3.2. Discourse analysis 73 3.3. Context analysis 78 3.4. Case studies 79 Chapter 4: The European Economic and Monetary integration: features and explanation of dynamics 4.1. Globalization and economic policy 81 4.2. The financial dimension of globalization and integration within the EMU 84 4.3. The institutional dimension and the mandate within 90 the Economic and Monetary Union 4.4. European discourses on the EMU: 94 discursive contestation and bargaining power Chapter 5: Germany 5.1. Economic and monetary policy in the Federal Republic of Germany 105 before the EMU: the Bundesbank, stable currency, and the German economic policy paradigm in the context of de-centralized polity with inclusion of social partners 5.2.
    [Show full text]
  • 8. an Assessment of the Financial Assistance Programmes
    TÍTULO CAP XXXXXXXXXXXXX 8. AN ASSESSMENT OF THE FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAMMES GUNTRAM B. WOLFF1 ABSTRACT This chapter aims at assessing the assistance programmes implemented by the Troika in four countries (Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Cyprus) along the lines of two main cri- teria: (i) whether it succeeded in allowing the country to regain market access; (ii) whether expectations and outcomes, or the underlying assumptions of the programme proved reasonable. Ireland and Portugal exited the programmes recently and can there- fore be seen as the most successful with regards to the first criterion. The Greek pro- gramme cannot be judged as successful at this stage, while it is too early to judge if and how Cyprus will be able to regain market access at the end of the programme, in May 2016. Regarding criterion two, the fall in domestic demand and the resulting unem- ployment was much worse than expected in Greece, Portugal and Ireland. This can be seen as a mistake in the design of the programmes but is also partly due to unexpected external factors. The trade balance and the current account improved more quickly than expected. Finally, all four countries have by-and-large adopted the fiscal consolidation measures prescribed by the Troika. As the funding was limited by the size of the already large programmes, the consolidation had to happen as demanded by the Troika. The Spanish programme has to be considered separately, since it essentially focused on the financial sector and the IMF was not involved as a Troika member. The pro- gramme was designed in a way to cover significant eventualities in terms of needed gov- ernment funding.
    [Show full text]
  • Ranking European Parliamentarians on Climate Action
    Ranking European Parliamentarians on Climate Action EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CONTENTS With the European elections approaching, CAN The scores were based on the votes of all MEPs on Austria 2 Europe wanted to provide people with some these ten issues. For each vote, MEPs were either Belgium 3 background information on how Members of the given a point for voting positively (i.e. either ‘for’ Bulgaria 4 European Parliament (MEPs) and political parties or ‘against’, depending on if the text furthered or Cyprus 5 represented in the European Parliament – both hindered the development of climate and energy Czech Republic 6 national and Europe-wide – have supported or re- policies) or no points for any of the other voting Denmark 7 jected climate and energy policy development in behaviours (i.e. ‘against’, ‘abstain’, ‘absent’, ‘didn’t Estonia 8 the last five years. With this information in hand, vote’). Overall scores were assigned to each MEP Finland 9 European citizens now have the opportunity to act by averaging out their points. The same was done France 10 on their desire for increased climate action in the for the European Parliament’s political groups and Germany 12 upcoming election by voting for MEPs who sup- all national political parties represented at the Greece 14 ported stronger climate policies and are running European Parliament, based on the points of their Hungary 15 for re-election or by casting their votes for the respective MEPs. Finally, scores were grouped into Ireland 16 most supportive parties. CAN Europe’s European four bands that we named for ease of use: very Italy 17 Parliament scorecards provide a ranking of both good (75-100%), good (50-74%), bad (25-49%) Latvia 19 political parties and individual MEPs based on ten and very bad (0-24%).
    [Show full text]
  • Creative Disability Classification Systems
    Creative disability classification systems To the memory of Antonis Pavlis Studies from the Swedish Institute for Disability Research 87 ANTONIA PAVLI Creative disability classification systems The case of Greece, 1990-2015 Cover photo: Stelios Petros Chalas © Antonia Pavli, 2017 Title: Creative disability classification systems: The case of Greece, 1990-2015 Publisher: Örebro University 2017 www.publications.oru.se Print: Örebro University, Repro 8/2017 ISSN 1650-1128 ISBN 978-91-7529-204-5 Abstract Antonia Pavli (2017): Creative disability classification systems: The case of Greece, 1990-2015. Studies from the Swedish Institute for Disability Research 87. Disability classification systems belong to the core of states’ social/disability policies through which persons with disabilities are classified as eligible or ineligible for having access to disability allowances. The study of disability classification systems has stimulated the interest of several scholars from the broader area of disability studies. Either by conducting comparative studies between different states and describing the similarities and differences of these systems around the world or by conducting studies focusing on the politics and semantics in the development of disability classification systems in specific states, all studies have shown a pluralism in the systems for as- sessing and certifying disability. In Greece, the development of disability classification systems for social welfare reasons emerged as a controversy that lasted for almost twenty years. One factor that strengthened the con- troversy was the outbreak of the economic crisis late in 2009 followed by the announcement by the governmental authorities of the enactment of a new system for assessing and certifying disability as part of the austerity- driven policies that the Greek state would enact for facing the consequences of the economic crisis.
    [Show full text]
  • Eurozone Crisis & EU Democratic Deficit
    Eurozone Crisis & EU Democratic Deficit: EU and Greece in Multilevel Perspective Alexandros Kyriakidis Dissertation submitted for Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) degree in Politics 2016 First Supervisor: Prof. Simon Bulmer, FAcSS Second Supervisor: Dr. Owen Parker Department of Politics University of Sheffield Sheffield, UK Eurozone Crisis & EU Democratic Deficit – Alexandros Kyriakidis | i Table of Contents List of Tables ................................................................................................................ iv List of Graphs ............................................................................................................... iv List of Figures ............................................................................................................... iv Abstract .......................................................................................................................... v List of Abbreviations .................................................................................................... vi Chapter 1: Introduction .............................................................................................. 1 SECTION A: RESEARCH FOUNDATIONS, METHODS & LITERATURE ........... 9 Chapter 2: Review of Relevant Existing Literature ............................................ 11 2.1. Introduction ................................................................................................... 11 2.2. EMU & Democracy: Supranational Level ...................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Beyond the Dykes, C.N. Teulings
    1 Dedicated to Dolf van den Brink And Johan Witteveen © 2018 Coen Teulings Cover design Suzan Beijer Translation: Jeanne Bovenberg Photo cover Mischa Keijser/De Beeldunie Photo author Bob Bronshoff www.uitgeverijprometheus.nl ISBN.978 90 446 3812 7 2 Table of contents Preface 4 1 Lehman bankrupt 6 2 Rescuing banks 14 3 The Greek tragedy 24 4 The country of Colijn and Calvin 33 5 Testing ground of Japan 45 6 Crisis meeting in Brussels 55 7 Whatever it takes 69 8 In splendid isolation 82 9 America first 91 10 Beautiful Netherlands, beautiful Europe? 102 For further reading 112 3 Foreword On September 15, 2008 the American investment bank Lehman Brothers went bankrupt. In the days that followed, chaos erupted on the financial markets as had never been seen before. It was the start of the largest financial crisis that the world had witnessed since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Within a few days the world’s largest insurance agency threatened to be dragged down along with Lehman. Stock markets around the world incurred massive losses. Also the Netherlands and Belgium were hit hard. Two weeks after the demise of Lehman, the Belgian bank-insurer Fortis, which shortly before had taken over ABN-Amro, went bankrupt. The financial system was near collapse. Banks in many countries had to be rescued in the subsequent months by way of billions of state support. The consequences were felt everywhere in society. Worldwide, the economy fell into a deep recession— not without reason called the Great Recession. The international commercial credit system was at breaking point, which led to a 30 percent drop in world trade within a few months’ time.
    [Show full text]
  • The Rhetoric of Inaction: Failing to Fail Forward in the EU’S Rule of Law Crisis
    The Rhetoric of Inaction: Failing to Fail Forward in the EU’s Rule of Law Crisis August 31, 2020 Cassandra Emmons Tommaso Pavone (corresponding author) Postdoctoral Fellow Postdoctoral Fellow Weatherhead Center for International Affairs PluriCourts Centre Harvard University University of Oslo [email protected] [email protected] http://cvemmons.wixsite.com/website https://www.tommasopavone.com/ Abstract: In the European Union (EU), political crises often serve as catalysts for policymaking. Yet as an alarming breakdown of the rule of law has swept some EU member states, EU institutions have failed to act effectively to safeguard Europe's legal order. We argue that this outcome is of a piece with the ways that political elites strategically mobilize rhetorical frames to oppose transnational policymaking. Drawing on theories of rhetorical action and Albert Hirschman's work, we identify what we call ‘rhetorics of inaction’ and the conditions under which they are most likely to legitimate passivity in the face of crisis. We illustrate the theory's explanatory purchase through an in-depth case study of the EU's (non-)responses to the constitutional breakdowns of Hungary and Poland. By process tracing internal communications between EU institutions and Hungarian and Polish officials, we show how the latter's fiery public attacks on the EU conceal far more credible and effective argumentative strategies behind the scenes. We conclude that the politics of rhetoric are central to the transnational politics of rule of law enforcement. Keywords: rule of law, democratic backsliding, European Union, rhetoric, failing forward Acknowledgements: We would like to thank Erik Jones, R.
    [Show full text]
  • BILDERBERG 2015 63Ème Conférence Bilderberg 11-14 Juin 2015 Telfs-Buchen Autriche
    BILDERBERG 2015 63ème conférence Bilderberg 11-14 Juin 2015 Telfs-Buchen Autriche 1 km Littéralement « montagne d’image », le Groupe Bilderberg tient son nom de l’hôtel ayant accueilli la première édition en 1954. Depuis trois ans, je documente les périphéries de ce congrès hermétique. 4 5 Réunion annuelle sur invitation, le Bilderberg héberge officieusement 130 participants provenant principalement du monde occidental. 6 7 Chaque année, un hôtel au décor impénétrable est réservé pour permettre ce rassemblement d’acteurs majeurs du monde politique, monarchique, diplomatique, économique et médiatique. 8 9 Une zone intérdite est définie. Un déploiement massif de forces de sécurité est mis en place à l’intérieur de la propriété privée, débordant également sur les lieux publics. 10 11 Des milliers de policiers, des militaires et d’avions de surveillance oeuvrent à l’opacité de ces rencontres. Aucune conférence de presse à l’agenda ni aucun bilan rendu public. 12 13 Mon intérêt se focalise sur la limite territoriale établie pendant la conférence. Une frontière tantôt floue, tantôt rigoureuse, évoluant jour aprés jour. 14 15 Muni d’une chambre photographique, cantonné sur le sol public, j’ai malgré tout subi onze contrôles de police et trois menaces d’arrestation. 16 17 La prochaine réunion se tiendra quelque part à Dresde, en Allemagne, du 9 au 12 juin 2016. 18 19 Austria: Werner Faymann (2009, 2011, 2012) Chancellor 2008–present; Heinz Fischer (2010, 2015) Federal President 2004–present; Alfred Gusenbauer (2007, 2015) Chancellor national and
    [Show full text]
  • G20/OECD INFE CORE COMPETENCIES FRAMEWORK on FINANCIAL LITERACY for ADULTS This Document Is Published Under the Responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD
    CORRUPTION RISK REVIEW AND RISK ASSESSMENT GUIDELINES FOR COMPANIES IN GREECE G20/OECD INFE CORE COMPETENCIES FRAMEWORK ON FINANCIAL LITERACY FOR ADULTS This document is published under the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of OECD member countries. This document and any map included herein are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area. This document was produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The views expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Union. Please cite this publication as: OECD (2018), Corruption Risk Review and Risk Assessment Guidelines for Companies in Greece About the OECD The OECD is an international organisation in which governments compare and exchange policy experiences, identify good practices in light of emerging challenges, and promote decisions and recommendation to produce better policies for better lives. The OECD’s mission is to promote policies that improve economic and social well-being of people around the world. www.oecd.org About the Greece-OECD Project The Greek government is prioritising the fight against corruption and bribery and, with the assistance of the European institutions, is committed to taking immediate action. Under the responsibility of the General Secretariat against Corruption, Greece’s National Anti- Corruption Action Plan (NACAP) identifies key areas of reform and provides for a detailed action plan towards strengthening integrity and fighting corruption and bribery.
    [Show full text]