This article addresses a theoretical gap in the literature by highlighting the significance of nonbargaining nonmarket strategies of firms. Relying on neo-statist political theory, we propose a ...theoretical model that hypothesizes a reliance on nonbargaining nonmarket strategies in situations marked by historically and situationally conditioned weakness of societal forces relevant to a firm (including the firm itself) as well as when relevant state institutions display high degrees of professional, structural, and ideological bureaucratic insularity. We survey 165 managers (each representing a separate firm) from 14 countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia about the strategic importance of the nonmarket strategic initiatives. Our novel survey instrument captures a broader range of nonmarket strategic initiatives than previous empirical research has examined. The survey results provide preliminary support for our model, although the findings suggest the need for more research in different regional contexts.
Since 2015 the populist government of the Law and Justice Party in Poland has spearheaded a highly effective campaign against the country's lawyers, encountering relatively muted social opposition. ...Using Bourdieuan lenses, the article traces the roots of that remarkable institutional weakness of the Polish legal profession to the highly formalist approach to law and legal thinking that Poland's lawyers espoused. Prior to the fall of communism, and in democratic Poland, the role of lawyers in society was to act as guardians of "neatness" of the legal system - or that system's internal clarity, cohesion, and completeness. Such a sterile approach to legal practice was initially attractive, among other reasons, because it protected the legal profession from difficult legitimacy challenges stemming from that profession's pre-1989 coexistence with the communist regime. With time, however, the refuge that formalism offered became a trap that undermined lawyers' political and economic power.
This book provides a broadly managerial perspective on key trends that affect business decision-making in Central and Eastern Europe twenty years after the beginning of the region’s transition to ...market economy. Reflecting different viewpoints, including economic, social, and political approaches, the essays helps managers of the region to understand better both regional and the global forces influencing their businesses – as well as to bring to their attention relevant cutting-edge approaches to business thinking and decision-making.
Scholars are increasingly interested in exploring ways to strengthen the rule of law in authoritarian states—especially when deeper political reforms are not attainable. The article contributes to ...this discussion by revisiting the story of the emergence of the so-called socialist legality in the communist states of Eastern Europe. Using the historical record from Poland, the author demonstrates a previously unnoticed, yet pivotal, role of legal professionals in facilitating socialist legality's rise to prominence. Using the lenses of Pierre Bourdieu's theory of fields, the article chronicles the evolving dynamic between the legal profession, the authoritarian regime, and society. These observations challenge conventional explanations of the emergence of the rule of law in nondemocratic conditions.
Nonmarket strategy – strategic actions directed at influencing the governmental, legalregulatory, and societal environment of business – is a key factor in an airlines' competitive position yet ...remains relatively under-analyzed in aviation research. The COVID-19 crisis has created a heightened role for nonmarket strategy and our paper argues that in deciding how to respond to a variety of policy measures introduced by governments, airline executives need to take into account the perceived legitimacy from the flying public of their response to governments. Our paper presents an integrative framework to analyze airlines' nonmarket response to COVID-19 governmental policy measures. Using a two-by-two matrix, we identify key conceptual links between industry's nonmarket response, the health impacts of a given policy measure as well as its economic costs for the airlines. Our study concludes that, unless economic stakes in a given policy measure are high, airlines do not risk active bargaining with governments over the content of that measure. Such bargaining could trigger a delegitimation cascade: a self-reinforcing process in which key stakeholders reassess their view of airlines' conduct and the industry's broader societal impact. Bargaining is pursued when economic impacts of policy measures are high, and in that case, the choice between cooperative and adversarial posture towards the government depends on the health impact of a given policy.
•Airline executives need to take into account the perceived legitimacy of their response to COVID-19.•We identify four distinct nonmarket strategic options for airlines in response to governments.•We link those options with both a health impact felt by society and an economic impact felt by the airlines themselves.•Bargaining with governments runs a risk of triggering a delegitimation cascade.
•We examine nonmarket strategies in East Europe and Central Asia.•We develop managerial agency in three types of firms.•We analyze strategic posture and risk.•Nonmarket strategies become proactive ...and less risky as countries develop.
Why do nonmarket strategies of businesses in peripheral economies of Eastern Europe and Central Asian (EECA) differ from those in post-socialist member states of the European Union? This paper suggests an explanation, by offering three advances in our theoretical understanding of the problem. First, we develop a focus on managerial agency in a nonmarket strategic process. Second, we disentangle two distinct features of nonmarket strategies: the firm's strategic posture vis-á-vis the external environment and the level of nonmarket risk associated with a particular strategy. Third, we draw upon a broader array of business actors, paying attention to both multinational and local firms. The resulting enriched framework is applied in an exploratory study of the differences in nonmarket strategies between peripheral and core EECA economies. Using original qualitative data, we develop theoretical propositions linking heterogeneity of nonmarket strategies to the levels of political-economic institutionalization of various EECA markets.
If you want a perfect horror story, take Joanna W.’s experience on Thursday night, October 26, 2012.¹ Only a few years earlier, she was running a small but profitable flower shop in the southwestern ...Polish city of Opole. Soon, the business faltered along with her marriage; abandoned by her husband, she closed the shop. Just before, she had made a fateful mistake. Instead of issuing a Value Added Tax (VAT) invoice to a client she had issued a normal receipt! Now, that was, in this particular situation, a criminal act under the Polish tax law, and the local branch of
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