This multilevel study investigated the effect of national institutional environments on the relationship between corporate responsibility practices and financial performance in multiple European countries, controlling for firm-level predictors. By doing so, we demonstrate that neither institutional theory nor stakeholder theory is adequate to investigate results in a multilevel study, which is becoming the norm of the 21st century business world. As such, we develop the multilevel-pressures theory designed to handle the demands of multilevel analyses. It synthesises the essences of these two theories and expands upon them. To test our multilevel hypotheses, we conducted a survey of 2622 firms from 18 European countries representing different institutional contexts in terms of societal governance, European Union integration, and economic conditions. Hierarchical linear modelling results indicated that, consistent with multilevel-pressures theory, national institutional contexts exert multilevel moderating effects on the relationships between investor, local community and environmental corporate responsibility practices and firms' financial performance.

Drawing from status characteristics theory, we develop a multilevel model to explain the relationships between gender composition (e.g., female-female supervisor-subordinate dyads, a female majority at the next higher level, and a female majority at the same job level) in the workplace and women's career satisfaction. We hypothesise that working with a female supervisor and a female majority at the same level will be negatively related to women's career satisfaction, while a female majority at the next higher level will be positively related to women's career satisfaction. Moreover, we propose that formal societal (gender-equality) institutions and informal cultural (gender-egalitarian) values, each has a moderating effect on the impact of gender compositions on women's career satisfaction. Our results from a multilevel analysis of 2291 women across 35 societies support the three hypothesised main effects. Whereas institutions that support gender equality weaken the positive effect of working with a female majority at the next higher level, they amplify the negative effect of a female majority at the same hierarchical level. Our findings highlight the complex and paradoxical nature of gender composition effects on women's career satisfaction. We discuss the theoretical contributions of our findings and their implications for the diversity management practices of multinational enterprises.

We investigate the relationships between gender-role-orientation (i.e., androgynous, masculine, feminine and undifferentiated) and subjective career success among business professionals from 36 societies. Drawing on the resource management perspective, we predict that androgynous individuals will report the highest subjective career success, followed by masculine, feminine, and undifferentiated individuals. We also postulate that meso-organizational culture and macro-societal values will have moderating effects on gender role's impact on subjective career success. The results of our hierarchical linear models support the hypothesized hierarchy of the relationships between gender-role-orientations and subjective career success. However, we found that ethical achievement values at the societal culture level was the only variable that had a positive moderating impact on the relationship between feminine orientation and subjective career success. Thus, our findings of minimal moderation effect suggest that meso- and macro-level environments may not play a significant role in determining an individual's perception of career success.

Since the days of Hofstede (1980), cross-cultural comparisons of countries based on societal-level work values have been a norm. This approach has been represented more recently in Ronen and Shenkar’s (2013) 11 clusters of country cultures. However, more contemporary research found within-country heterogeneity of values/behaviors is substantial and growing exponentially across today’s twenty-first century businessworld. We investigated, across a sample of 39 societies, whether work values variance within societies was greater than work values variance across societies, and whether individual work values differences contributed more to predictions of behavioral performance criteria than the society in which the individuals lived. Both sets of analyses addressed how work values conceived at societal-levels are relevant in understanding the twenty-first century businessworld. Our findings revealed first that there was substantial within-society values heterogeneity, which resulted in the failure to replicate Ronen and Shanker’s (2013) societal cluster aggregations. Second, we found individual-level values contributed significantly to the prediction of employees’ behaviors, while societal-level values contributed substantially less. These findings strongly suggest that cross-cultural studies of work values predictive power are most relevant when conducted at the individual-level. Finally, we also make available for future investigators a 51-society database containing 11,780 individual-level records.

Recently, it has been evident that the analysis of user data and content in online environments allows practitioners to understand how to motivate online community members and keep them frequently involved in the community, and so to manage these communities successfully. In this sense, practitioners should comprehend community members' usage intentions to give a better service and to motivate them. However, different user types engage in such communities, so understanding their diverse needs is also essential for practitioners. In parallel, this article addresses the problem of the different user types existing in online communities, and each of them requires different strategies to be motivated and involved in the community. Thus, unlike previous studies, this study firstly identifies user roles in an online community based on the structural role theory, social network analysis, and community members' contribution behavior. After that, it investigates members' usage intentions based on the technology acceptance model and examines the moderating effect of identified user roles on their usage intentions. The study also guides practitioners to develop motivational strategies to keep each type of member continually satisfied.

Most users prefer to use avatars to escape from the real-world difficulties and to create their virtual worlds in where they feel more free and controllable. In this sense, virtual worlds reflect the expected personality traits. In parallel, this study focuses on consumers and their avatar using behaviours across self-image congruence theory by examining the congruence among avatars, participants' personality traits, and product-related self-image. This study analyses the responses of 403 individuals collected by an online questionnaire. The study results highlight that male avatars are more attractive than female and anthropomorphic avatars, and consumers mostly prefer male avatars even their genders are female. This study contributes to a better theoretical understanding of consumers' avatar using behaviours from the standpoint of self-image congruence theory. It also complements other studies on the topic of avatars and self-image congruence by providing different methods and ideas that can lead to further research.

There is a dynamic and interconnected international setting shaped by the power of the Internet and social media. To gain more consumers, understand their behaviours and needs, and maintain closest relationships with them, businesses should understand how consumers behave in social media and how they vary in their purchase intentions. In the scope of the study, we integrate the social network theory and the theory of planned behaviour to analyse online consumers' purchase intentions and to investigate their structural positions by analysing their friendships in social networks. We target Twitter users to conduct analysis due to Twitter's popularity in use, market penetration, and opportunity to work with open-source data. This study contributes to a better theoretical understanding of online consumers' purchase intentions by integrating multiple theoretical perspectives. It expands the literature by considering both online consumers' friendship network in Twitter and their individual online purchasing intentions. The study also guides e-marketers to design proper strategies for potential and current consumers and target the right sets of people in the social networks.

This paper analyses the Transfer of Managerial Technology with special emphasis on the role of Multinational Corporations (MNC) by way of their subsidiaries. Republic of Ireland has been chosen to investigate the roles of the MNC’s in this process. 120 foreign subsidiaries representing 1/3 of the total foreign based companies receiving grants from the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) of Ireland in excess of 10 million Irish pounds (Appx: 15 million US $) have been surveyed. 77% of the MNC subsidiaries believe that there is an ongoing transfer of technology between parent and Irish subsidiary companies. Transfer of Managerial Technology in the financial management area has the highest score (100%) while production management reached 80%, and marketing management and personnel management have scored equal percentages (70%).

Foreign expansion is gradually becoming an important option for further corporate growth in the Eurofood retail industry. The objective of this paper is to find out whether there is a correlation between the entry modes chosen by the Eurofood retail firms entering foreign markets and the macro-environmental factors of the host country markets. It concludes that; similarities or dissimilarities between macro-environmental factors of home and host markets will effect the choice of foreign market entry modes and more similarity leads more foreign market involvements by the Eurofood retailers.

Due to several national market factors as well as the trends in globalization and opening up the East European markets, internationalization is gradually becoming an important strategic option for achieving a firm's growth objectives. The main question is how to enter foreign markets or which foreign market entry strategy fits the firm's objectives best.

Is the societal-level of analysis sufficient today to understand the values of those in the global workforce? Or are individual-level analyses more appropriate for assessing the influence of values on ethical behaviors across country workforces? Using multi-level analyses for a 48-society sample, we test the utility of both the societal-level and individual-level dimensions of collectivism and individualism values for predicting ethical behaviors of business professionals. Our values-based behavioral analysis indicates that values at the individual-level make a more significant contribution to explaining variance in ethical behaviors than do values at the societal-level. Implicitly, our findings question the soundness of using societal-level values measures. Implications for international business research are discussed.

Market, orientation, until very recently received very little attention for empirical research internationally. The purpose of this paper is to delineate the evolution and current theory on market orientation and combine this with the replication of a survey carried out in the U.S. with a mixture of companies representing high-tech industry in the Benelux countries (Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg) in the field of microelectronics.