Unlike previous research that has largely focused on the influence of nationalinstitutions on human resource management practices in China, our study tapsinto the role of sub-national institutions. We demonstrate, via a qualitativeconfigurational analysis, that foreign subsidiaries of multinationalcorporations still adapt HQ compensation practice to the local context despitelow regulatory pressure and low mobility of skills at the sub-national level.This adaptation is facilitated by a decentralized structure in the multinationalcorporation. Our study also shows that high regulatory pressure and highportability of skills at the sub-national level alone are sufficient to inducelocal adaptation of compensation practice. Our explanation points to thesignificant role played by sub-national institutions in large and rapidlychanging emerging economies and contributes to research on local adaptation ofHRM practice in China. It offers an insight into forms of institutional agencyby political and economic actors at local levels of governance as they attemptto influence the skills and human resources available for MNCs throughregulatory means.

Nowadays social entrepreneurship is recognized as a two-way process, addressingboth social and economic concerns that can bring social inclusion, equity, anddevelopment to disadvantaged groups in society. This aspect is particularlyimportant and desirable within emerging economies. In these markets, which areconstantly faced with profound economic and social challenges, we see thegrowing importance of social entrepreneurs as they take upon themselves theprovision of welfare services and progressive activities. However, ourunderstanding of the mechanisms underlying the creation of social and economicvalues in social enterprises, and the factors contributing to the establishmentof these value creation objectives, is still rather fragmented. Our articlecontributes to this gap in the literature by decoding the process via whichfor-profit social entrepreneurs from China and India create social and economicvalue. In addition, by combining a deductive and an inductive approach ofanalysis, we offer novel insights into the context-dependent processual patternsdeciphered within the two countries. A new entrepreneurial process frameworkthat reflects the contextualized social value creation process by socialentrepreneurs is thus provided.

This article offers a contextualised explanation of the process of institutionalbridging by Delta, a British SME, in order to internationalise to China acrosshigh institutional distance. The study uncovers three novel mechanisms of‘Cross-institutional Dissonance Mitigation’,‘Multi-level Strategic Embedding’, and‘Cross-institutional Consonance Retuning’ to explain howand why a failing SME with limited resources and networks was able to bridge theinstitutional distance and internationalise to the challenging Chinese market.This article contributes to the literature on SME internationalisation acrosshigh institutional distance by opening the ‘black box’ ofSME institutional bridging, hence demonstrating the benefits of contextualisedexplanations to extend research into internationalisation phenomena that spanmultiple institutional boundaries.

Our understanding of how an organisation operates is elucidated by the hostcountry's political system. Myanmar has remained abstruse toresearchers for many decades, as do most emerging markets prior to theirtransition from a centrally planned economy to a market economy such as China.We establish how the problematising and contextualisation of the methodologiesadopted during longitudinal fieldwork in Myanmar (2008 to 2016) has influencedour research focus and question. By reflecting on our experience of conductingorganisational research in a highly institutionalised environment, we haveidentified limitations in the prevalent research methodologies used by theextant literature. Such methodologies tend to be incompatible with the Asiancontext. This process of problematisation required us to remain flexible andadaptive during the process of the generation of the research questions. Weadopted a context-informed theory-building process and reflect on the interplaybetween interviewer, interviewees, and local institutional contexts. Animportant insight from this process was the need to nullify the asymmetry ofpower between the interviewer and interviewees to obtain honest responses ratherthan superficial data that aimed to satisfy and please theinterviewer/institutional context.

Social enterprises (SEs) primarily aim to create social value, that is, togenerate benefits or reduce costs for society, while maintaining financialsustainability. Owing to their unique operating conditions and organizationalcharacteristics, SEs face more severe resource challenges than their commercialcounterparts. These challenges are exacerbated for SEs operating in emergingeconomies with complex social contexts. Overcoming these resource constraintsand social challenges is vital for SEs to achieve their mission. Using aninductive multiple case-study approach, we identify a unique bricolage solutionfor achieving the dual objectives of SEs. Our findings suggest that identifyinglocally embedded village level entrepreneurs is a bricolageactivity that social entrepreneurs leverage in the resource constrainedenvironment of emerging economies, especially for the social enterprises thatare active in the villages but were founded by social entrepreneurs who are notfrom these villages. This article therefore contributes to both socialentrepreneurship literature as well as entrepreneurial bricolage literature andhas important implications for future research and practice.

Discursive voids in emerging markets present opportunities and challenges todebate meanings and taken-for granted assumptions. This article uncovers variousstrategies used by the researcher and the research participants to address thediscursive void and to negotiate shared meaning about employee empowerment inRussia. In the absence of a concept for empowerment in the languages of thestudy, the researcher and the research participants engaged in joint sensemakingto bridge discursive voids. We contribute to the discussion of qualitativecross-language research in emerging markets by identifying the strategies usednot only by the researcher, whose view has dominated previous research, but alsothose of the research participants. The researcher in our study addressed thediscursive void by taking on the dual role of researcher-translator, engaging incontextual approach to translation, consulting external interpreters, and usingiteration and flexibility in the course of the research process. Our researchparticipants resorted to proverbs to address the discursive void, make sense ofempowerment, and render it locally meaningful. Proverbs are a valuablemethodological tool for sensemaking and theorising about context-specificphenomena in IB research.

Concerns over food safety in China not only direct public attention to negativeincidents, but also trigger the government's scrutiny of implicatedfirms, particularly MNCs. The question of how to repair legitimacy after mediacoverage of negative incidents has become a critical issue for MNCs. Althoughthe factors for MNCs’ public crises have been identified, how localcontexts and mechanisms shape repair approaches remain unclear. To address thisresearch gap, we conducted a study of Walmart China's approachesassociated with two negative incidents across two regions. We found that thenegative incidents can be framed differently depending on the localenvironment's unfavorability for MNCs. Specifically, the negativeframing gave rise to varying degrees of legitimacy loss and offered differentleeway for MNCs to repair their legitimacy. We also identified the variedoutcomes of different repair approaches. By revealing the linkages among localcontext, framing, legitimacy repair, and its outcomes, our study contributes toresearch on MNCs’ legitimacy management under institutionalcomplexity and underscores the China context for legitimacy maintenance. We alsooffer insights that advance the institutional approach to legitimacy repair inthis context. Last, we reflect on the techniques for conducting qualitativeresearch in China.