The concept of psychic distance has had a long but problematic history in the academic study of international business. Although inherently appealing, attempts to empirically validate the theoretical frameworks proposed by early psychic distance scholars have provided mixed results. This has led a number of academics to question the usefulness of the concept. Theoretical advances have been made in recent times with the introduction of revised definitions, but there is still the need for a conceptual framework of psychic distance that unambiguously identifies the determinants of psychic distance and demonstrates the relevance of this concept at the national, firm, and individual level. The present paper proposes a revised definition of psychic distance and posits a conceptual framework of psychic distance that addresses these needs. It then concludes by putting forward a research agenda arising as a consequence of the new conceptual framework.

This paper assesses the recent contribution of Michel Foucault to the study of power and subject in organizations. First, we theoretically examine Foucault's thinking by dividing his works into archaeological, genealogical and aesthetic/ethical phases. We then conduct a review of 113 international journal articles from between the years 2000 and 2009. We do this in order to obtain an overview of the phases of Foucault's thinking that are prevalent in recent organization studies. We find that recent academic studies drawing on Foucault are increasingly leaning towards Foucault's writings on governmentality, as well as on his genealogical works, which have sustained their popularity. Reflecting the growing interest in governmentality and genealogy, we end by pointing out some avenues for future research.

In this paper we contribute to the body of work on agency and institutional transmission by proposing two new concepts: distributed agency and dialogue. Distributed agency is a companion concept to that of ‘institutional entrepreneurship’. Whilst institutional entrepreneurship emphasizes the deliberate institution-building by a select few, distributed agency highlights the emergent institution-building that involves any and every organizational member. In turn, dialogue supplements the models of institutional diffusion by drawing attention to the situated interactions between the ‘champions’ and the ‘recipients’ of institutional innovations, to the frictions that accompany institutional transmission, and to the deviations that emerge from those interactions. We use these concepts to analyze the micro-discursive processes during a crucial event in the institutionalization of a new organizational template in a UK public–private partnership. We found that the implementation hinged upon enabling the audience (i.e. the employees expected to apply the template in their work) to act as agents (hence, distributed agency) by engaging in a dialogue that sought to define the audience's identity vis-à-vis coercive pressures, articulate and address its interests, and recognize its rights to modify the template to suit the local circumstances.

We review the theoretical and empirical literature on the resource-based view in the context of family businesses using a framework of intangible resources. This approach allows us to structure the present research on value-adding resources in family firms into four clearly distinct groups – organizational culture, reputation, human capital and networks – and provides us with the opportunity to examine the interactions of these intangible resources. We use these relationships to offer a future research agenda that is focused on the creation of competitive advantage through the combination and recombination of these resources.

Resistance to organizational change has too often been portrayed in a limited way, usually as a negative behavioural response of first-level employees. While the academic literature has identified a number of dimensions of resistance, it has not assembled them in one study. Therefore, the aims of this article are firstly to explore resistance to change as a more complex multi-dimensional concept, secondly to examine how actors at various hierarchical levels react to organizational change and thirdly how they construct the meaning of the term resistance. The findings of a qualitative study shed considerable light on the range of ways in which change participants at different levels reacted to a change and how they interpreted their own responses and those of others.

This study focuses on to explore the impact of social power on organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and the role of OCB as a mediator of the relationship between social power and personal and organizational effectiveness. Data were collected by administering self rated questionnaires to male middle-level executives (N = 250) in face to face conditions from motor cycle manufacturing organisations based in northern India. The mediator analysis (by using AMOS) showed that all the fit indexes were in the acceptable range which indicates that OCBs have mediated significantly between social power and effectiveness. Other results as analyzed through multiple regression analysis showed the significant impact of social power on the dimensions of OCB and effectiveness as it was hypothesized. The study suggests the potential benefits of using positive forms of social power by supervisors as part of their managerial style in order to enhance OCBs and in turn increase personal and organizational effectiveness. This study advances the research on the concept of OCB and social power in an Indian work context.

Because ‘doing business’ significantly contributes to altering the Earth's atmosphere and depleting limited natural resources, business education should be re-oriented so that global sustainability is the core and economic sustainability a subset. The neo-Aristotelian foundation of this paper proposes eudaimonia (human flourishing) as a teleology, and divides human activity, particularly learning into technē (practical utilitarian skills) and phronesis (experience, insight, and intuition). By developing intellectual, affective, and moral virtues, business students can attain a meta-virtue of phronesis, which provides a potential capacity to deal with uncertainty, mutability, and duality of human life and development. The principles of social practice wisdom provide the basis of a proposed sustainability curriculum.

In September 2010 and again in February 2011, the city of Christchurch was rocked by earthquakes of magnitude 7.1 and 6.3 respectively. The second earthquake was shallow and caused extensive damage and loss of life, destroying most of the Central Business District. This paper focuses on recovery management at the University of Canterbury, exploring the extent to which the senior management team learned lessons from the September event which informed the way that the recovery was managed after the February earthquake. It examines the counter-intuitive possibility that successfully dealing with a prior, lesser event, may not necessarily better equip managers to deal with a subsequent, more extreme event.

This paper examines four businesses that were located in Christchurch's CBD prior to the earthquake on February 22, 2011. Immediately following the quake Christchurch's CBD was cordoned off and for many Christchurch businesses it was necessary to find new premises in an environment of extreme uncertainty and very limited information. The four businesses used in this study were all required to relocate, however the specifics of their situations differed. All four businesses examined were larger professional services firms (lawyers, accountants, architects or engineers) who had a national presence. Given the limited number of suitable and available properties speed was of the essence in relocating. Through the four cases we explore how rapidly each firm initiated and completed the relocation process and the factors influencing their speed. We examine the means by which new premises were secured and the plans in regard to immediate and longer term business location. Finally, we explore the impact of relocation and the earthquake more broadly for these firms. The results obtained highlight the differences between the firms based on both initial conditions and the way each firm managed the process.