Romeo V. Turcan

Aalborg University · Aalborg University Business School

This book marks the first attempt to explore de-internationalization and re-internationalization through business model innovation. Understanding how firms building on their de-internationalization experience can reconfigure their business models to pursue re-internationalization is vital to firms’ growth and survival. Combining sound theorizing an...

Both change and legitimation are central phenomena in organizational theory. There is, however, no systemic study analyzing the interaction of legitimacy and change and how different interpretations of change and legitimacy fit together, if at all. Thus, we ask: in what ways is the interaction of change and legitimacy addressed in organizational th...

In this paper [http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4750574], I identify series of concerns that permeate international entrepreneurship. For example, international entrepreneurship scholars resist defining international entrepreneurship in their papers and positioning explicitly their papers within international entrepreneurship. Failure to adopt an int...

In 2016, the article “Exploring Late Globalization: A Viewpoint” was published in Markets, Globalization & Development Review (MGDR). It concluded by pointing out that while there were views about the concept of ‘late globalization’ in multiple disciplines, the concept was evolving; and, therefore, theories about late globalization would also conti...

This article explores firms’ de-internationalisation and re-internationalisation through the lens of business model innovation. The purpose is to uncover the potential of business model innovation to enrich firms’ understanding of the reasons behind de-internationalisation and inspire their endeavour to re-internationalise. This article contributes...

The Emerald Handbook of Authentic Leadership is a ground-breaking interdisciplinary collection, opening the black box of leadership authenticity to advance understanding of theory and practice. It presents a wide-ranging, diverse source of new concepts, theories, insights, applications to advance thinking and practice in leadership and leadership a...

This chapter addresses authentic leadership at the intersection of tradition and modernity with a focus on insider-outsider dynamics. The authors develop a typology of insider-outsider perception of authentic leadership and four leadership types—detached leadership, integrative leadership, entrenched leadership and atomised leadership—to provide a...

This chapter employs analytic autoethnography to explore and reflect on the author’s quest for meaning and whether this redefines or undermines the concept of authenticity as interpreted by the primary advocates of authentic leadership. The data starts from author’s studies in the Air Force Engineering Military Academy. Turcan develops the typology...

This chapter introduces the aims, objectives and potential outreach of the handbook and concludes with a brief introduction to all chapters in the handbook.

This chapter analyses common, contradictory, paradoxical patterns in the evolution and development of authentic leadership that emerged throughout this handbook. The authentic leadership literature has been valuable in focusing on and reawakening a wider discourse on leadership and in particular the need for a reappraisal of leadership values. The...

This chapter explores authentic leadership at the ‘edge of chaos’—a transitional period from one kind of stability to another triggered by the emergence and implementation of newness. The authors argue that continuous, abrupt or unpredictable change at the edge of chaos impacts authentic leadership, resulting in the development of new values, new p...

This paper aims to shed light on the entrepreneurial motivation and ESG adoption intersection within the context of a luxury-based hotel. Concentration is on a new venture in the luxury sector, with a specific focus on the world’s most sustainable luxury-based hotel, averaging at a retail price of $4,000 USD per one evening hotel stay. The uncovere...

Human AI Centricity and data unveil an array of legitimacy challenges.With a multitude of data formats, such challenges may be difficult to depict and manage effectively. To address the issue, this article proposes a typology for data (Me Data, My Data, Our Data, Proprietary Data) around AI-Centric and Human-Centric dimensions. The proposed framewo...

The aim of this paper is to explore Environmental Social Governance (ESG) in the emergence of new and luxury-based Michelin star-rated restaurants, but also to provide concrete recommendations for theoretical direction in this uncharted area of scientific business research. While we acknowledge there is an abundance of research around ESG business...

This report summarises all activities related to the development and implementation of the PhD course in ‘Authentic Leadership’. This course was part of the project Intellectual Output 1 (IO1) that had the objective to enhance the quality of doctoral entrepreneurial training, skills and competences and employability in and outside academia. The PhD...

This report summarises all activities related to the development and implementation of the PhD Supervisor Training course in ‘Authentic Leadership’. This course was part of the project Intellectual Output 2 (IO2) that had the objective to enhance the quality, relevance and professionalism of doctoral supervision and supervision training. The PhD Su...

This paper conjectures that the Authentic Leadership literature has fallen into a sample trap– primarily drawing its evidence base from modern Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) contexts. In seeking to address this bias this paper addresses Authentic Leadership at the intersection of tradition and modernity and seeks to...

This paper aims to propose a new conceptualization of organizational continuous changes through dialectics of narratives.

A way to foster creativity in engineering, literature, innovation, philosophy, and organizational theory is to combine ideas and concepts from different domains and theories. However, we are missing that a concept is not innocent - each concept springs from a theory representing a worldview. When invoked, a concept doesn't come alone; it comes with...

Increasing data utilization and new possibilities of combining data in Human-AI (Artificial Intelligence) Centric business models unveil an array of data related challenges. These challenges may impede legitimacy attainment for the emerging business models. With a multitude of data formats, such challenges may be difficult to depict and manage effe...

Research at the intersection of sustainable start-ups and ethics explores mainly a linear perspective on ethical decision-making. It is either utilitarian, deontological, or depends on a leader’s virtues. Current studies suggest that singularly, neither of these provide a satisfying response to ethical dilemmas. Given the emergent nature of sustain...

Today, the ongoing contestation of Bitcoin, particularly by regulators and the media, has become a barrier that is holding back the widespread legitimation of a more promising digital financial ecosystem known as decentralised finance. Perhaps more importantly, many experts argue that Bitcoin is nothing more than a house of cards destined to collap...

Fintech is an “untilled field” in which the relation between Fintechs and incumbents is yet to be understood. This paper aims to explore this relationship and advance its theoretical and practical understanding. It further contributes toward Fintech paradigm and research domain emergence that both to date remain yet elusive. This paper adopted a m...

This article investigates the performance of Megaprojects, a joint initiative launched in 2019 by Aalborg University (AAU) in cooperation with Aalborg Municipality. Despite its steady growth, Megaprojects face numerous challenges and issues. To identify these concerns, two surveys and eleven in-depth interviews were conducted. One survey focused on...

In this ‘Speaking Out’ paper, we challenge contemporary orthodoxies in the field of ‘advanced structural’ internationalization of universities by focusing on significant, but neglected issues and challenges which arise from the current substantive developments in this field. By referring to ‘advanced structural’ internationalization, we want to dis...

In this paper, we aim to explore the emergence of fluid ethics and fluid legitimation under uncertainty.

Dominant logic can help firms to take advantage of new opportunities. At the same time, it can prevent them from seeing such opportunities, acting as a ‘dominant logic trap’ or ‘dominant logic blinder’. In this paper, we aim to explore how firms get out of such ‘trap’ when faced with de-internationalization and re-internationalization decisions. Th...

In this conceptual paper, we employ business model configuration theoretical lenses to explore how firms re-internationalise. Specifically, we discuss various reasons for firms strategic choices to de-internationalise, and put forward, using a business model configuration perspective, respective re-internationalisation strategies, aimed, inter alia...

The Arkbound Foundation is a social enterprise and charity that supports people from diverse and disadvantaged backgrounds to have their voices heard through writing. The enterprise is an example of how small initiatives started by those from excluded backgrounds can grow fast, overcoming numerous obstacles, to give international impact in the soci...

This paper employs analytic autoethnography within a previous life in an organization and within social science to explore the emergence of new forms and ways of organizing in a new venture that was launched as a branch in an emerging market by an international non-for-profit organization. It responds to extant scarcity of knowledge about internal...

This book explores the extent to which populism and the populist agenda is influencing curriculum content and learning methods in higher education. Against a background of increasing inequalities and a rising tide of nationalism and populism, this book raises concerns that populism – and its various manifestations – represents a grave challenge to...

This chapter outlines the objectives of the book. The academic world faces a tsunami in which knowledge- and evidence-based understanding and decisions are in danger of being swept away by the deluge of populist propaganda and assertion masquerading as the new truths. The populist pandemic represents a major challenge to learning and teaching in al...

This chapter reviews the key themes explored in the wide-ranging contributions to the book, the aim of which was to stimulate research, discussion, debate at the intersection of populism and PBL. As has emerged, this was easier said than done. It seems, extoling the virtues of the PBL methodology is natural; however, seeing and engaging with populi...

This chapter puts forward a Holistic Problem Based Learning (HPBL) model that integrates research-based teaching and learning and teaching-based research, and redefines the PBL process. It builds on the Aalborg University PBL model that has been part of the Aalborg University DNA since the university inception in 1974 and the revised Bloom’s Taxono...

This article explores the growth and journey of Action Tutoring, an educational charity established in 2012 that seeks to support pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds to achieve at least national standards in the core subjects of English and maths, using a wide range of high-quality volunteer tutors. The charity aims to address the large attainmen...

Bristol Housing Festival is a barrier-busting collaboration aimed at addressing the housing crisis by promoting and enabling innovation in housing delivery. Its vision is re-imagining better ways to live in our cities. Bristol Housing Festival is harnessing best practice and advanced technology to test and showcase better homes and city community l...

This paper explores the conceptual terrain of what we term late globalization. The late globalization phenomena are multilevel and multidimensional; this paper offers an initial portal into these phenomena. Understanding late globalization would provide academic insights and help in shaping practices at international, national, sectoral and corpora...

The extant research on legitimation pays scarce attention to how firms defend their legitimated and institutionalized status quo that is threatened by outsiders and/or insiders. The paper employs legitimation paradox to explore how firms respond to such threats after they successfully achieved legitimacy, passed legitimacy threshold, were instituti...

The Higher Education System in Moldova is at a critical juncture. Despite the legal framework improvement during the last years, the results have not met the expectations. The delay of institutional reforms targeting the optimisation of the oversized organisational infrastructure and the revision of the financing mechanism have cancelled out the po...

This report presents the outputs of benchmark data collection and analysis conducted by the PBLMD teams as part of WP2: Training in PBL methodology and methods. Based on designed methodology, PBLMD teams collected and analyzed data from the EU partners on PBL and other student-centered teaching and learning methods, looking for best-practices at va...

This report presents the outputs of needs analysis conducted by the PBLMD teams as part of WP3: In-depth analysis of context factors and curricular content within the ERASMUS+ PBLMD project (www.pblmd.aau.dk). It comprises of benchmarking methodology, needs assessment higher education system, HEI, and study programme levels, as well as a comparativ...

This report presents 6 newly developed or redesigned PBL-based BSc study programmes in Moldova: - BSc in Business Administration (Academy of Economic Studies) - BSc in Sotware Engineering (Technical University of Moldova) - BSc in Law (Moldova State University) - BSc in Public Administration (Balti State University) - BSc in Entrepreneurship and Bu...

This report presents PBL Sustainability Strategies that 6 universities from Moldova developed to ensure development and implementation of PBL at own institutions. It includes inter alia learning reflections form the implementation of pilot PBL study programmes from September 1 2017, road maps, action plans and resource and capability needs to ensur...

This is a benchmarking methodology designed to help PBLMD teams to collect respective data from the EU partners, local - Moldova - regulatory institutions, as well as internal data. It is part of WP2: Training in PBL Methodology and Methods within the ERASMUS+ PBLMD project (www.pblmd.aau.dk).

We, John E. Reilly and Romeo V. Turcan, act here as editors, making available Rt Hon Bruce George's chapter to the reader. It is based on the address Rt Hon Bruce George (1942–2020) gave to an international conference on ‘Integrated Border Management’ in the Republic of Moldova in 2007. Since then the issue of ‘border control’ has become a central...

As technological innovations are evolving and globalizing, traditional financial organizations are facing continuously changing patterns, though incentives for financial technology – Fintech – engagement has been rather uncommon in previous decades. This phenomenon conjectures radical transformations within the global financial industry, where Fint...

Every year hundreds of thousands of UK citizens face going to bed hungry. The UK social welfare safety net fails to respond fast enough when citizens seek its help in a crisis. The Trussell Trust designed and implemented throughout the UK a voluntary run local system where a range of food items sufficient to provide three days’ nutritionally balanc...

Through business model theoretical lenses, we explore the impact of de-internationalization on firms and their industries and challenges in re-configuring their business models and re-thinking their value propositions in response to de-internationalization. This is a conceptual paper. We put forward a multilevel framework to advance our understandi...

This article discusses the development process of the new digital product within the advertising sector and its implications on daily business operations. There is evidence that the development of new non-digital product and new digital product differs with regard to specific phases undertaken throughout the whole process. The article visualizes di...

This paper employs analytic auto-ethnography within a previous life in an organization and within social science to explore the phenomenon of the emergence of new forms and ways of organizing within a context of international new ventures entering emerging, developing markets. It studies external and internal critical incidents that shape the emerg...

The banking sector in developed countries has been dominated by a small number of established institutions for many years, with new entrants struggling to gain a foothold. But changes in regulations and customers’ behaviour in recent years have opened up new opportunities. Neobanks are a new form of direct bank that have emerged in the last decade...

While the problem of legitimacy and legitimation has gained an increasing amount of attention in organizational studies and among business practitioners in general, our understanding of legitimation in the context of early and rapid internationalization remains unsystematic, fragmented and lacking coherence. This hinders cumulative and progressive...

Through business model theoretical lenses, we explore the impact of de-internationalization on firms and their industries and challenges in re-configuring their business models and rethinking their value propositions in response to de-internationalization. This is a conceptual paper. We put forward a multilevel framework to advance our understandin...

Through business model theoretical lenses, we explore challenges universities face in their pursuit of advanced internationalization into foreign markets. This is a conceptual paper. Based on theoretical and empirical insights we conjecture that advanced internationalization of universities is unethical, calling for a revision of business model the...

This paper aims to encourage a dynamic scholarly conversation about de-internationalization with the aim to further the progress of IB research, making a number of contributions. The paper delineates the domain of scholarly research on de-internationalization by developing a typology of de-internationalization. The paper also addresses the issues...

This paper explores how new product concepts emerge and how development teams adapt, modify these concepts that emerge in the context of uncertainty. Specifically, it studies how cross-functional product development teams elaborate and define new product concepts under uncertainty that are based on fundamentally new technologies within a globally o...

In this paper we respond to Cavusgil and Knight’s call for future research to address the question of born global firms overcome inherent liabilities to achieve legitimacy in foreign markets. To contribute to this call, we have systematically reviewed the extant international entrepreneurship literature. By analyzing existing evidence on building o...

This paper explores external and internal critical incidents that shape the emergence of new forms and ways of organizing in a new venture that was launched in an emerging market by an international new non-for-profit organization. The paper responds to extant criticism that most of the knowledge about the internal organization of firms comes from...

Departing from the traditional approach of surveying current and future trends and developments, this unique Handbook brings phenomena, theories, and concepts from multiple disciplines together to advance entrepreneurship. With original contributions from authors who are experts in their fields, the collection offers state-of-the-art insights into...

Turcan and Fraser introduce the reader to the handbook. It is the first attempt to discuss and advance entrepreneurship field from multi-disciplinary perspectives. The authors invited original contributions from authors, who are experts in their own fields, to provide state-of-the-art insights from their own discipline and explore how these insight...

Turcan addresses one of the enduring questions in sociology of knowledge: how is it possible that subjective meanings become objective facticities? Turcan adopts this question to understand the entrepreneurship phenomenon, more specifically, how new business or venture ideas and new sectors or industries (as subjective meanings) are legitimated and...

The main purpose of the paper is to conceptualize the interrelationships between FinTech innovations and the banking sector. Since the presence of online banking has been rapidly evolving in the past years, this paper will provide a specific focus on that promising area of technological developments. To address the purpose of this research, multipl...

Through business model theoretical lenses, we explore in this paper issues and challenges universities face in their pursuit of advanced internationalization entries into foreign markets. The context of this paper is defined by universities from developed countries entering developing or emerging countries via foreign direct investment entry modes,...

In this paper I discuss the phenomenon of legitimation introducing a number of factors that contribute to legitimation of artifacts and behavior. These include: uncertainty, latent and manifest functions and ignorance. The combination of these factors highlight the major concerns artifacts and/or behaviors have within their own structures suggestin...

The article summarizes the internship project undertook in 2017 by Katarina Kridlova, MSc student at International Business Centre at Aalborg University, supervised by Romeo V. Turcan. It describes the concept of the internship program with the aim to provide the insight into the different factors, which have strong influence on the quality and eff...

This is a Teaching Note (product number: 8B17M008) for the "Cembrit Holding A/S: At the Crossroads" case (product number - 9B17M008) published by Ivey Publishing.

We explore students’ motivations to study abroad: push and pull factors that influence students’ decisions to study abroad in the context of students from the Republic of Moldova. In addition to alternative insights into students' decision-making process that emerged from the data, we also discuss implications for practitioners and policy makers an...

The article summarizes the Master Thesis undertook in 2017 by Lasse Gustafson and Katerina Pesoutova, MSc students at International Business Centre at Aalborg University, supervised by Romeo V. Turcan. Rethinking previous Offshoring strategies and bringing production back home is a trend that more and more businesses followed during the last twenty...

In this inaugural lecture I discuss how we – as Business School, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities and University – can enhance our interdisciplinary research, teaching and knowledge transfer endeavour. This lecture builds on the current challenges in these three areas and inter alia discusses their impact on the AAU PBL model. As the titl...

While the empirical focus of this paper is the Danish Textile and Fashion Industry (DTFI) – specifically the episodes and epochs in the emergence and evolution of DTFI, in essence the micro and macro time-slices – the theoretical intent is wider. We aim to explore the conceptual terrain of what we term “late globalization”, a terrain that has tempo...

This ethnographic research explores the process of business model design in the context of an NGO internationalizing to an emerging market. It contributes to the business model literature by investigating how this NGO - targeting multiple key stakeholders - was experimenting (1) with value proposition; (2) creating the value/promise; and (3) delive...

This paper aims to explore the issue of inconsistent relationship between firm internationalization and firm performance in IB research. Recent meta-analysis of empirical internationalization research on the relationship between internationalization and firm performance shows no consensus about the direction and magnitude of this relationship. Thes...

Cembrit was named after the Cimbri, a nomadic tribe that had broken from Northern Jutland and fought its way through Europe in a conquest. The case is a fascinating story of how Cembrit ‘fought’ its way from Denmark through Europe and beyond to become one of the leading distributors and manufacturers of fibre-cement products in Europe by 2008. It n...

The purpose of this viewpoint paper is to motivate a program of research on late globalization, a program that could eventually lead to one or more significant theories of late globalization. The paper explores the phenomenon of late globalization as well as the idea of “late” by drawing on sparse literature on late globalization from sociocultural...

Purpose The extant research on early internationalizing ventures focuses primarily on these ventures’ start-up phase or their initial internationalization. Scarce attention is paid to how these ventures grow, if at all, beyond their start-up phase or initial internationalization phase. This paper aims to explore how international new ventures trans...

Student-centred problem-based active learning contributes substantially to the enhancement of students’ competitiveness and employability. It also contributes to research, allowing academic staff to engage in research-based teaching, bringing the latest business and scientific developments directly to the students. Student-centred problem-based act...

Research-based teaching is well embedded in PBL-based teaching and learning. In this context it is viewed as a function that supports the project work that is considered as a main function area of PBL learning. On the other hand, most of the time teaching-based research is not considered or is not part of PBL teaching and learning. In this paper th...

These are proceedings from the PBLMD Conference organized as part of WP7: Communication and Dissemination of Project Results within ERASMUS+ PBLMD project (www.pblmd.aau.dk). Conference theme: Student-centred problem-based active learning contributes substantially to the enhancement of students’ competitiveness and employability. It also contribute...

In this paper we explore the effect of late globalization on evolution of industries. Specifically we investigate the impact of late globalization on the evolution and metamorphoses of Danish Textile and Fashion Industry (DTFI). Using historical data, we survey the development of DTFI between 1945 and 2015. In this quest we pursue a number of issue...

In this paper we explore the emergence and evolution of industries. Specifically we investigate the episodes and epochs in the emergence and evolution of Danish Textile and Fashion Industry. We collected historical data on Danish Textile and Fashion Industry between 1945 and 2015. We employ radar charts to display and discuss the observations of th...

In this paper we focus on de-internationalization of universities, aiming to advance our theoretical understanding of university international activities. Internationalization has become an indispensable part of universities’ mission statements and strategic plans. It is practiced in different forms and requires various approaches. Alongside studen...

In this paper, we explore how, why and which structures are consequential to the organization of technology entrepreneurship. Technology entrepreneurship is a relatively unexplored field of research; yet body of research in this promising area of scholarly enquiry, both theoretically and empirically is emerging. Inspired by elements of the Grounded...

Reilly, Turcan and Bugaian introduce the reader to the book, providing a historical perspective and a current understanding of university autonomy. While appreciating the central role of the four dimensions of university autonomy – organisational, financial, human resource, and academic – the authors conjecture that a fuller understanding of univer...

Reilly, Turcan and Bugaian summarise the key findings from the case studies, highlighting two unexpected facets. A number of contributors whose papers promised genuinely new insights subsequently withdrew as a result of management or institutional policy or concerns at the possible repercussions from frank discussion of challenges. The other outcom...

Turcan and Gulieva deepen our theoretical understanding of the process of university internationalisation by exploring the relationship between university internationalisation and university autonomy. They conjecture that the process of university internationalisation and its sustainability are determined by the structure and exercise of university...

The authors explore the nature of relationships and possible tensions between university management and academic staff in universities from emerging or developing economies. The authors focus on human resources and the difficulty inherent in moving from a higher education system in which research in universities is seen by many stakeholders as of s...