Stephan Manning

University of Sussex · Strategy and Marketing

Sustainability transitions have been studied as complex multi-level processes, but we still know relatively little about how they can be effectively governed, especially in transnational domains. Governance of transitions is often constrained by the equivocality of sustainability goals, the idiosyncrasy of niche experiments and the multiplicity of...

The seemingly unlimited availability of science and engineering (S&E) talent in emerging economies and the increasing difficulties of finding such talent in advanced economies have given rise to a new trend: the global sourcing of S&E talent. This paper examines the antecedents and dynamics of this trend. In particular, it examines the coevolution...

This paper explores knowledge services clusters (KSCs) as a distinct and increasingly important form of geographic cluster, in particular in emerging economies: KSCs are defined as geographic concentrations of lower-cost skills serving global demand for increasingly commoditized knowledge services. Based on prior research on clusters and services o...

Global delivery models (GDMs) are transforming the global IT and business process outsourcing industry. GDMs are a new form of client-specific investment promoting services integration with clients by combining client proximity with time-zone spread for 24/7 service operations. We investigate antecedents and contingencies of setting up GDM structur...

This study examines the structure of entrepreneurial stories in pursuit of mobilizing resources from crowds. Based on a comparative analysis of Kickstarter crowdfunding campaigns, we examine in particular how, across different project types, project histories and potential futures are framed and interlinked in narratives to appeal to funders. We fi...

Efforts of emerging economies to upgrade into global market capabilities are often conceptualized as either discrete choices or ongoing experiments. Mediating between these perspectives, this study uses the concepts of value regime and economic imaginary to examine micro-dynamics in upgrading. Based on the case of global business services in Kenya...

Building linkages with global lead firms, called strategic coupling, can be an effective way for emerging economies to upgrade into higher-level market capabilities. However, strategic coupling can be very difficult in particular for peripheral regions, which typically lack the size, skilled labor, and industrial experience to attract and retain le...

The increasing use of semi-automated technologies in service work has implications for employee’s conceptions of their own abilities, and their processes of identification at work. Drawing on theorizing from the identity literature, we examine how employees come to think about their own abilities in relation to and in comparison to machinic norms,...

Entrepreneurs increasingly tap into both spatial and digital resource environments to mobilize critical resources in support of new ventures. Yet we know surprisingly little about how entrepreneurs make joint use of these environments. Linking the recent debate on spatial and digital affordances to the resource mobilization literature, this study e...

This explorative study, which complements research on manufacturing, supplier, and governance flexibility, identifies and aims to fill a gap in extant research related to firms’ location flexibility in global supply chains. In an increasingly dynamic and globally integrated economic environment, firms are compelled to develop the capacity to swiftl...

Abstract Drawing on the investment development path (IDP) framework and inward foreign direct investment (IFDI) spillover literature, we argue and show that IFDI increases the potential quality of human capital available in a region, but decreases actual human capital productivity of domestic firms due to growing competition for talent. Both dynam...

Despite growing interest in self-initiated expatriates (SIEs), we know little about how SIEs develop the aspiration to leave both home employers and home countries behind. Based on rich empirical data from Western European SIEs, who migrated to North America, we explored key dynamics of identity work leading up to their decision to expatriate. We f...

Recent research suggests that unequal access to home country institutional resources affects firm internationalization strategies. We add to this debate, based on an analysis of state-owned (SOEs)and non-state-owned (NSOEs)Chinese mining firms, by developing a more dynamic and multi-layered understanding of this interplay. We find that home institu...

Research summary This paper studies how the logic of firm governance choices varies as a function of the time of adoption of particular sourcing practices. Using data on the diffusion of global business services sourcing as a management practice from early experiments in the 1980s through 2011, we show that the extent to which governance choices ar...

This study contributes to the growing interest in how hybrid organizations manage paradoxical social–business tensions. Our empirical case is “impact sourcing”—hybrids in global supply chains that hire staff from disadvantaged communities to provide services to business clients. We identify two major growth orientations—“community-focused” and “cli...

Prior literature is ambivalent about whether organizational complexity has positive or negative effects on firm performance. Using rich data on global service providers, we explore this ambivalence by disentangling performance consequences of different types of organizational complexity. We show that complexity arising from the coordination of diff...

Africa is an increasingly important business context, yet we still know little about it. We review the challenges and opportunities that firms in Africa face and propose that these can serve as the basis for extending current theories and models of the firm. We do so by challenging some of the implicit assumptions and stereotypes on firms in Africa...

This study shifts attention from project-based firms (PBFs) to project network organizations (PNOs) as increasingly important interorganizational contexts of project collaboration. As a result of organizational specialization, PNOs have emerged as generic organizational forms combining the coordination capacity of PBFs with the resource richness of...

The chapter reviews key drivers, trends, and consequences of global sourcing of business processes-the sourcing of administrative and more knowledge-intensive processes from globally dispersed locations. It is argued that global sourcing, which is also associated with 'offshoring' and 'offshore outsourcing', has co-evolved over the last three decad...

Research Summary Firms in latecomer economies, such as Sub‐Saharan Africa, often have limited success with traditional business models. We explain why it can be more feasible to adopt a hybrid model in such a region that combines profitability with serving local communities, e.g., by promoting inclusive employment or by targeting underserved market...

Bibliographie: Blome, Agnes/Manning, Stephan/Muller, Kai-Uwe: Zum Gedenken an Prof. Dr. Gertraude Krell (1952-2016), Femina Politica, 1-2016, S. 131-131. https://doi.org/10.3224/feminapolitica.v25i1.23416

The global coffee sector has seen a transformation towards more ‘sustainable' forms of production, and, simultaneously, the continued dominance of mainstream coffee firms and practices. We examine this paradox by conceptualizing the underlying process of political corporate social responsibility (PCSR) as a series of long-term, multi-dimensional in...

This paper adds nuance to our understanding of institutional antecedents of foreign investment, in particular in global services sourcing. While prior research has stressed the various risks and effects associated with home- host country differences in national-level institutions, e.g. legal systems, we argue that industry-specific, yet often trans...

This article extends the notion of political CSR by examining how the practice and meaning of CSR are shaped through interactions between NGOs and corporate actors. Focusing on the evolution of coffee sustainability standards, we argue that political CSR can be understood as the process of challenging and defending “value regimes”, which align and...

This article examines antecedents and performance implications of global delivery models (GDMs) in global business services. GDMs require geographically distributed operations to exploit both proximity to clients and time-zone spread for efficient service delivery. We propose and empirically show that service providers who differentiate based on sp...

While complexity has usually been associated with more detrimental organizational consequences, there are also arguments suggesting that complexity may function as a source of competitiveness. In this paper, we investigate specific circumstances that yield opposing effects of complexity on firm performance. Embedded in rich data on the global servi...

This study examines interface management as a dynamic organizational capability supporting an increasing global distribution of knowledge work, based on an in-depth case of an automotive supplier. We show how local responses to experiences of task and interface ambiguity following the relocation of R&D processes may lead to a shift of organizationa...

Cross-sector development partnerships (CSDPs) are project-based collaborative arrangements between business, government, and civil society organizations in support of international development goals such as sustainability, health education, and economic development. Focusing on public private partnerships in development cooperation, we examine diff...

Prior research on project-based organizing in creative industries has emphasized the importance of regionally embedded institutions, creative networks and intermediaries in the development of regional project ecologies. Recently, film and television production in the United States has expanded beyond traditional clusters in Hollywood and New York t...

This study investigates estimation errors due to hidden costs — the costs of implementation that are neglected in strategic decision-making processes — in the context of services offshoring. Based on data from the Offshoring Research Network, we find that decision makers are more likely to make cost-estimation errors given increasing configuration...

In this paper, we investigate the role of key industry and other stakeholders and their embeddedness in particular national contexts in driving the proliferation and co-evolution of sustainability standards, based on the case of the global coffee industry. We find that institutional conditions and market opportunity structures in consuming countrie...

This study examines interface management as a dynamic organizational capability supporting an increasing global distribution of knowledge work, based on an in-depth case of an automotive supplier. We show how local responses to experiences of task and interface ambiguity following the relocation of R&D processes may lead to a shift of organizationa...

The growing number of voluntary standards for governing transnational arenas is presenting standards organizations with a problem. While claiming that they are pursuing shared, overarching objectives, at the same time, they are promoting their own respective standards that are increasingly similar. By developing the notion of ‘standards markets,’ t...

This paper studies the co-evolution of firm boundaries and capabilities by examining the influence and interplay of process commoditization, changing external availability of capabilities and firm specific paths of governance decisions, along with strategic drivers guiding these decisions. We test hypotheses on a unique and comprehensive panel of g...

This paper examines structural properties, location dynamics, and economic performance of project-based industries and craft-like production from a historical perspective, based on the empirical cases of film production in Massachusetts and fashion design and production in New York City. Our comprehensive analysis has important implications for reg...

This article examines how multinational corporations (MNCs) shape institutional conditions in emerging economies to secure access to high-skilled, yet lower-cost science and engineering talent. Based on two in-depth case studies of engineering offshoring projects of German automotive suppliers in Romania and China we analyze how MNCs engage in ‘act...

The cocoa industry is suffering from a number of interconnected problems: Be this the over-aged tree stocks, the repercussions of disease and pest infestation, the political instability in West Africa, a lack of agricultural professionalism, an absence of infrastructure, or the shortcomings of the educational and financial systems in the cocoa-grow...

In this paper, we examine how project entrepreneurs maintain and leverage longer-term project-based relationships in highly uncertain and volatile project businesses with clients and key service providers across ever changing collaborative contexts. Based on a thorough analysis of TV project networks, using both quantitative and qualitative data, w...

Offshore outsourcing of administrative and technical services has become a mainstream business practice. Increasing commoditization of business services and growing client experience with outsourcing have created a range of competitive service delivery options for client firms. Yet, data from the Offshoring Research Network (ORN) suggests that, de...

Since 1980 the amount of palm oil sold on the market has increased more than ten-fold. A critical public discussion regarding the cultivation of palm oil – and above all in the developing countries of South-East Asia – has developed (in the western countries). Above all local Asian companies are pushing ahead with the exponential growth of the palm...

Seit 1980 hat sich die auf den Markt gebrachte Rohstoffmenge von Palmöl mehr als verzehnfacht. Um den Anbau – besonders in südostasiatischen Entwicklungsländern – ist in den vergangenen Jahren eine kritische öffentliche Diskussion (in den westlichen Ländern) entbrannt. Vor allem lokale asiatische Unternehmen treiben das exponentielle Wachstum des P...

This paper investigates hidden costs of offshoring, i.e. unexpected and often hard to measure costs resulting from the relocation of business tasks and activities outside the home country. Particularly, the paper shows that hidden costs can be explained by the degree of offshoring complexity. Firms’ organizational design orientation and offshoring...

Offshore outsourcing of administrative and technical services has become a mainstream business practice. Increasing commoditization of business services and growing client experience with outsourcing have created a range of competitive service delivery options for client firms. Yet, data from the Offshoring Research Network (ORN) suggests that, des...

This article discusses recent developments in sustainable sourcing in the food industry, with special emphasis on sustainability standards and certification. It concludes that sustainability product certification is an increasingly important strategy for promoting sustainability and responsibility on a global scale and for satisfying rising consume...

Global regulations, such as social and environmental standards, often result from project-based multi-stakeholder initiatives. Many initiatives fail because key stakeholders cannot be mobilized, or partners are incapable of establishing common ground. We show that local development projects aimed at testing and implementing new practices at the loc...

This paper explores local and global dynamics underlying the development of knowledge services clusters, which we define as new geographic concentrations of technical talent and service providers offering upstream technical and knowledge-intensive business services to regional and global clients. Taking a co-evolutionary perspective on the developm...

Projects are embedded in multiple systemic contexts, e.g. organizations, interorganizational networks and organizational fields, which jointly facilitate and constrain project organizing. As projects partly evolve in idiosyncratic ways as temporary systems, embedding needs to be understood as a continuous process linking projects to their environme...

This article develops a relational practice perspective on the strategic formation of project networks as organizational forms, based on structuration theory and an in-depth case study of a European researcher and his project network. Project networks are defined as strategically coordinated sets of longer-term, project-based relationships. As proj...

Western multinational corporations (MNCs) increasingly locate advanced functions, including product development and engineering, in emerging economies to gain access to lower-cost science and engineering (S&E) talent and specialized service providers. Over time, new S&E clusters have developed in emerging economies that are strongly oriented toward...

Project networks have been identified as dynamic, yet relatively stable organizational forms in project-based creative industries. They materialize in longer-term actor relationships which are actualized by and institutionalized through particular projects. This article examines how project networks transform creative potential for and beyond parti...

Die Zeiten, in denen es ausreichte, eine Website mit statischen Inhalten und hübschem Design zu prä sentieren, sind zumindest für große öffentliche und private Anbieter von Onlinediensten und -Informationen, wie zum Beispiel Unternehmen, Verwaltungen und Universitäten, längst vorbei. Mit der Konsolidierung der „Internetökonomie“ (Zerdick et al. 200...

Die Beratung von privaten und öffentlichen Organisationen gilt seit Jahren als Wachstumsmarkt - auch in Deutschland (vgl. z.B. Kieser 1998; Armbrüster/Kieser 2001; Faust 2002). Erst seit kurzem scheint das Wachstum - zumindest im privatwirtschaftlichen Bereich - abzuflauen; die ersten Jahre des neuen Jahrtausends gelten manchen in der Branche gar a...

Aufgrund der zunehmenden Komplexität und Dynamik von Beratungsbedarfen, des steigenden Kosten-, Leistungs- und Spezialisierungsdrucks in der Beratungsbranche und nicht zuletzt des steigenden Bedarfs an Netzwerkberatung werden Beratungsleistungen zunehmend in Netzwerken angeboten (werden). Dieser Trend ist mehr oder weniger offensichtlich: In der Li...

Allianzen und Netzwerke sind im Managementalltag zur Selbstverständlichkeit geworden. Neben privaten und öffentlichen Organisationen sind daher Netzwerke ein zunehmend bedeutender Gegenstand, Adressat und Anbieter von Beratung. Netzwerkberatung unterstützt die Bildung, das Management, die (Weiter-)Entwicklung und die Auflösung von Netzwerken. Bera...

Project networks have been identified as dynamic organizational forms which are reproduced by sets of project-based actor relationships. Project networks allow for the external pooling of resources and thereby help reconcile the managerial needs for stability and flexibility as well as exploitation and exploration in project business. How project n...

Der Beitrag versteht Public Private Partnership (PPP) als negotiated order — als Produkt kontextgebundener Aushandlungsprozesse zwischen Akteuren der öffentlichen und privaten Welt. Am Beispiel der vorvertraglichen Phase von drei Entwicklungspartnerschaften der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) werden auf Grundlage der Nego...

„A website is more than public relations and advertising: [...] it is about connectivity“ (Lash/Wittel 2002, S. 1992). Denn nicht (mehr) der modische Auftritt allein, sondern die intelligente Vernetzung von Content zeichnet Internet-Präsenzen von heute aus. Insbesondere der dynamischen Verknüpfung von Frontend und Backend, d.h. von Content-Darstell...

This paper contributes to the study of projects networks - as a particular type of interorganizational networks - by looking into the mechansims that are able to bind or even lock-in customers into interorganizational relations. The study is set in the field of television production.

This paper examines how human resources are bound in project networks of TV production. It indicates how TV producers maintain market relationships to pools of staff such that they can flexibly draw on and withdraw from creative potential as needed. At the same time, it shows how ties develop within and between those pools so that relationships sta...