Inter-Organizational Paradox Management: How national business systems affect responses to paradox along a global value chain
基于德国和中国鞋业全球价值链的案例，研究不同国家商业体系如何影响企业应对提供生活工资与维持财务绩效之间悖论的方式，并提出了压力对齐影响悖论管理策略的分类框架。
This study discusses the relationship between inter-organizational paradox management, national business systems and global value chains. Using case study evidence from a global value chain in the footwear industry (in Germany and China), we analyse how different businesses in the chain responded to the paradoxical tension arising from the competing demands to provide a living wage to workers and to uphold financial performance. Our findings highlight organizational responses to this paradox along the value chain, showing how these responses were shaped by the interplay of different types of pressures exerted by national business systems and the value chain itself. While these pressures were aligned in the German part of the chain, they were not aligned on the Chinese side. The study makes two contributions: (1) we develop a taxonomy outlining how the alignment of different types of pressures influences whether organizations choose either proactive or defensive paradox management; and (2) we argue that theorizing the impacts of cross-national distance on paradox management can be enhanced by adopting a multidimensional approach to institutional variety that extends beyond culture-based arguments.