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Organizing time: Internationalization narratives of executive managers

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  • Middleton, Stuart
  • Liesch, Peter W.
  • Steen, John

Abstract

We study the narratives of executive managers of internationalizing firms to understand their organization of time in the internationalization process. While most of the international business literature has studied internationalization processes in terms of objective 'clock time', we seek to understand how managers perceive and construct time in a subjective sense. In addition to Butler's (1995) four conceptions of time, we identify possibly two more in the narratives of executive managers of firms that are associated with their accelerated internationalization. Also, use of the concept association software Leximancer enables a novel approach at unravelling narrative understandings in which executives from smaller firms associate time with a myriad of activities in the internationalization process, while the time concept is stable and relatively independent of these activities for executives in larger firms that are internationalizing.

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  • Middleton, Stuart & Liesch, Peter W. & Steen, John, 2011. "Organizing time: Internationalization narratives of executive managers," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 136-150, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:iburev:v:20:y:2011:i:2:p:136-150
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    3. Elsahn, Ziad & Earl, Anna, 2022. "Alternative ways of studying time in qualitative international business research: A review and future agenda," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 28(3).
    4. Kriz, Alexandra & Rumyantseva, Maria & Welch, Catherine, 2023. "When does the internationalization process begin? Problematizing temporal boundaries in international business," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 58(3).
    5. Daniela Bolzani & Riccardo Fini & Gian Luca Marzocchi, 2021. "The influence of entrepreneurs’ immigrant status and time on the perceived likelihood of exporting," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 593-623, June.
    6. Yanto Chandra, 2017. "A time-based process model of international entrepreneurial opportunity evaluation," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 48(4), pages 423-451, May.
    7. Lars Håkanson, 2021. "The death of the Uppsala school: Towards a discourse-based paradigm?," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 52(7), pages 1417-1424, September.
    8. Baronchelli, Gianpaolo & Bettinelli, Cristina & Del Bosco, Barbara & Loane, Sharon, 2016. "The impact of family involvement on the investments of Italian small-medium enterprises in psychically distant countries," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 960-970.
    9. Lindstrand, Angelika & Melén, Sara & Nordman, Emilia Rovira, 2011. "Turning social capital into business: A study of the internationalization of biotech SMEs," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 194-212, April.
    10. Antioco, Michael & Coussement, Kristof & Fletcher-Chen, Chavi Chi-Yun & Prange, Christiane, 2023. "What's in a word? Adopting a linguistic-style analysis of western MNCs’ global press releases," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 58(2).
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    12. Leila Hurmerinta & Eriikka Paavilainen-Mäntymäki & Mélanie E. Hassett, 2016. "TEMPUS FUGIT: A Hermeneutic Approach to the Internationalisation Process," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 56(6), pages 805-825, December.

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