Stephen J. Appold Department of Sociology National University of Singapore 11 Arts Link Singapore 117570

Sununta Siengthai School of Management Asian Institute of Technology Klong Luang, Rangsit,  Pathumthani 12120, Thailand

John D. Kasarda Kenan-Flagler Business School University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC  27599-3440

New institutional theory provides an attractive explanation for national variations in the pattern of organizing by positing the existence of cognitively institutionalized behaviors.  Some aspects of those patterns, such as cooperative behaviors, may be important for organizational performance.  Yet the theory lacks adequate empirical support.  We utilize a unique research situation, multinational firms sharing a common dynamic operating environment but originating in countries with very different management traditions, to test key aspects of the new institutional theory of organization as applied to network forms of organization.  Using original survey data on 126 U.S.-based, Japan-based, and domestic companies in Thailand, we measure the effect of firm national background on the use of a network form of organization in supply linkages and the effect of linkage characteristics on organizational performance.  We find rather subtle national differences in interfirm linkages and no performance effects to embedded relationships.  These results do not confirm new institutional theory predictions and we speculate on alternate theories that might have greater explanatory power.

 

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