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Publications
Publications
  • 2016
  • Working Paper
  • HBS Working Paper Series

Overcoming Institutional Voids: A Reputation-Based View of Long Run Survival

By: Cheng Gao, Tiona Zuzul, Geoffrey Jones and Tarun Khanna
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:49
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Abstract

Emerging markets are characterized by underdeveloped institutions and frequent environmental shifts. Yet they also contain many firms that have survived over generations. How are firms in weak institutional environments able to persist over time? Motivated by 69 interviews with leaders of emerging market firms with histories spanning generations, we combine induction and deduction to propose reputation as a meta-resource that allows firms to activate their conventional resources. We conceptualize reputation as consisting of prominence, perceived quality, and resilience and develop a process model that illustrates the mechanisms that allow reputation to facilitate survival in ways that persist over time. Building on research in strategy and business history, we thus shed light on an underappreciated strategic construct (reputation) in an under-theorized setting (emerging markets) over an unusual period (the historical long run).

Keywords

Institutional Voids; Intangible Resources; Business Ventures; Business or Company Management; Business History; Reputation; Emerging Markets

Citation

Gao, Cheng, Tiona Zuzul, Geoffrey Jones, and Tarun Khanna. "Overcoming Institutional Voids: A Reputation-Based View of Long Run Survival." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 17-060, January 2017.
  • SSRN
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About The Authors

Geoffrey G. Jones

General Management
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Tarun Khanna

Strategy
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Related Work

    • November 2017
    • Strategic Management Journal

    Overcoming Institutional Voids: A Reputation-Based View of Long Run Survival

    By: Cheng Gao, Tiona Zuzul, Geoffrey Jones and Tarun Khanna
Related Work
  • Overcoming Institutional Voids: A Reputation-Based View of Long Run Survival By: Cheng Gao, Tiona Zuzul, Geoffrey Jones and Tarun Khanna
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