Universität zu Köln

Fuchs, Martina ORCID: 0000-0002-4644-1448 and Schalljo, Martin (2016). 'Western' professional ethics challenged by foreign acquisitions: German managers' patterns of interpretation surrounding Chinese and Indian investors. Geoforum, 75. S. 20 - 29. OXFORD: PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD. ISSN 1872-9398

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Abstract

In times of globalisation managers are often involved in crossborder acquisitions. This contribution analyses how German managers interpret their new business partners after acquisition of their companies by foreign investors from China and India. At first glance, managers appear to extend a cosmopolitan welcome to the new owners. However, the methodology of structural hermeneutics reveals that the construal of managers of their foreign counterparts conflicts with sociocultural patterns of interpretation relating to legitimate leadership and functional administration. While regarding themselves as masters, the German managers also develop clear lines of demarcation in order to distance themselves from their international counterparts. The patterns of interpretation revealed in interviews are firmly rooted in the 'Western' professional ethics of managers, which becomes even clearer when analysing interpretations of 'Western' acquirers such as private equity investors. Economic geography can benefit from analysing how managers mobilise patterns of interpretation in a globalising world as such patterns reveal the limits of cosmopolitanism and the motives for lived practices of power within international organisations. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Fuchs, Martina UNSPECIFIED orcid.org/0000-0002-4644-1448 UNSPECIFIED Schalljo, Martin UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-261044
DOI:	10.1016/j.geoforum.2016.06.017
Journal or Publication Title:	Geoforum
Volume:	75
Page Range:	S. 20 - 29
Date:	2016
Publisher:	PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
Place of Publication:	OXFORD
ISSN:	1872-9398
Language:	English
Faculty:	Unspecified
Divisions:	Unspecified
Subjects:	no entry
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language CULTURAL-DIFFERENCES; ECONOMIC-GEOGRAPHY; KNOWLEDGE; MERGERS; COSMOPOLITANISM; PROXIMITY; DISTANCE; COLLABORATION; GLOBALIZATION; REFLECTIONS Multiple languages Geography Multiple languages
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/26104