Nonmarket Strategy in Business Organizations ― A Global Assessment

This book explores nonmarket strategy (NMS) in firms by invoking economic, political and philosophical perspectives. Featuring data from the USA, the UK, India, China, Mexico and other countries, the author links NMS to economic freedom, regional development, corruption and other national factors.

Nonmarket strategy (NMS) refers to any part of a firm’s strategy that seeks to generate superior performance through means not directly associated with market activity, such as lobbying legislators, colluding with rivals to erect industry entry barriers and pursuing direct business-government partnerships. Decades ago, nonmarket factors comprised a minor, peripheral consideration in organizational strategy. Today, NMS is central to strategy development and execution. This phenomenon is driven by both corruption in emerging economies and cronyism in the developed world. Scholarly interest in NMS continues to increase and while much is known about the topic, some core questions still remain such as: Are there different drivers for and implications of proactive NMS versus defensive NMS? How do national environments influence firm decisions to pursue NMS? The data presented in the book explores many of these questions.

Providing a comprehensive, multidisciplinary analysis that includes elements of management, economics, philosophy and social sciences, this book is beneficial for scholars, practitioners, students, academics and policy makers interested in NMS.

John A. Parnell is the William Henry Belk Professor of Management at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Dr. Parnell has over 20 years of college teaching and administrative experience, serving for five years as Professor and Head of the Department of Marketing and Management at Texas A&M University-Commerce before moving to Pembroke. He served as Interim Dean of the UNCP School of Business during the 2014-15 academic year.

Dr. Parnell is the author of over 200 basic and applied research articles, published presentations, and cases. His present research is focused on business strategy and performance, business ethics, and crisis management. Recent publications have appeared in the Journal of Business Ethics, International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Academy of Management Learning & Education, Management Decision, Journal of Management Education, the European Journal of Management, Journal of Strategy & Management, and Strategic Change. He is the author of Strategic Management: Theory and Practice (2016, Academic Media Solutions, 5e), a co-editor of Business English (2010, Higher Education Press-Beijing), and co-author of Crisis Management in the New Strategy Landscape (2013, Sage Publications, 2e). Dr. Parnell has conducted lectures and executive development workshops in a number of countries, including Egypt, Mexico, Peru and China.