Strategic decision making in international firms: effect of top management team internationalization on international strategic decision process

In this research project, I have integrated two research streams on international strategic decisions making in international firms: upper echelons or top management teams (TMT) internationalization research and international strategic decision making process research. Both research streams in international business literature have evolved independently, but there is a potential in combining these two streams of research. The first empirical paper “TMT internationalization and international strategic decision making process: a decision level analysis of rationality, speed, and performance” explores the influence of TMT internationalization on strategic decision rationality and speed and, subsequently, their effect on international strategic decision effectiveness (performance). The results show that the internationalization of TMT is positively related to decision effectiveness and this relationship is mediated by decision rationality while the hypotheses regarding the association between TMT internationalization and decision speed, and the mediating effect of speed were not supported. The second paper “TMT internationalization and international strategic decision rationality: the mediating role of international information” of my thesis is a simple but logical extension of first paper. The first paper showed that TMT Internationalization has a significant positive effect on international strategic decision rationality. The second paper explicitly showed that TMT internationalization affect on international strategic decision rationality comes from two sources: international experience (personal international knowledge and information) and international information collected from managerial international contacts. For this research project, I have collected data from international software firms in Pakistan. My research contributes to the literature on upper echelons theory and strategic decision making in context of international business and international firms by explicitly examining the link between TMT internationalization and characteristics of strategic decisions making process (i.e. rationality and speed) in international firms and their possible mediating effect on performance.

Nonverbal emotional regulation in psychotherapy process according to an intersubjective perspective

In recent decades fascinating studies in developmental psychology, especially in infant research (for review see Lavelli, 2007) and recent discoveries in neuroscience (Welsh, et al, 2007; Siegel, 2001; Pally, 2007) have brought great interest to study the mode of sharing subjective experiences (affective states, intentions and attentional focus) in children and adults.It therefore appears today in the clinic is a growing consensus about the fact that the psychological disorder can be read as a deficit in intersubjective processes of affect regulation (see Benecke C. et al 2005; psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual-PDM, 2006) leading many authors to assume the centrality of affect regulation in the construction of the psychotherapeutic process of change (just to name a few Tronick, Greenberg, Stern, Sander, Fonagy, Beebe, Philippot, Rimé etc..). As previously stated, this study has led us to hypothesize that the long process of therapy is to assist with the sessions continue, a growing "emotional attunement" between the communication styles of both patient and therapist. And also to speculate that this synchronization can represent the existence of a significant positive correlation between the increased level of "emotional synchronization" and increased capacity for regulation of emotions by the patient.The research results despite the limitations of small sample showed encouraging results about the verification of the existence of an increasing degree of attunement between therapist and patient long psychotherapy sessions and also showed a good degree of positive correlation between the increase the latter construct and emotional regulation through the implicit mode of expression and nonverbal communication.