home country supportiveness unfavorableness and outward foreign direct investment from china what drives the outward foreign direct investments ofdis by emerging market firms emfs drawing on a strategy tripod framework this article proposes a theoretical model to predict ofdi by emfs from china specifically we use institution and industry based views to examine two facets of home country environment namely the supportiveness from home government and unfavorableness from home industry as important determinants of ofdi and compare the relative strength of these effects further we use the resource based view to argue that the effect of the home country environment is contingent on the international experience portfolios of emfs

public regulation of agricultural biotechnology field tests economic implications of alternative approaches federal oversight of agricultural biotechnology field testing is based on public concerns that unknown consequences could arise from such tests and that firms may not adequately consider the public consequences of their research and development activities in this paper four general types of ex ante and ex post approaches to manage public risks from field testing are explored the analysis shows that the approaches are least effective at facilitating the research process yet controlling public risks when the research firm is small in size and potential damages exceed the value of the firm

building international business theory a grounded theory approach the field of international business ib is in need of more theory development as such the main focus of our manuscript was to provide guidance on how to build ib specific theory using grounded theory gt moreover we contribute to future theory development by identifying areas within ib where gt can be applied and the type of research issues that can be addressed using this methodology finally we make a noteworthy contribution by discussing some of gt s caveats and limitations particularly those relevant to ib this effort is intended to spur further interest in the development of ib theory

interpreting societal culture value dimensions societal cultural value dimension scholarship can both learn from and inform the family of interrelated approaches to culture research in ib that appear in recent commentaries it can exchange insights about societal values and meaning systems with neo institutional and institutional logics research it can also exchange insights with dual processing cognition theories that are used to understand individuals in an international context by treating societal culture values and institutional characteristics as essential to interpreting personal values and attitudes rather than merging them integrating culture related specialties by exchanging insights can promote the further development of research in each of these societal and individual level fields

corporate taxes and the demand for labor and capital in developing countries this article provides evidence about the impact of corporate taxation on both labor and capital demand by private companies in a developing economy using firm level data from chile our results show that higher corporate tax rates reduce not only the demand for capital but also the demand for labor due to complementarities between both inputs an interesting element of the results presented in this article is the asymmetry between the effects of taxation according to company size the impact on labor demand is significantly higher in large corporations than in small enterprises while the demand for capital is more responsive to corporate tax changes in small firms we can explain these results based on differences in credit constraints according to firm size

pension wealth and household saving evidence from pension reforms in the united kingdom using three major u k pension reforms as natural experiments we investigate the relationship between pension saving and discretionary private savings unlike most differences in differences approaches which rely on average differences between control and treatment group we use economic theory to model the response of each individual household the empirical analysis based on the family expenditure survey uses both time series and cross sectional variation to identify the behavioral response the earnings related tier of the pension scheme is found to have a negative impact on private savings with relatively high substitution elasticities the impact of the flat rate tier is not significantly different from zero jel h55 h91 the relationship between pension wealth and household savings is crucial for important policy issues such as establishing the effects of changes in pension legislation on saving behavior from a theoretical point of view the lifecycle framework suggests that the provision of public benefits after retirement constitutes a negative incentive to accumulate wealth during one s working life quantifying the resulting relationship between pension wealth and saving even within a simple theoretical frame

mne institutional advantage how subunits shape transpose and evade host country institutions scholars increasingly emphasize the impact of institutions on multinational enterprises mnes but the opposite relationship has attracted less research that is mne agency in relation to institutions based on a comparative case study of six mnes from the united states and sweden this paper remedies this it explores and explicates mne subunits strategic responses to host country institutional constraints and opportunities in five different regions a new institutional approach is adopted which allows for an investigation of mne subunit agency in relation to normative and cognitive institutions as well as regulative ones this fine grained analysis reveals not only what kinds of responses mne subunits invoke but why and how they are able to respond we identify four strategic responses by which subunits shape transpose and evade institutions in the pursuit of competitive advantage innovation arbitrage circumvention and adaptation these responses are driven by three key enablers multinationality foreignness and institutional ambiguity that serve to enhance and heighten three mechanisms reflexivity role expectations and resources by linking the enablers and the mechanisms to specific types of strategic responses in a framework and typology the paper not only contributes to emerging research on the interplay between mnes institutions and strategy but to strategy practice

the cross cultural research imperative the need to balance cross national and intra national diversity this paper provides a brief overview of the evolution of comparative management theories paradigms and highlights the contribution of the cross vergence construct despite progress most studies of work values across countries continue to suffer from two primary limitations the first is the fallacious assumption of cultural homogeneity with nations given the growing diversity of the workforce within country intra national variations can often be as significant as cross national differences the second is the fallacious assumption of cultural stability over time since cultures evolve albeit slowly it is important to take these changes over time into consideration and be aware of the paradoxes inherent within any given society hence the paper calls for the need to balance cross national and intra national diversity in order to truly understand cross cultural phenomena and thus further improve the quality of cross cultural research

subsidiary absorptive capacity and knowledge transfer within multinational corporations the paper reviews extant literature on subsidiary absorptive capacity and knowledge transfer within multinational corporations mncs and proposes an agenda for future research on the relationship between these two constructs it suggests that motivation should be viewed as a moderating factor between subsidiary absorptive capacity and mnc knowledge transfer and that future research should make a clear distinction between the choices of mnc headquarters and those of subsidiaries regarding knowledge transfer the paper proposes that a more comprehensive multi level framework and dynamic model of the determinants of subsidiary absorptive capacity and mnc knowledge transfer be developed in future studies

towards a more balanced treatment of culture in international business studies the need for positive cross cultural scholarship the results of a content analysis of 1141 articles published in the journal of international business studies over a 24 year time period 1989 2012 reveal that a pervasive tendency exists in the international business ib literature towards emphasizing the adverse outcomes associated with cultural differences more than the positive effects we argue that this imbalance is not an accurate reflection of the reality of cross cultural contact in ib and that it has hindered our understanding of the processes and conditions that help organizations leverage the benefits of cultural differences in a wide range of contexts we offer several explanations for the predominance of the negative over the positive in theory and research on culture in ib and using a positive organizational scholarship lens couched in the context of march s 1991 exploration vs exploitation organizational learning framework highlight a complementary perspective namely the idea that cultural differences can be an asset not just a liability in a range of ib contexts we conclude by offering an integrative framework within which both positive and negative effects of cultural differences can be understood and provide a road map for future research on culture in ib

beyond hofstede and globe improving the quality of cross cultural research journal of international business studies 2010 41 1259 1274 doi 10 1057 jibs 2010 41 overview of 41 8 hofstede and globe in cross cultural research while hofstede s work was not the first systematic study on crossnational cultures his seminal book culture s consequences international differences in work related values 1980 succeeded in putting cross cultural analysis at the forefront of international business ib research in a later paper he boldly asserted that the business of international business is culture 1994 1 despite the criticisms that have been voiced against his work see mcsweeney 2002 oyserman coon kemmelmeier 2002 hofstede s influence on the fields of ib and management is undeniable according to harzing s publish or perish citation index as of june 2010 there were over 54 000 citations to his work this is a remarkable record that attests to first the growing popularity of cross cultural research in light of continued internationalization of the world economy and second hofstede s personal impact on scholarly research this jibs issue brings together 10 articles on culture and ib all of which were submitted to the editorial team led by jibs editorin chief lorraine eden while the articles were independently submitted through the regular double blind reviewing process the decision to join them in one collection creates in effect a special issue on culture in international business research which the jibs editors hope will be widely read and cited by ib scholars in general terms the papers in this collection fall into one of two categories 1 articles and commentaries about conceptual and methodological issues associated with hofstede s oeuvre vs the global leadership and organizational behavior effectiveness globe project s cultural dimensions and 2 articles and perspectives that use culture and or cultural dimensions as well as the operational measurement thereof to explain differences in behavior and practices across countries the common feature of all these scholarly pieces is that they challenge particular assumptions often made too easily in conventional cross cultural research the first paper in this collection is a perspective written by franke and richey that cautions against questionable generalizations from small numbers of countries in international business research using statistical analysis to support their assertion franke and richey argue that in order to draw credible generalizations in ib a minimum of 7 10 countries must be used this is an important message researchers should never formulate strong conclusions about the impact of cultural dimensions on journal of international business studies 2010 41 1259 1274 2010 academy of international business all rights reserved 0047 2506

building professional discourse in emerging markets language context and the challenge of sensemaking using ethnographic evidence from the former soviet republics this paper examines a relatively new and mainly unobserved concept in international business literature the phenomenon of communication disengagement that manifests itself in many emerging markets we link it to the deficiencies of the local professional business discourse rooted in language limitations which reflects a lack of experience with the market economy this hampers cognitive coherence between foreign and local business entities adding to the liability of foreignness as certain instances of professional experience fail to find adequate linguistic expression and complicates cross cultural adjustments causing multinational companies mncs financial losses we contribute to the ib literature by examining cross border semantic sensemaking through a retrospectively constructed observational study we argue that a relative inadequacy of the national professional idiom is likely to remain a feature of the business environment in post communist economies for some time and therefore should be factored into business strategies of mncs consequently we recommend including discursive hazards in the risk evaluation of international projects

servitization in mergers and acquisitions manufacturing firms venturing from emerging markets into advanced economies abstract we investigate servitization by manufacturing firms that have ventured from emerging markets into advanced economies through mergers and acquisitions m a the study seeks to answer two questions a what is the relationship between m as and servitization in the case of manufacturing firms and b what are the factors influencing the configuration of servitization strategies and their implementation the study provides a nuanced and contextualized understanding of servitization in m as existing research on servitization has paid insufficient attention to collaborative partnerships there is a need to examine the role of servitization in the context of collaborative partnerships our empirical setting consists of chinese manufacturing firms acquisitions in germany using qualitative research methods we reveal a typology of servitization strategies adding utilizing and reconfiguring that underpin the combined influences of different levels of services of both acquirer and target firms in the m a we identify integration mode and absorptive capacity as factors influencing service capability development our findings contribute to the literature on alternative approaches to servitization by firms from emerging markets venturing into advanced economies we discuss the theoretical and managerial implications and suggest future research directions for servitization in collaborative partnerships in general and in m a in particular

the transition from decentralized to network based mnc structures an evolutionary perspective this paper investigates and models the transition process within established multinational corporations mncs in moving from decentralized toward network based structures whereas there has been substantial research on various mnc models there has been little longitudinal research on the movement toward projected network based models this paper develops an evolutionary perspective of this transition distinguishing adjustments altering how the mnc defines its global strategy where it locates key resources and how it structures and manages operations it argues that rather then being a planned process each phase represents a viable strategic response to then existing challenges and opportunities the paper also argues that the focus of the process shifts over time initially focusing on building organizational linkages and adjusting the quantity and nature of resources within dispersed units and later shifting toward reallocating resources and roles across units

catching up by hiring the case of huawei hiring experts in centers of state of the art technology is an important way in which a multinational enterprise mne can gain competitive advantage and yet use of this mechanism remains under researched this study uses the case of a chinese mne that recently achieved a leading position in the telecommunications market huawei technologies taking the perspective of huawei s offshore hires i find that greenfield investments contributed to overcoming liabilities of origin and outsidership in the global telecommunications industry nevertheless even now that huawei has caught up with industry incumbents its output capabilities remain dependent on the innovation capabilities of its offshore experts

environmental policy based on strict liability implications of uncertainty and bankruptcy a firm level model is developed to analyze the impacts of bankruptcy and uncertain firm wealth on incentives for safety under a strict liability rule future damages and wealth are uncertain and a firm s income earning activities that possibly create damages are incorporated into the model this analysis shows that firms do not always undertake more of a risky activity than is socially desirable for the extremely hazardous industry case larger firms always undertake less of a risky activity than smaller firms for the cyclical industry case larger firms do not always conduct less of a risky activity than smaller firms

savings and the terms of trade under borrowing constraints the authors examine the extent to which permanent terms of trade shocks have an asymmetric effect on private savings using a simple three period model they show that if households expect to face binding constraints on borrowing in bad states of nature when the economy is in a long trough rather than a sharp peak savings rates will respond asymmetrically to favorable movements in the permanent component of the terms of trade in contrast with the predictions of conventional consumption smoothing models they test the asymmetric effects of terms of trade disturbances using an econometric model that controls for various standard determinants of private savings the results based on panel data for non oil commodity exporters of sub saharan africa for 1980 96 a group of countries for which movements in the terms of trade have traditionally represented a key source of macroeconomic shocks indicate that increases in the permanent component of the terms of trade measured using three alternative filtering techniques indeed tend to be associated with higher rates of private savings

taxation and private investment evidence for chile along with several structural reforms chile embarked upon a major income tax reform in the eighties its basic feature was a significant reduction in the corporate income tax rate the purpose of this article is to investigate empirically the link between the tax reform and the investment performance of chile since the reform macroeconomic and microeconomic evidence is found to be consistent with the hypothesis of the reduction in the corporate income tax as being one of the determinants of the investment boom of the late eighties and nineties in chile our estimations suggest that there are two channels in which taxes affect investment on the one hand higher taxes increase the cost of capital cost of capital channel and on the other they reduce internal funds available for investment liquidity constraint channel

from the editors can i trust your findings ruling out alternative explanations in international business research the complex nature of international business research with its cross country and multilevel nature complicates the empirical identification of relationships among theoretical constructs the objective of this editorial is to provide guidance to help international business scholars navigate this complexity and ensure that readers can trust their findings we provide suggestions for how to rule out alternative explanations explaining key considerations not only in empirical analyses but also in theory building and in research design our discussion covers both qualitative and quantitative studies because we believe that it is imperative to understand how trustworthiness is established in both traditions even for international business researchers who self identify with only one this enables scholars to have a broader scope of knowledge when interpreting past research in the field and to be more adept at explaining their design choices to a diverse audience

uncovering the complex relationships between political risk and mne firm legitimacy insights from libya using the before after natural experiment occasioned by the arab spring in libya we explore how market and non market activity affect foreign firm legitimacy in times of political turmoil although all mnes in libya had to cultivate strong ties to qadhafi to succeed during his 40 years of rule we found that those that also invested in social benefit projects and in social ties with families with few ties to the qadhafi family earned a broad based legitimacy that helped them survive qadhafi s overthrow our findings contribute to the political risk and political behavior literature the notion that the pursuit of firm legitimacy in general and especially in the eyes of social sector actors is an effective hedge against political risk more theoretically our findings support the addition of a social sector based path to firm legitimacy in the host country that complements and may at times substitute for the government based path to foreign firm legitimacy practically our findings suggest that mnes facing severe political risk can improve their prospects for survival by investing in relationships with influential social groups and by offering goods or services that are perceived as socially valuable

incentives to diffuse advanced abatement technology under environmental liability law polluting firms with advanced abatement technology at their disposal have incentives or disincentives to share this technology with other polluting firms the direction and extent of those incentives depends on the liability rule applicable and the way technical change impacts marginal abatement costs we establish that incentives for diffusion are socially optimal under strict liability and socially suboptimal under negligence if technical change lowers marginal abatement costs for all levels of abatement negligence may however induce better diffusion incentives than strict liability if technical change decreases increases marginal abatement costs for low high levels of abatement

emerging themes in international business research this study is motivated by two research questions 1 which recent contributions have been driving the research agenda in international business 2 which emerging themes in the literature are likely to set the stage for future work to examine these questions the study examined scholarly work in international business over the time period 1996 2006 in six leading international business journals journal of international business studies management international review journal of world business international marketing review journal of international marketing and international business review next a delphi study of the most prolific authors in these journals over the same time period was conducted to delineate a future research agenda in international business addressing these two research questions provides us with a more complete understanding of the progress made to date in international business research and provides a glimpse of the future

the tortuous evolution of the role of culture in ib research what we know what we don t know and where we are headed this paper takes stock of the literature on culture in international business by looking back in terms of evaluating what we know and what we do not know and looking forward by identifying emerging trends and outlining avenues for future research unresolved issues gaps and limitations include 1 narrow conceptualization of culture and fragmented approach to the study of culture 2 failure to adopt a multilevel approach and insufficient attention to level of analysis 3 insufficient attention to context and process 4 failure to adopt a more dynamic view of culture 5 tendency to equate country with culture and failure to explore other national differentiators and 6 western centric approach to the study of culture suggestions on redressing the unresolved issues include 1 broadening the definition of culture and transcending the values based approach to include schemas norms and memes 2 paying more attention to process context by exploring the situation dependent and dynamic nature of culture and 3 entertaining alternative research designs methods such as emic approaches qualitative methods experimental designs neuroscience based methods and replication studies while these may represent a major departure from methodologies popular in our field their use can hopefully help us overcome the fragmented discipline based approach which has contributed to the persistent problems that have plagued the study of culture in ib in the past

the effects of within country linguistic and religious diversity on foreign acquisitions this article explores how within country diversity of both language and religion influences the ownership structure of foreign acquisitions commentators have acknowledged the potential importance of within country diversity but to date this issue has received minimal empirical attention we propose that diversity plays two distinct roles namely diversity within the host country may be an additional source of behavioral uncertainty and information asymmetry over and above the effects arising from cross national differences moreover diversity within the home country may increase the cognitive complexity of the decision makers moderating the firm s response to the distance and diversity of the host country results based on foreign acquisitions across 67 acquirer and 69 target countries confirm both of these roles while the main focus of this article is on the role that within country diversity plays in international business decisions it also makes contributions in terms of expanding the range of dimensions of distance investigated in the cross border acquisition literature in highlighting a potentially positive role that diversity might play in such acquisitions and in providing a potential explanation for asymmetries in distance that is differences in cognitive complexity

international expansion of emerging market enterprises a springboard perspective in this article we present a springboard perspective to describe the internationalization of emerging market multinational corporations em mnes em mnes use international expansion as a springboard to acquire strategic resources and reduce their institutional and market constraints at home in so doing they overcome their latecomer disadvantage in the global stage via a series of aggressive risk taking measures by aggressively acquiring or buying critical assets from mature mnes to compensate for their competitive weaknesses we discuss unique traits that characterize the international expansion of em mnes and the unique motivations that steer them toward internationalization we further delineate peculiar strategies and activities undertaken by these firms in pursuit of international expansion as well as internal and external forces that might compel or facilitate their propulsion into the global scene we finally explain the risks and remedies associated with this international springboarding strategy and highlight major issues meriting further investigation

englishization in offshore call centers a postcolonial perspective the spread and use of english as the lingua franca of international business ib corporate englishization has received increasing scholarly attention in recent years but the focus has mostly been on the communication benefits and challenges of using english as a shared language inside multinationals in this article we examine how english is used externally in the provision of business services and apply a postcolonial perspective to frame our analysis drawing on fieldwork in india within the call center units of two outsourcing organizations serving anglo american firms we show how corporate englishization 1 relies on and contributes to producing comprador managerial cadres 2 serves to construct a transnational intra linguistic hierarchy of power and privilege and 3 undercuts its own effectiveness by simultaneously eliminating and maintaining the alterity of the other through processes of mimicry we thus show how corporate englishization does not merely overcome or conversely worsen transnational communication problems it also re produces colonial style power relations between the anglosphere and the rest our analysis deepens our understanding of corporate englishization and opens a new avenue for postcolonial research on the role of language in ib our analysis also advances the field of postcolonial organization studies and has implications for ib scholarship more generally

a new approach to data access and research transparency dart recent debates on transparency and replicability suggest that jibs needs to update its approach on data access and research transparency dart we propose a series of initiatives knowing well that there is a balance to be struck there are clear benefits on the one hand chief among these the potential for learning and knowledge accumulation and equally manifest challenges on the other the imperative to respect privacy confidentiality and intellectual property rights without addressing these challenges will there be the high quality data on which the benefits depend we present access and transparency objectives and set out how an actionable and effective approach towards dart will be implemented but also address ethical legal and organizational challenges of concern to us as a scholarly community

property transfers and environmental pollution incentive effects of alternative policies this paper considers how trans ferring some or all future responsibility for cleanup of a contaminated site affects the cur rent owner s incentives to reduce contamina tion given that he anticipates selling his prop erty in the future the results depend on the probabilities that the parties will be judgment proof the distribution of surplus and whether there is joint and several liability contrary to popular belief we show that transferring liabil ity can actually increase the seller s incentive to invest in pollution abatement furthermore abatement incentives are at least as great and generally greater with joint and several liability than without it jel q2

the compensation regime in liability law incentives to curb environmental harm ex ante and ex post this paper analyzes private incentives for precautions against environmental harm before accidents occur and for clean up after the fact we consider the compensatory regimes used in various jurisdictions which differ in terms of the basis for compensation the level of harm clean up costs or some combination of the two and the resulting levels of compensation we establish that socially optimal decisions are usually not induced by liability law in any of the compensatory regimes however the different types and levels of compensation have distinct effects allowing the policy maker to identify the most appropriate regime for specific circumstances

the value of big data in servitization abstract servitization has become a pervasive business strategy among manufacturers enabling them to undergird their competitive advantage however it has at least one weakness while it is used worldwide also in economies with lower production costs services in manufacturing are slowly becoming commoditized and will become a necessary though not sufficient condition for reaching an above average competitive advantage consequently in this article we propose a new basis for competitive advantage for manufacturing enterprises called a big data strategy in servitization we scrutinize how manufacturers can exploit the opportunity arising from combined big data and servitization therefore the concept of a big data strategy framework in servitization is proposed the findings are benchmarked against established frameworks in the big data and servitization literature its impact on competitive advantage is assessed through three theoretical perspectives that increase the validity of the results the main finding is that through the proposed strategy new revenue streams can be created while opening the possibility to decrease prices for product services through the proposed strategy manufacturers can differentiate themselves from the ones that are already servitizing this article introduces the possibility of influencing the most important of the five vs in big data value in addition to the other four vs volume variety velocity and verification as in regards to servitization the article adds a third layer of added value information beside the two existing ones product and service the results have strategic implications for managers

storytelling the internationalization of the multinational enterprise internationalization deals with expansion across space and time researchers have framed internationalization as market growth and expansion through foreign direct investment fdi we use narrative theory to frame a bigger richer picture using mikhail bakhtin s typology of nine space time conceptions and directed observations of mcdonald s corporation we show how multinational enterprises mnes create narratives of internationalization to mitigate the risks of fdi competing space time conceptions in consumers authors and societies stories interact with managerial narratives to affect international product and task environments we increase awareness of mnes storytelling by offering a typology of stakeholders stories across space and time

from the editors how to write articles that are relevant to practice although the journal of international business studies is not a practice oriented journal thinking deeper about the practical relevance of our articles can only help enrich them and help decision makers implement better decisions however while many academic articles in social sciences go to great lengths to explain their theoretical and empirical impact in many cases their explanation of practical relevance is a paragraph in the conclusion section with a few cursory ideas that appear to be an afterthought rather than an integral part of the article here we provide suggestions for crafting a practical implications section that is relevant for decision makers

from the editors advancing interdisciplinary research in the field of international business prospects issues and challenges doi 1 0 1 057 jibs 2009 4 1 two decades ago jibs published john dunning s presidential address at the aib annual meeting in san diego in which he made a passionate plea for a more interdisciplinary approach to international business ib studies based on a careful analysis of the major economic social political and institutional changes taking place at the time dunning 1989 411 observed

perspective absorbing the concept of absorptive capacity how to realize its potential in the organization field the purpose of this perspective paper is to advance understanding of absorptive capacity its underlying dimensions its multilevel antecedents its impact on firm performance and the contextual factors that affect absorptive capacity twenty years after the cohen and levinthal 1990 paper the field is characterized by a wide array of theoretical perspectives and a wealth of empirical evidence in this paper we first review these underlying theories and empirical studies of absorptive capacity given the size and diversity of the absorptive capacity literature we subsequently map the existing terrain of research through a bibliometric analysis the resulting bibliometric cartography shows the major discrepancies in the organization field namely that 1 most attention so far has been focused on the tangible outcomes of absorptive capacity 2 organizational design and individual level antecedents have been relatively neglected in the absorptive capacity literature and 3 the emergence of absorptive capacity from the actions and interactions of individual organizational and interorganizational antecedents remains unclear building on the bibliometric analysis we develop an integrative model that identifies the multilevel antecedents process dimensions and outcomes of absorptive capacity as well as the contextual factors that affect absorptive capacity we argue that realizing the potential of the absorptive capacity concept requires more research that shows how micro antecedents and macro antecedents influence future outcomes such as competitive advantage innovation and firm performance in particular we identify conceptual gaps that may guide future research to fully exploit the absorptive capacity concept in the organization field and to explore future fruitful extensions of the concept

saving in the world abstract this paper presents new evidence on the behavior of saving in the world by extending previous empirical research in several dimensions after extensively surveying the relevant theoretical and empirical literature the paper reports estimates of saving determinants relying on the newly constructed and largest available database covering 165 countries over 1981 2012 the empirical specification includes determinants not considered in the literature explores differences in saving behavior nesting the 2008 10 crisis period and four different country groups searches for commonalities across key saving aggregates national private household and corporate saving rates and is subject to a robustness analysis based on different estimation techniques the results confirm in part existing research but also shed light on some ambiguous or contradictory findings and highlight the role of neglected determinants compared to the literature we find a larger number of significant determinants changes across periods and country groups and similarities across different saving aggregates

environmental research joint ventures under emission taxes the effect of environmentalpolicy depends crucially on the strategicbehavior of firms firms can undertakepollution abatement innovation cooperativelythrough environmental r d joint ventures rjvs environmental rjvs have not onlyenvironmental but also economic impacts threetypes of environmental rjv are discussed inthis paper r d cartelization in which firmschoose r d efforts to maximize the jointprofit rjv competition in which firms sharethe r d fruits to maximize their own profits and rjv cartelization in which firms share r dfruits and maximize the joint profit an r dcartelization minimizes output quantities maximizes the total emission and minimizes thesocial surplus an rjv cartelization with asufficiently high spillover coefficientmaximizes r d efforts minimizes the totalemission and maximizes the social surplus

cultural differences and capability transfer in cross border acquisitions the mediating roles of capability complementarity absorptive capacity and social integration this paper presents an integrative model of the impact of cultural differences on capability transfer in cross border acquisitions we propose that cultural differences affect the post acquisition capability transfer through their impact on social integration potential absorptive capacity and capability complementarity two dynamic variables the use of social integration mechanisms and the degree of operational integration of the acquired unit are proposed to moderate the effects of cultural differences on social integration and potential absorptive capacity the implications for acquisition research and practice are discussed

international expansion through flexible replication learning from the internationalization experience of ikea business organizations may expand internationally by replicating a part of their value chain such as a sales and marketing format in other countries however little is known regarding how such international replicators build a format for replication or how they can adjust it in order to adapt to local environments and under the impact of new learning to illuminate these issues we draw on a longitudinal in depth study of swedish home furnishing giant ikea involving more than 70 interviews we find that ikea has developed organizational mechanisms that support an ongoing learning process aimed at frequent modification of the format for replication another finding is that ikea treats replication as hierarchical lower level features marketing efforts pricing etc are allowed to vary across ikea stores in response to market based learning while higher level features fundamental values vision etc are replicated in a uniform manner across stores and change only very slowly if at all in response to learning flexible replication we conclude by discussing the factors that influence the approach to replication adopted by an international replicator

does income inequality raise aggregate saving this paper reviews analytically and empirically the links between income distribution and aggregate saving consumption theory brings out a number of direct channels through which income inequality can affect overall household saving positively in most cases however recent political economy theory points toward indirect negative effects of inequality through firm investment and public saving on aggregate saving on theoretical grounds the sign of the saving inequality link is therefore ambiguous this paper presents new empirical evidence on the relationship between income distribution and aggregate saving based on a new and improved income distribution database for both industrial and developing countries the empirical results using alternative inequality and saving measures and various econometric specifications on both cross section and panel data provide no support for the notion that income inequality has any systematic effect on aggregate saving these findings are consistent with the theoretical ambiguity q 2000 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

strict liability as a deterrent in toxic waste management empirical evidence from accident and spill data abstract this paper examines whether strict liability imposed on polluters has reduced uncontrolled releases of toxics into the environment we fit regressions relating spills of selected chemicals to the type of liability in force in a state and to state manufacturing activity for some chemicals spills are more numerous in states imposing strict liability this could be due to unobserved state characteristics with small firms being responsible for a disproportionate number of spills regardless of the liability structure alternatively separate regressions for the two liability regimes suggest that only under strict liability are small firms responsible for a disproportionate number of spills

what accounts for the chilean saving miracle this paper examines the recent saving performance of the chilean economy in the light of its long run 1940 96 trends the first conclusion that can be derived from the data is that most of the increase in private saving since the mid 1980s is due to business saving household saving turns out to be a stationary variable with zero mean since business saving has a unit root households do not seem to take the saving of firms into account when making their own saving decisions within the theoretical framework of a model of business investment with liquidity constraints we estimate a var for business saving private investment public saving and foreign saving the current account deficit we are able to determine that business saving is unaffected by public saving but that in the long run foreign saving and business saving are perfect substitutes private investment business saving and foreign saving are jointly determined the policy conclusions are that policies that stimulate investment are likely to lead to an increase in private saving that policies aimed at raising household saving will be ineffective and that increases in public saving are very powerful for increasing domestic saving in the long run copyright 2001 by oxford university press

market power in the eco industry polluters incentives under environmental liability law this paper analyzes the output and abatement choices of perfectly competitive downstream polluters who are subject to environmental liability law and procure abatement from an imperfectly competitive eco industry under strict liability polluting firms choose suboptimal abatement but socially optimal output given abatement under negligence with firm specific abatement standards polluting firms choose suboptimal output but socially optimal abatement given output under negligence with industry wide abatement standards the output and abatement choices of most firms are socially suboptimal second best considerations are offered for each case under strict liability negligence these apply to the level of liability the behavioral standard

adjusting to and learning from institutional diversity toward a capability building perspective this paper identifies two main dimensions institutional diversity and dynamism in the research stream that has substantively engaged with the important contribution of jackson and deeg j int bus stud 39 4 540 561 2008 taking into account their core criticism that institutional analysis in international business research is often de contextualized and building on these two dimensions we present two possible paths for institutional analysis that are sensitive to context the first is a methodological shift towards configurational analyses and specifically the analysis of counterfactual scenarios that could reveal new information about decision alternatives the second is a shift away from a focus on costs and towards the possibility of mnes building capabilities in an exploratory manner when confronted with institutional diversity both approaches build on an understanding of mnes as strategic actors that co evolve with their environments

balancing subsidiary influence in the federative mnc a business network view the contest for intra organisational power in the multinational corporation mnc has gradually become a prominent issue on the research agenda as long as 25 years ago hedlund 1980 investigated the strategic roles of subsidiaries in mncs and doz and prahalad 1981 raised the issue of how difficult it is for headquarters to remain in control of its subsidiaries and to influence their strategies over time since then several researchers have suggested that mncs can be considered to be dispersed structures of power in which the top management s authority does not necessarily result in hierarchical power being the ultimate control mechanism hedlund 1986 forsgren 1989 ghoshal and bartlett 1990 doz and prahalad 1993 ferner and edwards 1995 kristensen and zeitlin 2001 morgan and whitley 2003 birkinshaw and hood 1998 examined the evolution of capabilities at the subsidiary level and recognised that in most corporations there is an internal competition for charter that implies a process of change in subsidiary roles birkinshaw and hood 1998 782 case research has also indicated that changes in the charters of divisions or subsidiaries in mncs constitute a strong feature of horizontal or vertical competition in the corporate marketplace galunic and eisenhardt 1996 birkinshaw and fry 1998 the tension between the headquarters and overseas laboratories caused by the laboratories desire for autonomy and influence is an example of such a competition asaka wa 2001

understanding domestic savings an empirical approach abstractthere are two unusual and important features in the evolution of the savings rate in chile first the economy increased the average savings rate by 11 percentage points in the period 1985

from the editors explaining theoretical relationships in international business research focusing on the arrows not the boxes distinctive features of articles accepted by the journal of international business studies are that they are multidisciplinary in scope and interdisciplinary in content and methodology and they make a substantial theoretical contribution to international business studies failure to meet this last requirement is an often cited reason given by reviewers for article rejection sometimes reviewers mean that a manuscript does not conform to the dominant paradigm in that it is not the next logical step in the study of a phenomenon or they mean that there is little if any integration of several theories used to explain a phenomenon however perhaps the most common underlying meaning when reviewers cite lack of a theoretical contribution for rejection is that the nature of the relationships proposed is not well explained while the first two meanings may be influenced by the specific discipline or methodology involved this final one is not in this editorial we provide a set of guidelines that authors can use to ensure that their paper meets the standard of explaining the logic of the relationships they propose

savings in chile what went right abstract in the last 10 years chile s overall economic performance has been remarkable in many respects including a significant and sustained increase in domestic savings to figures around 26 of gdp this paper empirically assesses the reasons behind such notable behavior of savings by applying co integration models to check for long run relationships and error correction models to verify short run adjustments the emphasis is on annual private savings data span from 1960 to 1995 which as it turns out depend more than proportionally on an adjusted measure of gdp and less than proportionally on foreign savings and public savings private savings are also positively affected by economic growth and a dummy reflecting the effect of pension funds most of the adjustment between short run and long run is completed in less than 3 years where the variable representing income bears the bulk of such adjustment in comparing two episodes of good economic performance in the last 20 years 1976 1981 and 1986 till present it is found that three basic differences arise concerning private savings sustainability of growth different access to foreign savings during the recovery from recession and different scenarios with respect to the development of long run capital markets in particular a relevant role played the move to a fully funded social security system in the early 1980s

a retrospective on mnc knowledge transfer subsidiary absorptive capacity and hrm in this retrospective we revisit the goals of the original paper and we review the studies that have used our paper to discuss the concept and the development of absorptive capacity we also propose directions for future research stressing the need to develop thorough theoretical and empirical models of absorptive capacity as a multi level and dynamic construct that is contingent on the context in which it is embedded

accidents waiting to happen liability policy and toxic pollution releases proponents of environmental policies based on liability assert that strict liability imposed on polluters induces firms to handle hazardous wastes properly we examine unintended pollution releases relating them to the liability imposed on polluters by state mini superfund laws we find that strict liability reduces the frequency and severity of pollution releases but that its effects vary with firm size smaller firms are associated with more pollution releases in states with strict liability suggesting that in these states smaller firms may have specialized in riskier production processes their number however has not necessarily grown in response to the state s liability policy

servitisation and value co production in the uk music industry an empirical study of consumer attitudes abstract since the rise of music on the internet the record industry has reported falling total sales revenues this has occurred at a time when technology has radically increased choice availability and the opportunity for the consumer to purchase music to date pay per unit music sales channels have been more successful than music subscription services as the music industry has moved from a product to a service business model does the loss of sales indicate they have not taken their customers with them this paper provides a description of different music consumer attitudes an independent variable in this research based upon quantitative analysis of more than 5000 valid survey responses consumer purchasing behaviour and music discovery methods are treated as dependant variables an empirical study using structural equations model was carried out to test the relationship between consumer groups and purchasing preference in relation to tangible products and intangible service purchases moreover consumer typology and propensity to actively engage with music communities was analysed and thus their willingness to co produce value was explored the most important findings were first all consumers view pay per unit positively and second a group of consumers representing just under half the sample was identified that would engage with a monthly subscription music service and could co produce solutions in this channel

limits to environmental bonds abstract bonds have recently been promoted as an alternative tool to control environmental damages particularly in those instances when the innovative activities of a firm have uncertain future impacts under this mechanism a firm would post a bond ex ante forfeiting all or a portion of the bond if its activities harmed environmental resources while the benefits of bonds have been developed there has been little systematic effort to explore their limitations in contrast the labor literature has extensively studied the limits of bonds as a mechanism to prevent worker shirking using insights from this parallel problem this paper explores the limits to environmental bonds focusing on the problems of moral hazard liquidity constraints and legal restrictions each limit offers a challenge to the success of environmental bonds we explore the use of bonds in surface mining and agricultural nonpoint pollution as motivating examples we also consider how other incentive schemes suggested by the labor literature might prove useful in the context of environmental management we consider the labor mechanisms of efficiency wages increasing wage profiles trust funds and rank order tournaments

the impact of language barriers on trust formation in multinational teams this study systematically investigates how language barriers influence trust formation in multinational teams mnts on the basis of 90 interviews with team members team leaders and senior managers in 15 mnts in 3 german automotive corporations the authors show how mnt members cognitive and emotional reactions to language barriers influence their perceived trustworthiness and intention to trust which in turn affect trust formation the authors contribute to diversity research by distinguishing the exclusively negative language effects from the more ambivalent effects of other diversity dimensions their findings also illustrate how surface level language diversity may create perceptions of deep level diversity furthermore their study advances mnt research by revealing the specific influences of language barriers on team trust an important mediator between team inputs and performance outcomes it thereby encourages the examination of other team processes through a language lens finally their study suggests that multilingual settings necessitate a reexamination and modification of the seminal trust theories by mayer davis and schoorman and by mcallister in terms of practical implications the authors outline how mnt leaders can manage their subordinates problematic reactions to language barriers and how mnt members can enhance their perceived trustworthiness in multilingual settings

from a distance and generalizable to up close and grounded reclaiming a place for qualitative methods in international business research journal of international business studies 2011 42 573 581 doi 10 1057 jibs 2011 19 it is exhilarating to write the introduction to this special issue as it presents an important opportunity for qualitative research to reclaim its position as an integral part of international business ib research the field of ib was founded on a rich qualitative research legacy e g bartlett 1979 crozier 1965 fayerweather 1969 johanson vahlne 1977 kindleberger 1956 prahalad 1975 wilkins 1970 1974 over time however such methods have been progressively marginalized in our field as quantitative methods have become the norm this shift in emphasis has mirrored the broader trend toward more positivistic empirical methods in the social sciences the field of ib is multidisciplinary in scope and interdisciplinary in content and methodology statement of jibs editorial policy however as our respective home disciplines came under growing pressure to solidify their legitimacy as scientific endeavors that merit scholarly attention it is not surprising that we began to take on the norms propagated within our own academic communities that typically equated quantitative data with hard science while there are clear merits associated with quantitative methods the multi cultural multi dimensional and dynamic nature of the field of ib lends itself to a broad range of research methodologies qualitative methods being one of them in order to understand the complexities of emergent and evolving phenomena scattered over distance and the differentiated contexts typical to many topics under investigation in ib it is often inappropriate to engage in large scale cross sectional studies or reductionist methods in the absence of well developed theory rather thick description exploratory research and comparative case analysis that focus on inductive theory building and hypotheses generation may be more suitable

social security and households saving this paper provides new evidence on the substitutability between private and pension wealth by exploiting the italian pension reform of 1992 we use a difference in difference estimator that exploits the differential effects of the reform on individuals belonging to several yea of birth cohorts and different occupational groups we find convincing evidence that saving rates increase as a result of a reduction in pension wealth by allowing for the possibility that substitutability changes with age we find that substitutability is particularly high and precisely estimated for workers between 35 and 45

source or storer ib s performance in a knowledge network the absence of systematic assessment of ib s performance as a reference discipline prolongs questioning of the contribution that ib scholarship makes to other business fields put simply do ib journals export more ideas to allied disciplines than they import from them difficulty in evaluating the merits of let alone the need for solutions offered to boost interdisciplinary relevance slows validation of the ontological principles and epistemic standards of ib research this paper begins to fill this gap it establishes a knowledge network composed of 39 high impact journals that represent the domains of management marketing finance economics operations it accounting human resources organizational behavior and ib we collected citation exchanges among these 39 journals from 2000 through 2007 a log multiplicative model evaluated multiple dimensions of association to determine the sources and storers of knowledge within the network the network from pathfinder analysis was used to determine each journal s contribution to network entropy these analyses indicate that ib journals functioned as storers not sources of ideas within the sampled knowledge network over the studied period the results help interpret opposing proposals to fortify ib studies highlight the tradeoff between exploitation and exploration in knowledge development and dissemination and elaborate jibs s boundary spanning performance within the sampled network

accessing vs sourcing knowledge a comparative study of r d internationalization between emerging and advanced economy firms research and development r d internationalization is on the rise for advanced economy multinationals amnes as well as emerging economy multinationals emnes we study emne r d internationalization by comparing it to that by amnes in the context of an emerging knowledge intensive industry we find that these two are fundamentally different processes while the internationalization of amnes r d activities can largely be explained in terms of the twin strategies of competence exploitation and competence creation emne r d internationalization is rooted in the firms overall catch up strategy to get on par with industry leaders an in depth comparison of knowledge flows reveals that within amnes headquarters often serves the primary source of knowledge for r d subsidiaries in contrast within emnes headquarters accesses knowledge from r d subsidiaries in advanced economies for innovation catch up within this dichotomy the innovative capabilities of emne headquarters develop more slowly and with greater difficulty than those of amne subsidiaries

changing ib scholarship via rhetoric or bloody knuckles a case study in the boundary conditions for persuasion papers challenging institutionalized fields to change are rare and those not extinguished by neglect are rarer shenkar understands his target audience those in that target community of ib scholars studying cultural distance s cd associations with foreign direct investment fdi might read this paper as relatively radical culture scholars sometimes interpret the discussion of cultural friction cf as competing with even slighting by omission their corpus of work on contact and interaction both readings are false and forced comparison with two later papers reveals retrospective bias at work it further reveals cf as a metaphor not theory it is not a research agenda assigned to the field even if it becomes a personal project for the author rhetorical theory is the basis to compare the reasoning of appeals and emotion the discussion considers whether academic change agents might consider more use of emotion bringing shenkar into focus enriches our appreciation for its impressive craftsmanship as well as its scholarship i discuss implications for impact as a concept currently stuck with looking for citation over substance and offer suggestions for reviewers and editors to lower the barriers for impact

conceptualizing and measuring culture in international business and management from challenges to potential solutions understanding the influence of culture on business operations has been one of the most enduring components of international business ib and international management im theorizing and empirical investigation while several critiques and debates questioned the significant progress made in this domain the special issue we introduce here is meant to demonstrate that further advancement on how we conceptualize and measure culture is not only needed but also possible we provide an overview of past and current approaches in the measurement of culture in ib im and the challenges associated with these approaches and emphasize the important yet insufficiently acknowledged link between the theoretical conceptualization of culture and its measurement we then introduce the four articles included in the special issue and highlight how they break away from the addiction to approaches that have been very useful in getting where we are today but that might not always be useful in advancing knowledge beyond what we already know last but not the least we offer our own perspective on promising directions in conceptually and methodologically rethinking the study of culture in ib and im

language policies and practices in wholly owned foreign subsidiaries a recontextualization perspective this study adopts a recontextualization perspective on language policies and practices in wholly owned foreign subsidiaries drawing on a field study of 101 subsidiaries in japan we develop a contingency model that distinguishes between four different types of recontextualization with characteristic language policies and practices developing locally adaptive developing globally integrated established locally adaptive and established globally integrated our analysis shows how each of these four types is accompanied by specific problems and challenges in particular it elucidates five important aspects of language implementation 1 the emergence of language praxis from the interplay of headquarters strategies and local responses 2 the hybridization of language practices 3 the central role of key actors such as subsidiary presidents in recontextualization 4 the pervasive power implications of language policies and practices and 5 the multifaceted implications for strategic human resource management by so doing our analysis opens up new avenues for context specific and practice oriented studies of language in multinational companies

indivisible toxic torts the economics of joint and several liability cost effective or efficient pollution control has traditionally devoted most of its attention to analyzing the effects of legislative or regulatory policy instruments such as emission taxes or marketable emission permits recent contributions have expanded this focus to include the effects of monitoring and enforcement policies 2 with a few noteworthy exceptions 3 however the role of the court system in general and liability law in particular have not received analytical attention among environmental economists in proportion to their importance in resource allocation

why are latin america s savings rates so low an international comparative analysis abstract this paper presents a theoretical and empirical assessment of the determinants of savings rates with special emphasis on latin american savings rates the study is based on international comparisons using data from 36 countries for 1970 1992 a distinction is made between private and public savings the later are endogenously determined by economic and political variables per capita income growth is the most important determinant of private and public savings public savings are lower in countries with higher political instability public savings crowd out private savings but less than proportionately low latin american savings are due to the magnitudes of their determinants rather than structural differences

liability for past environmental contamination and privatization this paper examines the role ofliability for past environmental contaminationin the privatization processes of central andeastern europe in particular it establishes alink between a risk averse investor s amount ofinformation regarding the extent of pastenvironmental contamination and its cleanupcosts and the investor s willingness to payfor a particular enterprise i e bid as theinvestor obtains a more precise estimate of theuncertain cleanup costs the investor facesless risk therefore the investor s riskpremium falls and the investor s bid rises this link generates four hypotheses regarding aprivatization agency s responses to theinvestor s knowledge of clean up costs

services and the business models of product firms an empirical analysis of the software industry some product firms increasingly rely on service revenues as part of their business models one possible explanation is that they turn to services to generate additional profits when their product industries mature and product revenues and profits decline we explore this assumption by examining the role of services in the financial performance of firms in the prepackaged software products industry standard industrial classification code 7372 from 1990 to 2006 we find a convex nonlinear relationship between a product firm s fraction of total sales coming from services and its overall operating margins as expected firms with a very high level of product sales are most profitable and rising services are associated with declining profitability we find however that additional services start to have a positive marginal effect on the firm s overall profits when services reach a majority of a product firm s sales we show that traditional industry maturity arguments cannot fully explain our data it is likely that changes in both strategy and the business environment lead product firms to place more emphasis on services this paper was accepted by christoph loch r d and product development

toward a construct of liability of origin in this paper we advance a novel concept of liability of origin to explicate the mechanisms through which location can be become either a liability or an advantage our analysis sheds light on how firms ability to compete and gain legitimacy can be derailed or enhanced by their geographical location we illustrate our theoretical analysis using multiple cases in the airline industry in africa four distinct phases that explicate how liability of origin manifests in firms legitimacy quest are indicated our work highlights how actions and inactions of rival firms can make the geographical origin of a firm geographicalness to shift from being a strategic asset to become a liability we outline a number of implications for practice and fruitful avenues for future research

when is servitization a profitable competitive strategy abstract although servitization has emerged as a new competitive strategy for manufacturers there has been little research about product level servitization we investigate the competition between two channels one separately providing both goods and services and the other providing inseparable servitized goods through a game theoretic approach two critical parameters to understand competition between the two channels will be proposed 1 service dependency a degree of dependency of physical goods upon services and 2 channel substitutability a degree of substitution between conventional channels and servitized one the study reveals that the servitization strategy is a better choice for a manufacturer selling physical goods only when the goods require a higher level of service i e high service dependency and when the competition between the two channels is more severe i e high channel substitutability in addition obtaining cost efficiency is found to be an important factor to achieve higher competitive advantage over the other channel