institutional exceptions on global projects a process model this inductive study offers an examination of 23 cases in which informants from firms engaged in large scale global projects reported unforeseen costs after failing to comprehend cognitive cultural normative and or regulative institutions in an unfamiliar host societal context the study builds on the conceptual framework of institutional theory the findings which include propositions and a generic narrative model contribute to theoretical knowledge of how institutional exceptions arise how they are resolved and how they typically involve three general phases ignorance sensemaking and response the findings also articulate the kinds of institutional transaction costs that an entrant incurs in each of the three phases and the conditions that lead to the growth of these costs

divestment of foreign production operations this study investigates some determinants fo the divestment of foreign manufacturing operations by norwegian companies to date very few studies have taken a closer look at what might influence whether foreign subsidiaries are divested or not although foreign direct investment in principle represent long term commitments to foreign manufacturing operations divestments are in fact quite common this study shows that more than half of a sample of foreig subsidiaries woned by norwegian companies in 1982 wee divested within a period of ten years the empirical findings indicate that foreign divestment is inversely related to economic growth in the host country and that the propensity to divest is significantly higher for subsidiaries that had been acquired than for greenfield establishments also related horizontal subsidiaries are less likely to be divested than unrelated non horizontal subsidiaries

decision specific experience in foreign ownership and establishment strategies evidence from japanese firms in this paper we examine the importance of decision specific experience for a multinational firm s foreign ownership structure and establishment mode decisions a unique procedure to measure the decision specific experience construct is developed based on data for the period 1969 1991 we find strong empirical evidence from experiences of japanese firms to support the hypotheses that firms tend to select ownership structures and establishment modes based on their experiences with similar ownership structures and establishment modes in the past

can multinational enterprises light up developing countries evidences from the access to electricity in sub saharan africa summary this paper examines the role that multinational enterprises mnes and foreign direct investments fdi can have in enhancing the access to electricity for local communities in developing countries based on the quality of home and host institutions access to electricity is a marker for development but it is far from being universal in developing countries the shortage of electricity is mainly the consequence of inability of governments in planning financing and developing necessary electricity infrastructure in this context investments from other actors can be essential particularly we focus on the role of fdi and mnes we claim that when mnes invest in developing countries they are incentivized to solve the lack of electricity infrastructure mainly for two reasons to guarantee their business activities and to gain legitimacy with their local stakeholders in addition we argue that mnes and fdi from institutionally underdeveloped countries will be more prone to develop infrastructure for the provision of electricity to local population as generally they suffer from a negative stereotype for this study we rely on 1 547 observations composed of pairs of 83 home countries and 15 host countries in sub saharan africa observed from 2005 to 2011 due to the nature of the database we adopt panel data techniques i e system gmm and corrected least square dummy variable estimators we find that fdi promotes access to electricity in developing countries with weak institutions and this is more likely true when fdi come from institutionally underdeveloped countries these results are far from obvious as they controvert common idea among institutional scholars that a regulatory authority is essential in the provision of infrastructure in conclusion with this paper we partially rehabilitate the image of mnes investing in developing countries by demonstrating that under certain conditions they could contribute to energy poverty alleviation of local population

the impact of joint venture status on the longevity of japanese stakes in u s manufacturing affiliates a number of well known studies report that between one third and two thirds of international joint ventures eventually break up while many generalizations explanations and prescriptions have been based on these statistics their meaning is unclear first all foreign affiliates are subject to normal business risk and to the risk that they will be divested by parents for strategic or financial reasons are these risks higher for joint ventures than for wholly owned subsidiaries second joint ventures may be shorter lived not because of their joint venture status but because affiliates which are joint ventured have other characteristics that make them more likely to exit to know whether joint ventures are shorter lived one must control for the other factors that affect the longevity of affiliates whether wholly owned or joint ventured third many joint ventures contracts contain clauses that allow partners to sell their stakes to one another at specific intervals because they make exit easier joint ventures should have shorter lives but these shorter lives should only be due to sell offs not to liquidations it is therefore important to see whether the supposedly higher termination rate of joint ventures stakes is due to a higher rate of selloffs or to a higher rate of liquidations in this paper we 1 compare the longevity of stakes in joint ventures versus those in wholly owned subsidiaries 2 while controlling for other factors that affect the longevity of such stakes and 3 while distinguishing between two types of exit those through sale and those through liquidation while past authors have addressed these three issues in piecemeal fashion we believe we are the first to address them simultaneously we analyze the factors that affect the longevity of 355 japanese stakes in u s manufacturing affiliates controlling for all the factors that affect exit rates we find that japanese parents are more likely to terminate their stakes in u s joint ventures than in wholly owned subsidiaries this higher termination rate of joint venture stakes is explained by a higher probability of selling them but not of liquidating them most of the other factors that have been found significant in explaining gross divestment of foreign affiliates do in fact only affect exits through sales but not exits through liquidations hence it is true that joint ventures have shorter lives but dangerous to interpret this finding as necessarily meaning that they are more likely to fail

experiential knowledge and cost in the internationalization process using a behavioral approach this study identifies and delineates components of experiential knowledge in the internationalization process three hypotheses are developed and tested they center ar

foreign entry cultural barriers and learning this paper examines the longevity of foreign entries hypotheses are developed on the mode start ups vs acquisitions and ownership structure wholly owned vs joint ventures in relation to cultural distance the hypotheses are tested within a framework of organizational learning using data on 225 entries that 13 dutch firms carried out from 1966 onwards results show that the presence of cultural barriers punctuates an organization s learning cultural distance is a prominent factor in foreign entry whenever this involves another firm requiring the firm to engage in double layered acculturation we also identify locational paths of learning the longevity of acquisitions is positively influenced by prior entries of the firm in the same country similarly the longevity of foreign entries in which the firm has a majority stake improves whenever the expanding firm engaged in prior entries in the same country and in other countries in the same cultural block

cost value and foreign market entry mode the transaction and the firm this paper compares and contrasts the mode of foreign market entry decision from the transaction cost internalization and organizational capability perspectives each of these perspectives operates at a different level of analysis respectively the transaction and the firm and consequently differs in the primary arena of attention namely transaction characteristics and the capabilities of firms in making the comparison a key distinction is made between the cost and the value aspects in the management of know how based on which issues pertaining to the transfer of knowledge within and across firm boundaries and the exploitation and enhancement of competitive advantage are closely examined the main purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the implications of a shift in frame from cost to value in the analysis of decisions related to firm boundaries entry into foreign markets is used primarily as a vehicle for the accomplishment of this purpose the paper shows how the value based framework of the organizational capability perspective radically and fundamentally shifts the approach towards the governance of firm boundaries and argues that even though tc internalization theory raises some valid concerns the organizational capability framework may be more in tune with today s business context some of the assumptions of the tc internalization perspective both direct opportunism exploitation of existing advantage and indirect preservation of the value of know how across locational contexts asymmetry between bounded rationality for transaction and production purposes are critically examined and questioned implications of a shift from a cost to a value based framework are discussed and the need for a shift in research focus is emphasized

different shades of green global oil and gas companies and renewable energy abstract the long term energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy raises critical questions about the future of oil and gas firms this study asks why some oil and gas firms are committed to renewable energy while others continue to maintain a distinct fossil fuels focus with little or no investment in renewable energy the analysis reveals that there is a wide range in the degree to which oil and gas firms have invested in renewable energy some firms have no investments and others have investments in multiple renewable energy technologies across many countries we examine a combination of country based institutional factors and firm based knowledge and experience factors that could impact oil and gas firms decisions to invest in renewable energy activity regulative and normative pressures impacted renewable energy investments as did environmental citizenship and the degree of internationalization the study s integration of country level factors with firm level experiences provides insights into how firms are dealing with the energy transition by examining areas such as sustainability and regulatory policy the paper sheds light on the ways in which scholars can tap into measures and methods that can extend traditional ib research

impact of ownership on the international involvement of smes this paper analyses the relationship between the internationalisation strategies of smes and types of ownership different types of ownership affect firms and this in turn will influence the internationalisation strategy adopted using a sample of spanish smes our results show that internationalisation is negatively related to family ownership and positively related to corporate ownership we have also observed that the presence of a corporate blockholder in family firms encourages internationalisation these results support the idea that ownership type influences the decision to internationalise

from hybrids to hierarchies shareholder wealth effects of joint venture partner buyouts this study examines the parent firm performance implications of joint venture jv partner buyouts which involve the conversion of a hybrid governance structure to an internal unit within the firm s hierarchy transaction cost theory as developed and applied in the international literature and market entry research is extended to the post entry investment setting to isolate sources of value creation or dissipation from the governance changes effected by jv partner buyouts the evidence complements recent research on jv longevity and its determinants copyright 2001 john wiley sons ltd

prior conditions and early international commitment the mediating role of domestic mindset our study investigates why some firms engage in low international commitments such as exports in the early phases of internationalization whereas others leapfrog the internationalization process and start with high international commitments in the form of foreign direct investment fdi process models of internationalization propose that firms start with low commitment activities and gradually increase their commitments to international markets however recent empirical evidence has shown that many firms make high international commitments from the start our findings suggest that domestic resources and competitive action propensity affect early international commitments indirectly through domestic mindsets a domestic mindset refers to the knowledge structures of the top management team prior to starting international activities based on their managerial experience and learning in domestic markets our results suggest that knowledge and learning gained in domestic markets through diverse resource and competitive activities may be crucial in early international commitments

termination outcomes of research alliances abstract we draw upon evolutionary economics and transaction cost economics to examine how alliance experience accumulation at the parent firm level and alliance features at the transaction level jointly and interactively shape the favorability of research alliances termination outcomes fifteen percent of the terminated alliances we examined were successful 34 were failures and 51 experienced an intermediate outcome in the form of contract expiration or unilateral withdrawal by a partner we find that the effect of partner specific experience on the favorability of termination outcomes is greater for non equity alliances than for equity structures affording stronger formal governance mechanisms other forms of experience such as general alliance experience or prior alliances in the same technological area as the focal agreement have no such favorable consequences for alliance termination the findings also indicate that alliance complexity adversely influences firms termination outcomes in alliances we therefore find evidence in partial support of both evolutionary and transaction cost based arguments for the explanation of termination outcomes in research alliances

economic distance and the survival of foreign direct investments taking a theoretical perspective contrasting resource exploitation with resource exploration we argue that foreign direct investments fdis hazard rates are lower in countries that are either m

business networks and cooperation in international business relationships cooperative relationships between firms can be better understood if they are examined in the context of a network of connected business relationships based on research on business relationships and business networks this paper formulates a lisrel model that analyses cooperation in international business relationships between suppliers and customer firms theory suggests that cooperation can raise the value of business relationships and that business network connections have an impact on cooperation the model is investigated in a sample of 136 international business relationships the analysis shows that relationship profitability is directly affected by relationship commitment and indirectly through commitment by business network connections

wholly owned subsidiary versus technology licensing in the worldwide chemical industry this paper empirically analyzes the determinants of the choice between wholly owned subsidiary and technology licensing as a strategy for expansion abroad we use a new and comprehensive database on worldwide plant level investments in the chemical industry during the 1981 1991 period we find that both cultural distance and the presence of other potential licensors favor the use of licensing as a strategy for expanding abroad whereas prior experience favors the choice of wholly owned subsidiary an implication of this study is that competition in the market for technology can foster the international diffusion of technology through the use of arm s length agreements

closing knowledge gaps in foreign markets knowledge and learning are ascribed pivotal roles in firms internationalization processes perceived market uncertainties namely knowledge gaps related to business environments in foreign markets may curb firms inclinations to commit resources to these markets this study explores whether knowledge gaps tend to increase or decrease with time when operating in the foreign market and it discusses which learning components narrow or widen the perceived knowledge gap a theoretical model is developed based on the internationalization process view and the more recent organizational learning perspective including such concepts as overconfidence and absorptive capacity the theoretical model is tested on a set of primary data covering danish and swedish firms and their foreign market operations the results suggest a more subtle relationship between experience and perceived knowledge gaps than the mechanical relationship portrayed by the internationalization process view a relationship in which absorptive capacity and in particular overconfidence play important roles

seeking commonalities or avoiding differences re conceptualizing distance and its effects on internationalization decisions past research established distance s key influence on internationalization however theoretical issues methodological challenges and inconsistent results hinder scholarship on why distance plays such an influential role to address these problems we draw from cognitive research on similarity comparisons to re conceptualize distance and test a model of internationalization decisions analyzing the verbal protocols of executives considering a series of internationalization opportunities we demonstrate that over and above objective distance indicators considerations that reduce distance commonalities and considerations that augment distance differences have distinct effects on decisions of where when and how to internationalize as such our study contributes new insights for understanding the nature and effects of distance across different dimensions of distance and internationalization decisions moreover internationalization theories have come to emphasize different theoretical rationales for explaining the influential role of distance on different decisions by integrating these rationales together with the notion that distance reducing commonalities and distance augmenting differences have distinct implications for internationalization decisions we introduce the notion that it is not only the addition of distance considerations that matters but also the directionality of such changes doing so our study points to new theoretical and methodological insights to help address prior criticisms and advance future research

towards more realistic conceptualisations of foreign operation modes we address a long standing discrepancy between theory and practice regarding how firms choose use and modify their modes of operation in foreign markets theory typically treats foreign operation modes as choices between well specified discrete alternatives observation of business practice reveals a messier reality we commonly observe mode packages within mode adjustments and mode role changes yet by and large these aspects of international business development have been relatively ignored in the literature and in theoretical and empirical research we propose richer and more realistic conceptualisations of foreign operation modes and look at their implications for theory and practice

creating value through mutual commitment to business network relationships a structural model of business relationship development in a business network context is formulated and tested on delta from the european international marketing and purchasing imp project the e

the internationalization of small and medium sized firms this paper contributes to the existing research by integrating the notions of organizational learning and entrepreneurial orientation into the body of international entrepreneurship our primary framework combines learning theory and the new venture theory of internationalization to study the extent to which small and medium sized companies engage in international activities we found that the firms international learning effort and entrepreneurial orientation are positively associated with internationalization intent whereas domestic learning effort is negatively related with internationalization intent overall our results suggest 1 that intensive knowledge renewal and exploitation regarding foreign markets and the internationalization process itself may increase internationalization by affecting the perceptions of opportunities offered by further international expansion and 2 that firms with an entrepreneurial mindset may be more likely to develop a long term substantial presence in the international arena compared to firms that are more reactive or conservative

the psychic distance paradox companies tend to begin their internationalization process in countries that are psychically close researchers describe the sequence of entry that firms follow and the mode of entry they choose they suggest that psychically close countries are more easily understood than distant ones and offer more familiar operating environments although not prescriptive an unstated conclusion can be drawn linking sequence of entry to performance evidence from thirty two canadian retail companies shows that only seven 22 were functioning successfully in the united states the psychic distance paradox is that operations in psychically close countries are not necessarily easy to manage because assumptions of similarity can prevent executives from learning about critical differences moreover empirical evidence from 271 ceos confirms greater cultural differences between canada and the u s than assumed previously modifications are suggested to improve the psychic distance concept

on the determination of european day ahead electricity prices the turkish case abstract day ahead electricity prices in european markets are determined by double blind auctions that is both buyers and sellers may place anonymous orders with different prices and quantities the market operator has to solve an optimization problem within an hour to clear the auction and determine the prices for the day ahead market dam which are used as a reference point for the other electricity contracts all electricity traded at the same time period is traded at the same price called market clearing price the market operator has to end the algorithm with a feasible solution if the algorithm could not find the optimal solution within the time limit in this paper we develop an optimization model to solve the problem with day ahead electricity prices including all the practical considerations in the turkish dam we present a mixed integer formulation and provide methods based on aggregation techniques and variable elimination to solve the problem within the limits of the practical requirements using real market data we show that aggregation reduces the problem size approximately 60 percent whereas variable elimination provides another 30 percent reduction we also propose an ip based large neighborhood search to obtain an initial solution empirical evidences coming from the turkish dam data indicate the heuristic has a substantial solution quality and the overall suggestions deliver remarkable solution time improvements this is the first paper in terms of formulating dam problem in turkey developing new approaches to solve it within the time limits of the market and using real data

the globalization of swedish mnes empirical evidence and theoretical explanations we define globalization as the geographical dispersion of multinational enterprises mnes value chain in combination with increased inter regional coordination and use detailed firm level data to show that 12 of sweden s 17 largest manufacturing companies indeed are global by developing a globalization process model we theoretically argue in contrast to much of the existing literature that globalization may evolve to a more general phenomenon the globalization process is tortuous as mnes have to develop dynamic capabilities which make them gradually more competitive and able to cope with varying institutional contexts empirical testing on globalization of mnes originating from other home countries is suggested

learning across geographic space pro market reforms multinationalization strategy and profitability building on economic geography and knowledge based theory i argue that pro market reforms augment the profitability of firms by increasing their competitiveness and market knowledge however i propose that this effect is greater for firms that operate internationally firms that operate in more advanced markets and firms that become multinationals before reforms are implemented this is because such firms acquire market knowledge abroad that they can use when responding to reforms at home giving them a head start advantage over other local firms the analyses of a panel of the largest 500 latin american companies from 1989 to 2008 provide support for these arguments

an organizational model for understanding internationalization processes we propose an organizational model for understanding internationalization processes we argue that these processes differ with the type of organization we compare the internationalization processes of three organization types the mass production organization the disaggregated production organization and the project based organization each organization type responds differently to critical elements of the internationalization process namely the focus of entry the degree of presence and physical presence requirements in the foreign market which in turn influence what modal forms are adopted as the process progresses consequently we observe different approaches to resource commitment in the foreign market over time

resource dependency and institutional theory perspectives on direct and indirect export choices this article develops and tests resource dependency and institutional theory arguments to explain two choices facing sme owner managers 1 the decision whether to export or not and 2 if the firm exports the choice between a direct to customers abroad and an indirect using another firm as intermediary export mode binomial logistic regressions on our sample of 871 dutch smes suggest that institutional theory perspectives owner managers perception of the increased international presence of their domestic competitors customers and suppliers and perceptions of increased use of foreign suppliers explain the decision to export while resource dependency theory arguments owner managers perception of the favorability of access to knowledge and technology of production costs and of access to capital in the home market guide the choice between direct and indirect export modes

consequences opportunities and generalized consequentialism and non consequentialism abstract in a recent paper published in journal of economic theory 101 2001 423 436 by suzumura and xu an analytical framework was developed which allowed us to characterize the concept of consequentialism and non consequentialism to simplify matters however the treatment in that paper was confined only to the cases where no trade off exists between consequential considerations which reflect the individual s preferences over alternatives and non consequential considerations which reflect the individual s concern over richness of opportunities from which alternatives are chosen the present paper represents a generalization of our previous framework which can now accommodate the situations where consequential considerations and non consequential considerations actively interact the analysis covers both the cases of finite and infinite number of alternatives

foreign market entry strategies and post entry growth acquisitions vs greenfield investments we examine the relationship between the foreign market entry strategy and the subsequent growth of a subsidiary we build upon the penrose theory of firm growth and on the organizational economics international management and foreign market entry strategy literatures we hypothesize that the post entry growth of acquisitions is positively associated with weak and codifiable interdependence within the multinational enterprise network whereas the post entry growth of greenfield investments is positively related to strong and complex interdependence empirical findings from a sample of japanese subsidiaries in the us lend support to our argument

the trap of continual ownership change in international equity joint ventures this article examines how multiple ownership changes unfold in international equity joint venture iejv evolution and how such repeated changes impact short term performance and long term survival by theorizing a new concept the trap of continual change in the iejv context we challenge the adaptive viewpoint assumed in alliance dynamics research we propose that partners sometimes respond to an initial dissatisfaction with the venture result with a dysfunctional repetition of rearranging the ownership control structure this continual change locks the organization into bad choices and sends it into a downward spiral acknowledging the mixed motive nature of inter partner relationships we incorporate cooperative versus competitive dynamics manifested in shared control arrangements we propose that shared ownership control lends stability to the iejv until the initial iejv agreement is renegotiated this stability is a result of the cooperative forces of mutual interdependence and mutual forbearance between the partners however when the power balance breaks down the potential for inter partner conflict increases when the ownership control structure of the iejv is restructured especially multiple times shared control arrangements become increasingly unstable as behavioral cultural and managerial differences are amplified

instabilities of strategic alliances an internal tensions perspective the instabilities of strategic alliances have been examined in the literature through a number of theoretical approaches alliance instabilities refer to major changes or dissolutions of alliances that are unplanned from the perspective of one or more partners although the literature identifies certain characteristics of strategic alliances that may lead to their unplanned dissolution the extent of our understanding of this subject appears to be fragmented and incomplete in this article we propose a comprehensive framework for adequately understanding alliance instabilities based on the notion of internal tensions we suggest that strategic alliances are sites in which conflicting forces develop and which can be viewed as being constituted by three key pairs of competing forces namely cooperation versus competition rigidity versus flexibility and short term versus long term orientation this tensions framework helps us in explaining the intrinsic vulnerability of alliances in terms of a wide range of internal contradictions and enables us to examine in an integrated manner the incidence dynamics and eventual dissipation of the inherent instabilities we discuss the interrelationships among the different internal tensions and their impacts on different types of strategic alliances we also examine the termination of alliances through mergers acquisitions and dissolution finally we suggest ways to empirically test the various ideas and propositions developed here and indicate directions for further research

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

capabilities as a mediator linking resources and the international performance of entrepreneurial firms in an emerging economy this study investigates an under researched topic the relationships between capabilities resources and international performance among entrepreneurial firms in an emerging economy we combine the resource based view of the firm and the capability building perspective of rent creation to shed light on the crucial role of firm specific capabilities that transform key resources into performance outcomes employing a large sample of chinese entrepreneurial firms our investigation demonstrates that while the resources of institutional capital and managerial ties are important in the internationalization effort their effects on international performance are channeled through each firm s adaptive capability this adaptive capability is the firm s ability to coordinate recombine and allocate resources to meet the different requirements of foreign markets specifically our research is able to demonstrate support for the mediating role of capabilities in the relationship between resources and international performance the implications of these findings for theoretical development and future research are discussed

internationalization and performance degree duration and scale of operations we assess the theoretical underpinnings and associated empirical findings of the three stage sigmoid curve relationship between degree of internationalization doi and performance by re examining the results reported in one of the prominent studies in the literature we further conduct our own analyses of 23 474 observations of 2 620 us manufacturing firms over the period 1976 2008 and account for self selection of firms into different degrees of internationalization by using a generalized propensity score estimator both sets of results show that the relationship between doi and performance conforms to a mostly negative sigmoid curve and does not support the three stage theorization further examination reveals that two major conceptual and empirical shortcomings underlie the disparity between the theoretical predictions of the three stage model and these empirical findings first whereas theory relies overwhelmingly on enhanced scale of operations as a causal mechanism through which internationalization contributes to performance empirical studies preclude proper identification of scale related benefits second theory and empirics tend to confuse temporary difficulties experienced upon entry into international markets with examining the benefits realizable at different levels of doi regardless of the firm s short term difficulties in realizing those benefits our empirical results show that correcting for each of these shortcomings contributes to diminishing the theory empirics gap

learning from age difference interorganizational learning and survival in japanese foreign subsidiaries this paper extends research on experiential learning of foreign subsidiaries by exploring the temporal conditions under which a foreign subsidiary can benefit from the experience of its sister subsidiaries building upon organizational evolution and learning literature we propose that differences in entry timing among sister subsidiaries provide structural conditions that bound the opportunities for inter subsidiary learning we argue that different entry cohorts of sister subsidiaries are beneficial to a focal subsidiary as they provide non redundant complementary experience from their different operational stages and ignite the motivation to learn our empirical analysis of japanese foreign subsidiaries provides strong evidence that survival is enhanced by the experience of different entry cohorts of sister subsidiaries but not by that of similar cohorts qualitative evidence also shows that multiple channels of experience exchange across sister subsidiaries lead to actual learning we further show that the survival benefit derived from different cohorts is contingent on the level of environmental change as well as on the level of experience of the focal subsidiary and its parent firm our research highlights the importance of temporal heterogeneity in the internationalization process and offers implications for the temporal strategy of multinational companies

internationalising in small incremental or larger steps we argue that companies may enter foreign environments either incrementally as suggested by long established theory or by taking larger steps that may result in lower initial performance but through learning and experience lead to increased performance in future expansions this idea is corroborated by the experience of dutch companies entering into central and eastern europe we also find that expansion steps may be too large thereby limiting the exploration of foreign environments our study suggests that sequential internationalisation strategies do still matter and that companies have to balance exploitation and exploration in internationalisation

learning to compete in a transition economy experience environment and performance does organizational learning as measured by experience in a host country affect international expansion performance if so does such a relationship between experience and performance hold over time how do the environmental forces in the host country affect such a relationship focusing on organizational learning by multinational enterprises mnes operating in a transition economy this study answers these three critical questions by exploring the relationships among experience environment and performance at the subsidiary level based on a recent survey of 108 mne subunits operating in china we find that the intensity and diversity of host country experience is an important predictor of subunit performance while the positive effect of the intensity of experience on performance diminishes over time the impact of the diversity of experience on performance remains unchanged moreover for mnes experiencing greater environmental dynamism complexity and hostility there is a stronger positive relationship between experience and performance

understanding the differences in korean and u s executives strategic orientations competitive positioning in a global market requires an understanding of the decision processes and behavioral attributes of executives from different countries these attributes reflect the executives cultural background the national policies under which they have worked and their home country s level of economic development institutional context the current research compared strategic decision models of u s and korean executives and the results suggest that criteria employed by the executives from the two countries differ differences in institutional context between korea and the u s a were reflected in the weightings of objective criteria used by the executives korean executives emphasized industry attractiveness sales and market share because of policies that encourage growth and u s executives emphasized projected demand discounted cash flow and roi because of policies and institutions that focus on profitability the results suggest the importance of understanding the strategic orientations of international competitors partners in international strategic alliances and managers of international subsidiaries or divisions 1997 by john wiley sons ltd

explaining the internationalization of ibusiness firms information and communication technologies have given rise to a new type of firm the ibusiness firm these firms offer a platform that allows users to interact with each other and generate value through user co creation of content because of this ibusiness firms face different challenges when they internationalize compared with traditional firms even those online in this article we extend existing internationalization theory to encompass this new type of organization we theorize that because ibusiness firms produce value through the creation and coordination of a network of users these firms tend to suffer greater liabilities of outsidership when expanding abroad and therefore concentrate on network and diffusion based user adoption processes as they internationalize based on a multi case investigation of a sample of ibusiness firms we develop new theory and testable hypotheses thus we make an important contribution by expanding internationalization theory to a new set of firms

routine microprocesses and capability learning in international new ventures drawing on the distinction between the ostensive aspects abstract patterns and performative aspects specific actions of organizational routines the paper offers a micro level explanation of capability learning in international new ventures invs that is firms that internationalize actively from inception the paper argues that variability in the performative aspects of internationalization routines is associated with improvisational learning and new capability development whereas variability in the ostensive aspects is associated with trial and error learning and existing capability improvement furthermore psychic distance moderates these relationships low psychic distance facilitates both improvisation and trial and error learning high psychic distance frustrates learning of both types moderate psychic distance makes the success of both learning forms more likely but only for more experienced invs the paper also argues that social capital may mitigate the negative effects of high psychic distance it contributes to the extant literature by providing a micro level explanation of how invs accomplish capability learning and avoid wasteful learning efforts and by theorizing the moderating effects of psychic distance on the relationships between routine microprocesses and capability learning

the experience factor in foreign market entry behavior of service firms the paper examines the effect of international experience on service firms selection of foreign markets and entry modes the investigation utilizes survey date from 151 united states based service firms results on market selection suggest that as their experience increases and becomes geographically more diversified service firms tend to choose markets that are culturally less similar to their home country on entry mode choice the paper departs from traditional linear conceptualizations and hypothesizes a u shaped relationship between experience and propensity for integrated entry modes results generally support the hypothesis the paper explains these findings and describes how service firms resemble and differ from manufacturing firms in their foreign market entry behavior

the effect of specificity of experience on a firm s perceived importance of institutional knowledge in an ongoing business we study how three types of firm experience ranging from the specific to the general influence the perceived importance of institutional knowledge in the ongoing business of internationalising firms based on a sample of 101 small to medium sized firms the three types of firm experiences are international country and ongoing business the results show that firm experience within the ongoing business and the experience from multiple past business deals in various countries develop institutional knowledge whereas experience from multiple past business deals in a specific country does not the theoretical contribution of this paper is that it establishes a link between different kinds of experience and managerial cognition in terms of institutional knowledge in addition it emphasises that firms develop institutional knowledge from multiple diverse country experiences and experience in the specific ongoing business rather than experiences at the level of the country

organizational learning and diversification employing concepts of lateral and longitudinal learning we examined the dissolution of 462 expansions of dutch firms both acquisitions and new ventures we interpreted the endurance of an expansi

born global or born regional evidence from an exploratory study in the costa rican software industry this paper provides empirical evidence about born global firms in the software industry of a small developing country with an open economy costa rica the paper is based on data collected through interviews with ceos or founders of 40 costa rican software companies findings show that there are few born global firms among costa rican software providers we find that most companies followed a gradual approach to internationalization and they did not export immediately upon birth a careful analysis of firms that exported soon after they were born reveals that most firms are actually born regional

the effect of national culture on the choice of entry mode characteristics of national cultures have frequently been claimed to influence the selection of entry modes this article investigates this claim by developing a theoretical argument for why culture should influence the choice of entry two hypotheses are derived which relate culture to entry mode choice one focusing on the cultural distance between countries the other on attitudes towards uncertainty avoidance using a multinomial logit model and controlling for other effects the hypotheses are tested by analysing data on 228 entries into the united states market by acquisition wholly owned greenfield and joint venture empirical support for the effect of national culture on entry choice is found

mimetic and experiential effects in international marketing alliance formations of us pharmaceuticals firms an event history analysis alliances are recognized as an indispensable tool for managers operating in a global business environment and as a fundamental stage of the internationalization process of the firm drawing on a co evolutionary framework this article investigates the mimetic and experiential effects in international alliance formation we focus on a critical unresolved issue in the literature what is the role of mimetic behavior and previous alliance experience in mitigating the uncertainty associated with engaging in cross border operations an event history analysis of 792 international marketing alliance formations initiated by 317 firms in the us pharmaceutical industry is employed to test the hypotheses the findings of two different hazard rate models reveal significant complex effects of density and cross border alliance experience on the propensity to engage in new international marketing alliances

customer involvement and service firm internationalization performance an integrative framework to overcome the costs of doing business abroad researchers have suggested either legitimacy or efficiency based solutions however both types of solutions still treat host country customers as external to the theory we highlight the role of customers in the international professional business service setting and argue that customer involvement is positively related to the perceived internationalization performance of multinational corporations mncs mncs with managers who perceive higher legitimacy pressures and greater needs for local knowledge tend to undertake greater efforts to build customer involvement furthermore we develop a configuration framework between perceived strategic needs and mncs capabilities specifically mncs that match relational capability with legitimacy needs and absorptive capacity with knowledge needs are more likely to engage in customer involvement our survey of 175 chinese mncs provides evidence that customer involvement is positively related to perceived internationalization performance when mncs relational capabilities are stronger the positive relationship between legitimacy pressure and customer involvement increases by contrast mncs with greater perceived market ambiguity improve customer involvement only when they have stronger absorptive capacity we conclude that mncs may simultaneously reduce legitimacy and efficiency costs through customer involvement after considering the fit between perceived environmental pressures and firm capabilities

the bumpy road of technology partnerships understanding causes and consequences of partnership mal functioning abstract research on technological partnerships has traditionally sought explanation of their high failure rates in partner characteristics and relationship features this study introduces the notion of a bumpy road in technology partnerships which refers to undesired outcomes such as partnership mal functioning and instability to the degree to which innovation activities are hampered we explain how firm level strategies can reduce the probability of a bumpy road in partnerships we also assess the impact of this bumpy road on innovative performance we find that firms that excel in diversification of external activities in terms of different types of partners perform best moreover a persistent product oriented innovation strategy geared at developing new products new markets or higher product quality will yield more stable partnership outcomes our results confirm that engagement in partnerships is beneficial for innovative performance however firms that experienced a bumpy road in their technological partnerships have to pay a price in terms of a negative effect on their innovative performance

complexity context and governance in biotechnology alliances this study explores the effect of coordination needs on alliance governance we examine coordination needs that arise as a consequence of the characteristics and the context of the alliance we posit that alliance characteristics and contextual factors influence alliance form and equity investment levels we evaluate the effects of the complexity of technology transfer and strategic complexity of the alliance we also study contextual factors represented by the distance between the intellectual property protection regimes of the home countries of the participants the focal firm s prior presence in the alliance country and its primary expertise in the industry we offer contrasting predictions based on appropriation and coordination perspectives our results demonstrate support for a dominant coordination perspective with alliance characteristics and some contextual factors influencing alliance form appropriation concerns play a weaker role and receive less support

causes of the difficulties in internationalization we study the causes of the difficulties faced by firms when they internationalize in search of new markets we build on the resource based theory to argue that the difficulties in internationalization can be separated into three main sets based on their relationship to advantage loss of advantage provided by resources transferred abroad creation of a disadvantage by resources transferred abroad and lack of complementary resources required to operate abroad in each set we further distinguish difficulties that are specific to a firm from those that are common to a set of firms we argue that only a few of the resulting types of difficulties of internationalization are exclusive to the cross border expansion and propose solutions that address the root cause of each type

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

host country corruption and the organization of hq subsidiary relationships multinational enterprises mnes operating in more corrupt host than home countries face actual costs related to processing information for decision making and lack of local legitimacy and potential reputation and legal costs in case of corruption scandals drawing on the organizational perspective of corruption we argue that greater subsidiary autonomy helps minimize these costs however headquarter hq subsidiary communication weakens the autonomy based advantages for minimizing legitimacy costs and mnes experience in relatively corrupt countries weakens the advantages for minimizing information processing costs our analysis of 261 italian foreign subsidiaries in 25 host countries confirms most of our arguments except the moderating effect of mne experience our findings contribute to research on corruption and fdi weak institutional contexts and mne strategies as well as the literature on hq subsidiary relationship

speed of the internationalization process the role of diversity and depth in experiential learning by analyzing internationalization as a dynamic process we attempt to explain the speed of international operations in terms of learning acquired in the course of past international activities we consider that the speed of the internationalization process depends on the type of experiential learning that results from decisions implicit in the internationalization process choice of location and modes of operation firms develop two types of learning activities with respect to the selection of foreign markets and modes of operation diversity and depth of accumulated international activities we propose that depth of international activities has an inverted u shaped impact on the speed of the internationalization process while diversity of international activities has a u shaped influence on the speed of internationalization process the results of our longitudinal study of 889 firms over 23 years 1986 2008 suggest that diversity of international activities promotes long term learning by exposing the firm to richer experiences although such learning only takes place over time depth of international activities may accelerate the internationalization process in the short term but it eventually restrains its potential for development in the long term our research highlights the short term vs long term consequences of different types of decisions related to the internationalization process

evaluating export promotion programmes uk overseas trade missions and export performance this paper examines the extent to which firms knowledge and structural characteristics as well as firms behaviour in foreign markets following trade mission participation impacts upon trade mission success and export performance the findings suggest that 1 a diversification strategy in terms of export markets benefits future expansion into new foreign markets 2 specific knowledge about the targeted markets should be acquired prior to participating in the trade missions 3 communication with potential business partners should be established prior to participating in the trade missions and 4 the business relationships established before and during the trade missions should be cultivated through regular contacts using not only communication technology but also regular visits in summary overseas trade missions contribute to the generation of incremental sales in foreign markets by enhancing the relationship building process between business partners

entrepreneurial growth the role of international knowledge acquisition as moderated by firm age in line with repeated recent calls for research on specific forms of growth rather than on an undifferentiated notion of total growth our study contributes to the understanding of entrepreneurial growth by this we mean growth through expansion into new geographic markets and or via the introduction of new products or services building on penrose s theory of the growth of the firm and on the research streams she has in part inspired we investigate the impact of knowledge acquisition from international markets on entrepreneurial growth both at home and abroad we further suggest that the effects of international knowledge acquisition on entrepreneurial growth will vary with firm age utilizing longitudinal data on 138 small and medium sized enterprises smes we find that the acquisition of knowledge from international markets fuels growth through market development and that this effect is stronger for international expansion than domestic expansion our results also show that firm age negatively moderates the relationship between international knowledge acquisition and entrepreneurial growth via the introduction of new products or services specifically international knowledge acquisition has a positive effect on growth via new products services development in young firms but a negative effect in mature firms we assume this reflects changes over time in how international knowledge is managed

rights welfarism and social choice the purpose of this paper is to outline a formal analytical framework that can accommodate considerations of individual rights as well as the more familiar ethical concerns of conventional welfare economics the failure to accommodate such fundamental values as rights has been at the heart of amartya k sen s 1979 criticism of welfarism which is inherent in much of welfare economics and social choice theory however the roots of the problem seem to lie quite deep even if one discards neutrality and similar properties which are regarded as capturing the essence of welfarism the very concept of a social decision function itself so widely used in socialchoice theory turns out to be too restrictive a vehicle for articulating our intuition about rights we propose an extension of the standard framework of social choice theory which can overcome some of these difficulties and enables us to discuss individual rights and other social values in one integrated framework

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

catching the wave alertness responsiveness and market influence in global electronic networks this paper introduces the concepts of alertness and responsiveness as key capabilities for firms in fast moving information intensive environments such as global currency trading hypotheses drawn from the resource based view of the firm from network theory and from austrian economics are tested on objective cross section and time series data for the population of 4 088 banks engaged in foreign exchange trading on the reuters dealing system results strongly support the hypotheses that banks that are alert i e use their information networks in ways that expand the range of information they are exposed to and responsive those that act quickly in volatile markets tend to exercise greater market influence in this industry

do managers behave the way theory suggests a choice theoretic examination of foreign direct investment location decision making many empirical examinations of foreign direct investment location choice have relied on the use of secondary data and surveys on the choices made by firms about the form and location of overseas investment these studies have two inherent and related problems first they rely solely on the location choices made by different firms and assume that the domains of possible options considered were the same second there is an assumption about the rules used by firms to make these decisions yet the decisions are made by boundedly rational managers after reviewing the literature this study examines managers choices about foreign investment location through the use of structured experimentation the results show that in creating sets of investments to consider managers appear to follow fairly rational rules however the choice of actual investments appears less aligned to traditional models

characterizations of consequentialism and nonconsequentialism abstract by allowing for the possibility that individuals recognize the intrinsic value of choice along with the instrumental value thereof we suppose that individuals express extended preference orderings of the following type choosing an alternative x from an opportunity set a is better than choosing an alternative y from an opportunity set b within this framework we identify a consequentialist and a nonconsequentialist who show contrasting attiduces toward alternatives vis a vis opportunities this paper characterizes these attitudes in terms of some axioms whereas the companion paper explores the implication of these concepts in the context of social choice theory a la arrow journal of economic literature classification numbers d00 d60 d63 d71

international experience and fdi location choices of chinese firms the moderating effects of home country government support and host country institutions we examine the extent to which chinese government support of foreign direct investment fdi projects and host country institutional environments interact with prior entry experience by chinese firms and how this interrelationship affects fdi undertaken by chinese firms we hypothesize that home country government support and well established host country institutions enhance organizational capabilities to take risks in fdi as such they reduce the need to accumulate experiential knowledge and capabilities relating to entering host countries based on prior entry experience in a particular country when undertaking follow up investment projects using a unique hand collected panel data set of chinese publicly listed firms during 2002 2009 we find that home government support and well developed host country institutions reduce the importance of prior entry experience and significantly increase the likelihood of fdi entry into a host country further from our subsample analyses we identify differences between entering developed and developing host countries in terms of the impact of home country government support and quality of host country institutions our findings help explain the puzzle concerning why emerging economy firms have rapidly internationalized in a short period of time and do not follow the pattern predicted by classical ib theories

what differences in the cultural backgrounds of partners are detrimental for international joint ventures an international joint venture implies that a firm has to cooperate with a partner with a different cultural background in this study hypotheses about which differences in national culture are most disruptive for international joint ventures were developed and tested using hofstede s five dimensions the study focused on how these dimensions affect the survival of international joint ventures as well as their incidence relative to wholly owned subsidiaries the hypotheses were tested on longitudinal data about 828 foreign entries of twenty five dutch multinational in seventy two countries between 1966 and 1994 the database which spans almost three decades was also used to provide new evidence on a key assumption of hofstede s work that cultural values are stable over time

electric energy restructuring in the european union integration subsidiarity and the challenge of harmonization abstract in 1996 the european union eu instituted directive 96 92 ec that aims to establish a competitive secure and transparent eu wide internal electric energy market the process of electricity market restructuring in the eu is being guided primarily by the principle of subsidiarity as an organizational concept the principle of subsidiarity allows member states to establish their own implementation strategies and methods as a means of achieving the eu mandated goal of electric energy restructuring historically the structure of the electric energy industry in place among the member states exhibited widely disparate organizational and functional characteristics with regard to ownership control and regulation under these varied and contrasting political and economic conditions the goal of a eu wide harmonized electric energy market becomes very challenging in this paper i describe the policy mechanisms and the market conditions mandated by the eu directive aimed at liberalizing the electric energy market i then assess the role of political culture historical resource endowment and geographical conditions in the utility restructuring strategies of some key member states and its effects on the overall goals of a harmonized internal electric energy market finally i argue that european electric energy restructuring must be understood within the context of the political and economic milieu that spawned the individual member states electric energy industry

global mind sets and cognitive shift in a complex multinational corporation this article investigates attitudes that underlie international strategy processes we propose survey scales of these attitudes and describe tests that support their reliability and validity as measures of constructs including integration responsiveness and coordination that researchers have used for many years in case analyses of international strategy and organization we also propose and validate scales to capture the perceived alignment with firms international objectives of key business policies that affect individuals including accountability for global results career opportunity and a globally shared meaning system that informs communication and discussion about change our discussion of these tests offers an assessment of how changing patterns of association among the measures over time conform to expectations generated by the case based empirical literature we argue that these patterns document a process of organizational learning that can link managers mind sets with senior managers intentions in the course of proactive international strategic change the analysis relies on survey responses taken in 1992 and 1995 from 370 managers in 13 country affiliates and the head office of a u s based diversified multinational corporation dmnc 1998 john wiley sons ltd

mitigating risk in international mergers and acquisitions the role of contingent payouts previous internationalization studies have focused on the entry modes employed by multinational firms but have not considered the contractual heterogeneity that underlies each mode it is important to examine these contractual details as the firm may be able to obtain some of the benefits typically associated with one entry mode while selecting another in the case of international mergers and acquisitions m as a key contractual variable is whether the parties agree to a performance contingent payout structure which can mitigate the risk of adverse selection in this paper we examine the antecedents of contingent payouts in the form of earnouts and stock payments the results indicate that firms lacking international and domestic acquisition experience turn to contingent payouts when purchasing targets in high tech and service industries firms tend to avoid contingent payouts in host countries with problems with investor protection and legal enforceability

concentration in the european electricity industry the internal market as solution abstract this article offers an analysis of the present competitive and regulatory framework of the european electricity sector and the results achieved with the liberalisation process considering the reactions of incumbents to the liberalisation the focus in this work is mainly on the problem of market concentration in the sector the new trends toward the creation of national champions as well as recent mergers between gas suppliers and electricity producers raise serious concerns about abuses of market power and risk of future collusion in particular the strategic linkage of existing markets and the expansion into new ones are analyzed in the light of the multimarket contact theory considering investment in interconnection among member states the internal market issue is investigated as a solution to the risks coming from liberalisation

experiential knowledge and costs in the internationalization process using a behavioral approach this study identifies and delineates components of experiential knowledge in the internationalization process three hypotheses are developed and tested they center around the lack of knowledge in the areas of foreign business foreign institutions and firm internationalization as well as the effect that this lack of knowledge has on managers perceived cost in the internationalization process with the help of a lisrel based structural model the three hypotheses are tested on a sample of 362 service firms the analysis shows that lack of internationalization knowledge has a strong impact on the lack of both business and institutionalization but there is no direct effect of lack of internationalization knowledge on perceived cost of internationalization

eco efficiency outcomes of mergers and acquisitions in the european electricity industry abstract the european electricity industry was recently liberalized in response there was a surge of mergers and acquisitions m as this study addresses the effects of m as on the eco efficiency of european electricity producers in 2005 2013 the environmental production technology comprises co2 emissions as an undesirable output i compute eco efficiency using data envelopment analysis dea and the malmquist luenberger productivity index which are both based on radial directional distance function i observe a decreasing trend in average eco efficiency which contradicts the previously documented moderate efficiency gains of liberalization the effects of m as are isolated using second step fractional regression the domestic horizontal m as which are systematically regulated by the european commission have no impact although one cross border horizontal deal has a same year effect of roughly 3 this effect becomes approximately 1 5 over a two year timespan vertical domestic m as have a short run negative impact of 3 6 that does not persist over time vertical international m as reduce the eco efficiency by 2 1 two years after their completion limited evidence suggests that the conglomerate deals are at least not harmful the policy implication is that the merger regulation should be based on dea eco efficiency measures regulators should devote more attention to cross border m as and particularly to vertical deals

limits to international entry mode learning in smes despite extensive research the literature is unclear about the circumstances under which a firm learns from its past foreign entry modes and how this experiential learning is related to future mode choices building on the internationalization process ip model and the idea that some experiential learning is location bound while other learning is non location bound we develop and test theory to explain how experiential learning about foreign operation modes and markets impact future mode choices in new foreign markets overall we argue that mode based experiential learning is limited through the repeated use of a specific operation mode firms develop routines and processes that are non location bound and can be replicated in new foreign markets leading to the use of this same mode type in new locations but when complemented by experiential learning about a target market region firms opt for operation modes with greater commitment in new foreign markets drawing on a sample of german smes and examining four different types of entry modes we find some support however we also identify a number of notable exceptions to our theory in this way we help provide unique new insights informing future ip model experiential learning and international entry mode research

simulating power integration in latin america to assess challenges opportunities and threats abstract integration of electricity markets started to spread under the world wide trend to economic liberalization while some regions are managing better than others lessons both political and technical highlight challenges ahead that need to be overcome since the early 2000s panama colombia ecuador and peru have decided to integrate their electricity markets eventually creating an enormous latin american electricity exchange ranging from mexico to chile this poses opportunities and threats to the region as it involves cooperation trust and the will to overcome difficulties that may arise in this direction we developed a system dynamics model linked to an iterative algorithm to assess the likely effects of integration on both system expansion and security of supply the model helps us understand the logic of the long term system behavior under different policies assuming market coupling as the dispatch mechanism based on theoretical grounds and after analyzing simulation results under different scenarios we conclude that the integration of electricity markets may render important opportunities regarding security of supply and efficiency and consequently energy might be supplied at lower prices using cleaner technologies however benefits largely depend on policy regulation and technical issues

learning dynamics in research alliances a panel data analysis the aim of this paper is to empirically test the determinants of research joint ventures rjvs group dynamics we develop a model based on learning and transaction cost theories which represent the benefits and costs of rjv participation respectively according to our framework firms at each period in time weigh the benefits against the costs of being an rjv member rjv dynamics can then be interpreted as a consequence of this evolving trade off over time we look at entry turbulence and exit in rjvs that have been set up under the us national cooperative research act which allows for certain antitrust exemptions in order to stimulate firms to co operate in r d accounting for unobserved project characteristics and controlling for inter rjv interactions and industry effects the tobit panel regressions show the importance of group and time features for an rjvs evolution we further identify an average rjvs long term equilibrium size and assess its determining factors ours is a first attempt to produce robust stylized facts about co operational short and long term dynamics a neglected dimension in research co operations but an important element in understanding how collaborative learning works

yes we really do need more entry mode studies a commentary on shaver in a recent commentary published in this journal shaver raises the provocative question of whether we need more entry mode studies after assessing the reasons for shaver s doubts and further developing his broad research suggestions we conclude that this question should be answered affirmatively we derive three important questions for future entry mode research 1 what determines the evolution of operations resulting from suboptimal mode choices 2 what causes the replication of past mode choices 3 how is the entry decision process structured focusing on these questions should assure a bright future for entry mode research

human capital in multinational enterprises does strategic alignment matter this research proposes a strategic human capital alignment framework to examine whether the alignment between subsidiary strategy i e export oriented vs local market oriented strategy and human capital i e parent firm vs local specific human capital is positively related to subsidiary performance in multinational enterprises mnes we further explore two important exogenous i e foreign exchange rate change and endogenous i e mne international experience boundary conditions since they may adjust the positive effect of strategic human capital alignment on performance the analysis based on 5604 subsidiary observations of 423 mnes from 1990 to 2012 confirms the positive synergic effect of aligning subsidiary strategy and human capital and shows the moderating effects of foreign exchange rate change and mne international experience by presenting the importance of subsidiary strategy global staffing alignment and the roles of external economic environments and internal organizational capabilities as boundary conditions the strategic human capital alignment framework suggests that what makes human capital valuable for the firm is its alignment with strategic orientation thus managers should carefully deploy the appropriate type of human capital to fulfill the requisite organizational strategy and take into account changing external and internal contextual conditions in applying the framework

foreign direct investment and local linkages this paper analyses the pattern of local linkages in foreign direct investment fdi treating such local linkages as an investment in local relationships using taiwanese manufacturing firms investing abroad as the sample for our case study we find that the local linkage intensity of a foreign subsidiary differs by fdi location entry mode firm size and the nature of the production network in which an investor is embedded more local linkages will be pursued by an investor if it is in search of distinctive and inimitable resources as opposed to homogeneous and reproducible resources investment in local linkages always begins with the linkage that carries the lowest risk to the original business network for manufacturing firms the sequence of such linkages is workers components and parts subcontracting and finally sources of r d

organizational learning about new international markets exploring the internal transfer of local market knowledge this study examines the transfer of local market knowledge within the diversified firm as its divisions expand into a new host country within the u s based corporations in our sample both the nature of local market knowledge itself and differences in organizational structures significantly influence the extent of internal knowledge transfer among divisions the results suggest that as firms expand into new international markets their organizational learning processes differ significantly

a review of research on the growth of multinational enterprises a penrosean lens abstract we provide a comprehensive review of the growth of multinational enterprises mnes based on a quarter century 25 years of scholarly international business publications we synthesize research insights on the determinants of the growth of mnes through the lens of penrose s theory of firm growth which is the most influential theoretical perspective on firm growth the review takes stock of the research findings on the facilitators constraints and the trajectory of growth of mnes and elaborates on the commonalities and differences between research on the growth of mnes that draws on penrose s theory and research that does not this comparison highlights the opportunity to build an internally coherent theory of the growth of mnes that is a theory that connects what an mne is to what determines an mne s growth it also indicates that past research placed a strong emphasis on exogenous factors e g cross country distances as key constraints on growth even though the penrosean lens suggests a close consideration of endogenous factors that drive international growth as well as endogenizing the ostensibly exogenous growth determinants the review highlights the importance of firm specific managerial knowledge and learning which shapes the direction of the growth of mnes and ensures its administrative coherence