in search of appropriate methodology from outside the people s republic of china looking in choosing a methodology determines what we can study as well as the range of possible results and conclusions this study took an instrument that had been developed in the west and used extensively in europe and north america to investigate managerial behavior in the people s republic of china for a number of reasons it failed to produce a valid and reliable description of chinese managerial behavior this paper investigates some of the methodogical issues involved in extending western organizational knowledge to the east it raises some fundamental questions about being outside looking in

prices institutions and determinants of supply in the malian cotton sector cotton both a source of livelihood for millions of poor rural households and a major source of export revenues is a vital commodity for the economic and social development of mali inefficiencies in the malian cotton system at the ginnery and producers cooperative levels e g late payment to farmers and poorly functioning credit schemes have recently led to an important decline in supply threatening the sustainability of the sector using regional data from 1998 1999 to 2008 2009 this study aims to quantitatively assess the contribution of key determinants such as cotton prices and timely payment toward the downward trend in cotton area a dynamic supply model based on adaptive expectations and partial adjustment is employed to estimate the effects of prices and institutional factors such as credit recovery rates and date of payment to farmers on the malian cotton supply results show that supply responds significantly to cotton prices relative to cereal and fertilizer prices date of payment varies across agricultural cycles and late payment negatively influences land devoted to cotton low credit repayment rates create disincentives to grow cotton therefore the revitalization of the malian cotton sector depends upon getting both prices and institutions right

country of origin effects on product evaluations this article reviews the literature regarding the effect of country of origin on buyer evaluations of products the issue is important for countries especially resource poor developing countries that need to increase manufactured exports and for firms that source products in countries different from where sold marketing inferences are drawn and implications for future research are developed

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

ownership based entry mode strategies and international performance this study examines the relationship between ownership entry modes and performance the ownership entry modes examined are the wholly owned modes of acquisition and new venture entry and the non wholly owned mode of joint venture entry a theoretical relationship is developed for international entry modes that is based on the contingency characteristics of resource requirements and organizational control factors this model suggests that different entry modes have different performance outcomes based upon their resource and organizational control demands the theoretical model although developed using the eclectic theoretical approach is based largely on concepts and relationships previously delineated in contingency theory our hypotheses suggest that new ventures should outperform joint ventures and joint ventures should outperform acquisitions an empirical test using a sample of 321 japanese firms entering the north american market provides supporting evidence

competitive position managerial ties and profitability of foreign firms in china an interactive perspective despite the prominence of the competitive strategy perspective it remains unclear whether foreign firms entering china can still adopt a differentiation or low cost position to achieve superior performance given the unique market and institutional environments in china alternatively should foreign firms follow conventional wisdom and actively build managerial ties with government officials and business community to enhance their performance this study develops and tests an interactive perspective that highlights the moderating effects of managerial ties on competitive position performance relationships the results indicate that though both differentiation and low cost positions foster foreign firm profitability the benefit of a differentiation position is conditional on political and business ties in different directions political ties impede and business ties strengthen the positive effect of a differentiation position on foreign firms profitability moreover foreign firms benefit from their use of business ties but their profitability suffers when they rely increasingly on the heavy use of political ties

product stereotypes strategy and performance satisfaction the case of chinese exporters does following a product strategy of price leadership result in superior performance satisfaction for chinese exporters does branding products and targeting less developed countries significantly improve chinese exporters satisfaction with export performance results indicate performance satisfaction decreased when chinese firms pursued price leadership product strategies while performance satisfaction increased when chinese exporters used a branding product strategy branding products and targeting other less developed countries with these brands significantly increased performance satisfaction over branding alone

productivity spillovers from foreign direct investment evidence from uk industry level panel data this paper examines intra industry productivity spillovers from foreign direct investment fdi in the uk manufacturing sector the empirical analysis uses panel data for 48 uk industries over the period 1991 1995 a major contribution is empirical evidence on spillover effects in situations where the host country is developed the results indicate that the very presence of fdi has a positive spillover impact on the productivity of uk owned firms the analysis also shows that the extent to which local firms benefit from the introduction of advanced technology depends largely on their own technological capabilities

consumer product export opportunities to liberalizing ldcs a life cycle approach this paper reviews popular and academic literature in order to describe several relationships which appear to exist between liberalization in ldcs and imports of consumer goods based on this review the parameters of a life cycle model are developed for consumer product exports to liberalizing ldcs such exports are hypothesized to 1 be minimal prior to liberalization and 2 rise rapidly in the early stages of liberalization and 3 decline sometimes precipitously several years later these hypotheses are tested using consumer import data from three unique ldcs chile egypt and china finally the implications of the model for ldc governments exporters and foreign investors are explored

how mncs choose entry modes and form alliances the china experience this study examine two dimensions of firms foreign market entry strategy mode of entry and formation of alliances based on the existing literature we propose a model that describes how host country home country and industry specific factors affect foreign firms decisions on how they enter the market and whether they will enter with a partner firm or not the model also describes how operation related factors i e the location and the level of local government affect these decisions seven major hypotheses were tested using a longitudinal sample of 2 998 foreign business activities in china between 1979 and 1993 our sample consists of foreign investing firms from the u s europe japan and other asian countries by choosing china as a host country the study offers insights into how firms of different regional groups adapted their strategies to a changing host environment

domestic alliance network to attract foreign partners evidence from international joint ventures in china partner selection is a critical issue in building international joint ventures ijvs we argue that foreign firms are more likely to select local firms with unique network structural advantages within a local alliance network we frame structural advantages as two network position traits centrality and brokerage specifically network centrality acts as a stronger network trait than brokerage in attracting foreign ijv partners however such a relationship may be moderated by foreign firms local experience and perceived capabilities we contend that when foreign firms have a high level of local market experience and perceived capabilities they may prefer a local broker over a centrally located local firm data on the domestic alliance network in china s electronics and information technology it industries largely support our hypotheses we conclude that as foreign investors become strategic insiders they may not only seek a local partner s capability attributes but also more critically pay attention to a local partner s domestic network

do risk aversion and wages explain educational choices abstract we study a model in which a student s investment in education maximizes expected utility conditional on public and private information the model takes future wage risk into account and treats the direct and opportunity costs of education as additional sources of risk in particular the time needed to complete a degree is random the data show that time to degree is substantially dispersed conditional on the highest degree we find significant and substantial effects of expected returns on individual education choices the risk affecting education costs and in particular the randomness of time to degree also plays an important role in explaining enrollment in higher education we find precise estimates of the crra risk aversion parameter between 0 6 and 0 9 heterogeneity in risk attitudes is significant even in sub populations the sons of professionals bear more risk and are more risk averse than the rest of the sample yet they study more because of higher returns and markedly lower expected investment costs simulations show a strong impact of changes in the probability of grade retention on educational achievement

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

customer evaluation of products in a global market marketing scholars interest in the influence of source countries on product evaluations has intensified during the past twenty five years as this research tradition has evolved the literature has gradually gained more depth and sophistication nevertheless research in this area lacks a common conceptual framework furthermore research priorities with regard to the role of this area of inquiry within the broader field of consumer behavior marketing and general business decisions have not been made clear this article rationalizes the buying decision processes within the context of source country influences and offers a conceptual framework for further development in addition it links country level considerations to firm level decisionmaking thus providing a foundation for meaningful managerial decisions

is dunning s eclectic framework descriptive or normative can dunning s oli ownership location internalization framework be used to predict the best performing international entry modes or merely the most commonly selected modes using data from german and dutch firms investing in central and eastern europe we investigate the relationship between dunning s oli variables entry mode selection and managerial satisfaction with firm performance we found empirical support for dunning s framework as both a descriptive and a normative model

country of origin effects in developed and emerging markets exploring the contrasting roles of materialism and value consciousness despite growing evidence about differences in the attitudes and behaviors of consumers in emerging and developed markets there is little research on the differences in country of origin coo effects on their evaluation behavioral intentions bis and actual purchase of imported products this paper introduces a new conceptual framework incorporating consumer ethnocentrism cet materialism mat and value consciousness vc to hypothesize several differences in the influence of coo effects on consumers from developed and emerging markets a web based study with 1752 consumers in four countries representing two developed markets the uk and the usa and two emerging markets china and india shows significant differences in the moderating influence of cet mat and vc on the effects of coo on the evaluations and bis for a fictitious passenger car brand and on the actual choice of car brands owned by them the findings highlight the importance of looking beyond cet at other relevant psychographic variables to understand the differences in motivations underlying consumer perceptions and behavior towards imported products

the export development process an integrative review of empirical models despite widespread research on the export behavior of firms no integrative review of the empirical work in relation to export development models exists in the extant literature this article reviews the main models on the subject identifies their structural characteristics evaluates the methodologies used for their validation and analyzes the key conceptual issues emerging from their assessment while valuable inroads into the mechanics and constituent parts of the export development process have been made this avenue of empirical inquiry has attracted criticism on structural methodological and conceptual grounds future research in the field should harness the eclectic contribution afforded by existing theory and at the same time enhance its status with contributions from marketing business and other disciplines

the impact of natural culture and economic ideology on managerial work values a study of the united states russia japan and china this study assesses the impact of economic ideology and national culture on the individual work values of managers in the united states russia japan and china the convergence divergence crossvergence cdc framework was used as theoretical framework for the study while the schwartz value survey svs was used to operationalize over investigation of managerial work values across these four countries the findings largely support the crossvergence prospective while also confirming the role of national culture implications from the findings are drawn for the convergence divergence crossvergence of values as well as for the feasibility of multidomestic or global strategies for a corporate culture

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

outward direct investment by indonesian firms motivation and effects as part of indonesia s opening to the world economy over the past several years indonesian firms have begun to invest abroad this study compares indonesian firms that have invested abroad and those that have not and with third world multinationals and other mnes it found that the performance of indonesian firms that invested abroad improved dramatically after their investment in terms of management expertise exports quality and costs relative to their past performance and relative to the other firms in the sample these results support a conclusion that indonesian multinationals have gone abroad not only to exploit their ownership advantages but also to access and develop ownership advantages they did not previously possess

corporate social responsibility product differentiation strategy and export performance this article argues that corporate social responsibility csr may contribute to product differentiation in export markets and thus improve export performance we test this argument by observing a period of decreasing export competitiveness in a leading emerging economy brazil using a large scale survey design with 252 questionnaires completed by medium and large sized brazilian exporters we used structural equations modelling to test our hypotheses the results suggest that csr product differentiation predicts export performance better than product quality differentiation and almost as well as product innovation differentiation multi group analysis further revealed that the positive and significant effect of csr product differentiation on export performance is likely to be contingent on the number and type developing vs developed of countries that are targeted our study contributes to the literature on csr and export performance by developing and empirically validating a model that explains under which conditions csr based product differentiation may lead to improved export performance

measuring performance of international joint ventures international joint ventures ijvs are increasing in frequency and strategic importance however efforts to identify variables associated with ijv performance have been constrained by disagreements regarding the comparability and reliability of alternative performance measures and methods this study tests several hypotheses regarding the reliability and comparability of a range of objective and subjective measures of ijv performance as well as evaluating the relative utility of different data collection approaches

reflections on china s open policy towards foreign direct investment hayter r and han s s 1998 reflections on china s open policy towards foreign direct investment reg studies 32 1 16 china s open policy of kaifang zhengce assumes that foreign direct investment is an essential mechanism by which technological and other forms of know how regarding best practices can be transferred into the chinese economy yet this transfer cannot be assumed to the extent that the know how desired by china simultaneously defines the competitive advantage of multinational corporations kaifang zhengce is china s geopolitical strategy to resolve this paradox its key features involve combining an explicit spatial strategy within china and reliance on investment by overseas chinese especially firms based in hong kong yet these firms are not foreign as conventionally considered and their contribution to the modernization of china is greater than supposed hayter r et han s s 1998 des reflexions sur la politique d ouverture de la chine a l investissement etranger direct reg

translation in cross language international business research beyond equivalence in this paper we problematise the way translation has been treated in international business ib research we start by conducting an interpretive content analysis of both qualitative and quantitative cross language studies published in four core ib journals over the course of a decade our analysis shows the dominance of a technicist view of translation associated with the equivalence paradigm in contrast we advocate a shift to a more contextualised approach informed by theoretical developments in translation studies more specifically we focus on two theoretical perspectives skopos theory and cultural politics which offer related but distinct approaches to rethinking equivalence we conclude by advocating that the translation process be reframed as a process of intercultural interaction rather than a lexical transfer of meaning this reconceptualisation would we argue open up what is currently a black box in most ib studies the contextualised approach that we offer has the potential not just to enrich the findings of studies but also provide insights that are of multidisciplinary relevance

government intervention perceived benefit and bribery of firms in transitional china this article examines whether 1 government intervention causes bribery or corruption as rent seeking theory suggested 2 a firm s perceived benefit partially mediates the relationship between government intervention and its bribing behavior as rational choice behavior theory suggested and 3 other firms bribing behavior moderates the relationship between government intervention and a firm s perceived benefit our study shows that government intervention causes bribery corruption indeed but it exerts its effect on bribery corruption through the firm s perceived benefit in other words a firm s perceived benefit fully mediates the relationship between government intervention and its bribing behavior we also find that other firms bribery positively moderates the relationship between government intervention and a given firm s bribery this study partly proves that firms are rational actors potential benefit encourages them to practice bribery besides this research also supports the rent seeking view of bribery corruption which argues that government intervention is a source of bribery corruption however we have also identified that only those government interventions that will create rent can cause bribery corruption

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