career management issues facing expatriates this research explores expatriate assignments from a career development perspective first the article examines the impact of five organization level career development programs and policies on expatriate effectiveness then it explores the impact of five individual level career management strategies on the success of expatriate transitions data from 118 expatriates in saudi arabia europe south america and japan are presented to examine these career development issues

effect sizes and the interpretation of research results in international business journal editors and academy presidents are increasingly calling on researchers to evaluate the substantive as opposed to the statistical significance of their results to measure the extent to which these calls have been heeded i aggregated the meta analytically derived effect size estimates obtained from 965 individual samples i then surveyed 204 studies published in the journal of international business studies i found that the average effect size in international business research is small and that most published studies lack the statistical power to detect such effects reliably i also found that many authors confuse statistical with substantive significance when interpreting their research results these practices have likely led to unacceptably high type ii error rates and invalid inferences regarding real world effects by emphasizing p values over their effect size estimates researchers are under selling their results and settling for contributions that are less than what they really have to offer in view of this i offer four recommendations for improving research and reporting practices

best of both worlds how embeddedness fit in the host unit and the headquarters improve repatriate knowledge transfer knowledge transfer within multinational enterprises is a source of competitive advantage however we know little about repatriates role in reverse knowledge transfer upon their return to headquarters hq using an organizational embeddedness perspective we conceptualized how embeddedness fit individuals perceived match between their knowledge and skills and the job requirements during the expatriation assignment and upon repatriation predicts repatriate knowledge transfer to test the hypotheses we collected multi wave survey data from 129 repatriates and their supervisors and developed a repatriate knowledge transfer scale the results show that perceived organizational support from hq positively influences embeddedness fit both in the host unit during expatriation and in the hq upon repatriation further embeddedness fit in the hq upon repatriation has a direct effect while embeddedness fit in the host unit during expatriation has an indirect effect on repatriate knowledge transfer via increased communication frequency with the former host unit in addition we found that knowledge transfer is particularly pronounced for repatriates with both high levels of embeddedness fit in the hq upon repatriation and frequent communication with colleagues in their former host unit our results highlight the critical importance of helping expatriates increase their perceived embeddedness fit for reverse knowledge transfer to occur

expatriate performance appraisal in u s multinational firms this exploratory study examines empirically expatriate performance appraisal epa practices for u s multinational firms and assesses how such practices relate to the perceived accuracy of epas from a sample of u s multinationals the results suggest that a balanced set of raters from host and home countries and more frequent appraisals relate positively to perceived accuracy of epas the data suggest however that most respondent firms did not follow these practices in addition the use of standardized and customized epa evaluation forms relates negatively to perceived epa accuracy implications of these exploratory findings for research and practice are also discussed

a causal model of linkages among environmental dimensions macro organizational characteristics and performance an integrative model of relationships among environmental dimensions diversification strategy firm size structural divisionalization and economic performance was developed and tested using environmental and organizational data from 110 large manufacturing firms the results suggested that among those organizations 1 higher levels of environmental instability were associated with lower levels of divisionalization and diversification 2 strategy followed structure and 3 size did not mediate the strategy structure relationship furthermore both environmental instability and diversification were positively related to market determined performance and instability was negatively related to operating performance the results provided support for portions of each of three models the external control strategic management and inertial models

ambiguity aversion and comparative ignorance decisions under uncertainty depend not only on the degree of uncertainty but also on its source as illustrated by ellsberg s observation of ambiguity aversion in this article we propose the comparative ignorance hypothesis according to which ambiguity aversion is produced by a comparison with less ambiguous events or with more knowledgeable individuals this hypothesis is supported in a series of studies showing that ambiguity aversion present in a comparative context in which a person evaluates both clear and vague prospects seems to disappear in a noncomparative context in which a person evaluates only one of these prospects in isolation

connections to distant knowledge interpersonal ties between more and less developed countries less developed countries benefit from being connected to technologically and economically advanced countries the well documented mechanisms for this cross national flow of knowledge all involve interfirm connections such as trade foreign direct investment fdi and alliances we examine the potential of a different mechanism interpersonal ties abroad that has only recently become practicable owing to advances in communication and transportation technologies globalization and increased migration we investigate when business knowledge obtained from interpersonal ties in more developed countries is more useful than locally sourced knowledge using a sample of south african managers we find that knowledge from more developed countries is not always more useful rather overseas knowledge is preferable when novel and accessible that is when new to the industry knowledge is needed when there is already a strong tie and when the knowledge does not involve a long discussion conversely local knowledge is preferable when new to the industry knowledge is not needed when the interpersonal tie is a weak tie and when a longer discussion is warranted this study demonstrates the value of connections between individuals in countries at different levels of development as sources of useful knowledge and suggests that international business research will benefit from exploring further the networks of individuals in addition to those of firms

social ties and international entrepreneurship opportunities and constraints affecting firm internationalization international entrepreneurship involves the identification and exploitation of opportunities for international exchange yet little is known about the entrepreneurial methods used for opportunity recognition while previous work emphasizes effects operating at the level of the business network i propose that the recognition of exchange opportunities is a highly subjective process shaped by entrepreneurs existing ties with others based on interview data collected from 41 managers i develop a comprehensive measure for classifying different methods of opportunity recognition i then use this measure to classify 665 international exchange ventures set up by entrepreneurs in four chinese cities in contrast with past research i find virtually no role for blind luck although the majority of exchange opportunities were discovered rather than sought these discoveries were intentional rather than accidental i also find that entrepreneurs idiosyncratic connections with others both promote and inhibit international exchange tie based opportunities lead to higher quality and more valuable exchanges that are constrained in terms of geographic psychic and linguistic distance from this i conclude that entrepreneurial networks have distinct opportunity horizons that limit the reach of tie based exchanges and potentially lead to sub optimal internationalization trajectories

the internationalization of entrepreneurship our article that has been awarded the 2004 journal of international business studies decade award toward a theory of international new ventures represents an integration of international business entrepreneurship and strategic management scholarship this retrospective article explains the intellectual and personal origins of the work in addition it highlights the definitions of international new ventures and international entrepreneurship finally in response to recent concerns about the importance of international business scholarship the research discussed here stands as an example of the successful exportation of international business scholarship into adjacent disciplines

a needs driven approach to expatriate adjustment and career development a multiple mentoring perspective although effective in improving socialization development and retention in the us domestic context mentoring would likely benefit expatriates and their firms but it remains theoretically underdeveloped in the international context we develop a theory of international mentoring by integrating current perspectives on protean and boundaryless careers with the literature on mentoring and expatriates expatriates need multiple mentors to assist their adjustment and development during the pre departure expatriation and repatriation stages of international assignments we discuss both hierarchical and peer and formal and informal mentoring relationships to delineate which relationships best address specific expatriate needs international mentoring may improve expatriate adjustment development and retention and thus may affect outcomes of international strategy we conclude by discussing implications and avenues for future research

mnc knowledge transfer subsidiary absorptive capacity and hrm based on a sample of 169 subsidiaries of multinational corporations mncs operating in the usa russia and finland this paper investigates the relationship between mnc subsidiary human resource management hrm practices absorptive capacity and knowledge transfer first we examine the relationship between the application of specific hrm practices and the level of the absorptive capacity second we suggest that absorptive capacity should be conceptualized as being comprised of both employees ability and motivation further results indicate that both ability and motivation absorptive capacity are needed to facilitate the transfer of knowledge from other parts of the mnc

repatriating knowledge variables influencing the transfer process because of the strategic importance of organizational learning in a global economy the knowledge that repatriates acquire during international assignments is a valuable resource few multinational enterprises however actively harvest this knowledge and little quantitative empirical research on this topic exists to date we propose an original model and propositions that delineate the facilitative and inhibiting factors affecting repatriate knowledge transfer to work units we conclude with suggestions for future research and practical implications

managing the mne subsidiary advancing a multi level and dynamic research agenda abstract multinational enterprise mne subsidiaries abroad are important organizations in their own rights they typically hold some of the mne s most critical resources and operate at the forefront of complex international environments in this review we identify and organize theoretical and empirical research on subsidiary management based on over 600 articles in leading academic journals we develop a conceptual framework that integrates complementary streams of theoretical and empirical research with the subsidiary as its focal unit of analysis in particular we review six lines of research on subsidiary scope practices knowledge management engagement with local market and nonmarket actors performance and individuals within subsidiaries we highlight theoretical perspectives that have contributed to and been advanced by research on mne subsidiaries based on the review we explore future research agendas linking the contemporary research themes with two main thrusts first subsidiary management is a multi level phenomenon that would benefit from more microfoundational research second subsidiary management operates at key interfaces of technology paradigm shifts and of disruptions in the political and institutional environment research into the dynamics of subsidiary management would thus enhance our understanding of international business in a volatile global economy

bank lending and property prices in hong kong abstract this paper studies the relationship between residential property prices and bank lending in hong kong this is an interesting topic for three reasons first swings in property prices have been extremely large and frequent in hong kong second under the currency board regime monetary policy cannot be used to guard against asset price swings third despite the collapse in property prices since 1998 the banking sector remains sound while the contemporaneous correlation between lending and property prices is large our results suggest that the direction of influence goes from property prices to bank credit rather than conversely

honor and war southern us presidents and the effects of concern for reputation reputation has long been considered central to international relations but unobservability strategic selection and endogeneity have handicapped quantitative research a rare source of haphazard variation in the cultural origins of leaders the fact that one third of us presidents were raised in the american south a well studied example of a culture of honor provides an opportunity to identify the effects of heightened concern for reputation for resolve a formal theory that yields several testable predictions while accounting for unobserved selection into disputes is offered the theory is illustrated through a comparison of presidents john f kennedy and lyndon b johnson and systematically tested using matching permutation inference and the nonparametric combination of tests interstate conflicts under southern presidents are shown to be twice as likely to involve uses of force last on average twice as long and are three times more likely to end in victory for the united states than disputes under non southern presidents other characteristics of southern presidencies do not seem able to account for this pattern of results the results provide evidence that concern for reputation is an important cause of interstate conflict behavior

cultural and language skills as resources for boundary spanning within the mnc we examine the role of cultural and language skills as resources for individuals boundary spanning ability in multinational corporations our combined qualitative and quantitative analysis shows that cultural and language skills influence the extent to which individual boundary spanners perform four functions exchanging linking facilitating and intervening boundary spanners with both cultural and language skills perform more functions than those with only cultural skills and language skills are critical for performing the most demanding functions key boundary spanners have properties that potentially make them not only valuable organizational human capital but also rare and difficult to imitate theoretical and practical implications are discussed

the president and the political use of force throughout the post world war ii period the president has been called upon to make decisions concerning the use of force as a political instrument the explanation that is offered is based upon a characterization of the president as a cybernetic human decision maker facing limitations these limitations in conjunction with the complexity of the environment lead presidents to develop and use a relatively simple decision rule the dependent variable which is the probability of the use of force at any point in time is explained in terms of enduring and essential concerns which are operationalized as coming from the international domestic and personal environments data are taken from blechman and kaplan s force without war on the basis of our estimation and evaluation presidential decisions to use force are based on factors in all three arenas

ceo successor characteristics and the choice of foreign market entry mode an empirical study based on the upper echelons theory this study of 126 ceo successions and 271 foreign market entry events examines the relationships between successor ceo characteristics and choice of entry mode results indicate that ceo position tenure throughput functional background and international experience are associated with full control entry modes additionally these relationships were observed in the subgroup of high performing firms but not in the low performing subgroup

the importance of international business to the strategic agenda of u s ceos the growth of international business ib and concerns about the relevance of ib research indicate the need for managerial input on the topic a survey of 108 u s ceos reveals that ib issues are an important part of their strategic agenda four types of ib issues are identified which reveal that american ceos appear to be taking a proactive stance regarding the international arena the ceos were also found to hold diverse perceptions of ib issues the implications of these findings are discussed

managing international interdependence ceo characteristics in a resource based framework this study s basic argument is that the level of a firm s international interdependence influences the pattern of ceo characteristics ideal for enabling a ceo to contribute to firm performance in

the embeddedness of networks institutions structural holes and innovativeness in the fuel cell industry plentiful research suggests that embeddedness in alliance networks influences firms innovativeness this research however has mostly overlooked the fact that interorganizational ties are themselves embedded within larger institutional contexts that can shape the effects of networks on organizational outcomes we address this gap in the literature by arguing that national institutions affect the extent to which specific network positions such as brokerage influence innovation we explore this idea in the context of corporatism which fosters an institutional logic of collaboration that influences the broker s ability to manage its partnerships and recombine the knowledge residing in its network as well as the extent of knowledge flows among network participants we argue that differences in institutional logics lead brokerage positions to exert different effects on firm innovativeness we propose that the firm spanning structural holes obtains the greatest innovation benefits when the firm the broker or its alliance partners are based in highly corporatist countries or under certain combinations of broker and partner corporatism we find support for these ideas through a longitudinal study of cross border fuel cell technology alliance networks involving 109 firms from nine countries between 1981 and 2001

interaction between housing prices and household borrowing the finnish case abstract employing time series econometrics this study shows that there has been a significant two way interaction between housing prices and housing loan stock in finland since the financial liberalization in the late 1980s before the financial deregulation the interaction was substantially weaker furthermore housing appreciation has a notable positive impact on the outstanding consumption loan stock it appears that there is no similar relationship between stock prices and credit understanding the two way interaction between housing prices and credit is of importance since the interdependence is likely to augment boom bust cycles in the economy and increase the fragility of the financial sector

international attention and multinational enterprise performance this study examines the performance consequences of international attention defined as the extent to which headquarters executives in the multinational enterprise mne invest time and effort in activities communications and discussions aimed at improving their understanding of the global marketplace using detailed questionnaire and archival data on 135 mnes our analysis revealed three significant findings first international attention can be operationalized as a meta construct that consists of three interrelated and reinforcing dimensions second international attention has a curvilinear inverted u shape relationship with mne performance third the performance benefits of international attention increase with three categories of moderating factors the international assignment experience of top executives the independence of value adding activities across country locations and the degree of industry dynamism

ceo international experience effects on strategic change and firm performance despite the growing importance of ceos international experience ie we have yet to gain sufficient insights into its conceptualization and effect on firm outcomes based on prior research and work experience models we suggest a new framework for measuring ie including three components length of time number of countries and cultural distance along with their interactions drawing upon social and cognitive learning theories we explore the impact of ceos ie on two outcomes strategic change and firm performance we argue that ie components affect the two outcomes by enhancing executives international knowledge and general competencies while international knowledge may affect firm performance directly general competencies may affect firm performance both directly and indirectly through strategic change using a sample of 387 new ceos we found that time abroad had a positive effect on strategic change and firm performance while number of countries and cultural distance positively moderated these relationships additionally we also found that these components affected firm performance both directly and mediated through strategic change our findings have important theoretical implications for the conceptualization and impact of ceos ie and practical implications for executive development and promotion

international experience in the executive suite the path to prosperity attention is increasingly focused on the potential individual career and firm level benefits of international experience for upper level executives this research examines the relationships between ceo international experience ceo tenure firm internationalization succession events and corporate financial performance results indicate a significant interactive effect between ceo tenure and outside succession on ceo international experience in addition to a relationship with ceo international experience there are two additional interactive effects in the examination of corporate financial performance 1 ceo international experience and the degree of firm internationalization and 2 ceo international experience and ceo succession these interactive effects are evident in accounting and market indicators of corporate financial performance copyright 2000 john wiley sons ltd

nonlinear influences of stressors on general adjustment the case of japanese expatriates and their spouses integrating research on parental demands learning and expatriate adjustment we examine potential nonlinear influences of two stressors parental demands and perceived culture novelty on general adjustment of expatriates and their spouses using a sample of 170 matched pairs of japanese expatriates and spouses assigned to the us we found a quadratic effect of parental demands and a cubic effect of cultural novelty on spouse general adjustment but not on expatriate general adjustment implications and directions for future research are discussed

dual career expatriates expectations adjustment and satisfaction with international relocation dual career expatriate couples present a challenging set of problems for international human resource managers the results of a survey of husbands and wives in expatriate dual career couples are analyzed relative to 1 differences between the expatriates and their trailing spouses 2 differences between male and female led dual career couples 3 differences between dual career couples opinions prior to expatriation and upon repatriation the results of the study indicate dual career couples have relatively consistent concerns and expectations prior to expatriation and upon repatriation to their home country the significant differences observed were between male led dual career couples prior to expatriation when compared to male led dual career couples upon repatriation in addition the dual career expatriate respondents did not feel the mnc that transferred them overseas provided adequate training or social support during the international assignment

expatriate assignments and intra organizational career success implications for individuals and organizations anecdotal accounts and reports in the popular press often suggest that international assignments are critical for employees who seek to move up the career ladder more quickly nevertheless previous research on repatriation indicates that many former expatriates feel that their overseas assignments have harmed rather than helped their careers relatively little research though has sought to understand how expatriate assignments might be related to career success this paper then presents a conceptual model describing the relationship between expatriate assignments and intra organizational career success specifically theories of career mobility are used to develop a framework for outlining the factors likely to determine whether expatriate assignments help or hinder the advancement of employees who have worked as international assignees the model also indicates that repatriate career success influences an organization s ability to retain its current repatriates and recruit future expatriates some implications of this research and directions for future research are discussed as well

from the editors common method variance in international business research jibs receives many manuscripts that report findings from analyzing survey data based on same respondent replies this can be problematic since same respondent studies can suffer from common method variance cmv currently authors who submit manuscripts to jibs that appear to suffer from cmv are asked to perform validity checks and resubmit their manuscripts this letter from the editors is designed to outline the current state of best practice for handling cmv in international business research

the impact of journals and authors on international business research a citational analysis of jibs articles in this paper we use citational analysis to examine the influence of individuals and disciplines on international business research we collected citational data over the ten year period 1984 to 1993 from every issue of the journal of international business studies we found that management economics marketing and finance disciplines have had significant influence on international business research and identified researchers such as dunning porter vernon casson rugman and hofstede as having made significant contributions to international business research

dimensions determinants and differences in the expatriate adjustment process we comprehensively test the black mendenhall and oddou 1991 model of the dimensions and determinants of adjustment to international assignments we also expand the model to examine two individual factors i e previous assignments and language fluency and three positional factors i e hierarchical level functional area and assignment vector as moderators of adjustment determinants surveys were completed by 452 expatriates from 29 different countries assigned to 45 host countries by large multinational firms the multi dimensionality of adjustment was investigated and confirmed support for the expanded black et al 1991 model was found several significant moderating effects emerged showing different patterns of adjustment for those with different amounts of previous expatriate experience and levels of host country language fluency hierarchical level and assignment vector were also important moderators but the effects for functional area were generally weak

employees willingness to adopt a foreign functional language in multilingual organizations the role of linguistic identity language holds a central role in sustainable international expansion for multinationals the choice of the functional language can facilitate or hinder communication between headquarters and subsidiary locations in order to communicate effectively with the parent organization host country employees often have to adopt a language that is not native to the subsidiary region we take a subsidiary employee perspective in presenting an interdisciplinary theoretical model of host country employees willingness to adopt a foreign language in multinational organizations the construct of linguistic identity shaped by the linguistic landscape of the host location is introduced as an important determinant in this process specifically the foreign functional language may pose a threat to the employees existing linguistic identity willingness to adopt the foreign functional language may depend upon the extent of this perceived threat we incorporate the effects of foreign language proficiency and individuals motivation for enhancement in the theoretical model both high proficiency in a foreign language and need for social economic and career enhancements can increase individuals willingness to adopt the foreign functional language finally we develop and present implications of the linguistic identity processes for entry mode location and language strategies

the influence of expatriate cultural intelligence on organizational embeddedness and knowledge sharing the moderating effects of host country context this study advances our understanding of the contextualization of the effects of cultural intelligence cq drawing from trait activation theory and institutional theory we develop a multi level model showing how host countries informal and formal openness towards foreigners facilitate or constrain the importance of expatriates cq in becoming embedded in the host organization furthermore this study positions organizational embeddedness as a mediator in the association between expatriates cq and a central element of expatriates jobs knowledge sharing in the foreign workplace results from a cross lagged survey of 1327 expatriates from 100 different nations residing in 30 host countries combined with secondary data indicate expatriate cq relates positively to organizational embeddedness cross level interaction analyses further suggest that in group collectivism the proxy for host countries informal openness towards foreigners facilitates the importance of cq as a predictor of expatriates organizational embeddedness in contrast cq was not found to interact with the proxy for host countries formal openness towards foreigners i e national immigration policies consistent with predictions we identified that cq relates positively to knowledge sharing and that organizational embeddedness carries an indirect effect we discuss the implications for theory and practice

adopting knowledge from reverse innovations transnational patents and signaling from an emerging economy is there knowledge adoption of innovations from emerging economies we theorize that to help overcome information asymmetry across countries granting patents to technology in the emerging economy of china can serve as a signal of technology potential and market opportunity to enhance technological knowledge adoption in a developed economy such as the united states the effect may be greater in a complex technology sector with high information asymmetry than in a discrete technology sector and in regions with less developed market intermediaries where information asymmetry is high our difference in differences estimates using 4226 china u s patent dyads and comparable u s patents support our hypotheses

many moving parts factors influencing the effectiveness of hrm practices designed to improve knowledge transfer within mncs minbaeva pedersen bjorkman fey and park s 2003 award winning article highlights the importance of human resource management hrm practices for enhancing employees ability and motivation to transfer knowledge practices that in turn affect knowledge transfer to subsidiaries within multinational corporations mncs in the decade since their laudable article was published some contributions have been made highlighting the contingencies related to the effectiveness of hrm practices in mncs especially those affecting an organizations absorptive capacity these contingencies the moving parts include country level differences in hr systems cross cultural differences in acceptance of hr practices and individual level factors affecting the effectiveness of hrm practices with an eye toward the future i discuss these contingencies paying closest attention to the effect of the individual differences affecting employees willingness to engage in knowledge sharing from the perspective of hrm this year s decade award article opened some significant doors for future research my goal for this commentary is to highlight them and the many that remain relatively unexplored

empirical evidence of recurring international compensation problems the expansion of international business necessitates an increased number of employees based in foreign markets these expatriates nationals and third country nationals represent unique and complex compensation problems this article addresses five of the recurring compensation problems reported by members of the society for human resource management international shrmi in a recent survey

measuring the degree of internationalization of a firm in spite of both positivistic and instrumental research the reliability of measuring the degree of internationalization of a firm remains speculative we collected data on nine attributes of seventy four american manufacturing mncs alpha factor and frequency analyses revealed a linear combination of five variables with a reliability coefficient of 79 as a measure of the degree of internationalization of a firm we discuss the statistical and conceptual properties of the scale and their implications for content and construct validity

financial intermediation and delegated monitoring this paper develops a theory of financial intermediation based on minimizing the cost of monitoring information which is useful for resolving incentive problems between borrowers and lenders it presents a characterization of the costs of providing incentives for delegated monitoring by a financial intermediary diversification within an intermediary serves to reduce these costs even in a risk neutral economy the paper presents some more general analysis of the effect of diversification on resolving incentive problems in the environment assumed in the model debt contracts with costly bankruptcy are shown to be optimal the analysis has implications for the portfolio structure and capital structure of intermediaries

the role of international assignees social capital in creating inter unit intellectual capital a cross level model we conceptualize international assignees as informational boundary spanners between multinational enterprise units and develop a cross level model that explores how assignees social capital translates into inter unit intellectual capital first as knowledge brokers assignees create inter unit intellectual capital by linking their home and host unit social capital thereby enabling cross unit access to previously unconnected knowledge resources second as knowledge transmitters assignees host unit social capital facilitates their creation of individual intellectual capital which in turn translates into inter unit intellectual capital we conclude that individual social capital needs to be explicitly transferred to the organizational level to have a sustained effect on inter unit intellectual capital

outside in global demand heterogeneity and dynamic capabilities of multinational enterprises we conceptualize the dynamic capabilities of multinational enterprises mnes as learning and adaptation capabilities that address the pressure of global integration and local responsiveness complementing the extant literature on dynamic capabilities which is focused on the supply side our study draws attention to the demand side influences especially in terms of global demand heterogeneity we propose that global demand heterogeneity provides pressures and opportunities for mnes to learn and adapt and thus positively relates to the development of mne dynamic capabilities however external sources per se may be insufficient firm specific advantages particularly human capital at the managerial and employee levels facilitate the internalization of external knowledge and pressure into the development of dynamic capabilities an empirical study of chinese multinational service firms strongly supports these arguments

an assessment of the measurement of performance in international business research a sizeable body of international business ib research is devoted to building knowledge about the determinants of organizational performance a key precursor to accurately diagnosing why some organizations succeed in the international marketplace while others struggle is operationalizing performance appropriately yet to date no systematic investigation has considered how well ib research measures performance we examine the measurement of performance in 96 articles published in the academy of management journal administrative science quarterly journal of marketing journal of marketing research journal of international business studies management science organization science a nd thestrategic management journal between 1995 and 2005 the findings reveal that most studies do not measure performance in a manner that captures the multifaceted nature of the construct we describe the implications of these results and offer suggestions for improving future practice journal of international business studies 2008 39 1064 1080

managing knowledge transfer in mncs the impact of headquarters control mechanisms in this paper we explore the impact of organisational mechanisms on inter unit knowledge flows in multinational corporations mncs a comprehensive model based on agency theory and socialisation theory is tested on a sample of 134 finnish and chinese mnc subsidiaries our findings indicate that mncs can influence inter unit knowledge transfer by specifying the objectives of the subsidiary and by utilising corporate socialisation mechanisms however we found no support for the hypothesised impact of management compensation systems and the use of expatriate managers on the extent of knowledge transfers from foreign subsidiaries to other parts of the mnc

the observer effect in international politics evidence from a natural experiment by pressuring governments to hold democratic elections and by becoming directly involved in the electoral process through technical assistance and funding or as election monitors international actors now play a visible role in domestic elections and other democratic processes throughout the developing world although scholars have documented several macrolevel relationships between international level variables and movement toward democracy there has been little attention paid to the microlevel effects of international involvement in the democratization process this article examines the effects of international election observation as a prominent form of international involvement in domestic elections and exploits a natural experiment in order to test whether international observers reduce election fraud using data from the 2003 presidential elections in armenia the article demonstrates that although observers may not eliminate election fraud they can reduce election day fraud at the polling stations they visit the unusual advantage of experiment like conditions for this study offers unique causal evidence that international actors can have direct measurable effects on the level of election day fraud and by extension on the democratization process

contextualizing leadership a typology of global leadership roles while the global leadership literature has grown rapidly over recent years the context in which global leadership occurs remains ill defined and under conceptualized this lack of contextualization risks equating global leadership roles that are qualitatively very different and prevents sufficient clarity for empirical sampling to foster more cohesive theoretical and empirical work we develop a typology of global leadership roles that considers context as a critical contingency factor drawing on role and complexity leadership theories we propose four ideal typical global leadership roles incremental operational connective and integrative global leadership that differ in their 1 task complexity characterizing the variety and flux within the task context and 2 relationship complexity reflecting the boundaries and interdependencies within the relationship context we further delineate how these contextual demands relate to specific sets of behaviors and actions that allow global leaders to fulfill the requirements of their corresponding ideal typical global leadership roles our article concludes with a discussion of implications the typology presents for global leadership research and practice contextualization of the leadership construct more broadly and the field of international business

why do international assignees stay an organizational embeddedness perspective we apply an organizational embeddedness perspective to examine international assignees retention with the organization specifically we hypothesize that assignees social ties within and their perceived fit with the host unit positively relate to two sacrifices on leaving the organization their firm specific learning during the assignment and their perceived career prospects in the organization perceived career prospects are expected to predict subsequent retention moderated by firm specific learning these hypotheses are tested using a sample of 143 inpatriates in 10 german multinationals with retention measured 2 and 4 years later we show that inpatriates trusting ties with hq staff and their fit with the hq positively relate to their firm specific learning and their perceived career prospects and that the latter predicts their retention 2 and 4 years later perceived career prospects mediate the direct relationship between inpatriates fit with the hq and inpatriate retention and the indirect relationship between inpatriates trusting ties with hq staff and their retention furthermore inpatriates firm specific learning mitigates the effect of perceived career prospects on retention decisions 2 years later we contribute to the organizational embeddedness careers and international business literatures by explaining when and how facets of organizational embeddedness relate to assignee retention

real estate prices and bank stability abstract real estate prices can deviate from their fundamental value due to rigid supply heterogeneity in quality and various market imperfections which have two contrasting effects on bank stability higher prices increase the value of collateral and net wealth of borrowers and thus reduce the likelihood of credit defaults in contrast persistent deviations from fundamentals may foster the adverse selection of increasingly risky creditors by banks seeking to expand their loan portfolios which increases bank distress probabilities we test these hypotheses using unique data on real estate markets and banks in germany house price deviations contribute to bank instability but nominal house price developments do not this finding corroborates the importance of deviations from the fundamental value of real estate rather than just price levels or changes alone when assessing bank stability

managing the learning and transfer of global management competence antecedents and outcomes of japanese repatriation effectiveness this study examines predictors that lead to effective individual learning of global management competencies on expatriate assignments and the transfer i e the application of those competencies in new assignments upon repatriation a structural equation model based on data from 305 japanese repatriates identifies linkages from organizational support intercultural personality characteristics self adjustment and repatriation policies to outcomes of global competency learning and transfer which in turn lead to heightened job motivation and performance

distance and private information in lending we study the effects of physical distance on the acquisition and use of private information in informationally opaque credit markets using a unique data set of all loan applications by small firms to a large bank we show that borrower proximity facilitates the collection of soft information leading to a trade off in the availability and pricing of credit which is more readily accessible to nearby firms albeit at higher interest rates ceteris paribus analyzing loan rates and firms decision to switch lenders provides further evidence for banks strategic use of private information however distance erodes our lender s ability to collect proprietary intelligence and to carve out local captive markets suggesting that the requisite soft information is primarily local the author 2010 published by oxford university press on behalf of the society for financial studies all rights reserved for permissions please e mail journals permissions oxfordjournals org oxford university press

financial development growth and the distribution of income a paradigm is presented in which both the extent of financial intermediation and the rate of economic growth are endogenously determined financial intermediation promotes growth because it allows a higher rate of return to be earned on capital and growth in turn provides the means to implement costly financial structures thus financial intermediation and economic growth are inextricably linked in accord with the goldsmith mckinnon shaw view on economic development the model also generates a development cycle reminiscent of the kuznet hypothesis in particular in the transition from a primitive slow growing economy to a developed fast growing one a nation passes through a stage in which the distribution of wealth across the rich and poor widens

the relationship between house prices and house purchase loans the spanish case abstract this paper looks at recent developments in house purchase loans and house prices in spain and the linkages between them it aims at identifying deviations of these variables from their equilibrium levels and for this purpose we estimate a vector error correction model the results show that both variables are interdependent in the long run and that both variables were above their equilibrium level by the end of the sample period 2009 q1 the paper also offers insight into how overvaluation overindebtedness in house prices can lead to a false sense of no overindebtedness house prices overvaluation

organizing knowledge processes in the multinational corporation an introduction this introduction discusses the contrast between on the one hand the current popularity of addressing mnc organization in knowledge terms and on the other the lack of adequate understanding of many of the causal mechanisms and contextual factors in relations between knowledge processes and organizational factors a number of the relevant research challenges are identified and it is clarified how the five articles in this focused issue addresses some of these

qualified immigrants success exploring the motivation to migrate and to integrate high quality employees with international experience bring valuable advantages to internationally operating organizations the growing number and importance of immigrants and particularly qualified university educated immigrants deserves more attention from international business practitioners and scholars the market for highly qualified people within mncs is increasingly becoming international and ever more of them have migrated to a new country to advance their career such employees can be a source of competitive advantage for international firms we use qualitative research with qualified immigrants qis in france to argue that the success of qis depends in large part on their motivation to integrate into their host country which is largely explained by their motivation to migrate from the qualitative data we derive four different types of qualified migrant and suggest that the type will determine the success of the immigrant within and outside the organization the relationship between the motivation to migrate and the motivation to integrate is moderated by met expectations and organizational integration policies such that the effects of these in turn vary with type recognition of the types of qi and the moderating factors will be valuable for practitioners as well as opening up research avenues for scholars

when yankee comes home factors related to expatriate and spouse repatriation adjustment this study examined anticipatory and in country individual job organizational and non work variables and their relationship with work interaction and general repatriation adjustment for u s managers the study also examined anticipatory and in country individual and non work variables and their relationship with interaction and general repatriation adjustment for the spouses of the managers who were married age total time overseas social status and housing conditions were generally related to all facets of repatriation adjustment for both expatriates and spouses practical and research implications are explored

revisiting repatriation concerns organizational support versus career and contextual influences this paper reviews and integrates two perspectives on repatriate retention a traditional one which suggests that the main determinant of repatriate retention is the availability of repatriation support programs and an emerging one which focuses on individual career activism in a changing employment context results of a study of 133 expatriates from 14 mncs indicate that both views contribute to our understanding of repatriate retention building on the results of our study we put forward a framework to guide future research

domestic audience costs in international relations an experimental approach what makes international threats credible recent theories point to domestic audience costs the domestic price a leader would pay for making foreign threats and then backing down this article provides the first direct evidence of audi ence costs the analysis based on experiments embedded in public opinion surveys shows that audience costs exist across a wide range of conditions and increase with the level of escalation the costs are evident throughout the population and espe cially among politically active citizens who have the greatest potential to shape government policy finally preliminary evidence suggests that audience costs arise because citizens care about the international reputation of the country or leader these findings help identify how and under what conditions domestic audiences make commitments credible at the same time they demonstrate the promise of using ex periments to answer previously intractable questions in the field of international relations

expatriation repatriation and domestic geographical relocation an empirical investigation of adjustment to new job assignments this research examines the relative impact of six sets of factors on multiple indices of adjustment to new job assignments these six sets of factors include demographic variables indices of the internationalness of the job change e g whether the job changer is an expatriate repatriate or domestic geographical relocator job characteristics variables types and amount of career development assistance degree of change between successive job assignments and types of individual coping strategies employed by job changers data were collected from 459 job changers from twenty six countries the results highlight both the commonalities among expatriates repatriates and domestic geographical relocators in adjusting to new job assignments as well as the differences among them

dynamic capabilities for hire how former host country entrepreneurs as mnc subsidiary managers affect performance mnc subsidiaries benefit from managers with entrepreneurial skills for finding superior combinations of mnc and host country resources however such management skills are scarce we reason that subsidiaries can improve their performance by hiring host country entrepreneurs as managers since they develop similar skills in start ups our theoretical model integrates mechanisms from entrepreneurial experience into theory on the microfoundations of dynamic capabilities we test and support our prediction using longitudinal employer employee data for 5587 foreign mnc subsidiaries in portugal further we show that performance effects are weaker when a subsidiary s management is internationally diverse and stronger in dynamic host country environments

qualitative research for international business qualitative research in international business has been rare the main research streams of the field relying more on quantitative methods this paper first outlines why qualitative research has been scant it then presents areas such as theory building where qualitative research could make a substantial contribution third it reviews approaches to high standards of qualitative research and criteria for evaluating qualitative research finally some possible research areas where qualitative research might prove fruitful are suggested

what you do depends on where you are understanding how domestic and expatriate work requirements depend upon the cultural context to empirically address the importance of the cultural context for successful assignments we conducted two studies using a large sample of public sector us professionals working in comparable jobs in 156 different countries the results provided direct evidence that social and perceptual skill reasoning ability and adjustment and achievement orientation personality requirements are higher in expatriate assignments which has implications for pre departure selection also the results partly supported the hypothesis that expatriates are required to adjust their behavior to be consistent with the local cultural values which has implications for post arrival behavioral training

repatriation of corporate executives an empirical study the effective management of corporate executives returning from foreign assignments has received little attention from academic researchers this study is based on questionnaires completed by members of the american society of personnel administration international aspi the focus of the study was directed at problems that occurred in repatriating executives programs used by corporations to repatriate returning executives and examines why programs have not been instituted by multinational corporations

financial infrastructure and house prices we argue that banks operating in a local market possess better information about the local housing market than do nonlocal banks possessing this information may influence their willingness to grant loans to house buyers and the specifics of the loan terms which in turn may affect house prices because credit facilitation makes the housing market more efficient using a panel data set covering a period from 1993 to 2007 and involving 274 municipalities in sweden we establish a positive causal influence of local bank presence on local house prices there are significant spatial and spillover effects that is banks in a municipality affect the housing markets in neighbouring municipalities although to a lesser extent than in their own municipality similar results are obtained through a gravity model the results are robust over time and municipality size

perceived organizational support pos across 54 nations a cross cultural meta analysis of pos effects the authors meta analyze relationships of perceived organizational support pos with attitudinal and behavioral outcomes in western i e horizontal individualistic and eastern i e vertical collectivistic cultures the social exchange perspective suggests that pos effects are stronger in western cultures because employees are more likely to see the self as independent and understand their relationship with the organization in terms of reciprocity however the social identity perspective suggests that pos effects are stronger in eastern cultures because employees are more likely to see the self as interdependent and are more attuned to organizational support as an identity related cue addressing these competing hypotheses meta analytic results from 827 independent samples n 332 277 across 54 countries show support for both perspectives in the west pos was more strongly associated with social exchange processes than organizational identification processes in contrast in the east pos was more strongly associated with organizational identification processes than social exchange processes overall pos was more strongly related to job attitudes and performance in the east than in the west cultural differences in pos effects on attitudinal outcomes were found to be increasing over time we discuss the implications of these findings for organizational support theory and research

influences on human resource management practices in multinational corporations a study of human resource management practices in 249 u s affiliates of foreign based multinational corporations mncs shows that in general affiliate hrm practices closely follow local practices with differences among specific practices the degree of similarity of local practices is significantly influenced by the method of founding dependence on local inputs the presence of expatriates and the extent of communication with the parent in addition sharp differences are revealed among affiliates of canadian japanese and european mncs suggesting strong country effects together these findings support the view of mncs as composed of differentiated practices which in turn are shaped by forces for local isomorphism and for internal consistency

you paid for the skills now keep them tuition reimbursement and voluntary turnover does investing in employees marketable skills reduce turnover this study uses insights from human capital theory to explain how general skill development and promotion relate to voluntary turnover data from 9 439 salaried employees of a large manufacturer show that participation in tuition reimbursement reduces turnover while employees are in school voluntary turnover increases when individuals earn graduate degrees but is significantly reduced if they are subsequently promoted

links between business strategy and human resource management strategy in u s based japanese subsidiaries an empirical investigation this study examines linkages between business strategy and human resource management hrm strategy in japanese subsidiaries in the u s it investigates whether or not fit between a subsidiary s business strategy and its hrm strategy is associated with higher performance the data show that subsidiaries with matched strategies performed better than unmatched ones in terms of hrm related performance measures such as rates of promotion and turnover japanese subsidiaries with a business strategy hrm strategy match were also more likely to experience better business performance versus competitors than were unmatched ones

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

the effect of repeated play on reputation building an experimental approach what effect does repeated play have on reputation building the liter ature on international relations remains divided on whether when and how reputa tion matters in both interstate and intrastate conflict we examine reputation building through a series of incentivized laboratory experiments using comparative statics from a repeated entry deterrence game we isolate how incentives for reputation build ing should change as the number of entrants changes we find that subjects in our experiments generally build reputations and that those investments pay off but we also find that some subjects did not react to incentives to build reputation in ways our model had predicted in order to explain this we focus on the heterogeneity of preferences and cognitive abilities that may exist in any population our research suggests that rational choice scholars of international relations and those using more psychologically based explanations have more common ground than previously articulated

toward a theoretical framework of repatriation adjustment although the increased internationalization of business has brought greater scholarly attention to the issue of adjustment to overseas assignments comparatively little research activity has been paid to the topic of adjustment back to the home country and home office repatriation adjustment in this article we argue that repatriation adjustment is sufficiently different from other forms of work adjustment e g domestic relocation and expatriate assignments to warrant separate theoretical and empirical investigation to facilitate this we propose an initial theoretical framework and set of derived propositions to guide and spark future research on this topic

cultural diversity and the performance of multinational firms we test the hypothesis that culturally related international diversification will have a positive impact on firm performance and that the opposite will be true for culturally unrelated globalization cultural diversity for fortune 500 firms was used to predict performance over a ten year period 1985 1994 controlling for several organizational and industry characteristics regression tests using nine indicators of cultural diversity revealed no significant cultural effects alternate interpretations are offered

international knowledge brokerage and returnees entrepreneurial decisions based on the knowledge brokerage literature and the international entrepreneurship literature we investigate whether returnees international knowledge transfer affects their entrepreneurial decisions and the extent to which this relationship is contingent on perceived supportive policies for returnee entrepreneurship and returnees difficulties with cross cultural readjustment in their home countries analyzing first hand survey data we find a positive relationship between international knowledge transfer and returnees decisions to become entrepreneurs this positive relationship is strengthened by the perception of the home country s supportive policies for returnee entrepreneurship but is weakened by returnees perceived difficulties in readjusting to the local norms and culture in their home countries

toward a cooperative view of mnc host government relations building blocks and performance implications this study examines cooperation based relations between mncs and host governments we theorize that resource commitment personal relations political accommodation and organizational credibility are four building blocks for improving an mnc s cooperative relationships with governments analysis of 131 mncs in china validates the importance of these blocks in shaping mnc government relations and the importance of these relations in shaping the performance of mnc subsidiaries

no place like home the effect of exporting to the country of origin on the financial performance of immigrant owned smes immigrants and sustained international migration are transforming developed western countries at an unprecedented pace and scale sustained international migration is also further accentuating the already dominant presence of immigrant entrepreneurs in the international business landscape these immigrant entrepreneurs often operate small and medium sized enterprises smes that primarily export to their country of origin however conflicting findings suggest theoretical ambiguity in how the level of country of origin export intensity influences the smes financial performance adopting a contingent perspective we theorize how and when socially embedded immigrant owners derive superior performance from high country of origin export intensity based on a sample of 2584 immigrant owned smes and 6391 firm year observations we find that smes led by immigrant owners with longer stays in their country of residence and whose country of origin is geographically proximate to their country of residence generate superior financial performance from high country of origin export intensity these findings are consistent with the view that immigrant entrepreneurs international financial success is a function of network and cognition based advantages linked to their level of concurrent embeddedness in their countries of residence and origin we also provide actionable insights for immigrant entrepreneurs and for policy makers tasked to design suitable export promotion programs

nationality cultural distance and expatriate status effects on the managerial network in a multinational enterprise we study the role of three characteristics of international managers nationality cultural distance and expatriate status for their network ties a network analysis of cross subsidiary interactions among 457 managers in an mne demonstrates that managers form strong expressive ties with peers with smaller cultural distance and from the same status group however managers form strong instrumental ties with peers who are different on these background characteristics the implications for international management theory and practice are discussed

when do international human capital enhancing practices benefit the bottom line an ability motivation and opportunity perspective we study the conditions under which firms can capitalize on their international human capital ihc using the ability motivation opportunity amo perspective we conceptualize ihc as ability collaborative climate as motivation and the firm s level of internationalization as opportunity we test three alternative amo models the additive model main effect the combinative model two way interactions and the multiplicative model a three way interaction using a cross industry sample of south korean firms we find support for the multiplicative model specifically the relationship between ihc enhancement practices and firm performance is significant and positive only when both collaborative climate and internationalization are high

perceived senior leadership opportunities in mncs the effect of social hierarchy and capital drawing on the structural perspective in organizational theory this study develops a conceptual framework of the social hierarchy within the multinational corporation mnc we suggest that parent country nationals pcns host country nationals hcns and third country nationals tcns occupy distinctively different positions in the social hierarchy which are anchored in their differential control or access to various forms of capital or strategically valuable organizational resources we further suggest that these positions affect employees perceptions of senior leadership opportunities defined as the assessment of the extent to which nationality and location influence access to senior leadership opportunities using multilevel analysis of survey data from 2039 employees in seven mncs the study reveals two significant findings first hcns and tcns perceive that nationality and location influence access to senior leadership opportunities more than pcns second three moderating factors gender tenure and education increase the perception gaps between pcns on the one hand and hcns and tcns on the other although these results are inconsistent these findings indicate that the structural position of pcns hcns and tcns in the social hierarchy affect sense making and perceptions of access to senior leadership opportunities