what are the consequences of initiative taking in multinational subsidiaries the phenomenon of subsidiary initiative has received increasing attention in recent years but the consequences of initiatives and the associated dynamics of headquarters subsidiary relationships have received much less research attention building on resource dependence theory and self determination theory we argue that two basic goals subsidiary managers pursue are to achieve autonomy vis a vis corporate headquarters and influence over other units we investigate how a subsidiary s past initiatives contribute to its bargaining power and how headquarters response through granting attention or monitoring affects the realization of the subsidiary s goals using structural equation modeling our hypotheses are tested by drawing on a sample of 257 subsidiaries located in three different countries australia canada and the united kingdom our results show that subsidiaries are not able to increase their influence through initiatives unless they get headquarters attention we also find that subsidiary initiatives have a direct effect on subsidiary autonomy but the caveat is that initiatives also evoke headquarters monitoring which in turn decreases the subsidiary s autonomy in addition to providing insights into how subsidiaries can achieve their goals the paper also sheds light on the critical role headquarters plays in leveraging initiatives and the influence of individual subsidiaries in the multinational enterprise

effective sub simulation free upper bounds for the monte carlo pricing of callable derivatives and various improvements to existing methodologies abstract we present a new non nested approach for computing additive upper bounds for callable derivatives using monte carlo simulation it relies on the regression of greeks computed using adjoint methods we also show that it is possible to early terminate paths once points of optimal exercise have been reached a natural control variate for the multiplicative upper bound is introduced which renders it competitive to the additive one in addition a new bi iterative family of upper bounds is introduced which takes a stopping time an upper bound and a martingale as inputs

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

internal capital markets and the competition for corporate resources this article examines the role of corporate headquarters in allocating scarce resources to competing projects in an internal capital market unlike a bank headquarters has control rights that enable it to engage in winner picking the practice of actively shifting funds from one project to another by doing a good job in the winner picking dimension headquarters can create value even when it cannot help at all to relax overall firm wide credit constraints the model implies that internal capital markets may sometimes function more efficiently when headquarters oversees a small and focused set of projects this article analyzes the process by which internal capital markets channel limited resources to different uses inside a company in so doing it seeks to address two related sets of questions first what is the fundamental economic rationale for creating an internal capital market that is under what circumstances can it make sense to combine several technologically distinct projects under one roof and have them seek funding from corporate headquarters as opposed to setting them up as stand alone companies that each raise external financing on their own second given this rationale what is the optimal size and scope of an internal capital market should headquarters be involved in funding a large number of projects or just a few and should these projects be unrelated to one another or in similar lines of business the answers to both sets of questions flow from the insight that in a credit constrained setting where not all positive npv projects can be financed headquarters can create value by actively reallocating scarce funds across projects for example the cash flow generated by one division s activities may be taken and spent on investment in another division where the returns are higher or alternatively one division s assets may be used as collateral to raise financing that is then diverted to the other division simply put individual projects must compete for the scarce funds and headquarters job is to pick the winners and losers in this competition

global value chain governance a relational perspective global value chain gvc governance is an established field within international business research yet the relational aspects of gvcs have to date garnered less scholarly attention than have efficiency considerations this conceptual study s objective is to explore the relational dynamics of gvc governance using an internalization theory perspective and by linking gvc research with insights from the business network literature gvcs are argued to be a distinct form of asymmetrical networks associated with economizing and capability creation features as well as costs the orchestrating firm can thus enhance efficiency outcomes of the gvc using social mechanisms similar to those adopted by core actors in a business network in the study six such mechanisms were identified 1 selectivity 2 inclusion of non business intermediaries 3 joint strategizing 4 relational capital 5 multilateral feedback and 6 rules for equitable value distribution while safeguarding the gvc s efficiency the above social mechanisms are associated with challenges and limitations and therefore do not guarantee international competitive success however deployed in an integrative fashion these social mechanisms facilitate coordination thus economizing on bounded rationality reduce the hazards of imperfect effort by partners thus economizing on bounded reliability and foster innovation and new capability development

internationalization and specialization in the european automotive components sector implications for the hollowing out thesis sadler d 1999 internationalization and specialization in the european automotive components sector implications for the hollowing out thesis reg studies 33 109 119 this paper explores two questions the geographical conditions associated with an altered relationship between automobile assembly and component firms in europe and the ways in which automotive component firms have restructured their operations on a global basis the first section reviews the interplay between positional balance and spatial reorganization highlighting the significance of the strategies of leading component manufacturers these strategies are reviewed in depth in a subsequent section which pays particular attention to processes of internationalization and specialization a further exploratory section asks whether in the light of these trends a process of hollowing out might be taking place within the european automobile industry it is concluded that important issues to be addressed include the balance between invest

international search behavior of business group affiliated firms scope of institutional changes and intragroup heterogeneity this paper investigates whether and when affiliation to business groups enables or constrains firms international search behavior during institutional transitions we theorize that given the unique structure and complex form of business group organizations the search behavior of affiliated firms is influenced by the degree of misalignment in outlook at the group and affiliate levels of management we identify the scope of institutional changes business group attributes and affiliate characteristics as sources of such misalignment the results from panel data on 298 firms from the indian pharmaceutical industry for the 1992 2007 period show that the constraining effects of business group affiliation are observed only when institutional changes are specific to the affiliates industry and not when broad institutional changes affect the business group as a whole moreover we observe heterogeneity in the search behavior of group affiliated firms first the degree of misalignment is greater in the case of affiliates belonging to older business groups and those that are more distant in terms of age and industry since the group s founding second by contrast and suggesting an alignment in outlook we find that affiliated firms that occupy a prominent position within a group or industry are able to bargain for and receive attention and support from the business group to undertake international search our findings have implications for research on the role of business groups in a changing institutional context and for the strategic adaptation of firms embedded in complex organizational and institutional settings

the expansion of foreign direct investments discrete rational location choices or a cultural learning process it is recognized in the literature that experience may affect the cost and the uncertainty of operating in foreign markets and experience and market knowledge may therefore influence the location decisions of fdis economic theory does not however predict a general expansion pattern of fdis across industries on the other hand the theory associated with the internationalization process approach highlights the importance of cultural distance and predicts a movement from close to more distant markets as more experience is acquired by the firm the internationalization process approach is rooted in a behavioral theory of the firm

foreign influence control and indirect ownership implications for productivity spillovers how does the presence of controlled foreign firms affect the productivity of domestic firms in the same industry we revisit the historical distinction between control and influence by the foreign owner and define controlled foreign firms as those with a foreign ultimate owner holding 50 or more of voting shares connecting insights from new internalization theory with knowledge based views of the mne we posit that controlled foreign firms will generate larger productivity spillovers than non controlled foreign firms we use a firm level panel dataset of 575 844 manufacturing firms 2 343 495 observations across 20 european countries to test our proposition we pay careful attention to how firms are categorized as foreign taking into account both direct and indirect ownership links allowing for indirect ownership turns out to be pivotal there are just as many indirectly controlled foreign firms as foreign firms captured with direct ownership data we find positive horizontal spillovers from controlled foreign firms and zero spillovers from non controlled foreign firms interestingly the strongest positive spillovers come from the indirectly controlled foreign firms the implications of our study extend beyond productivity spillovers to areas such as cross border m as joint ventures mne strategies of legitimation and corporate groups

organization in between the evolution of the mother daughter structure of managing foreign subsidiaries in swedish mncs in depth case studies of 4 firms and a questionnaire survey of 52 companies show that the mother daughter structure prevalent in swedish mncs is changing firms tends to adopt organizational structures in between a pure mother daughter one and one divided along product or technology lines rather than introducing formal matrix structures relatively simple organizational forms are complemented by changes in information systems budgeting procedures rotation of personnel and so forth the control style is changing in the direction of slightly more formal performance evaluation the changes can be understood as adaptations to growing size of the firms increased product diversity acquisitions of foreign companies technological maturity entry of new managers and slower demand growth

why and how does shared language affect subsidiary knowledge inflows a social identity perspective extending existing international business ib research we conceptualize shared social identity as an outcome rather than only an antecedent of multinational enterprise knowledge flows to provide an alternative reason for why such knowledge flows occur we further argue that shared language among subsidiary and headquarters hq managers is an insufficient condition for subsidiary knowledge receipt accordingly we develop a moderated mediation model at the subsidiary level to examine how shared language affects subsidiaries tacit knowledge inflows from hq specifically we study 1 whether this relationship is mediated by the extent to which subsidiary managers share hq goals and vision and the extent to which human resources decisions are centralized at hq and 2 whether subsidiary type greenfields vs acquisitions moderates these mediated relationships such that in both cases the mediation will be stronger in foreign acquisitions compared with foreign greenfields building on a sample of 817 subsidiaries in 9 countries regions and a novel subjective measure of shared language we find support for our model implications for research on hq subsidiary knowledge flows social identity theory and the literature on sociolinguistics and international human resource management are discussed and managerial implications outlined

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

internationalization in the information age a new era for places firms and international business networks the new techno economic paradigm of the information age has brought about new structures and processes in international business ib in this article we examine the changing nature of the competitive advantages of places the competitive advantages and strategies of firms and the governance structure of ib networks in what has also been called the third industrial revolution these three areas of change in ib activities can be mapped respectively to the location l ownership o and internalization i advantages of the eclectic paradigm we interpret these oli factors as dynamic constructs in order to depict analytically the shifts in the ib environment and their implications for ib

international connectedness and local disconnectedness mne strategy city regions and disruption much of the rising international connectedness of city regions has developed from mnes replacing local connections with superior international ones this often creates local disconnectedness that energizes the current populist backlash against mne activities we develop approaches to new ib theory addressing the interdependencies of mnes and city regions that we propose as a crucial avenue for future research we contrast two generic mne strategies the first is the traditional one the global orchestration of resources and markets we argue that it exacerbates local disconnectedness the second that we call local spawning involves engaging with the local entrepreneurial eco system to create and renew local connectedness diffusing populist responses some mnes are better able to implement a local spawning strategy due to industry factors like innovation clock speed and firm characteristics like organizational path dependency finally we distinguish between disconnection which is an outcome of mne strategy and global disruptions like the coronavirus covid 19 pandemic which are primarily stochastic events addressing disconnections requires mnes to re orient their strategies while dealing with disruptions requires undertaking risk mitigation we present empirical evidence from city regions around the world to illustrate our theory

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

internal equity financing and the performance of multinational subsidiaries in emerging economies we examine the internal equity financing of the multinational subsidiary which retains and reinvests its own earnings internal equity financing is a type of firm specific advantage fsa along with other traditional fsas in innovation research and development brands and management skills it also reflects subsidiary level financial management decision making here we test the contributions of internal equity financing and subsidiary level financial management decision making to subsidiary performance using original survey data from british multinational subsidiaries in six emerging countries in the south east asia region our first finding is that internal equity financing acts as an fsa to improve subsidiary performance our second finding is that over 90 of financing sources including capital investment by the parent firms in the british subsidiaries come from internal funding our third finding is that subsidiary level financial management decision making has a statistically significant positive impact on subsidiary performance our findings advance the theoretical empirical and managerial analysis of subsidiary performance in emerging economies

monte carlo methods for security pricing the monte carlo approach has proved to be a valuable and flexible computational tool in modern finance this paper discusses some of the recent applications of the monte carlo method to security pricing problems with emphasis on improvements in efficiency we first review some variance reduction methods that have proved useful in finance then we describe the use of deterministic low discrepancy sequences also known as quasi monte carlo methods for the valuation of complex derivative securities we summarize some recent applications of the monte carlo method to the estimation of partial derivatives or risk sensitivities and to the valuation of american options we conclude by mentioning other applications

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

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

configurations of strategy and structure in subsidiaries of multinational corporations a three fold typology of subsidiary roles world mandate specialized contributor local implementer was induced from the literature and its empirical validity was confirmed adopting a configurational approach we then explored the ways in which subsidiary structural context varies across subsidiary role types structural context characteristics were determined through a discussion of the underlying principles of the hierarchy and heterarchy models of multinational organization the key findings were a higher strategic autonomy in world mandates than in local implementers b a more internationally configured value chain in world mandates and specialized contributors than local implementers c lower levels of internal product flows in world mandates than the other two types and d a significantly lower performance in specialized contributors implications for a configurational model of subsidiary management and for heterarchy as a higher level conceptualization are discussed

the explicit economics of knowledge codification and tacitness this paper attempts a greater precision and clarity of understanding concerning the nature and economic significance of knowledge and its variegated forms by presenting the skeptical economist s guide to tacit knowledge it critically reconsiders the ways in which the concepts of tacitness and codification have come to be employed by economists and develops a more coherent re conceptualization of these aspects of knowledge production and distribution activities it seeks also to show that a proposed alternative framework for the study of knowledge codification activities offers a more useful guide for further research directed to informing public policies for science technological innovation and long run economic growth copyright 2000 by oxford university press

fast delta computations in the swap rate market model abstract we develop an efficient algorithm to implement the adjoint method that computes sensitivities of an interest rate derivative to different underlying rates in the co terminal swap rate market model the order of computation per step of the new method is shown to be proportional to the number of rates times the number of factors which is the same as the order in the libor market model

pricing american style securities using simulation abstract we develop a simulation algorithm for estimating the prices of american style securities i e securities with opportunities for early exercise our algorithm provides both point estimates and error bounds for the true security price it generates two estimates one biased high and one biased low both asymptotically unbiased and converging to the true price combining the two estimators yields a confidence interval for the true price the proposed algorithm is especially attractive compared with lattice and finite difference methods when there are multiple state variables and a small number of exercise opportunities preliminary computational evidence is given

a flexible matrix libor model with smiles abstract we present a flexible approach for the valuation of interest rate derivatives based on affine processes we extend the methodology proposed in keller ressel et al in press by changing the choice of the state space we provide semi closed form solutions for the pricing of caps and floors we then show that it is possible to price swaptions in this multifactor setting with a good degree of analytical tractability this is done via the edgeworth expansion approach developed in collin dufresne and goldstein 2002 a numerical exercise illustrates the flexibility of wishart libor model in describing the movements of the implied volatility surface

when competitive advantage doesn t lead to performance the resource based view and stakeholder bargaining power what if rent from a competitive advantage is appropriated so it cannot be observed in performance measures the resourcebased view was not formulated to examine who will get the rent yet this essay argues that the factors leading to a resource based advantage also predict who will appropriate rent knowledge based assets are promising because firm specificity social complexity and causal ambiguity make them hard to imit ate however the roles of internal stakeholders may grant them a great deal of bargaining power especially relative to investors this essay integrates the resource based view with the bargaining power literature by defining the firm as a nexus of contracts this new lens can help to explain when rent will be generated and simultaneously who will appropriate it in doing so it provides a more robust theory of firm performance than the resource based view alone it is also suggested that this lens might be useful for examining other theories of firm performance

innovation in multinational subsidiaries the role of knowledge assimilation and subsidiary capabilities subsidiaries of multinational firms play an important role in the globalization of innovation yet we have an incomplete idea of the influences on their innovative activity drawing on prior research in international business and strategy we identify two sets of factors that influence the absorption and utilization of knowledge in multinational corporation subsidiaries a the range of external and internal knowledge sources available and b the subsidiary capabilities associated with knowledge absorption and utilization we find that knowledge absorbed from the host country is useful to subsidiary innovation we also find support for the role of subsidiary capabilities both sourcing capability and combinative capability have a significant influence on the scale and quality of innovation

regionalization of r d activities dis economies of interdependence and inventive performance abstract this paper examines the impact of the extent of the regionalization of mnes r d activities on their inventive performance by joining the regionalization theory with the recombinant view of invention we challenge the implicit assumption that all foreign knowledge seeking activities will necessarily offer new knowledge to the firm we introduce the dis economies of interdependence defined as the dis advantages that the firm derives due to the interdependence among countries within a region as a new theoretical mechanism explaining the benefits and costs of regionalization our analysis of global pharmaceutical firms shows that an inverted u shaped relationship exists between the number of regions in which a firm has r d activities and its inventive performance our results also indicate that a firm s recombinant capability moderates the inverted u shaped relationship in such a way that when a firm s recombinant capability is high it reaches its turning point in a larger number of regions and the inverted u shaped relationship is flatter these results underscore that recombinant capability significantly influences the firm s ability to derive benefits and reduce costs from the regionalization of its r d activities our findings suggest that it is through the consideration of the dis economies of interdependence that offers the essential reasoning needed to unwind the inferred assumption that all foreign knowledge seeking activities will offer access to new knowledge

domestic alliance networks and regional strategies of mnes a structural embeddedness perspective we draw on a social network perspective to explain multinational enterprises mnes propensity to distribute their operations unevenly across various regions of the world we focus on how the positioning of mnes in their domestic network of strategic alliances affects their geographic scope i e whether they concentrate on their home region or expand beyond it we theorize that embeddedness in alliance networks constitutes a double edged sword to the geographic scope of mnes strong embeddedness in domestic alliance networks drives the development of location bound firm specific advantages fsas which may narrow down mnes geographic scope in contrast moderate embeddedness leads to more non location bound fsas which reduce liability of foreignness and hence motivate mnes to widen their geographical scope we thus predict a non linear relationship between domestic alliance network embeddedness and mne geographic scope furthermore the impact of the domestic alliance network on mne geographic scope hinges on the organizational ability to efficiently and effectively absorb resources stemming from the network we test our hypotheses using fdi data from 302 us mnes in the information and communication technology industry for the period of 2001 2008 and generally find robust support for the hypothesized relationships

an evolutionary approach to understanding international business activity the co evolution of mnes and the institutional environment this paper examines the co evolution of mne activities and institutions external and internal to the firm we develop a theoretical framework for this analysis that draws on the more recent writings of douglass north on institutions as a response to complex forms of uncertainty associated with the rise in global economic interconnectedness and of richard nelson on the co evolution of technology and institutions we link historical changes in the character of mne activities to changes in the institutional environment and highlight the scope for firm level creativity and institutional entrepreneurship that may lead to co evolution with the environment we argue that the main drivers for institutional entrepreneurship are now found in the increasing autonomy of mne subsidiaries thus mne agency derives from more decentralized forms of experimentation in international corporate networks which competence creating nodes of new initiatives can co evolve with local institutions unlike most other streams of related literature our approach connects patterns of institutional change in wider business systems with more micro processes of variety generation and experimentation within and across individual firms this form of co evolutionary analysis is increasingly important to understanding the interrelationships between mne activities and public policy

internalization advantage and subsidiary performance the role of business group affiliation and host country characteristics we extend internalization theory by examining the contingencies associated with market internalization and its impact on foreign subsidiary survival based on a sample of 6170 subsidiary year observations in 63 countries belonging to 292 mncs from korea during 1995 2013 we find that greater product and labor market internalization have weaker impacts on the survival of subsidiaries operating in countries with more developed institutional environments but stronger for subsidiaries of mncs affiliated with business groups the impact of business group affiliation is further dependent on host country institutional development and the diversification and size of the business group

the globalisation of technology what remains of the product cycle model this paper reexamines two hypotheses associated with earlier versions of the product cycle model the first hypothesis that innovations are almost always located in the home country of the parent company is rejected on the basis of evidence drawn from one hundred years of u s patent office data the second hypothesis that the international dispersion of activity is led by technology leaders is historically valid however over the last twenty years technology leaders have been ahead instead in the globalization of technology that is in developing internal international networks to exploit the locationally differentiated potential of foreign centers of excellence c 1995 academic press inc copyright 1995 by oxford university press

transfer pricing mechanisms an experimental investigation abstract this study evaluates in a laboratory setting the performance of the ronen and mckinney 1970 and the ronen 1992 transfer pricing schemes both mechanisms possess in theory the property of inducing efficient production and truth telling while decision making autonomy is maintained the ronen mckinney scheme however allows for multiple nash equilibria and if the divisions managers coordinate their messages they are expected to exploit the mechanism at the expense of the overall profitability of the firm the ronen 1992 scheme was designed to prevent this towards this end a penalty factor was incorporated into the original ronen mckinney scheme to make truth telling and optimal production a unique equilibrium the basic results are that under the ronen mckinney scheme and with coordination of messages being allowed subjects collude and earn significantly higher profits than amounts implied by the overall optimal solution without the penalty factor subjects seemed not to converge towards the efficient level of transacting at the end of the experiment it is not clear whether with additional trials such conversion would have occurred the inclusion of the penalty factor however eliminated the collusive behaviour in fact most of the pairs implementing the ronen mechanism reached the efficiency predicted by the theory whether or not coordination of messages was allowed

a dynamic capabilities based entrepreneurial theory of the multinational enterprise this paper develops a dynamic capabilities based theory of the multinational enterprise mne it first reviews scholarship on the mne with a focus on what has come to be known as internalization theory one prong of this theory develops contractual transaction cost informed governance perspectives and another develops technology transfer and capabilities perspectives in this paper it is suggested that the latter has been somewhat neglected however if fully integrated as part of a more complete approach it can buttress transaction cost governance issues and expand the range of phenomena that can be explained in this more integrated framework dynamic capabilities coupled with good strategy are seen as necessary to sustain superior enterprise performance especially in fast moving global environments entrepreneurial management and transformational leadership are incorporated into a capabilities theory of the mne the framework is then used to explain how strategy and dynamic capabilities together determine firm level sustained competitive advantage in global environments it is suggested that this framework complements contract based perspectives on the mne and can help integrate international management and international business perspectives

the role of duration in multinational investment strategies the location of investment by multinational enterprises has been investigated from many perspectives it has been suggested that investment may be motivated by experience of a particular location represented by tenure of operations in contrast portfolio considerations suggest that increased investment in a given location increases risk exposure in this paper the question of whether a multinational with a longer duration of operations at a particular location is more likely to invest further is addressed after taking portfolio risk into account a conceptual model of multinational investment strategy is developed and empirically tested using data from a survey of multinational enterprises operating in the west midlands region of the united kingdom two innovative non parametric tests for duration dependence are applied after normalising for portfolio considerations it is found that multinational investment is significantly duration dependent i e firms with a longer tenure of operations are significantly more likely to invest in any given period this finding has important implications for the strategy of inward investment agencies in particular an investment agency is short sighted if it seeks to attract new investors if that is at the expense of neglecting multinationals with current operations in its jurisdiction

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

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

how multinational subsidiary mandates are gained and lost a subsidiary mandate is a business or element of a business in which the subsidiary participates and for which it has responsibilities beyond its national market this research studied thirty one mandates in six canadian subsidiaries of u s owned multinational corporations a life cycle framework was proposed and used to explore the factors associated with the gain development and loss of mandates by subsidiaries two key findings emerged first it was shown that there is a risk in having a full scope world product mandate because it is possible to become marginal to the corporate strategy second it was observed that the engine of subsidiary growth is its distinctive capabilities and that for a mandate to be effective it must be built on those capabilities implications for mandate sustainability are proposed on the basis of these two insights

internalization an event study test abstract the internalization theory of multinational firms proposes that direct international investment occurs when a firm has information related intangible assets with public good properties we find that firms with characteristics suggesting the presence of information based assets experience a significantly positive stock price reaction upon announcing a foreign acquisition on the other hand firms apparently lacking such assets experience at best zero abnormal returns upon announcing overseas acquisitions

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

look before you leap market opportunity identification in emerging technology firms entrepreneurs play a fundamental role in bringing new technologies to market because technologies are often configurable to serve a variety of different markets it is possible for entrepreneurs to identify multiple market opportunities prior to the first market entry of their emerging firms and if they elect to do so to therefore have a choice of which market to enter first the empirical results presented in this paper offer three new insights regarding this important early stage choice in new firm creation first they reveal that serial entrepreneurs have learned through prior start up experience to generate a choice set of alternative market opportunities before deciding which one to pursue in their new firm creation second the analysis indicates that entrepreneurs who identify a choice set of market opportunities prior to first entry derive performance benefits by doing so third the positive relationship between the number of market opportunities identified prior to first entry and new firm performance is nonlinear and subject to decreasing marginal return the research literature has yet to acknowledge the notion of multiple opportunity identification prior to entry and the related idea of selecting the most favorable market opportunity for the creation of a new technology firm

selling resistance and reconciliation a critical discursive approach to subsidiary role evolution in mnes studies of political dynamics between multinational enterprise mne parents and subsidiaries during subsidiary role evolution have focused largely on control and resistance this paper adopts a critical discursive approach to enable an exploration of subtle dynamics in the way that both headquarters and subsidiaries subjectively reconstruct their independent interdependent relationships with each other during change we draw from a real time qualitative study of a revealing case of charter change in an important european subsidiary of an mne attempting to build closer integration across european country operations our results illustrate the role of three discourses selling resistance and reconciliation in the reconstruction of the subsidiary parent relationship from this analysis we develop a process framework that elucidates the important role of these three discourses in the reconstruction of subsidiary roles showing how resistance is not simply subversive but an important part of integration our findings contribute to a better understanding of the micro level political dynamics in subsidiary role evolution and of how voice is exercised in mnes this study also provides a rare example of discourse based analysis in an mne context advancing our knowledge of how discursive methods can help to advance international business research more generally

host country environment and subsidiary competence extending the diamond network model we extend the centers of excellence concept to address the diversity and multidimensionality of subsidiary competence using rugman and verbeke s diamond network model we hypothesize the contingencies influencing the links between host country environments and subsidiary competence configuration and provide evidence from more than 2000 subsidiaries in seven european countries our results provide new insights into how multinational enterprises can overcome unbalanced national diamonds by acquiring complementary capabilities across borders

managing interrelated tensions in headquarters subsidiary relationships the case of a multinational hybrid organization while all multinational organizations face the challenge of managing tensions between local integration and global responsiveness they are increasingly required to pursue additional often paradoxical objectives such as social and commercial goals however we know little about how these tensions at the core of the mnc strategy interact based on an inductive qualitative study of four headquarters subsidiary relationships in a latin american multinational hybrid organization we develop a model showing the interplay of multiple tensions and management approaches to address them this allows us to contribute to research on subsidiary roles which we found to differ depending on how multiple tensions are addressed furthermore we add to the literature on hybridity in multinational organizations by pointing out how regional differences between units of a single organization unfold finally we provide some practical recommendations for the management of multinational hybrid organizations

securing access to lower cost talent globally the dynamics of active embedding and field structuration manning s sydow j and windeler a securing access to lower cost talent globally the dynamics of active embedding and field structuration regional studies this article examines how multinational corporations shape institutional conditions in emerging economies to secure access to high skilled yet lower cost science and engineering talent two in depth case studies of engineering offshoring projects of german automotive suppliers in romania and china illustrate how multinational corporations engage in active embedding by aligning local institutional conditions with global offshoring strategies and operational needs multinational corporations thereby contribute to the structuration of field relations and practices of sourcing knowledge intensive work from globally dispersed locations the findings stress the importance of institutional processes across geographic boundaries that regulate and are shaped by multinational corporation activities manning s sydow j and windeler a

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

leadership beliefs and coordination an explorative discussion although recent economics contributions represent important strides forward in the understanding of leadership behavior the cognitive and symbolic dimensions of the phenomenon have attracted virtually no interests from economists and game theorists i argue that an understanding of these dimensions may be founded on coordination games particularly to the extent that these illustrate interactive belief formation in this context leadership is defined as the taking of actions that coordinate the complementary actions of many people through the creation of belief conditions that at least substitute for common knowledge and where these actions characteristically consists of some act of communication directed at those being led the concept of common knowledge or its approximation by means of notions of common belief is argued to be particularly important to understanding leadership thus leaders may establish common knowledge conditions and assist the coordination of strategies in this way or make decisions in situations where coordination problems persist in spite of common knowledge acknowledgments

is knowledge power knowledge flows subsidiary power and rent seeking within mncs in recent years as multinational corporation mnc subsidiaries have become more closely linked to international networks their knowledge intensity has risen and some of their r d has gained a more creative role simultaneously and often connectedly many subsidiaries have acquired considerable strategic independence in all aspects of their operations and therefore are able to exercise considerable intra firm bargaining power to influence the distribution of the firm s resources in this context we suggest that intra mnc knowledge flows are a key determinant of subsidiary bargaining power we argue that subsidiary managers can exploit such power to pursue their own ends such rent seeking behavior is implicit in much of the literature on managerialism but our analysis suggests that such behavior can now occur in headquarters subsidiary and subsidiary subsidiary relations thus subsidiary strategic independence designed to enhance the competitiveness of outputs market knowledge and inputs asset seeking and learning can be corroded when the pursuit of subsidiary objectives encourages rent seeking empirical analysis of a sample of high technology subsidiaries in the uk provides strong support for the theory we examine several avenues whereby the incentives of units within the mnc can be aligned

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

the interplay between hq legitimation and subsidiary legitimacy judgments in hq relocation a social psychological approach this paper marks a departure from the focus on external stakeholders in much research on legitimacy and multinational corporations adopting a social psychological approach to study how mncs build internal legitimacy for controversial decisions with their subsidiaries we explore this through a longitudinal real time qualitative case study of a regional office relocation since office relocations represent rare yet significant strategic decisions we analyze the interplay between the legitimation strategies of senior managers and subsidiary legitimacy judgments based in instrumental relational and moral considerations and how the relationship between the two develops over time from this analysis we derive inductively a process model that reveals the dynamics of building internal legitimacy with subsidiaries and how an mnc moves on even in the absence of full legitimacy when dealing with controversial mnc decisions the model highlights two important dynamics the first is a dynamic between legitimation strategies and legitimacy judgments and how this is influenced by local subsidiary contexts the second is a temporal dynamic in how both the legitimation strategies and legitimacy judgments evolve over time our model contributes to research on legitimacy in mncs what we know about tensions that characterize mnc subunit relationships and research on headquarters relocation

internal embeddedness geographic distance and global knowledge sourcing by overseas subsidiaries we investigate determinants of global knowledge sourcing of overseas r d subsidiaries shedding light on vertical cross border embeddedness within firms drawing on the paradox of embeddedness perspective which assumes that embeddedness may facilitate or hinder knowledge transfer we examine the extent to which different types of internal vertical embeddedness administrative versus knowledge facilitate global knowledge sourcing we find that vertical administrative embeddedness inhibits global knowledge sourcing while vertical knowledge embeddedness promotes it we also find differing moderating effects of geographic distance between headquarters and its subsidiaries on the association between vertical embeddedness and global knowledge sourcing

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

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

dynamic capabilities what are they this paper focuses on dynamic capabilities and more generally the resource based view of the firm we argue that dynamic capabilities are a set of specific and identifiable processes such as product development strategic decision making and alliancing they are neither vague nor tautological although dynamic capabilities are idiosyncratic in their details and path dependent in their emergence they have significant commonalities across firms popularly termed best practice this suggests that they are more homogeneous fungible equifinal and substitutable than is usually assumed in moderately dynamic markets dynamic capabilities resemble the traditional conception of routines they are detailed analytic stable processes with predictable outcomes in contrast in high velocity markets they are simple highly experiential and fragile processes with unpredictable outcomes finally well known learning mechanisms guide the evolution of dynamic capabilities in moderately dynamic markets the evolutionary emphasis is on variation in high velocity markets it is on selection at the level of rbv we conclude that traditional rbv misidentifies the locus of long term competitive advantage in dynamic markets overemphasizes the strategic logic of leverage and reaches a boundary condition in high velocity markets copyright 2000 john wiley sons ltd

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

foreignness and exit over the life cycle of firms received wisdom indicates that owing to a liability of foreignness foreign firms exit with greater likelihood than do comparable domestic firms and that the difference attenuates as firms age and overcome the liability we posit that foreign firms are also intrinsically more volatile and footloose than domestic ones and that this leads to an increasing divergence between the exit rates of foreign and domestic firms empirically we find that the difference between exit rates of foreign firms and domestic firms increases with age as exit of foreign firms increases with age while that of purely domestic firms decreases exit rates of domestic based multinationals do not change significantly with age they are between those of foreign and purely domestic firms but are closer to the latter this suggests that the footlooseness observed for foreign firms is due to foreignness more than to multinationality

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

innovation systems and inertia in r d location norwegian firms and the role of systemic lock in abstract this paper seeks to enquire why firms ceteris paribus tend to concentrate their r d activities at home using a systems of innovation si approach we argue that r d inertia is associated with structural inertia and resultant systemic lock in interaction within an si is a self reinforcing mechanism which may or may not lead to ex post efficiency lock in can be efficient when technologies and institutions maintain the competitiveness of firms on the other hand radical innovations or technological discontinuities may require new institutions and resources but systemic lock in may prevent rapid reaction firms can use a voice strategy by intervening to modify the appropriate institutions in the existing si or an exit strategy by seeking alternative si which more closely fit their needs in the case of norway two groups of firms exist group a benefit from a systemic lock in these are large firms in traditional sectors which are highly embedded and around whom the norwegian si has been built these firms engage in voice and loyalty group b are in science based sectors for whom lock in results in inefficiencies and use exit slowly expanding r d abroad to seek competences in technologies not available domestically

characteristics of foreign subsidiaries in industry clusters this paper examines the characteristics of foreign owned subsidiaries in export intensive leading edge industry clusters as defined by porter 1990 using a sample of 229 subsidiaries from three countries we show that subsidiaries in such clusters are more embedded more autonomous and more internationally oriented than subsidiaries in other industry sectors we also show that there are significant differences in the roles of foreign owned subsidiaries from one leading edge cluster to the next that are associated with the dynamism of the cluster and the overall level of foreign ownership the results indicate 1 that typologies of subsidiary roles should give increased consideration to environmental factors and 2 that thinking on industry clusters instead of treating them identically should recognize that they have heterogeneous characteristics

internal capital market controls and financial performance in multidivisional firms it is proposed that within the population of m form firms the control systems necessary to realize economic benefits from interrelationships between subunits o f a firm are incompatible with the systems necessary to realize benef its from an m form type internal capital market this hypothesis is t ested on 156 large u k firms questionnaire data are used to classif y the firms according to their internal control characteristics the findings provide tentative support for the hypothesis copyright 1988 by blackwell publishing ltd

predicting stakeholder orientation in the multinational enterprise a mid range theory as the reach of corporations increasingly extends across borders a key research question is whether overseas subsidiaries adopt a shareholder centric orientation centered on maximizing shareholder wealth or a stakeholder centric orientation centered on creating value for a broader range of stakeholders existing theories addressing the corporate level of analysis focus on forces exogenous to the firm local resource pressures and institutional norms using a combination of induction and fuzzy set analysis i draw on documentary evidence and 298 interviews with managers and stakeholders to build theory about the conditions that shape subsidiaries stakeholder orientations two major findings emerge first although theory emphasizes external stakeholders control over resources internal control through the corporate parent can crowd out the voices of local stakeholders second although institutional theory proposes isomorphism with local norms and standards some corporations are subject to scrutiny by global stakeholders and their subsidiaries face higher requirements for social engagement than their peers these findings are the foundation of a mid range theory that combines conventional explanations focused on environmental factors and an internal stakeholder perspective based around the roles of the parent corporation as owner and resource provider to predict stakeholder orientation

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

mnc subsidiary channel relationships as extended links implications of global strategies foreign subsidiaries of multinational corporations mncs rely on external partners such as channel partners to achieve global objectives we conceptualize the subsidiary s channel partner as an extended link of the mnc s internal network thus the subsidiary s adaptation and execution of the mnc s global strategies should influence the subsidiary s channel relationship and performance building on the strategy environment alignment framework we study the influence of mnc global strategies global efficiency multinational flexibility and worldwide learning on a subsidiary s channel commitment and the moderating influence of the host country environment survey data from german and japanese mncs in the united states indicate the importance of global strategies to a channel relationship for example we find that an emphasis on multinational flexibility is detrimental but worldwide learning benefits the subsidiary s channel commitment we also find that the host country environment plays a contingent role for example a global efficiency strategy is beneficial for channel commitment in a stable environment but detrimental in a dynamic environment our research offers key implications for mncs we suggest that when mncs decide to lay emphases on global strategies the mncs should consider not just their internal subsidiary network but also their extended channel partner links that function in foreign markets

closure and divestiture by foreign entrants the impact of entry and post entry strategies we analyze the longevity of foreign entrants explicitly considering two possible ways of exit firm closure and capital divestiture we find that entry and post entry strategies affect the longevity of firms and of foreign equity holdings but in different manners while the ownership arrangements and organizational structure affect the likelihood of divestment they exert no significant effect upon closure the entry mode exerts opposite effects on the two modes of exit greenfield entrants being more likely to shutdown but less likely to be divested only human capital affects closure and divestment in the same manner firms with large endowments of human capital are less likely to exit irrespective of the exit mode considered copyright 2000 john wiley sons ltd

how firms innovate through r d internationalization an s curve hypothesis abstract this article examines the effects of r d internationalization and organizational slack on innovation performance we suggest that there is an s shaped relationship between r d internationalization and innovation performance innovation performance increases in the decentralization stage decreases in the transition stage and increases again in the recentralization stage in addition organizational slack is hypothesized to have a negative moderating effect on the s shaped relationship longitudinal data on 210 taiwanese firms in the information technology sector during a 10 year period is collected to test the hypotheses the findings support our prediction managerial implications and future research directions are discussed

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

globalization and the death of the local firm the automobile components sector in south africa barnes j and kaplinsky r 2000 globalization and the death of the local firm the automobile components sector in south africa reg studies 34 797 812 as in the case of many developing countries south african industry is facing a new competitive environment as trade barriers fall this involves both the need to enter external markets and to cope with new entrants in the domestic market in the case of the south african automobile assembly industry responding to this new global environment has increasingly meant that domestic subsidiaries are being integrated into the global strategic operations of their parent companies this is increasingly leading them to the foreign sourcing of components in part because of perverse and unintended consequences of the motor industry development plan where local production of components is involved there is decreasing space for locally owned component suppliers and almost no space for component suppliers using local technology south african component supplie

the drivers of foreign direct investment into research and development an empirical investigation this paper examines the determinants of foreign direct investment fdi in research and development laboratories by 32 multinational enterprises in the pharmaceutical and electronics industries the paper applies a dichotomous set of motives for fdi results from an econometric analysis of 136 laboratory investments show that relative market size and relative strength of a country s science base determine whether fdi in research and development is carried out in order to exploit existing firm specific advantages or in order to build up new firm specific advantages this holds true in similar form for japanese european and u s firms and across the two industries

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

large firms in the production of the world s technology an important case of non globalisation us patenting by 686 of the world s largest manufacturing firms shows that their share of the world s production of technology is less than their share of r d activities and varies greatly amongst sectors in most cases the technological activities of these large firms are concentrated in their home country the characteristics of which influence the volume and trends in their technological activities much more strongly then the international component of these activities at the same time these large firms are major elements in the volume and the pattern of sectoral specializations in their home countries technological activities

decentralised r d and strategic competitiveness globalised approaches to generation and use of technology in multinational enterprises mnes abstract using material from surveys of multinational enterprise mne production subsidiaries and laboratories operating in the uk the paper seeks to discern vital changes in the roles of such r d facilities from the primarily tactical and technologically dependent role of adapting established group products for the local market these labs now take more committed positions in support of their group s strategic competitiveness this can involve a much more profound involvement in original product development or inputs into programmes of pre competitive basic or applied research to support the longer term evolution of the core technology of the mne group it is suggested that this evolution of decentralised labs positioning in mne knowledge strategies implies i an increasing involvement in product development rather than adaptation ii an interdependent rather than dependent position in group technology programmes iii increased relevance of supply side influences host country technology competencies capacities and heritage iv decline of centralising forces on r d e g economies of scale communication and co ordination problems concerns of knowledge security

randomized quasi monte carlo methods in pricing securities abstract today quasi monte carlo methods are used successfully in computational finance and economics as an alternative to the monte carlo method one drawback of these methods however is the lack of a practical way of error estimation to address this issue several researchers introduced the so called randomized quasi monte carlo methods in the last decade in this paper we will present a survey of randomized quasi monte carlo methods and compare their efficiencies with the efficiency of the monte carlo method in pricing certain securities we will also investigate the effects of box muller and inverse transformation techniques when they are applied to low discrepancy sequences

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

what happened to the transnational the emergence of the neo global corporation bartlett and ghoshal s transnational solution for managing the mnc remains popular among scholars and practitioners alike however our in depth qualitative study of unilever an exemplary case of a transnational found that in the period 2000 2012 the company evolved into a very different organizational form with a distinct set of characteristics we call this the neo global corporation in explaining how and why this transformation occurred we turn to organizational evolutionary theory and use our case to generate a multi cycle process model of mnc evolution given the dynamism of the mnc and its environments we anticipate that the neo global will also eventually transform and call for more organization level case studies of mncs in future international business research

technology strategy governance structure and interdivisional coordination abstract this paper studies how various organizational forms compare in their capacities to solve coordination problems created by technological interdependence between firms divisions i contrast the organizational mechanisms used by two firms ibm and general motors to address these problems while it is widely recognized that centralization distorts incentives facing division managers this paper highlights its benefits when there are large potential gains from agreement on technological standards the examples show how a centralized governance structure supported by lower powered incentives facilitates interdivisional coordination this suggests a refinement of the theory of organizational form based on how firms resolve the tensions between strategic planning and the measurement of organizational units performances

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