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

going the distance the pros and cons of expanding employees global knowledge reach while some scholars have suggested mnes to be superior to markets for managing knowledge across geographically distant boundaries how they actually accomplish this has not been fully considered we address this void by developing and testing a model that highlights the critical role of organizational incentives in enhancing employees internal search and use of knowledge data from 166 knowledge intensive projects support our argument that in contrast to process based incentives that influence more local search outcome based incentives motivate employee teams to reach well beyond their immediate location which in turn enhances performance at the same time we demonstrate that expanded reach also increases the likelihood of accessing more codifiable knowledge which can hurt performance our model examines the contradictory and previously unknown effects of global knowledge reach

from shadow to green linking environmental fiscal reforms and the informal economy in the past few decades many papers have analysed in some depth different environmental tax reforms and the double dividend hypothesis i e the possibility of improving not only the environment but also the economy through the reduction of distortions in the tax system recently more stress has been placed on testing empirically what effects a reduction in labour taxes may have on unemployment when accompanied by a carbon or other environmental tax however such studies have not modelled the effects of the presence of a shadow economy even though informal markets account for a significant and growing part of gdp in many developed economies this paper analyses this link using an applied general equilibrium model for the case of spain which has one of the highest unemployment rates in the world and one of the biggest informal economies of any wealthy country we conclude that our analysis strengthens the case for an environmental tax reform in spain if revenues from a co2 tax are recycled via a labour tax reduction

do r d tax credits work evidence from a panel of countries 1979 1997 this paper examines the impact of fiscal incentives on the level of r d investment an econometric model of r d investment is estimated using a new panel of data on tax changes and r d spending in nine oecd countries over a 19 year period 1979 1997 we find evidence that tax incentives are effective in increasing r d intensity this is true even after allowing for permanent country specific characteristics world macro shocks and other policy influences we estimate that a 10 fall in the cost of r d stimulates just over a 1 rise in the level of r d in the short run and just under a 10 rise in r d in the long run

the case against intellectual property according to a common argument the presence of strong intellectualproperty rights spurs innovation which leads to higher economic growthand increasing benefits for all the argument seems coherent theestablishment of secure property rights is a fundamental pillar of a wellfunctioning market economy no economic agent exercises productiveeffort without the certainty of controlling its fruits what is true forphysical effort must be true for the intellectual one if strong propertyrights provide good incentives for the production of potatoes they mustalso provide good incentives for the production of ideas why then do we argue a case against intellectual property are wearguing that while stealing potatoes is bad stealing ideas is good weare not economic efficiency and common sense argue that ideasshould be protected and available for sale just like any other commodity but intellectual property has come to mean not only the right to ownand sell ideas but also the right to regulate their use this creates asocially inefficient monopoly and what is commonly called intellectualproperty might be better called intellectual monopoly when you buy apotato you can eat it throw it away plant it or make it into a sculpture current law allows producers of a cds and books to take this freedomaway from you when you buy a potato you can use the idea of a potatoembodied in it to make better potatoes or to invent french fries currentlaw allows producers of computer software or medical drugs to take thisfreedom away from you it is against this distorted extension ofintellectual property rights that we argue it is a long jump from the assertion that inventors deserve the fruits oftheir efforts to the conclusion that current patent and copyrightprotection are the best way of providing such reward statements such

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

language friction and partner selection in cross border r d alliance formation how does language friction affect alliance formation language friction is a form of cultural friction arising from structural differences in the respective languages used by potential partners to reason and solve problems together a little language friction may prompt partners to rethink solutions thereby enhancing collaboration but excessive friction may impede collaboration we develop a language friction index lfi to quantify relative differences in linguistic structure for any language pair utilizing a unique data set of semiconductor design activities 1988 2001 our empirical analysis finds an inverted u shaped relationship between partners lfi and the likelihood of cross border research and development rd 2 the effects of language friction are economically significant and strategically consequential 3 certain aspects of language friction occur independent of language proficiency and persist despite the use of lingua franca to reduce language barriers 4 linguistic diversity is an indirect marker of cognitive diversity which is useful in boosting creativity especially in first time collaborations 5 beyond r d alliances language friction may also influence other types of strategic interactions and organizational processes

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

optimal taxation in models of endogenous growth we study the problem of optimal taxation in three infinite horizon representative agent endogenous growth models the first model is a convex model in which physical and human capital are perfectly symmetric our second model incorporates elastic labor supply through a lucas style technology analysis of these two models points out the danger of assuming that government expenditures are exogenous in our third model we include government expenditures as a productive input in capital formation showing that the limiting tax rate on capital is no longer zero in numerical simulations we find similar effects on growth and welfare in all three models

interfirm relationships and informal credit in vietnam trading relations in vietnam s emerging private sector are shaped by two market frictions the difficulty of locating trading partners and the absence of legal enforcement of contracts examining relational contracting we find that a firm trusts its customer enough to offer credit when the customer finds it hard to locate an alternative supplier a longer duration of trading relationship is associated with larger credit as is prior information gathering customers identified through business networks receive more credit these network effects are enduring suggesting that networks are used to sanction defaulting customers

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

taxing fossil fuels under speculative storage long term environmental consequences of taxing fossil fuel usage have been extensively studied in the literature however these taxes may also impose several short run macroeconomic policy challenges the nature of which remains underexplored this paper investigates the mechanisms through which environmental taxes on fossil fuel usage can affect the main macroeconomic variables in the short run we concentrate on a particular mechanism speculative storage formulating and using a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium dsge model calibrated for the united states with an explicit storage facility and nominal rigidities we show that in designing environmental tax policies it is crucial to account for the fact that fossil fuel prices are subject to speculation the existence of forward looking speculators in the model improves the effectiveness of tax policies in reducing fossil fuel usage improved policy effectiveness however is costly it drives inflation and interest rates up while impeding output based on this tradeoff we seek an answer to the question how monetary policy should interact with environmental tax policies in our dsge model of fossil fuel storage we show that in an environment with no speculative storers monetary policy should respond to output along with cpi inflation in order to minimize the welfare losses brought by taxes however when the storage facility is activated responding to output in the monetary policy rule becomes less desirable

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

why do firms hide bribes and unofficial activity after communism abstract our survey of private manufacturing firms finds the size of hidden unofficial activity to be much larger in russia and ukraine than in poland slovakia and romania a comparison of cross country averages shows that managers in russia and ukraine face higher effective tax rates worse bureaucratic corruption greater incidence of mafia protection and have less faith in the court system our firm level regressions for the three eastern european countries find that bureaucratic corruption is significantly associated with hiding output

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

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

beyond cultural distance switching to a friction lens in the study of cultural differences my 2001 article provided a critical review of one of the most popular constructs in international business and in the management and business literature as a whole namely cultural distance it listed various illusions implicit yet unsubstantiated and refutable assumptions that underpinned a construct set to capture the essence of cultural differences the paper questioned the validity of the measure the resultant findings obtained in such international business applications as foreign direct investment patterns sequence entry mode and performance and ultimately the wisdom of continuing the use of the measure and its underlying construct in this retrospective i review subsequent work that tested some of the original observations the impact the article has had and in particular how we can redirect research away from the static cultural distance paradigm toward the dynamic interaction of the actual entities that come into contact in international business

optimal fiscal policy in a business cycle model this paper develops the quantitative implications of optimal fiscal policy in a business cycle model in a stationary equilibrium the ex ante tax rate on capital income is approximately zero there is an equivalence class of ex post capital income tax rates and bond policies that support a given allocation within this class the optimal ex post capital tax rates can range from close to independently and identically distributed to close to a random walk the tax rate on labor income fluctuates very little and inherits the persistence properties of the exogenous shocks thus there is no presumption that optimal labor tax rates follow a random walk most of the welfare gains realized by switching from a tax system like that of the united states to the ramsey system come from an initial period of high taxation on capital income

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

cultural friction in leadership beliefs and foreign invested enterprise survival cultural friction posits that cultural differences may be either synergistic or disruptive but does not specify when or how synergies or disruptions emerge we theorize that synergies will emerge in foreign invested enterprises fies when cultural differences in leadership beliefs are less central to the host nation s cultural identity while disruption will occur when differences are in more culturally central leadership beliefs analyzing survival data from 274 fies in china we found support for these hypotheses with five of the six globe leadership dimensions as predicted differences in the participative and team oriented dimensions were associated with higher firm death while differences in the charismatic autonomous and self protective dimensions were associated with firm survival our results indicate that while there are areas where differences may indeed need to be accepted or minimized there are other areas where differences can be beneficial this requires that managers identify more central aspects of local culture to determine whether to minimize differences or to leverage their synergistic potential

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

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

global warming and endogenous technological change revisiting the green paradox one of the most pressing policy challenges facing the world today concerns how to mitigate global warming while improving people s well being the green paradox argues that increasing taxes on co2 emissions exacerbates global warming in the present because firms have the incentive to bring forward the extraction and sale of fossil fuels this paper shows that whenever technological progress allows the extraction costs of fossil fuels to be reduced over time and a positive r d subsidy is paid a growing tax on co2 emissions reveals a welfare maximizing policy

the industrial organization of congress or why legislatures like firms are not organized as markets this paper provides a theory of legislative institutions that parallels the theory of the firm and the theory of contractual institutions like market institutions legislative institutions reflect two key components the goals or preferences of individuals here representatives seeking reelection and the relevant transactions costs we present three conclusions first we show how the legislative institutions enforce bargains among legislators second we explain why given the peculiar form of bargaining problems found in legislatures specific forms of nonmarket exchange prove superior to market exchange third our approach shows how the committee system limits the types of coalitions that may form on a particular issue

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

gradual green tax reforms abstract green tax reforms have become an important tool not only in protecting the environment but also in bringing about a more efficient tax system however reforms often imply accepting sacrifices in the short run and bring about the risk of potential political opposition within this framework the debate on whether to implement green tax reforms in one step or gradually becomes of great interest in this paper we use a dynamic general equilibrium model calibrated to the spanish economy to evaluate different reforms that consist in increasing energy taxes and adjusting capital taxation in a revenue neutral framework our findings show that although an environmental dividend is always granted the existence of an efficiency dividend depends on the type of reform its size and how gradually it is implemented thus one step reforms that produce an efficiency dividend would imply large efficiency costs in the short run in this case the reform could only produce efficiency gains in the short run if it is implemented gradually although such gains would end up disappearing in the long run

theorising from case studies towards a pluralist future for international business research the literature on case studies both in the field of international business ib and in the social sciences more generally has tended to focus on the methods of data production and analysis suited to this research strategy in contrast in this paper we investigate methods of theorising from case studies we seek to understand how case researchers theorise and how future ib research might utilise case studies for theorising by means of a qualitative content analysis of case studies published in journal of international business studies academy of management journal and journal of management studies we construct a typology of theorising from case studies two dimensions of the case study namely causal explanation and contextualisation form the basis for our typology we distinguish four methods of theorising inductive theory building interpretive sensemaking natural experiment and contextualised explanation only the first of which has been widely used in jibs in the period that we investigate on the basis of our own qualitative analysis we show the limitations of inductive theory building and argue that greater utilisation of the other methods of theorising would enhance the case study s explanatory power and potential for contextualisation we argue for a more pluralist future for ib research

the virtues of gradualism and legitimacy in the transition to a market economy this paper presents a simplified model of sectoral restructuring in eastern europe a move towards allocative efficiency is desired by the reform minded government but the shift to higher productivity which such efficiency requires would lead to massive layoffs and labour reallocation in the transition period we look at the impact of political constraints unanimity and or majority worker approval on reform proposals when the government faces a heterogeneous workforce holding private information on relative outside opportunities when the budgetary consequences of exit compensations are so important as to make partial reforms preferable to full reforms gradualism emerges as the optimum in a dynamic context without government commitment it is also shown that under democratic majority rule a government in control of the agenda of reforms can win majority approval for plans which end up hurting majority interests intertemporally by threatening to switch majorities in future reform proposals this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item

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

beyond categorization new directions for theory development about entrepreneurial internationalization categorizations emphasizing the earliness of internationalization have long been a cornerstone of international entrepreneurship research here we contend that the prominence of categories has not been commensurate with theory development associated with them we draw on categorization theory to explain why earliness based categories are persistent and argue that a greater focus on notions related to opportunity can open new avenues of research about the entrepreneurial internationalization of business we propose and discuss three directions for opportunity based research on entrepreneurial internationalization involving context dynamics and variety

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

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

developing difference social organization and the rise of the auto industries of south korea taiwan spain and argentina theories of economic development as diverse as modernization dependency world system and market reform take a critical factor view proponents of each theory argue that countries fail to develop because of an obstacle to economic growth we argue instead that neither a critical factor nor a single path leads to economic development viable paths vary economic growth depends on linking a country s historically developed patterns of social organization to the opportunities of global markets we formulate a sociological theory of cross national comparative advantage including not only economic factor endowments but also institutionalized patterns of authority and organization such patterns legitimize certain actors and certain relationships among those actors which facilitate development success in some activities but not in others we illustrate this approach to understanding development outcomes with a comparative analysis of the difficult rise of the automobile assembly and components industries in south korea taiwan spain and argentina

national culture and international business a path forward the anniversary of kogut and singh s construct of cultural distance is a good time to reflect on this immensely popular but flawed construct assess the efficacy of the remedies offered for its reform and refinement and chart an alternative approach that represents a departure from distance as the dominant paradigm with which to view and analyze the impact of national culture on cross border business the proposed alternative a contact based framework shifts attention from what sets cultures apart towards the actual cultural interface that firms and their executives experience when participating in an international transaction with this lens the cultural exchange is regarded as an evolving interactional process of engagement which commences prior to a transaction and proceeds through the life of the inter party arrangement and beyond and whose potential to yield negative or positive outcome is subject to specific contingencies implications for theory methodology and practice are delineated

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

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

policy uncertainty and the sequence of entry by japanese firms 1980 1998 we extend the stages model of internationalization to incorporate a sophisticated consideration of temporal and cross national variation in the uncertainty of the policy environment using a sample of 6465 international expansions of 665 japanese manufacturing firms in 49 countries we develop arguments from internationalization and bargaining power perspectives to show how japanese firms manage policy uncertainty in host country environments through the within country sequencing of investments although a distribution to manufacturing entry sequence tends to prevail in countries with low levels of policy uncertainty as uncertainty in the policy environment increases initial entry by distribution is increasingly likely to be eschewed in favor of an initial entry by a joint venture manufacturing plant we suggest that this change in investment sequence occurs as firms shift from an emphasis on developing knowledge about local markets and consumers in low hazards markets to an international expansion strategy in uncertain policy environments that places knowledge development of the policy environment at the forefront of a firm s strategy

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

corporate social responsibility and corporate governance role of context in international settings this research aims to explore the relationship between corporate governance and csr what are the major factors that play a direct role in the establishment of this relationship how does context and institutional background impact upon the relationship between csr and governance using in depth semi structured interviews from two types of governance systems in three countries over three years this study has demonstrated that in practice within different settings csr is being used both as a strategy as well as a reaction to different drivers we call this adaptive governance where governance can be defined as a flexible system of action incorporating strategic and monitoring activities that determines the way a company enacts its responsibilities to its shareholders and stakeholders and which is determined at any given time by the interrelationship of institutional drivers and behavioural norms governance systems and their interrelationships with csr are demonstrated as fluid according to the national and institutional context economic situation and industry impact in the eyes of practitioners corporate governance includes both structural and behavioural factors as well as responsibilities and actions towards shareholders and stakeholders contextual factors that this research highlights to be important to the incorporation of csr into governance include the economic environment national governance system regulation and soft law shareholders national culture behavioural norms and industry impacts hypotheses on the impact of institutional contexts industry impacts and economic situations on different types of csr actions are proposed for further research

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

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

the capital energy substitutability debate a new look over the last twenty years many studies have been made of the elasticity of substitution between capital and labor the reported estimates are highly variable and reveal an apparent dichotomy between cross sectional and time series studies the former suggest that capital and energy are substitutes while the latter suggest the converse all these studies reported allen partial elasticities of substitution we suggest that the morishima elasticity may be a more useful measure for the issues of concern to capital energy substitution we calculate the morishima elasticities from parameters estimated in a selection of earlier studies and find no excessive variability nor any evidence of the time series cross section dichotomy capital and energy are morishima substitutes copyright 1995 by mit press

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

lost that lovin feeling the erosion of trust between small high distance partners we investigate the role of high distance in trust erosion between small partners high distance is known to hinder the formation of trust between potential partners but its role in trust erosion in established partnerships is less understood by international business scholars through a qualitative longitudinal study we extend current theory of how high distance affects the trust dynamics between cross border partners specifically we unearth three interrelated mechanisms that together explain how and why trust can erode due to high distance we show that before a partnership is formed high distance can lead partners to erroneously attribute cues to a potential partner s high quality leading to over expectations of partner performance once the partnership is operational high distance hinders actors ability to understand situational factors associated with disappointing outcomes and so they are attributed to failings of the partner at the same time distance related challenges of bounded reliability render partners reluctant to discuss partnership outcomes this can result in a vicious cycle of inertia as partners strive to protect goodwill while abandoning efforts to produce partnership outcomes because of doubts of the other s quality thus our theoretical model illustrates the limitations of trust and explains how paradoxically high distance can facilitate both trust formation and trust erosion

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

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

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

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

speed of adjustment and self fulfilling failure of economic reform abstract an economic reform programme where inefficient public labour is laid off is considered the immediate effect is a lowering of wages and increased profitability in the private modern sector over time as capital accumulates in the modern sector wages and production increases big bang reform generates a sharp transitory drop in wages while gradual reform gives a more modest decline in the presence of a subsistence wage constraint popular resistance can cause the cancellation of big bang reform two arguments for gradualism can in that case be made first a more gradual reform requires a less abrupt drop in the wage and will therefore be feasible second the initial wage drop will be stronger if a cancellation of reform is expected and since cancellation is dependent on the severity of the initial wage drop multiple equilibria occurs the existence of multiple equilibria is dependent on the speed of reform sufficiently gradual programmes have a unique successful equilibrium

a microfoundations approach to transnational capabilities the role of knowledge search in an ever changing world scholars seeking to understand the origin of dynamic capabilities have struggled to articulate specific capabilities and locate their source of variation within the firm we propose that the transnational imperative and a microfoundations approach to knowledge search can help to develop this topic adopting an engaged scholarship approach hypotheses are tested in a global consulting company counter to traditional capabilities arguments we find that drawing from globally dispersed colleagues will more strongly impact local responsiveness than drawing from locals outside the company though both may still be needed efficiency increases when teams draw upon codified knowledge but decreases when they draw upon embedded tacit knowledge finally through continual learning teams can change and re direct the composition of their responsiveness and efficiency activities in ways sensitive to an ever changing world

an institutional logics approach to liability of foreignness the case of mining mnes in sub saharan africa prior research on firms liability of foreignness lof has emphasized the role of isomorphic behavior in overcoming lof however the literature has not adequately considered how firms can overcome lof under conditions of institutional complexity when fundamental differences in firms home and host country values beliefs and rules may make isomorphic behaviors impossible or undesirable in this article we use the emerging research on institutional logics and institutional entrepreneurship to address this important issue by examining case studies of eight foreign mining mnes experiencing lof in sub saharan africa based upon our qualitative analysis we find that mnes can overcome lof by co creating new institutional logics rather than conforming to existing ones yet our data show that this is a difficult process one that may not be capable of being done unilaterally by the mne instead we find that local employees embedded in both sets of competing institutional logics acted as key intermediaries who facilitated institutional entrepreneurship moreover we found that firms implementation strategy matters as well in some cases institutional entrepreneurship mitigated lof in others friction returned to varying degrees

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

the power of the buckley and casson thesis the ability to manage institutional idiosyncrasies recent patterns of rapid internationalization in sectors characterized by strong public interest and both government and domestic capital constraints seem at first inconsistent with the drivers of internationalization identified by buckley and casson 1976 for manufacturing industries in the postwar era a more microanalytic perspective however identifies the ability to manage institutional idiosyncrasies as a firm level capability akin to research or advertising that can drive internalization across national borders and thereby internationalization these arguments are examined using evidence from the independent power production sector

the cost of climate policy in the united states abstract we re evaluate prospects for us economic growth and the likely costs of advanced technologies given recent developments and then apply the mit emissions prediction and policy analysis eppa model to evaluate three core ghg policy scenarios for the us that cap emissions at different levels the three policy scenarios involve allowance allocations that through 2050 are 1 constant at present emissions levels 2 linearly reduced to 50 below present 3 linearly reduce emissions to 80 below present the cumulative allowance allocations over the horizon of the policy are 287 203 and 167 gt of co 2 equivalent respectively we compare the results to previous analysis of these same policy scenarios to evaluate how the changed growth and technology prospects affect the results we focus on 203 and 167 gt scenarios because current proposals envision deep cuts in emissions from present the 167 gt scenario is closest to proposals currently being considered by congress and supported by the us administration however we do not attempt to model specific details of actual proposals we test results to alternative assumptions about program coverage and banking behavior measured in terms of changes in economic welfare the economic cost of 203 and 167 gt cases is in the range of 2 to 3 by 2050 with co 2 prices between 48 and 67 in 2015 rising to between 190 and 266 by 2050 implementation details matter when an idealized economy wide cap and trade is replaced by coverage omitting some sectors or if the credibility of long term target is weak limiting banking behavior prices and welfare costs change substantially

optimal taxation of capital income in general equilibrium with infinite lives this paper analyzes the optimal tax on capital income in general equilibrium models of the second best agents have infinite lives and utility functions which are extensions from the koopmans form the population is heterogeneous the important property of the models is the equality between the social and the private discount rates in the long run i find that the optimal tax rate is zero in the long run for a special case of additively separable utility functions i then determine the tax rates along the dynamic path and conditions that are sufficient for the local stability of the steady state

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

the influence of the management team s international experience on the internationalization behaviors of smes why are some small and medium sized enterprises smes more successful in selling outside their domestic markets than are other smes in the same industry although the traditional explanation is that firms can gain valuable knowledge and resources as they become older and larger small and young firms are not necessarily disadvantaged if they develop other mechanisms to acquire the requisite knowledge and resources we examine the role of the management team s international experience as such a mechanism for the internationalization of canadian software product firms we show that internationally experienced management teams have a greater propensity to develop foreign strategic partners and to delay less in obtaining foreign sales after start up and that these behaviors are associated with a higher degree of internationalization

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

the effects of corporate restructuring on aggregate industry specialization it has been widely argued that the purpose of corporate restructuring during the 1980s was to produce a population of more industry specialized competitive firms in response to intensifying global competition a number of studies show that corporate restructuring resulted in increased corporate focus during the 1980s however no study has yet examined whether corporate restructuring resulted in increased specialization at the industry level during the 1980s this study examines this issue first we examine whether or not aggregate industry specialization increased during the 1980s that is we ask did the average firm in any given u s industry become more or less specialized to that industry during the 1980s second we examine whether corporate restructuring was a significant determinant of change in aggregate industry specialization during the 1980s using a sample of 686 four digit sic industries and 64 two digit industry groups this study finds that aggregate industry specialization declined very slightly at both the four digit and two digit level between 1981 and 1989 this study also finds that sell offs of establishments through corporate control transactions or interfirm asset sales had no significant effect on aggregate industry specialization

wary managers unfavorable environments perceived vulnerability and the development of trust in foreign enterprises in china vulnerability is salient among international managers who tend to be wary when operating in transition economies like china systematic research is lacking though on how the local environment influences foreign managers perception of vulnerability and how foreign managers can develop trust even when their perceived vulnerability is high we conducted in depth case studies of two foreign controlled enterprises in china and developed a theoretical model that links perceptions of the macro level environment to micro level management our results illustrate the antecedents and consequences of perceived vulnerability and the processes of trust building in unfavorable environments through comparative analysis of the two cases we found that the foreign managers perceived vulnerability was shaped by the institutional technological and market conditions of the local environment and we learned how this perceived vulnerability influenced their trust in the local workforce and the joint investment in formal and social control they used in building trust the effect of perceived vulnerability on trust was moderated over time when the implementation of control was combined with active investments in trust which led to behavioral changes on the part of the local employees which in turn increased their trustworthiness the implications of these findings are discussed

optimal fiscal policy in a stochastic growth model although most neoclassical growth models focus on competitive equilibria which are pareto optimal and ignore the role of government recent works by romer 28 29 judd 20 baxter and king s and bizer and judd 7 have shown that government can be introduced into and suboptimal equilibria can be studied in these models as well their studies however are positive analyses of the effects of fiscal policy in competitive equilibria the purpose of this paper is to apply ramsey s 27 theory of optimal taxation to the normative study of fiscal policy in a stocastic growth model ramsey studied a static representative consumer economy with many goods in his formulation a government consumes a fixed amount of these goods which it purchases at market prices and finances by levying flat rate excise taxes prices and quantities are determined in a competitive equilibrium the government is benevolent and its objective is to choose the optimal tax rates to maximize the representative consumer s utility a number of economists among them kydland and prescott 23 barro 3 turnovsky and brock 31 and lucas and stockey 26 have noted that ramsey s formulation can be applied to dynamic economies with uncertainty if one reinterprets the goods in static problems as dated state contingent goods in this framework a fiscal policy is a rule which specifies state contingent tax rates and the amount of public debt issue in each date the optimal fiscal policy is defined as the one which leads to a quantity