corruption south african multinational enterprises and institutions in africa we examine the responses of south african multinational enterprises mnes to corruption in african markets in the context of institutional voids corruption is a source of uncertainty and additional transactional costs for mnes and it necessitates a strategic response the research employs a qualitative study of a sample of mnes with experience in internationalising into africa the results indicate that corruption in african markets is pervasive and closely associated with the institutional voids in these countries mnes see themselves as institution takers responding to countries institutional makeup at the organisational and individual level but fail to fully appreciate their impact on institutions both positively and negatively rather mnes focus on strategic responses at the organisational level to address corruption operationally in the host country we add to the existing literature by providing a dynamic framework of the complex webs of association between institutions mnes and corruption in conditions of economic underdevelopment the research suggests that mnes do not need to get caught in a vicious cycle whereby they perpetuate corruption in conditions of underdevelopment and institutional voids but instead can contribute towards a virtuous cycle through which they institutionalise ethical foundations

labour supply estimation and public policy abstract economists devote considerable energies towards refining their econometric techniques to overcome difficulties connected with conducting empirical research despite advances in technique it is not clear whether further refinement in this direction is worthwhile for policy purposes it may be that no further amount of statistical adjustment of inadequate data will increase understanding and that better data is simply necessary to add to our knowledge but rarely is sufficient credit paid to new forms of data in short econometric technique is emphasized to the neglect of data innovation as if new data were merely lying about waiting for an ingenious suggestion for use this paper surveys advances of the last twenty five years in estimating labour supply for policy purposes with a view towards appreciating the relative contribution of both improvements in econometric technique as well as developments of new data after briefly detailing the key parameters which economists have sought to estimate we describe the early first generation research circa 1970 which is plagued by problems of unobservable variables measurement errors truncation and selectivity bias and non linear budget constraints second generation research constitute attempts to resolve one or more of these difficulties and the respective contribution of econometric technique and new data is acknowledged and assessed including the contribution of data generated by large scale social experiments in which participants are randomly assigned to different guaranteed income plans and their labour supply behaviour measured

responding to public disclosure of corporate social irresponsibility in host countries information control and ownership control we extend the internalization literature by theorizing on how public disclosure of corporate social irresponsibility csi can damage reputation based firm specific advantages of multinational companies mncs and how foreign subsidiary governance can subsequently be used as strategic responses specifically we distinguish between two foreign subsidiary governance mechanisms information control and ownership control that the prior literature has often assumed operate in parallel and posit that they function in divergent directions in this context furthermore we explain how two host country characteristics press freedom and regulatory quality amplify the need for mncs to utilize different governance mechanisms as responses to csi disclosure

interdependency of personal savings and labour force participation of the elderly and social security wealth a time series analysis using japanese annual time series data covering the period 1950 1982 our study shows that social security wealth during this period depressed personal savings as a result there was a reduction of approximately 79000 yen of wealth per capitain real terms from 1960 to 1980 however the declining labour force participation of elderly males brought about for example by earlier retirement stimulated personal savings by an estimated 13000 yen over the same period the results indicate that the benefit effect tends to outweigh the retirement effect furthermore this study has identified a negative interdependency between the level of personal savings and the retirement behaviour of elderly males a typical male worker saves more before retirement if that individual expects to stay a shorter time in the labour market retirement behaviour is less responsive to a change in personal savings behaviour than vice versa

labor market effects of women s post school age training using data from the 1984 nls mature women s cohort this study investigates whether post school age training defined as both formal education and other forms of training received after the end of formal schooling affected women s wages and labor force participation the author analyzes the association between training and wage changes over the years 1967 when the women in the sample ranged in age from 30 to 44 through 1984 when they had reached ages 47 to 61 and compares labor force participation in 1984 between women who had obtained post school age training and those who had not women who received post school age training experienced a greater rise in wages and participated in the labor force at older ages than did women who received no training

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

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

the perceived budget constraint under social security evidence from reentry behavior if as is usually assumed older individuals face a continuous choice of work hours without fixed costs or take account of the actuarial adjustment of social security benefits postponed as a result of the earnings test the earnings limit should not affect their labor supply before age 65 we test and reject these assumptions by estimating the hazard function for labor market reentry after retirement using white men in the retirement history survey we find that the earnings limit does affect reentry and that older men behave myopically responding to current benefits rather than to social security wealth several policy implications follow

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

the global integration of business functions a study of multinational businesses in integrated global industries the way that multinational businesses in integrated global industries coordinate and control r d manufacturing and marketing functions across borders has significant implications for performance we propose that in such global industries certain integrating modes will be more effective than others in integrating a function globally we show that each function has a different combination of effective integrating modes for global r d integration people based and information based modes are more effective than formalization based and centralization based modes for manufacturing people information and formalization are more effective than centralization with respect to marketing information and centralization are more effective than people and formalization we also demonstrate that the co alignment between actual and ideal profiles configurations or patterns of integrating modes results in superior performance our results reveal that people based and information based modes are generally more effective than formalization based and centralization based modes in coordinating and controlling business functions worldwide

overcoming distrust how state owned enterprises adapt their foreign entries to institutional pressures abroad state owned so enterprises are subject to more complex institutional pressures in host countries than private firms these institutional pressures arise from a weak legitimacy of state ownership in some countries which arises from a combination of ideological conflicts perceived threats to national security and claimed unfair competitive advantage due to support by the home country government these institutional pressures directed specifically at so firms induce them to adapt their foreign entry strategies to reduce potential conflicts and to enhance their legitimacy testing hypotheses derived from this theoretical argument for subsidiaries of listed chinese firms we find that so firms adapt mode and control decisions differently from private firms to the conditions in host countries and these differences are larger where pressures for legitimacy on so firms are stronger these findings not only extend institutional theory to better explain differential effects on different entrants to an organizational field but demonstrate how foreign investors of idiosyncratic origins may proactively build legitimacy in host societies

do pensions increase the labor supply of older men this paper investigates the relationship between pension coverage and the retirement behavior of older men pensions are associated with higher work involvement for males in their late fifties and early sixties but with lower rates of job holding for those aged 65 69 age of entry into pension employment is shown to be positively correlated with future labor supply when combined with evidence on age specific changes in labor force participation rates this pattern casts doubt on the hypothesis that broadened pension coverage explains a substantial portion of the trend towards earlier male retirement

initial shareholdings and overbidding in takeover contests within the context of takeovers this paper shows that in private value auctions the optimal individually rational strategy for a bidder with partial ownership of the item is to overbid i e to bid more than his valuation this strategy however can lead to i an inefficient outcome and ii the winning bidder making a net loss further the overbidding result implies that the presence of a large shareholder increases the bid premium in single bidder takeovers at the expense of reducing the probability of the takeover actually occurring

host market government corruption and the equity based foreign entry strategies of multinational enterprises while extant theory suggests that the pervasiveness of host market government corruption should influence the equity ownership decisions of foreign investing multinational enterprises mnes empirical research has produced inconclusive results we leverage insights from transaction cost economics to advance an uncertainty oriented framework which can be used to explain the impact of host market government corruption on the equity based entry strategies of mnes we disaggregate government corruption into two distinct components grand corruption and petty corruption we propose that grand and petty corruption precipitate different types of uncertainty environmental and behavioral which motivate mnes to vary their equity based foreign entry strategies entry mode and partnering hypotheses pertaining to the entry strategies of mnes under conditions of more pervasive grand and petty corruption are developed and tested with a sample of 643 japanese investments in 30 countries between 2004 and 2007 we find that the main effect of grand corruption and the interaction between grand and petty corruption significantly impact a mne s entry mode further while more pervasive grand corruption increases the likelihood that a mne will engage in a joint venture investment with a host country partner we find that an increase in petty corruption heightens a mne s preference to invest with a home country partner

retirement wages and labor supply of the elderly a model of labor force participation market wages and labor supply of annual hours and weeks of work is estimated for married males and unmarried females in a sample from the retirement history survey 1969 75 matched with social security earnings records emphasis is placed on the effects of variables associated with retirement and old age and on the estimation of net age profiles purged of biases associated with specific years and cohorts and with the other included variables the effects of most of the usual variables appear to be consistent with the theory and with other empirical findings for both sexes in addition age itself has a strong net autonomous effect on each of the dependent variables due to biological societal or institutional factors

the impact of corruption on entry strategy evidence from telecommunication projects in emerging economies with globalization and the growth in emerging economies multinational enterprises mnes now frequently confront challenges associated with corrupt governments already a growing body of research has demonstrated that corruption significantly reduces a countrys aggregate inflows of foreign direct investment through its effects on firm performance we move the analysis of corruption from aggregate financial flows toward managerial theory and practice by examining how firms adjust their strategy for entering foreign markets in corrupt environments and how different types of corruption affect firms choices building on institutional theory we predict that mnes will respond to pervasive and arbitrary corruption in a host country by selecting particular types of equity and nonequity modes of entry using data on 220 telecommunications development projects in 64 emerging economies we find that firms adapt to the pressures of corruption via short term contracting and entry into joint ventures we also find that the arbitrariness surrounding corrupt transactions has a significant impact on firms decisions in addition to the overall level of corruption in contrast to extant research we show that mnes use nonequity entry modes or partnering as an adaptive strategy to participate in markets despite the presence of corruption

housing wealth property taxes and labor supply among the elderly we investigate the relationship between housing wealth property taxes and elderly labor supply using longitudinal data from the health and retirement survey spanning the recent boom bust housing cycle when combined with msa specific house price indexes the data provide plausibly exogenous variation in housing wealth identified through within msa renter homeowner comparisons our findings suggest that elderly households respond to variation in housing wealth and property taxes in the predicted opposing directions that wealth influences labor supply to a lesser extent than factors like health and marital status and that the effect of housing wealth on labor supply varies by gender and age

real options theory in international business the last quarter century has witnessed substantial growth in applications of real options theory rot to international business ib research in this review we explicate the core rot concepts in the ib context and discuss the contributions of rot based research to three core ib issues timing and scale of market entry or exit entry mode and governance form and the role of multinational networks based on our review we propose a holistic rot view of the multinational enterprise that synthesizes the insights of existing studies finally to move the field forward we highlight key questions and challenges in current rot based work provide a more precise definition of exogenous and endogenous uncertainty suggest empirical designs to test unique rot predictions and explore areas where rot can be combined with other theoretical perspectives to better understand ib phenomena

optimal toeholds in takeover contests abstract we offer an explanation for why raiders do not acquire the maximum possible toehold prior to announcing a takeover bid by endogenously modeling the target firm s value following an unsuccessful takeover we demonstrate that a raider may optimally acquire a small toehold even if the acquisition does not drive up the pre tender target price this occurs because although a larger toehold increases profits if the takeover succeeds it also conveys a higher level of managerial entrenchment and hence a lower firm value if the takeover fails we derive new predictions regarding the optimal toehold and target value following a failed takeover we also examine the impact of a rival bidder and dilution

merger negotiations and the toehold puzzle abstract the substantial control premium typically observed in corporate takeovers makes a compelling case for acquiring target shares a toehold in the market prior to launching a bid moreover auction theory suggests that toehold bidding may yield a competitive advantage over rival bidders nevertheless with a sample exceeding 10 000 initial control bids for us public targets we show that toehold bidding has declined steadily since the early 1980s and is now surprisingly rare at the same time the average toehold is large when it occurs 20 and toeholds are the norm in hostile bids to explain these puzzling observations we develop and test a two stage takeover model where attempted merger negotiations are followed by open auction with optimal bidding a toehold imposes a cost on target management causing some targets to rationally reject merger negotiations optimal toeholds are therefore either zero to avoid rejection costs or greater than a threshold so that toehold benefits offset rejection costs the toehold threshold estimate averages 9 across initial bidders reflecting in part the bidder s opportunity loss of a merger termination agreement in the presence of market liquidity costs a threshold of this size may well induce a broad range of bidders to select zero toehold as predicted the probability of toehold bidding decreases and the toehold size increases with the threshold estimate the model also predicts a relatively high frequency of toehold bidding in hostile bids as observed overall our test results are consistent with rational bidder behavior with respect to the toehold decision

gasoline prices and the used automobile market a rational expectations asset price approach this paper examines the impact of changes in gasoline price expectations on the market values of used automobiles an asset model of automobile valuation is used to relate year to year changes in market values to changes in the present discounted value of gasoline expenses econometric evidence from data covering the years 1972 through 1981 substantially confirms the hypothesis of the model that a gasoline price shock causes relative price changes across automobile types in proportion to the differences in their rates of fuel consumption

host country policies and mne management control in ijvs evidence from china in international joint ventures ijvs partner firms exert three types of management control output process and social since management control critically influences ijv success it is essential to understand what factors drive the development of the control system prior studies have focused mainly on ijvs internal conditions and have largely neglected external institutional influences on ijv control in this study we explore how host country policies affect mne partners control over their ijvs using a sample of ijvs in china we find that mne partners tend to exercise less output and process control when minority equity restriction is present greater process control when they receive government incentives and less social control when they are required to partner with state owned enterprises in contrast the results of a post hoc analysis show that local partners control activities are not significantly influenced by these policies our findings provide new insights into ijv management by demonstrating the impacts of regulatory institutions on partners control activities

transaction cost determinants and ownership based entry mode choice a meta analytical review entry mode choice is a critical ingredient of international entry strategies and has been voluminously examined in the field the findings however are very mixed especially with respect to transaction cost related factors in determining the ownership based entry mode choice this study conducted a meta analysis to quantitatively summarize the literature and empirically generalize more conclusive findings based on the 106 effect sizes of 38 empirical studies the meta analysis shows that the findings of the existing studies are moderated to varying degrees by both study setting factors and statistical artifacts although the combined overall effects of transaction cost based determinants are consistent with the predictions of transaction cost economics we extensively discuss the implications of meta analytical results especially moderating effects of location country of origin industry type and statistical artifacts highlight the measurement adequacy equivalence and multidimensionality of transaction cost determinants and present our suggestions to improve theoretical inquiries and empirical verifications on entry mode choice

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

political party tenure and mne location choices we develop a theoretical framework to explain how political party tenure affects mne entries into an economy we leverage insights from the upper echelon and public administration literatures to argue that there is a curvilinear relationship between political party tenure and mne entries moreover we argue that political parties with an excessive tenure are less responsive to mnes and more corrupt therefore we further explain the mediating effects of government bureaucratic responsiveness and government corruption on that relationship we test our theory using a sample of manufacturing mnes entering into mexican cities the results support our theory

collectivism and corruption in bank lending this paper examines how national culture and collectivism in particular influences corruption in bank lending we hypothesize that interdependent self construal and particularist norms in collectivist countries lead to a higher level of lending corruption through their influence both on the interactions between bank officers and bank customers and on the dynamics among bank colleagues using a sample covering 3835 firms across 38 countries we find strong evidence that firms domiciled in collectivist countries perceive a higher level of lending corruption than firms domiciled in individualist countries in terms of economic magnitude the effect of collectivism is substantially larger than the effects of other cultural dimensions uncertainty avoidance masculinity and power distance and institutional factors identified in prior studies bank supervision bank competition information sharing and media monitoring we further find that the positive relationship between collectivism and lending corruption is not driven by endogeneity and that it is robust to different measures of bank corruption different measures of collectivism and different estimation methods finally we find that the link between collectivism and lending corruption cannot be explained by the role of the government in the economy political connections biased responses from disgruntled borrowers or relationship lending

national culture and expatriate deployment we hypothesize that expatriate deployment is a control function predicted by home country culture dimensions with transaction cost and agency repercussions rather than culture in the aggregate this departure from the traditional conceptualization and measurement of cultural impact also yields a hypothesized asymmetrical effect which is tested for a multi country sample of 236 multinational subsidiaries using multiple measures of national culture hypotheses are supported with assertiveness and power distance confirmed as prime predictors of expatriate deployment

participation and earnings of older people in argentina nice work if you can get it abstract the article explores the potential contribution of better labour market participation among older people in argentina to address old age poverty and vulnerability the acute financial crisis in 2001 led to a steep rise in poverty and renewed concerns over the deterioration of old age support broadly two main strategies took shape to strengthen pension provision for poorer and vulnerable older people and to improve their labour market participation using data from a dedicated survey of older people the article tests the feasibility and effectiveness of the second strategy through a detailed analysis of the labour market participation and earnings of older people in argentina

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

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

both sides of the coin motives for corruption among public officials and business employees the aim of this study is to better understand why public officials and business employees engage in corruption insight into individual level explanations for corruption was obtained with the aid of a self report survey the results suggest that the most indicative factors of whether or not individuals are corruption prone are as follows the moral conviction they have to refrain from corruption perceptions of whether their colleagues approve of and engage in corruption and difficulties experienced in complying with the rules on corruption this result pattern was identical for public officials and business employees alike and as a consequence for both sides of corrupt acts the latter indicates that the same motives may not only underlie corruption in both private and public sectors but also the act of corruption in its active and passive forms the results of the current study do not provide strong support for the assumption that economic considerations expected costs and benefits are crucial in predicting corruption based on the findings that norms and the perceived opportunity to comply are dominant factors in explaining corruption this article focuses on the practical implications for the development of anti corruption strategies within both public and private sectors

competing bids target management resistance and the structure of takeover bids we examine the structure of initial takeover bids and the frequency of observing competing bids and target management resistance we find the use of cash is not consistently correlated with the frequency of competition or resistance and that the cost of acquiring information about a target is associated with the likelihood of competition and resistance a high bid premium appears to deter competing offers and is also associated with a lower likelihood of resistance finally target management resistance is associated with an increased likelihood of a competing offer arising and a larger increase in target shareholder wealth between the initial public announcement and outcome dates relative to the not resisted subsample for both successful and unsuccessful acquisition proposals article published by oxford university press on behalf of the society for financial studies in its journal the review of financial studies

understanding japanese csr the reflections of managers in the field of global operations this paper examines how japanese multinational companies manage corporate social responsibility csr it considers how the concept has come to be framed within japanese business which is increasingly globalized and internationally focused yet continues to exhibit strong cultural specificities the discussion is based on interviews with managers who deal with csr issues and strategy on a day to day basis from 13 multinational companies in looking at how csr practice has been adopted and adapted by japanese corporations we can begin to see what implications arise from the fact that csr is a western led concept so opening up critical questions about the future development and evolution of csr practice within a global context in being exposed to the concept of csr as practiced vigilantly in western countries japanese multinational company managers have certainly come to re evaluate aspects of business likely to need rectifying with potential concerns being gender inequalities discrepancies in employee conditions and issues over human rights and supply chains japan can be thought to be lagging behind in its understanding and adoption of csr in part because corporations do not necessarily state their policies as formally as might be expected yet by analyzing more deeply the kinds of responses gained from csr managers in japan and by placing their remarks within a broader context of japanese culture and business practices a far more subtle and revealing picture becomes apparent not least a more complex picture of the local global interaction of the frames of reference of corporate responsibility

efficient and inefficient sales of corporate control this paper develops a framework for analyzing transactions that transfer a company s controlling block from an existing controller to a new controller this framework is used to compare the market rule which is followed in the united states with the equal opportunity rule which is used in many other countries the market rule is superior to the equal opportunity rule in facilitating efficient transfers of control but inferior to it in discouraging inefficient transfers conditions under which one of the two rules is overall superior are identified for example the market rule is superior if existing and new controllers draw their characteristics from the same distributions finally the rules effects on surplus division are analyzed and this examination reveals a rationale for mandatory rules

takeovers and divergence of investor opinion we test several hypotheses on how takeover premium is related to investors divergence of opinion on a target s equity value we show that the total takeover premium the pre announcement target stock price run up and the post announcement stock price markup are all higher when investors have higher divergence of opinion we obtain identical results with higher market level investor sentiment when divergence of opinion is higher a firm is less likely to be a takeover target although takeover synergy in successful takeovers is higher our results suggest that takeovers may play a role in explaining high contemporaneous stock prices in the presence of high divergence of investor opinion the author 2011 published by oxford university press on behalf of the society for financial studies all rights reserved for permissions please e mail journals permissions oup com oxford university press

social security liquidity and early retirement abstract this paper investigates the effect of social security on retirement decisions it argues that it is important to take realistic account of how recipients evaluate potential benefit flows the paper presents a simple retirement model in which liquidity constraints prompt individuals to use higher than market discount rates in evaluating future pension benefits as a consequence even an apparently actuarially fair early retirement benefit could on average discourage continued work using data on individual retirement decisions i find support for the argument that this phenomenon contributes to some of the observed increase in early retirement

from the editors endogeneity in international business research this essay builds on the exposition by thomas et al and focuses on analyzing cause and effect in international business research we attempt to explain how endogeneity problems occur and why they are so prevalent in international business research in a non technical fashion we then discuss the importance of explicitly identifying how the chosen research design best approximates a randomized controlled experiment finally we provide some guidelines on achieving this goal and emphasize the practices that seem most relevant to jibs reviewers in evaluating high quality international business research

the determinants of expatriate staffing by japanese multinationals in asia control learning and vertical business groups we empirically examine the determinants of the decision whether or not to appoint an expatriate as the managing director of overseas affiliates for a sample of 844 japanese manufacturing affiliates operating in asia in 1995 confirmation is found for hypotheses derived both from a control and coordination perspective on expatriation and from a knowledge creation and learning perspective strategic dependence of the parent on the affiliate increases the propensity to appoint expatriates whereas localisation of the affiliate reduces it organisational experience in the country both by the affiliate and by the firm increases the probability that host country nationals will be appointed inter firm relationships within vertical keiretsu groups impact on expatriation policies through inter organisational knowledge exchange in host countries and the mitigation of localisation requirements owing to intra group transactions

integration oriented strategies host market corruption and the likelihood of foreign subsidiary exit from emerging markets extant research has found that more pronounced levels of corruption in foreign host emerging markets increase the likelihood that subsidiaries established by multinational enterprises mnes from developed countries will exit we synthesize insights from the organizational perspective of corruption and the integration responsiveness paradigm to propose that integration oriented strategies will weaken the positive relationship between corruption and the likelihood of exit at high levels of host market corruption we develop and test hypotheses pertaining to the main effect of corruption on the likelihood of subsidiary exit as well as the moderating impacts of a firm s equity ownership strategy and its expatriate staffing strategy upon this relationship we theorize that uncertainty operates as the mechanism that underpins the corruption market exit relationship and that an mne s strategic choices with respect to its subsidiary investments contribute to reducing this uncertainty we find that an increase in the foreign investing mne s equity ownership share negatively moderates the positive relationship between corruption and the likelihood that foreign subsidiaries established by developed market mnes will exit host emerging markets when corruption is high however the marginal effects results do not support the expatriate staffing strategy hypothesis our work provides guidance to developed country mnes that seek insights with respect to the utility of strategies that might be implemented in host emerging markets characterized by more pronounced levels of corruption

income taxes and the labor supply of married women in quebec in recent years a substantial literature has developed for the most part in the u s concerning labor supply behavior of particular interest is the labor force behavior of married women since this raises a set of interesting theoretical and empirical issues despite the extensive research in both the u s and the u k there has been relatively little empirical investigation in canada this is surprising given the increasing importance of women in the canadian labor force and the concern expressed by policy makers 2 this study presents some empirical results on the labor supply behavior of married women in quebec using data on 2439 husband wife families for 1979 in estimating labor supply responses of married women we take into account the effect of income taxes and address the question of tax perception 3 the impact of taxes on labor supply is particularly important in the quebec context since quebec marginal tax rates are the highest in canada and it appears in north america the study also compares the results of alternative methods of estimation married women s labor supply functions are estimated using standard ols techniques a procedure suggested by heckman 12 13 which corrects for selectivity bias a two stage gls technique which also corrects for selectivity bias and a gls method applied to a system of equations the conceptual framework of labor supply determination is briefly reviewed in section ii section iii describes the data the empirical specification and the estimation strategy

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

do tender offers create value new methods and evidence abstract conventional techniques of estimating takeover value improvements measure only a fraction of the total gain and include revelation about bidder stand alone value to address these biases we develop the probability scaling method which rescales announcement date returns and the intervention method which uses returns at intervening events perceived value improvements are larger than traditional methods indicate we cannot reject the hypothesis that bidders on average pay fair prices combined bidder target stock returns are higher for hostile offers lower for equity offers and lower for diversifying offers these effects reflect revelation about bidder stand alone value not differences in gains from combination

pre tender offer share acquisition strategy in takeovers this paper models the strategic pre tender offer share acquisition problem faced by po tential bidders in takeovers the model provides a rational explanation for the seemingly anomalous empirical evidence that the information about the impending tender offers is not fully conveyed through the potential bidders pre tender offer trades and for the evidence that a large fraction of bidders do not hold any target shares prior to launching the tender offers additional testable implications are also provided

the role of expatriates in the management of interdependence complexity and risk in multinational corporations a multilevel analysis of environmental country and organizational affiliate factors is used to explain the differential utilization rates of u s nationals in overseas professional positions of a major u s bank with 84 branches in 43 countries the research suggests that to the extent that the affiliates of a multinational corporation operate in environments with differing levels of political risk cultural distance and competition and have operations with different levels of complexity and interdependence a single staffing policy may be inappropriate

offshoring innovation to emerging markets organizational control and informal institutional distance the literature on innovation offshoring has focused on the dichotomous choice between two distinct investment strategies captive offshoring and outsourced offshoring we use the concept of organizational control to investigate how differences in the informal institutions that prevail in the home and host countries influence multinational enterprise mne strategy or the organizational control decision with respect to subsidiaries established to offshore innovation while the relationship between formal institutions and mne strategy has been the subject of considerable academic scrutiny less is known about the role of informal institutions we propose that the type of uncertainty precipitated by informal institutions is critical to understanding the strategic behavior of foreign investing mnes we hypothesize that an mne s organizational control over a subsidiary will be contingent upon the type of informal institutional uncertainty encountered by the subsidiary more specifically we disaggregate the informal institutions construct and develop three new more explicit latent constructs behaviorally oriented informal institutions boii technology oriented informal institutions toii and demand oriented informal institutions doii our theory posits that while an increase in boii distance will precipitate a preference for greater organizational control heightened toii and doii distances will induce the opposite outcome a preference for lower levels of organizational control

state owned mncs and host country expropriation risk the role of home state soft power and economic gunboat diplomacy expropriation risk has a binding effect on foreign direct investment fdi however state owned multinational corporations may counter the monopoly power of the host state by leveraging the political influence of their home government the magnitude of this counter force we argue may vary depending on the strength of political relations between the home and host state and the level of economic dependence of the host country on the home market we find supporting evidence of our hypotheses using chinese firm level fdi information between 2003 and 2010

influences on foreign equity ownership level in joint ventures in china this study examines the determinants of foreign equity ownership in joint ventures in china drawing upon duning s ownership locational and internalization paradigm and the literature on bargaining power eleven variables that impact foreign ownership preferences and concessions are examined these variables are advertising intensity foreign capital input country risk of china ejv investment amount ejv contractual duration cultural distance competitive intensity local partner state ownership local partner alignment foreign partner alignment and ejv location the empirical findings are largely consistent with the hypotheses the empirical findings are largely consistent with the hypotheses further interesting differences were found among u s european and japanese firms with respect to the impact of these determinants

why firms engage in corruption a top management perspective this study builds upon the top management literature to predict and test antecedents to firms engagement in corruption building on a survey of 341 executives in india we find that if executives have social ties with government officials their firms are more likely to engage in corruption further these executives are likely to rationalize engaging in corruption as a necessity for being competitive the results collectively illustrate the role that executives social ties and perceptions have in shaping illegal actions of their respective firms

the institutional environment for infrastructure investment the empirical evidence that links political institutions to economic outcomes has grown dramatically in recent years however virtually all of this analysis is undertaken using data from the past three decades this paper extends this empirical framework by performing a two century long historical analysis of the determinants of infrastructure investment in a panel of over 100 countries the results demonstrate that political environments that limit the feasibility of policy change are an important determinant of investment in infrastructure copyright 2002 oxford university press

extending the internationalization process model increases and decreases of mne commitment in emerging economies the internationalization process model suggests that firms internationalize by building positions in foreign markets and networks following iterative cycles of learning and changes in commitment however as subsidiaries evolve commitments may be decreased as well as increased a phenomenon that has rarely been studied moreover it remains an open question why strategic intentions at the outset of an investment project differ from the actual operations established we address these questions by extending the model and combining it with mintzberg and waters framework of strategy formation specifically we suggest that commitment decisions correspond to statements of intended strategy while network positions correspond to realized strategies the processes of learning opportunity creation and trust building triggered by commitment decisions are however moderated by institutional influences that lead to divergences between realized and intended strategies we test propositions derived from this framework on a survey data set of subsidiaries of multinational enterprises in hungary lithuania and poland and find that institutional voids and institutional uncertainty affect subsidiary strategy implementation but in opposing directions under high institutional uncertainty investors prefer low commitment but flexible modes that enable later commitment increases whereas institutional voids increase up front information search and adaptation costs that reduce the likelihood of early post entry adjustments our analysis reinforces the need for more differentiated theoretical analyses of how institutions affect business strategies over time

corporate takeovers the efficiency arguments in recent years the tender offer takeover has been praised and damned with a ferocity suggesting that the survival of capitalism is at stake the truth as in most disputes with substantial metaphysical content is more prosaic some takeovers enhance economic efficiency some degrade it and the balance of effects though not fully known is most likely a close one in this essay i try to lay bare the debate s foundations and bring it back to earth with an injection of evidence

the determinants of mne subsidiaries political strategies evidence of institutional duality in this study we develop and test a model of the determinants of political strategies used by foreign subsidiaries of multinational enterprises mnes using recent theoretical advances in institutional theory that recognize that mne subsidiaries are confronted with pressures for isomorphism within the corporation internal legitimacy and within the host country external legitimacy we integrate international business and political strategy literatures to create a multilevel model of subsidiary host country and parent determinants of political strategy our hypotheses are tested using survey and archival data from western european subsidiaries of us mnes

developed country mnes investing in developing economies progress and prospect this study reviews research from 1970 through 2016 on developed country multinational enterprises dmnes entering and competing in developing economies to identify the current state of knowledge of this research and push it further we review the literature using bibliometric and qualitative content analyses covering leading journals and books we articulate frontier issues that are understudied yet critical to both theorization and practice of dmnes in developing economies we discuss the findings and conclusions from prior research along five key areas 1 entering developing economies 2 organizing local activities 3 managing alliances and joint ventures 4 competing in dynamic environments and 5 dealing with institutions governments and society we offer prospective insights into future agenda that have important implications for mne strategies and decisions and propose frontier directions that encompass strategic localization reverse transfer and adaptation co evolution with local business ecosystems reorganizing and restructuring and strategic responses to institutional and market complexity

the effectiveness of laws against bribery abroad this paper analyzes the effectiveness of laws against bribery abroad in inducing foreign investors to reduce their investments in corrupt countries the laws are designed to reduce the supply of bribes by foreign investors by increasing the costs of bribing abroad such increase in costs will make foreign investors more sensitive to corruption and induce them to reduce their investments in corrupt countries however the paper argues that these laws need to be implemented and coordinated in multiple countries to become effective otherwise investors in a country will have incentives to bypass them when competitors from other countries are not bound by similar legal constrains the empirical analysis shows that investors from countries that implemented the oecd convention on combating bribery of foreign public officials in international business transactions of 1997 reduced their investments in corrupt countries investors from the us which were bound by the foreign corrupt practices act of 1977 also reduced investments in corrupt countries but only after the oecd anti bribery convention was in place

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

toehold strategies takeover laws and rival bidders abstract prior to the announcement of a tender offer the bidding firm is legally allowed to acquire shares in the open market subject to some limitations these pre announcement purchases are known as toeholds this paper presents a simple model that describes the bidder s optimal toehold acquisition strategy within an environment that closely parallels the present legal institutions the model shows that toeholds and bids interact in a complex manner even without the presence of asymmetric information by examining a simple environment the paper provides a useful alternative hypothesis for tests of other presumably more complex models one of the main implications of our model is that if no competing bidders are expected no toeholds should be purchased the paper also demonstrates that the correct specification of an empirical model can be critical for example under some parameter values toehold purchases may exhibit a negative cross sectional correlation with the pre announcement run up in the stock price this occurs even though prices are strictly increasing the size of the toehold several implications concerning various aspects of merger legislation are considered for example we demonstrate that a rule similar to a fair price provision has the desirable property that a second bidder arrives and wins if and only if he places a higher value on the target than the initial bidder

the early retirement decision new empirical evidence on the influence of health many studies have examined the influence of health on retirement but there may be problems with the various health measures used a major criticism of the most frequently used variables is that they may reflect ex post rationalizations of retirement in this paper i examine a variety of health variables focusing directly on the health measurement issue as it relates to retirement research new measures of health are developed with individual self evaluations of health status unlike most previous findings the empirical results suggest that economic variables play a more important role than health in retirement decisions

the labor supply effects of the social security earnings test the social security earnings test taxes away benefits at a 33 50 rate once earnings pass a threshold amount i investigate the response to three past changes in the earnings test rules each applying to some age groups and not others i find that beneficiaries bunch in substantial numbers just below the earnings threshold and the bunching shifts when the earnings test rules change these shifts in the budget constraint are incorporated into an econometric model to identify income and substitution effects the estimation yields significant elasticities that suggest considerable deadweight loss suffered by working beneficiaries

what s in a p reassessing best practices for conducting and reporting hypothesis testing research social science research has recently been subject to considerable criticism regarding the validity and power of empirical tests published in leading journals and business scholarship is no exception transparency and replicability of empirical findings are essential to build a cumulative body of scholarly knowledge yet current practices are under increased scrutiny to achieve these objectives jibs is therefore discussing and revising its editorial practices to enhance the validity of empirical research in this editorial we reflect on best practices with respect to conducting reporting and discussing the results of quantitative hypothesis testing research and we develop guidelines for authors to enhance the rigor of their empirical work this will not only help readers to assess empirical evidence comprehensively but also enable subsequent research to build a cumulative body of empirical knowledge

markup pricing in mergers and acquisitions this paper studies the relation between the premiums in takeover bids involving exchange listed target firms from 1975 91 and the pre announcement stock price runups the evidence shows that the pre bid runup and the postannouncement increase in the target s stock price the markup are generally uncorrelated with little substitution between the runup and the markup the runup is an added cost to the bidder this finding has important implications for assessing the costs of insider trading it also raises interesting questions about the role of information from public capital markets in private takeover negotiations

balancing private and state ownership in emerging markets telecommunications infrastructure country industry and firm influences bargaining between host states and investors over the terms of investment in sensitive sectors of the economy generates political and economic tensions in this study we investigate the factors that contribute to the outcomes of those negotiations as measured by the private vs state owned share of newly consummated telecommunications infrastructure projects we find that private ownership is positively associated with overall economic development and investment liberalization in the host country and with greenfield vs divestiture and joint venture vs wholly owned projects private ownership is negatively associated with existing telecommunications infrastructure higher levels of state ownership of foreign investing firms and the technological sophistication of the projects our analysis also shows a curvilinear inverted u shaped relationship between investment policy hazards and private ownership this finding supports the insight from transaction cost economics that potential gains from internalization are greatest at intermediate levels of uncertainty

noise trading and takeovers a model of takeovers is investigated in which noise trading provides camouflage that makes it possible for a large corporate outsider to purchase enough shares at favorable prices so that takeovers become profitable although the model accommodates the possibility of dilution grossman and hart 1980 and a large incumbent shareholder shleifer and vishny 1986 neither dilution nor a large incumbent shareholder is necessary for costly takeovers to be profitable noise trading tends to encourage costly takeovers that otherwise would not occur and to discourage beneficial takeovers that otherwise would occur

the effect of health on the labor force behavior of elderly men in canada this paper estimates a model of the labor force behavior of elderly males in canada paying explicit attention to the influence of health the authors construct a health index using data from the canada health survey we estimate an earnings equation for fullyear full time participants to obtain the potential earnings of each individual we then examine four labor force states using a hierarchical elimination by aspects heba model our results suggest that health is as important as potential earnings in determining the labor force behavior of men in canada

the leading shareholder strategy takeover contests and stock price dynamics abstract this paper analyzes the attractiveness of the leading shareholder strategy control without majority ownership for a potential takeover bidder with a cost of raising funds additional purchases commit the bidder to more aggressive behavior in a takeover battle and thus discourage competing bids at the optimum the bidder thus trades off the cost of buying additional shares with the risk of losing control to another bidder small shareholders payoffs depend instead on the relative management skills of the bidders and on the premium they obtain when competing bidders enter the battle this model can also be interpreted in terms of equilibrium ownership of dominant shareholders facing costs of raising funds and risks of takeover attempts

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