explaining the international intensity and global diversity of early stage technology based firms abstract early stage technology based firms are confronted with the complexity of foreign markets and global competition from their earliest stages of development not only must technology entrepreneurs keep pace with ever changing technology based product offerings but they must also simultaneously stay abreast of competitors and industry trends in multiple countries we surveyed 75 small technology based firms in ontario to evaluate their international activities and try to explain both the intensity of their foreign sales the percent of total sales coming from foreign sources as well as the global diversity of the markets in which they operate the number of major regional areas from which they derive revenue our findings suggest that resources necessary to pursue international sales have an important impact on both foreign market intensity and diversity in contrast however attitudes towards foreign markets helped to explain international intensity but not global diversity additionally firm age was positively associated with global diversity but not international intensity these findings support the notion of small technology firms being instant internationals but suggest that proceeding to the next step achieving global diversity requires significantly greater time and resources in line with prior empirical research these firms tended to increase their international intensity and diversity as they became larger in contrast with what the literature suggests however firms utilizing strategic alliances were no more active internationally than those not using strategic alliances finally government assistance helped to explain the international intensity of these firms but not the global diversity these results help managers researchers and shapers of public policy better understand the international activities of early stage technology firms given the relationship between attitudes and international intensity there appears to be some opportunity associated with trying to influence the attitudes of ceos regarding initial expansion into international markets for firms to become globally diverse however there is a greater dependency on the availability of resources as well as accumulated business experience managers should recognize the pattern this suggests and perhaps be leery of becoming too globally diverse too quickly overall the relationship between size and foreign activities suggests that growth opportunities are linked to international markets although some broad relationships are suggested regarding the need for collaboration and government support further research is necessary to understand the use of strategic alliances as well as government assistance in both international market intensity and global diversity

regulatory environments and the location decision evidence from the early foreign market entries of new technology based firms new technology based firms ntbfs embarking on a strategy of rapid internationalisation choose foreign market entries that minimise transaction costs and the related risks of failure means to reduce the young firms vulnerability to the appropriation of intellectual capital are particularly important influences on early foreign market choices we explore the effect of the institutional dimension specifically the national regulatory environment on the location choices and the speed of internationalisation by british and german ntbfs we provide evidence that entrepreneurial young firms choose to enter country markets offering better regulatory protection for their intellectual property this decision is moderated by a home regulatory regime bias in contrast we observe that the speed of internationalisation is influenced less by the foreign regulatory regime and more by industry and firm characteristics we also observe that managerial experience influences the location choices of ntbfs facing regulatory hazards

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

foreign entry cultural barriers and learning this paper examines the longevity of foreign entries hypotheses are developed on the mode start ups vs acquisitions and ownership structure wholly owned vs joint ventures in relation to cultural distance the hypotheses are tested within a framework of organizational learning using data on 225 entries that 13 dutch firms carried out from 1966 onwards results show that the presence of cultural barriers punctuates an organization s learning cultural distance is a prominent factor in foreign entry whenever this involves another firm requiring the firm to engage in double layered acculturation we also identify locational paths of learning the longevity of acquisitions is positively influenced by prior entries of the firm in the same country similarly the longevity of foreign entries in which the firm has a majority stake improves whenever the expanding firm engaged in prior entries in the same country and in other countries in the same cultural block

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

a theory of international new ventures a decade of research oviatt and mcdougall s jibs article identified and defined international new ventures invs and their prominent role in the global marketplace the article spurred worldwide interest in invs by raising questions about the validity and efficacy of existing theory especially about the uppsala process model of internationalization the article also laid an important theoretical foundation for research into international entrepreneurship ie where younger and wellestablished companies use their entrepreneurial activities to create value as they internationalize their operations this paper reviews oviatt and mcdougall s original propositions highlighting their important contributions to the field the paper also highlights the progress made in research using oviatt and mcdougall s framework the major debates that persist about the nature and role of invs the source of their competitive advantages and the key issues to be explored in future research

intellectual property rights and the governance of international r d partnerships this paper studies the degree to which country differences in intellectual property rights protection affect the choice of companies for a particular mode of international inter firm r d partnering it focuses on the preference of companies for either an equity joint venture or a contractual partnership we find that international differences in intellectual property rights protection are a significant factor with less secure protection firms choose r d joint ventures rather than contractual partnerships the level of technological change in industries has an inverse effect on the preference for international r d joint ventures

the bias in price elasticity estimates under homothetic separability implications for analysis of peak load electricity pricing this article demonstrates that the assumption of a homothetically separable utility function places a priori restrictions on the parameters of the demand system if these restrictions are unwarranted an open question if they are not explicitly tested they will lead to biased price elasticity estimates in particular we show that the uncompensated own price elasticities must be smaller than the negative of the expenditure shares that is the price elasticity of peak electricity demand must be less than the negative of the share of expenditure devoted to peak electricity this finding is probably not new to economists familiar with consumer demand analysis nevertheless many recent studies of consumer demand for electricity under time of day rates explicitly impose this restriction the resulting price elasticity estimates are usually quite large in absolute value 5 to 8 but they are the product of restrictive a priori assumptions as well as information embodied in the sample data the results of

travel time and the liability of distance in foreign direct investment location choice and entry mode measures of geographic distance are often used to proxy for the impact of spatial separation on firm decisions and performance we develop a construct dyad travel time to measure the friction of interacting and costs of uncertainty from ex post behavioral monitoring across non collocated sites we measure the actual time required to travel between 1171 parent subsidiary dyads and show that dyad travel time but not geographic distance has significant predictive power in firm governance and location decisions while prior literature has independently modeled these we specify a simultaneous model offering stronger support for the interrelation of these decisions

the internationalization of small and medium sized firms this paper contributes to the existing research by integrating the notions of organizational learning and entrepreneurial orientation into the body of international entrepreneurship our primary framework combines learning theory and the new venture theory of internationalization to study the extent to which small and medium sized companies engage in international activities we found that the firms international learning effort and entrepreneurial orientation are positively associated with internationalization intent whereas domestic learning effort is negatively related with internationalization intent overall our results suggest 1 that intensive knowledge renewal and exploitation regarding foreign markets and the internationalization process itself may increase internationalization by affecting the perceptions of opportunities offered by further international expansion and 2 that firms with an entrepreneurial mindset may be more likely to develop a long term substantial presence in the international arena compared to firms that are more reactive or conservative

the psychic distance paradox companies tend to begin their internationalization process in countries that are psychically close researchers describe the sequence of entry that firms follow and the mode of entry they choose they suggest that psychically close countries are more easily understood than distant ones and offer more familiar operating environments although not prescriptive an unstated conclusion can be drawn linking sequence of entry to performance evidence from thirty two canadian retail companies shows that only seven 22 were functioning successfully in the united states the psychic distance paradox is that operations in psychically close countries are not necessarily easy to manage because assumptions of similarity can prevent executives from learning about critical differences moreover empirical evidence from 271 ceos confirms greater cultural differences between canada and the u s than assumed previously modifications are suggested to improve the psychic distance concept

determinants of patent rights a cross national study abstract this paper presents an index of patent rights for 110 countries for the period 1960 1990 the index is used to examine what factors or characteristics of economies determine how strongly patent rights will be protected the evidence does indicate that more developed economies tend to provide stronger protection but the underlying factors which influence patent protection levels are the country s level of research and development r d activity market environment and international integration which are correlated with its level of development the results qualify however that r d activity influences patent protection levels after a nation s research sector reaches a critical size an implication of this is that to raise patent protection levels in weakly protecting countries it is important to foster a significant research base in those countries and thereby create incentives for protecting patent rights

does stronger patent protection increase export variety evidence from us product level data proponents of global intellectual property rights iprs reforms have argued that developing countries weak iprs limit their access to foreign innovative products and technologies central to our understanding of the effects of iprs on product access is the influence of national differences in patent protection on corporate behavior and business strategy of multinational firms using detailed product data on us exports from 1990 to 2000 this research note assesses the impact of strengthening iprs in developing countries on product variety of us exports colonial origin and cross industry variation in patent effectiveness serve to identify the impact the results show that the strengthening of iprs increased exports of new products in patent sensitive industries the expansion in product variety accounted for the entire increase in us exports the findings substantiate claims that ratification of trips by developing countries promotes access to new foreign products and technologies additionally the results demonstrate that patent protection is a significant institutional factor in us firms business decisions over the introduction of new products and processes into a developing country marketplace

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

knowledge transfer capacity and its implications for the theory of the multinational corporation this study updates and extends research on foreign entry modes by examining the impacts of knowledge transfer capacity and knowledge tacitness research on international corporate expansion has long emphasized that deploying intangible knowledge based assets is required for successful international expansion more recently research from a knowledge based perspective has addressed the role of tacitness in constraining a firm s ability to transfer knowledge internationally we combine these perspectives to describe how knowledge tacitness affects the relative suitability of four archetypal entry modes exporting licensing establishing an alliance and wholly owned entry we then examine and develop conceptually a seldom studied firm characteristic knowledge transfer capacity we offer predictions that describe the combined effects of knowledge tacitness and transfer capacity on entry mode choice we distinguish between the transfer capacity of the organization that develops knowledge source transfer capacity and that of the organization that seeks to access that knowledge recipient transfer capacity the discussion addresses how our model generalizes to knowledge seeking strategies and to the study of ongoing multinational networks the study enriches and reconciles multiple theoretical perspectives on entry strategy it brings together the study of knowledge characteristics and firm heterogeneity in the theory of the multinational corporation and in international and strategic management more generally journal of international business studies 2003 34 356 373 doi 10 1057 palgrave jibs 8400037

the measurement of intellectual property rights protection this research improves upon empirical studies that examine the measurement of intellectual property rights ipr protection prior measures examine only one type of law or lack a component that addresses the actual enforcement of these laws the measure presented here uses three types of ipr laws and enforcement components for them

why do most firms die young a model is developed to explain why most firms die in the first few years of trading a risk averse entrepreneur with initial capital endowment faces a brownian motion in net worth over time to balance return profits growth and risk variance of profits she adopts a portfolio strategy choosing market positioning to achieve an optimal combination of risk and return at each instant given her financial and human capital endowments and attitude towards risk failure occurs when the firm s value falls below the opportunity cost of staying in business the resulting distribution of failure is inverse gaussian implying for specific parameter values a positively skewed failure curve of the type observed in practice in addition the model presents a novel measure of management human capital mhc which implies that high mhc entrepreneurs will have higher absolute and marginal profits growth than low mhc entrepreneurs at given levels of risk

transactions cost economics and the multinational enterprise an assessment abstract this paper applies transactions cost principles to the multinational enterprise in order to ascertain its distinctive properties as a mode of economic organization the analysis helps identify just when and where contractual alternatives to the multinational firm are likely to be viable this turns out to depend upon the nature of the technology the regime of appropriability within which the firm operates and the characteristics of the markets in question transactions cost analysis is also extended to the multinational enterprise host country relationship implications for management and public policy are derived

foreign direct investment by japanese electronics firms in the united states and canada modelling the timing of entry this paper examines the relationship between attributes of japanese electronics firms and the sequence of their investments in the u s and canada it is argued that a useful way to model foreign direct investment fdi decisions is to recognize explicitly the uncertainties involved in them a probabilistic model of fdi is specified the following hypotheses are incorporated in the model 1 the higher the risk adjusted expected net benefits from foreign direct investment ceteris paribus the higher the probability of making an investment at any particular moment and thus the probability of investing earlier 2 risk adjusted expected net benefits from fdi by a firm are a function of its possession of certain types of intangible transportable assets 3 the uncertainties involved with fdi may be reduced with the passage of time and with increased experience with foreign operations 4 parent company attributes that facilitate market intelligence capabilities permit early recognition of investment opportunities and 5 timing of entry may reflect strategic considerations such as responding to growing foreign market opportunities the need to ensure market access and the presence of opportunities to obtain abnormal profits due to market concentration the models are estimated using cox s proportional hazards regression model results generally confirm the hypotheses that size and financial capabilities as well as possession of some knowledge based firm specific strategic assets are significantly related to early fdi they also confirm that timing of entry is affected by market opportunities and in some cases by the need to ensure market access we did not find evidence in this sector that differences in market concentration significantly affected the timing of fdi analyses are also provided of inter period changes in the importance of different types of intangible assets in explaining earlier fdi as well as changes that reflect differences in host country environments

entrepreneurship and the initial size of firms abstract it is clear that entrepreneurs and their firms can vary widely nevertheless most of the research to date on entrepreneurship has examined central tendencies with relatively little attention devoted to entrepreneurial diversity this study examines one of the most distinguishing characteristics of young firms initial size the focus is whether smaller start ups differ from larger ones in the backgrounds of the entrepreneurs their processes of starting or the subsequent patterns of development in this longitudinal study an initial sample of 1903 young firms was examined to determine differences in characteristics of the entrepreneurs and in their processes of starting one year later data were obtained from 742 of these firms permitting analysis of how initial firm size was related to subsequent difficulties encountered and changes made as well as to performance as expected along almost every dimension these starting larger firms had the backgrounds that would seem to be necessary for the assembly of substantial resources they tended to have more education more management experience and goals that were more managerial in nature they also were more likely to have partners women were associated more often with smaller ventures but for this sample there were no differences in the representation of minorities between the smaller and larger start ups those starting larger ventures tended to rely more upon external investors and to start ventures more closely linked to their previous jobs both groups of entrepreneurs sought information from a number of sources but those founding larger ventures utilized professional advisors more whereas those starting smaller ventures utilized informal sources in the year after the first questionnaire differences between the two groups were less marked than expected both groups of surviving firms reported low levels of serious problems with the smaller ventures somewhat surprisingly reporting serious problems less often there were not many differences in changes made except that smaller ventures were more likely to lose partners and larger ventures were more likely to add branches or locations both groups reported high rates of mean growth in sales the smaller ventures with their small initial bases showed larger percentage increases smaller ventures also showed higher percentage increases in employment and surprisingly a greater increase in the absolute number of employees somewhat more of the smaller ventures had discontinued both groups included many firms that grew substantially and others that scaled back demonstrating the fluidity and experimentation characteristic of young firms for entrepreneurs and their advisors for public policy makers and for researchers any progress in understanding entrepreneurial processes should in the long run enhance venture performance the patterns observed here indicate that firms of different initial size tend to be associated with particular entrepreneurial characteristics processes of formation and subsequent patterns of development this diversity should be recognized in the development of assistance programs and university courses as well as in the interpretation of previous research for public policy makers the growth of these firms both small and large indicates the potential of economic contributions from entrepreneur ship further the growth of the smaller start ups suggests that even those ventures that appear to have few resources and modest potential can in the aggregate contribute substantially to the economy

what differences in the cultural backgrounds of partners are detrimental for international joint ventures an international joint venture implies that a firm has to cooperate with a partner with a different cultural background in this study hypotheses about which differences in national culture are most disruptive for international joint ventures were developed and tested using hofstede s five dimensions the study focused on how these dimensions affect the survival of international joint ventures as well as their incidence relative to wholly owned subsidiaries the hypotheses were tested on longitudinal data about 828 foreign entries of twenty five dutch multinational in seventy two countries between 1966 and 1994 the database which spans almost three decades was also used to provide new evidence on a key assumption of hofstede s work that cultural values are stable over time

initial human and financial capital as predictors of new venture performance abstract this research seeks to predict the performance of new ventures based on factors that can be observed at the time of start up indicators of initial human and financial capital are considered to determine how they bear upon the probability of three possible performance outcomes 1 failure 2 marginal survival or 3 high growth four categories of initial human and financial capital are examined general human capital represented here by the entrepreneur s education gender and race may reflect the extent to which the entrepreneur has had the opportunity to develop relevant skills and contacts management know how embodied in the entrepreneur or available through advisors or partners reflects management specific skills and knowledge without regard to the kind of business industry specific know how reflects specific experience in similar businesses financial capital is one of the most visible resources it can create a buffer against random shocks and allow the pursuit of more capital intensive strategies which are better protected from imitation the study utilizes a longitudinal study of 1053 new ventures representative of all industry sectors and geographical regions the research departs from most previous studies in considering different measures of performance marginal survival and growth and in considering explicitly whether the factors contributing to marginal survival differ from those contributing to high growth it was found that measures of general human capital influenced both survival and growth except for gender with women owned ventures being less likely to grow but just as likely to survive management know how variables had more limited impact having parents who had owned a business contributed to marginal survival but not to growth number of partners contributed to growth but not to survival management level prior employment in non profit organizations or not having been in the labor force and the use of professional advisors did not have significant effects industry specific know how contributed to both survival and growth amount of initial financial capital also contributed to both the usefulness of the model is enhanced by the fact that the resource variables considered are relatively easy to assess and all can be considered at the time of start up although some of the human capital variables cannot easily be changed the benefits or risks associated with each can be assessed in some cases potential problems can be identified so that plans can be modified to improve prospects overall it appears that using a model based upon the initial human and financial capital of the venture it is possible to predict the performance of new ventures with some degree of confidence

understanding swedish social democracy victims of success the economic policies of swedish social democrats were not the product of one centralized authority but rather a series of initiatives influenced by many political actors and inspired by egalitarian preferences we focus on three policy areas first the welfare state is a central achievement of social democracy although its expansion is over it has cemented social democracy s position in power and is still popular among the electorate second the labour market model is in crisis the centralized rehn meidner model is not working coordination of wage bargaining has turned out to be difficult and the trade unions radical politics of the 1970s alienated swedish employers from social concertation finally macroeconomic management has had to struggle with inflationary pressures and the overheating of the late 1980s and the subsequent deflationary shock led to a sharp increase in unemployment in the 1990s many of these problems are related to social democracy s internal strains copyright 1998 by oxford university press

explaining the formation of international new ventures the limits of theories from international business research abstract international new ventures invs represent a growing and important type of start up an inv is defined as a business organization that from inception seeks to derive significant competitive advantage from the use of resources and the sale of outputs in multiple countries oviatt and mcdougall 1994 their increasing prevalence and important role in international competition indicates a need for greater understanding of these new ventures oviatt and mcdougall 1994 logitech as described in a case study by alahuhta 1990 is a vivid example of an inv its founders were from two different countries and had a global vision for the company from its inception the venture which produces peripheral devices for personal computers established headquarters in both switzerland and the u s manufacturing and r d were split between the u s and switzerland and then quickly spread to taiwan and ireland the venture s first commercial contract was with a japanese company using 24 case studies of invs we found that their formation process is not explained by existing theories from the field of international business specifically neither monopolistic advantage theory product cycle theory stage theory of internationalization oligopolistic reaction theory nor internalization theory can explain the formation process of invs these theories fail because they assume that firms become international long after they have been formed and they therefore highlight large mature firms they also focus too much on the firm level and largely ignore the individual and small group level of analysis i e the entrepreneur and his or her network of business alliances we propose that an explanation for the formation process of invs must answer three questions 1 who are the founders of invs 2 why do these entrepreneurs choose to compete internationally rather than just in their home countries and 3 what form do their international business activities take who are the founders of invs we argue that founders of invs are individuals who see opportunities from establishing ventures that operate across national borders they are alert to the possibilities of combining resources from different national markets because of the competencies networks knowledge and background that they have developed from their earlier activities following the logic of the resource based view of the firm we argue that the possession of these competencies is not matched by other entrepreneurs only the entrepreneur possessing these competencies is able to combine a particular set of resources across national borders and form a given inv why do these entrepreneurs choose to compete internationally rather than just in their home countries the founders of invs recognize they must create international business competencies from the time of venture formation otherwise the venture may become path dependent on the development of domestic competencies and the entrepreneur will find it difficult to change strategic direction when international expansion eventually becomes necessary as the founder of one inv explained the advantage of starting internationally is that you establish an international spirit from the very beginning mamis 1989 38 what form do their international business activities take founders of invs prefer to use hybrid structures i e strategic alliances and networks for their international activities as a way to overcome the usual poverty of resources at the time of start up this study has important implications for the practice of management in financing decisions relating to invs venture capitalists and other venture financiers should look for entrepreneurs who have a global vision international business competence and an established international network when entrepreneurs start invs they should create hybrid structures to preserve scarce resources finally given the path dependence of competence development founders of new ventures should consider whether establishing a domestic new venture with plans to later internationalize will be as successful a strategy as establishing a new venture that is international from inception

jurisdiction shopping and foreign location choice the role of market and nonmarket experience in the european solar energy industry several countries provide policy support to specific sectors in order to facilitate industry transitions while industry support policies stimulate the growth of their target sectors little is known about how such policies engender heterogeneous international strategies in this article we investigate how industry support policies influence foreign location choices we argue that firms engage in jurisdiction shopping choosing to invest in countries with more generous policy support but that this tendency varies markedly across firms specifically we suggest that firms nonmarket experience exacerbates the effect of policy support on location choice whereas market experience has less of an impact further we propose that some firms view generous policies more skeptically than others depending on the nature of their nonmarket experience we test and find support for our predictions using a longitudinal dataset of foreign investments of firms entering the solar energy industry in the european union our findings indicate that supportive policies stimulate the energy transition attracting in particular foreign entrants diversifying into renewables or having more policy experience at the same time they suggest that adverse policy changes in one country affect how firms assess policies in other countries highlighting the need for policy coordination at a supranational level

patent protection and the industrial composition of multinational activity evidence from u s multinational firms using data on u s firms technology licensing to local agents in developing countries this paper examines the impact of patent protection on internal and arms length technology transfer the effects of protection vary across products according to their complexity consistent with theories of internalization we find that patent reforms enable local firms to attract more arms length technology transfer especially of simple products which are relatively easy to imitate affiliated licensing also rises among simple products but falls among complex products the results withstand several robustness checks including controlling for endogeneity by using colonial origin as an instrument and are equally strong whether patent protection is measured by its intensity or by the timing of reforms the results have significance for patent policy in the developing world where access to knowledge is critical through arms length technology contracts proprietary knowledge diffuses beyond firm boundaries enabling local agents to access not only the protected technology but also know how

creative tension the significance of ben oviatt s and patricia mcdougall s article toward a theory of international new ventures the article by oviatt and mcdougall threw the spotlight on international entrepreneurs on international new ventures and on their importance in the globalising world economy recognising the rich theoretical implications of this phenomenon they mounted a challenge to received internationalisation process theories and established a new and exciting research theme that of international entrepreneurship this article reviews the impact of their contribution and discusses new research themes raised by their challenge to the process theories of internationalisation

modes of foreign entry a transaction cost analysis and propositions a frontier issue in international marketing is the appropriate choice of entry mode in foreign markets the objective of this paper is to offer a transaction cost framework for investigating the entry mode decision this framework provides 1 a theoretical basis for systematically interrelating the literature into propositions 2 propositions about interactions which resolve the apparently contradictory arguments advanced to date specifically the paper illustrates the feasibility of clustering 17 entry modes into the degree of control the mode provides the entrant proposes that the most appropriate i e most efficient entry mode is a function of the tradeoff between control and the cost of resource commitment advances testable propositions delimiting the circumstances under which each mode maximizes long term efficiency

deconstructing the liability of foreignness regulatory enforcement actions against foreign banks it is widely acknowledged that foreign firms are at an institutional disadvantage relative to domestic firms operating in the local market this liability of foreignness typically manifests as inferior performance for foreign firms relative to domestic competitors although myriad studies document the liability of foreignness few demonstrate how individual host country institutions generate specific liabilities in this study we explore the regulatory liabilities that foreign firms face using a sample of 189 foreign banks operating in the united states we find that regulators initiate more enforcement actions on average against foreign banks than they do against domestic banks the effects however vary by regulation type and firm characteristics for example foreign banks are no more likely to receive risk related sanctions but far more likely to receive stakeholder related sanctions foreign banks with higher quality of human capital and more host country experience are less likely to run afoul of all regulations foreign banks with more third country experience are less likely to receive risk related sanctions but more likely to receive stakeholder related sanctions the results highlight the contingent nature of regulatory liabilities the role of information asymmetry versus regulatory bias in enforcement outcomes and the liability reducing effects of resources and capabilities

an institution based view of global ipr history leveraging the use of history to advance international business research this article focuses on the crucial debate over intellectual property rights ipr between the united states and china ironically during the 19th century the united states was not a leading ipr advocate as it is today but was a leading ipr violator developing an institution based view of ipr history we identify three underlying theoretical mechanisms that help to explain ipr in the two countries path dependence long term processes and institutional transitions we argue that both the us refusal to protect foreign ipr in the 19th century and the current chinese lack of enthusiasm to meet us ipr demands embody rational responses to their respective situations however given long term processes with intensifying isomorphic pressures institutional transitions in favor of better ipr protection are quite possible finally going above and beyond these two countries we draw on the ipr history in over ten other countries to develop a more globally generalizable framework which in turn contributes to the key question of how history matters

innovation organizational capabilities and the born global firm we investigate born global firms as early adopters of internationalization that is companies that expand into foreign markets and exhibit international business prowess and superior performance from or near their founding our explication highlights the critical role of innovative culture as well as knowledge and capabilities in this unique breed of international entrepreneurial firm case studies are analyzed to better understand the early internationalization phenomenon and reveal key orientations and strategies that engender international success among these innovative firms case findings are then validated in a survey based study despite the scarce resources typical of young firms our findings reveal that born global firms leverage a distinctive mix of orientations and strategies that allow them to succeed in diverse international markets findings have important implications for the internationalization of contemporary firms