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

the translation of corporate governance changes across national cultures the case of germany contrasting systems of corporate governance persist internationally but are subject to regulatory and firm level institutional change such changes may be viewed as organisational innovations often imported from the usa in the face of different national cultures this paper analyses the implications of national culture for the translation of innovations and provides case study illustrations of regulatory and firm level governance changes experienced in germany these illustrations demonstrate that the diffusion of both kinds of change has been subject to substantial translation that is consistent with german national culture

do we really need more entry mode studies this commentary s title is not meant to be a rhetorical question in congratulating brouthers 2002 for the jibs decade award we have an opportunity to assess where we are within this field of inquiry and what is our trajectory i believe that we have accomplished a lot in this area of study nevertheless i am concerned about its current trajectory so much so that i think we should seriously question whether we need more entry mode studies especially if we are going to get more of the same

leveraged investments and agency conflicts when cash flows are mean reverting we analyse the effect of mean reverting cash flows on the costs of shareholder bondholder conflicts arising from partially debt financed investments in a partial equilibrium setting we find that such agency costs are significantly lower under mean reverting mr dynamics when compared to the ubiquitous geometric brownian motion gbm the difference is attributed to the stationarity of the mr process in addition through the application of a novel agency cost decomposition we show that for a larger speed of mean reversion agency costs are driven mainly by suboptimal timing decisions as opposed to suboptimal financing decisions in contrast under the standard gbm assumption the agency costs are driven mainly by suboptimal financing decisions for large growth rates and by suboptimal timing decisions for smaller or negative growth rates

choice of foreign market entry mode impact of ownership location and internalization factors firms interested in servicing foreign markets face a difficult decision with regards to the choice of an entry mode the options available to a firm include exporting licensing joint venture and sole venture several factors that determine the choice of a specific foreign market entry mode have been identified in previous literature these factors can be classified into three categories ownership advantages of a firm location advantages of a market and internalization advantages of integrating transactions this study examines the independent and joint influences of these factors on the choice of an entry mode multinomial logistic regression model is employed to test the hypothesized effects

varieties in state capitalism outward fdi strategies of central and local state owned enterprises from emerging economy countries institutional diversity characterizing state owned enterprises soes from emerging economies holds critical but under examined implications for their internationalization activities different types of soes can exhibit distinct motivations strategic resources and adaptive capabilities for penetrating foreign markets to understand how such idiosyncratic differences emerge we conceptualize the heterogeneity of soes as an outcome of multiple institutional reform processes administrative and fiscal decentralization industrial restructuring and market liberalization which create diversity between soes affiliated with central and local levels of government building on the idea of institutions as configurations we elucidate how such reforms reconfigure soes constellation of resources capabilities and priorities which shape the parameters of their ability to negotiate for home and host country institutional legitimacy specifically we propose that the restructuring of central soes into national champions exposes them to stronger institutional pressures from home and host country governments while local soes which have fewer obligations to serve national strategic prerogatives display greater managerial autonomy and market orientation but lower levels of monopolistic behavior we discuss how such contrasting attributes contribute to variations in soes international business diversification patterns foreign subsidiary establishment and ownership modes and overseas location preferences recognition of soes organizational diversity holds important implications for theories on state owned multinationals

once bitten not necessarily shy determinants of foreign market re entry commitment strategies we investigate foreign market re entry commitment strategies namely the changes in the modes of operation commitment undertaken by multinational enterprises mnes as they return to foreign markets from which they had previously exited we combine organisational learning theory with the institutional change literature to examine the antecedents of re entry commitment strategies from an analysis of 1020 re entry events between 1980 and 2016 we find that operation mode prior to exit is a strong predictor of subsequent re entry mode contrary to the predictions of learning theory we did not find support for the effect of experience accumulated during the initial market endeavour on the re entry commitment strategies of mnes in turn exit motives significantly impact on the re entrants decision to re enter via a different mode of operation by either increasing or decreasing their commitment to the market we show that re entrants do not replicate unsuccessful operation mode strategies if they had previously underperformed in the market when favourable host institutional changes occur during the time out period re entrants tend to increase commitment in the host market irrespective of the degree of prior experience accumulated in the market

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

global strategy and multinationals entry mode choice this paper makes a case directed towards establishing the importance of global strategic considerations in choosing multinationals entry mode specifically it is our contention that beyond the environmental and transaction specific factors well established in the literature to affect the entry mode decision we should also consider the strategic relationship a multinational envisages between its operations across borders in reaching this decision after incorporating various global strategic variables into an eclectic framework of the factors influencing the entry mode choice this paper tests both the validity of the overall framework and the importance of each entry mode determinant in differ entiating among entry modes this is done based on ninety six multinational managers responses to a survey questionnaire concerning their entry mode decision experiences the results suggest that an express incorporation of global strategic variables into an analysis of the entry mode decision is warranted

pricing mortgage backed securities in a multifactor interest rate environment a multivariate density estimation approach multivariate density estimation mde suggests that mortgage backed security mbs prices can be well described as a function of the level and slope of the term structure we analyze bow this function varies across mbss with different coupons an important finding is that the interest rate level proxies for the moneyness of the option the expected level of prepayments and the average life of the cash flows while the term structure slope controls for the average rate at which these cash flows should be discounted though the origination and prepayment behavior of mortgages differ substantially across coupons there remains an unexplained common factor in mbs prices this factor does not seem to be related to the usual suspects and therefore presents a puzzle to financial economists coauthors are robert f whitelaw matthew richardson and richard stanton article published by oxford university press on behalf of the society for financial studies in its journal the review of financial studies

the effects of within country linguistic and religious diversity on foreign acquisitions this article explores how within country diversity of both language and religion influences the ownership structure of foreign acquisitions commentators have acknowledged the potential importance of within country diversity but to date this issue has received minimal empirical attention we propose that diversity plays two distinct roles namely diversity within the host country may be an additional source of behavioral uncertainty and information asymmetry over and above the effects arising from cross national differences moreover diversity within the home country may increase the cognitive complexity of the decision makers moderating the firm s response to the distance and diversity of the host country results based on foreign acquisitions across 67 acquirer and 69 target countries confirm both of these roles while the main focus of this article is on the role that within country diversity plays in international business decisions it also makes contributions in terms of expanding the range of dimensions of distance investigated in the cross border acquisition literature in highlighting a potentially positive role that diversity might play in such acquisitions and in providing a potential explanation for asymmetries in distance that is differences in cognitive complexity

the determinants of attitudes towards strategic default on mortgages we use survey data to measure households propensity to default on mortgages even if they can afford to pay them strategic default when the value of the mortgage exceeds the value of the house the willingness to default increases in both the absolute and the relative size of the home equity shortfall our evidence suggests that this willingness is affected by both pecuniary and non pecuniary factors such as views about fairness and morality we also find that exposure to other people who strategically defaulted increases the propensity to default strategically because it conveys information about the probability of being sued

state ownership effect on firms fdi ownership decisions under institutional pressure a study of chinese outward investing firms this study investigates the effect of state ownership on chinese firms foreign direct investment fdi ownership decisions it adopts a political perspective to extend the application of institutional theory in international business research specifically it examines firms heterogeneous responses to external institutional processes during foreign market entry while taking into consideration the political affiliation of firms with the external institutions we argue that state ownership creates the political affiliation of a firm with its home country government which increases the firm s resource dependence on home country institutions while at the same time influencing its image as perceived by host country institutional constituents such resource dependence and political perception increase firms tendency to conform to rather than resist isomorphic institutional pressures we tested our hypotheses using primary data for 132 fdi entries made by chinese firms during 2000 2006 and we found that the effects of home regulatory host regulatory and host normative pressures on a firm to choose a joint ownership structure were stronger when the share of equity held by state entities in the firm was high

is dunning s eclectic framework descriptive or normative can dunning s oli ownership location internalization framework be used to predict the best performing international entry modes or merely the most commonly selected modes using data from german and dutch firms investing in central and eastern europe we investigate the relationship between dunning s oli variables entry mode selection and managerial satisfaction with firm performance we found empirical support for dunning s framework as both a descriptive and a normative model

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

a retrospective on institutional cultural and transaction cost influences on entry mode choice and performance for several decades researchers have focused on the entry mode decision because it is critically important for firms expanding abroad despite this attention we still lack clear tools to help managers make effective entry decisions in this paper i review past research exploring transaction cost and institutional perspectives of mode choice provide a critique of this literature and generate suggestions to move our knowledge forward in addition i review the limited research exploring entry mode performance and emphasize the importance of examining the normative merits of proposed theoretical models i hope these suggestions will lead to the development of prescriptive tools for managers to make better entry mode decisions that result in improved firm performance

the regional nature of japanese multinational business in the world s largest 500 firms there are 64 japanese multinational enterprises mnes with data on regional sales but only three operate globally whereas 57 of them average over 80 of their sales and foreign assets in their home region why is there such a strong intra regional dimension to their activities using empirical data and a new framework for analysing both downstream sales assets and upstream production assets we analyse why most large japanese firms appear to have firm specific advantages fsas that are based in their home region a structural contingency approach is applied to two case studies to explain how home region bound fsas constrained the ability of japanese mnes to implement internationalisation strategies

the effect of uncertainty and aggregate investments on crude oil price dynamics this paper is a study of the dynamics of the oil industry and we derive a mean reverting process for the crude oil price oil is supplied by a market leader opec and by an aggregate that represents non opec producers the non opec producers take the oil price as given the cost of non opec producers depends on past investments shifts in these investments are influenced by costs of structural change in the construction industry a drop in the oil price to below a given level triggers lower investments but if the oil price reverts back to a high level investments may not immediately expand in an uncertain oil demand environment cost of structural change creates a value of waiting to invest this investment behaviour influences the oil price process

forced sales and house prices the market for housing differs in several important ways from the textbook model of a liquid asset market with exogenous fundamentals this implies that the price at which a house is sold can be influenced not only by general supply and demand conditions but also by idiosyncratic factors including the urgency of the sale and the effects of the ownership transfer on the physical quality of the house first houses are productive only when people are living in them owning an empty house is equivalent to throwing away the dividend on a financial asset second houses are fragile assets that need maintenance and are vulnerable to van dalism unoccupied houses are particularly vulnerable and expensive to protect third short term rental contracts involve high transactions costs resulting from the moving costs of renters and the need of homeowners to protect their property against damage fourth houses are expensive indivisible and heterogeneous assets each house has certain unique characteristics which are likely to appeal to certain poten tial buyers and not to others so selling a house requires matching it with an appro priate buyer because of the high costs of intermediation in housing this task is normally undertaken by a real estate broker rather than a dealer fifth most home owners must finance their purchases using mortgages collateralized debt contracts that transfer home ownership to the mortgage lender through a foreclosure process if the homeowner defaults the expansion of mortgage credit in the early 2000s and the recent decline in house prices have led to an unprecedented increase in foreclosures since 2006 foreclosures transfer houses to financial institutions which must maintain and pro tect them until they can be sold foreclosed houses are likely to sell at low prices both because they may have been physically damaged during the foreclosure pro cess and because financial institutions have an incentive to sell them quickly in a liquid market an asset can be sold rapidly with a minimal impact on its price but

national culture transaction costs and the choice between joint venture and wholly owned subsidiary transaction cost theory posits that culture plays a limited role in the choice between jv and wos in contrast research suggests that firms preferred level of ownership in their foreign subsidiaries is influenced primarily by cultural traits this study provides additional evidence in this ongoing debate by replicating hennart s transaction cost model of entry mode choice in two different national contexts japanese firms investing in the u s and the u s firms investing in japan the results suggest that the transaction cost explanation for the ownership choice holds in the both national contexts yet the propensity to choose jv or wos significantly varied between japanese and the u s firms

international joint venture partner selection the role of the host country legal environment this study attempts to enhance our understanding of how a host country s legal environment influences international joint venture ijv partner selection criteria empirical results based on survey data collected on 169 ijvs revealed that host country rule of law perceptions negatively influence appropriation and coordination cost concerns which positively influence partner related criteria furthermore these concerns mediate the relationship between perceptions of host country rule of law and partner related criteria

firm ownership preferences and host government restrictions an integrated approach two approaches may explain how multinational enterprises mnes select ownership structures for subsidiaries the first argues that mnes prefer structures that minimize that transaction costs of doing business abroad the second argues that ownership structures are determined by negotiations with host governments whose outcomes depend on the bargaining power of the firm this paper presents a framework integrating these two approaches and uses statistical methods to separate their effects empirically

the implications of debt heterogeneity for r d investment and firm performance an assumption in prior research is that debt is homogeneous and provides inappropriate governance for r d investments we argue that debt is heterogeneous although transactional debt does indeed impose strict contractual constraints that provide inappropriate governance for r d investments relational debt has very different characteristics that provide more appropriate governance using a sample of japanese firms we find that firms that align their debt structures with their r d investments perform better than those that are misaligned furthermore firms tend to align their debt structure with r d investments but only after deregulation permits relatively free access to various types of debt

financial performance and survival of multinational corporations in china this study investigates the impact of entry timing mode of entry market focus and location advantages on the financial performance and survival of multinational corporations mncs in china three major results were found first mncs that entered china in an earlier year had a higher level of profit than those that entered in a later year second equity joint ventures ejvs had a higher profit level than cooperative operations or wholly foreign owned subsidiaries third mncs that utilized well the location advantages in china had a higher profit we also found that ejvs were more likely to survive compared to cooperative operations while wholly owned subsidiaries did not differ from ejvs the findings are based on a 2 year study of about 1000 mnc operations in china copyright 1999 john wiley sons ltd

institutions transaction costs and entry mode choice in eastern europe the process of change from a centrally planned system to a market economy generates an institutional framework that is only partially reformed and therefore inconsistent and unstable this leads to high transaction costs for economic agents multinational enterprises entering transition countries have to adapt their strategies to the local institutions and reduce exposure to highly imperfect markets this paper analyzes how the costs of organizing business in transition environments influence entry mode choice the empirical results show that host country institutions in transition economies have an impact on the choice of entry modes moreover different mechanisms determine the internalization of managerial and technological knowledge

decision specific experience in foreign ownership and establishment strategies evidence from japanese firms in this paper we examine the importance of decision specific experience for a multinational firm s foreign ownership structure and establishment mode decisions a unique procedure to measure the decision specific experience construct is developed based on data for the period 1969 1991 we find strong empirical evidence from experiences of japanese firms to support the hypotheses that firms tend to select ownership structures and establishment modes based on their experiences with similar ownership structures and establishment modes in the past

entry mode deviation a behavioral approach to internalization theory we explore when and why decision makers choose international entry modes e g hierarchies or markets that deviate from internalization theory s predictions by applying a cognitive perspective on entry mode decision making we propose that the performance of prior international activities influences decision makers behavior in different ways than assumed in internalization theory more specifically due to a representativeness bias underperforming overperforming past ventures influence the decision to change continue using the previous entry mode choice which may result in an entry mode deviation in addition the propensity to deviate from theoretical predictions is stronger when the experience is recent and or salient due to an availability bias in conclusion we argue that internalization theory can benefit from incorporating more systematically important behavioral assumptions on how firms enter international markets in so doing we contribute to the recent conversation on how variations in human behavior influence internalization theory

ownership based entry mode strategies and international performance this study examines the relationship between ownership entry modes and performance the ownership entry modes examined are the wholly owned modes of acquisition and new venture entry and the non wholly owned mode of joint venture entry a theoretical relationship is developed for international entry modes that is based on the contingency characteristics of resource requirements and organizational control factors this model suggests that different entry modes have different performance outcomes based upon their resource and organizational control demands the theoretical model although developed using the eclectic theoretical approach is based largely on concepts and relationships previously delineated in contingency theory our hypotheses suggest that new ventures should outperform joint ventures and joint ventures should outperform acquisitions an empirical test using a sample of 321 japanese firms entering the north american market provides supporting evidence

testing alternative theories of the firm transaction cost knowledge based and measurement explanations for make or buy decisions in information services firms boundary choices have undergone careful examination in recent years particularly in information services while transaction cost economics provides a widely tested explanation for boundary choice more recent theoretical work advances competing knowledge based and measurement cost explanations similar to transaction cost economics these theories examine the impact of exchange attributes on the performance of markets and hierarchies as institutions of governance these theories however offer alternative attributes to those suggested by transaction cost economics or offer alternative mechanisms through which similar attributes influence make buy choices traditional empirical specifications of make buy models are unable to comparatively test among these alternative theories by developing and testing a model of comparative institutional performance rather than institutional choice we examine the degree of support for these competing explanations of boundary choice hypotheses are tested using data on the governance of nine information services at 152 companies our results suggest that a theory of the firm and a theory of boundary choice is likely to be complex requiring integration of transaction cost knowledge based and measurement reasoning 1998 john wiley sons ltd

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

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

understanding foreign direct investment in the southern african development community an analysis based on project level data this article uses a uniquely rich project level data set to analyze determinants and trends of foreign direct investment fdi flows to the southern african development community region we control for the source of the investment the sector in which the investment is undertaken and the investment type in addition to project size the results indicate market size to have a positive impact on fdi flows under all specifications a result consistent with earlier studies other variables are unstable depending on specification and the subset of the data used furthermore we find no significant differences in factors that drive fdi flows by source country while greenfield investments are seen to respond more to the growth potential of the market relative to other forms of investment in general we find macroeconomic variables to be poor at explaining project level fdi in the region the descriptive analysis of the data points us more in the direction of the gravity model with factors such as colonial ties and proximity of the investing country appearing to matter limited flows and minimal sectoral diversity call for enhanced investment promotion and collaborative efforts among member states

uncovering the complex relationships between political risk and mne firm legitimacy insights from libya using the before after natural experiment occasioned by the arab spring in libya we explore how market and non market activity affect foreign firm legitimacy in times of political turmoil although all mnes in libya had to cultivate strong ties to qadhafi to succeed during his 40 years of rule we found that those that also invested in social benefit projects and in social ties with families with few ties to the qadhafi family earned a broad based legitimacy that helped them survive qadhafi s overthrow our findings contribute to the political risk and political behavior literature the notion that the pursuit of firm legitimacy in general and especially in the eyes of social sector actors is an effective hedge against political risk more theoretically our findings support the addition of a social sector based path to firm legitimacy in the host country that complements and may at times substitute for the government based path to foreign firm legitimacy practically our findings suggest that mnes facing severe political risk can improve their prospects for survival by investing in relationships with influential social groups and by offering goods or services that are perceived as socially valuable

the principal principle i analyze optimal loan modification schemes in a stochastic home price and stochastic interest rate environment lenders maximize loan values by managing the borrower s option to default on the loan and prepayment option given negative equity controlling for the borrower s ability to pay rate reductions and maturity extensions result in a higher probability of redefault by homeowners even after modification of their loans in contrast loan write downs the principal principle not a favored recipe are value maximizing for the lender a shared appreciation mortgage enhances the ability to pay mitigates adverse selection and reduces the present value of expected deadweight foreclosure costs

the transaction costs theory of joint ventures an empirical study of japanese subsidiaries in the united states this paper offers the first large sample empirical study of the factors which influence the choice of japanese firms between full or partial ownership of their u s manufacturing subsidiaries it studies for the first time the ownership policies of investors of a single home country in a single host country thus keeping variations within home and host countries constant one methodological improvement over previous studies is the use as independent variables of the relevant characteristics of the investing firms these had been proxied in previous studies by data on u s industries entered the results suggest that the degree of ownership taken by japanese manufacturing investors in their american subsidiaries is driven by the same general transaction costs variables that determine the choices made by their u s counterparts japanese parents joint venture when they need to combine with other firms intermediate inputs which are subject to high market transaction costs an intriguing result however is the lack of significance of two variables which in the u s case strongly push towards full control of foreign subsidiaries in this study neither the japanese parent s r d nor its advertising intensities had any significant impact on their ownership policies

choosing an appropriate alliance governance mode the role of institutional cultural and geographical distance in international research development r d collaborations we identify a variety of r d alliance modes in a knowledge intensive industry e g pharmaceuticals and classify them into four ordered categories which go beyond the traditional binary equity vs non equity alliance classification this enriches our understanding of alliance governance structures and broadens the application of alliance modes in what is today a more complicated international r d collaboration setting we then explore national industry and firm factors that determine the selection of an appropriate r d alliance governance mode using a sample of 237 international alliance deals the likelihood of using a more integrated alliance governance mode decreases as the difference or distance between nations of the partner firms increases in terms of human capital and cultural distance on the other hand a greater geographic and institutional difference is positively associated with the selection of more integrated alliance governance modes furthermore firms in the research stage are more likely to use a more integrated governance mode as opposed to firms in the development stage these findings advance research on alliance governance structure they reveal the factors affecting the r d alliance governance mode choice

measuring performance of international joint ventures international joint ventures ijvs are increasing in frequency and strategic importance however efforts to identify variables associated with ijv performance have been constrained by disagreements regarding the comparability and reliability of alternative performance measures and methods this study tests several hypotheses regarding the reliability and comparability of a range of objective and subjective measures of ijv performance as well as evaluating the relative utility of different data collection approaches

confirmation bias in individual level perceptions of psychic distance an experimental investigation in this article we draw from social cognition theory to explore the influence of confirmation bias on perceptions of psychic distance despite the prominence of psychic distance and other forms of distance as potential predictor variables in international business ib research very little work has been done exploring the factors and processes that shape a decision maker s perceptions of distance we argue in this article that social cognition theory can help fill that void specifically we hypothesize that confirmation bias may influence managers processing of information concerning differences between cultures such a bias may cause managers to attend more to information that confirms pre existing beliefs and discount information that contradicts pre existing beliefs thus biasing their perceptions of psychic distance using an experimental approach the impact of confirmation bias on perceptions of psychic distance is confirmed in a sample of 200 australian managers the observed changes in perceptions are also associated with changes in perceptions of risk and preferences for entry modes in a hypothetical business scenario as a result this article demonstrates how the application of social psychology theories and methods can provide new theoretical perspectives to explain when how and why individual level perceptions of psychic distance might diverge from national level averages

are tradeoffs inherent in diversification moves a simultaneous model for type of diversification and mode of expansion decisions drawing on the premise that the diversification decisions are driven by antecedent factors such as a firm s existing resources teece 1982 and industry structural conditions this paper develops formal hypotheses for reciprocity between the type of diversification and mode of expansion decisions we consider the specificity of antecedent resources that affect these two decisions and conceptually demonstrate that there is a contradictory tension in trying to optimize the decisions jointly implying that one or both diversification decisions have to be sub optimized i e there has to be a trade off we make a conceptual argument that this sub optimization is likely to be in the form of subordination of the mode decision subject to constraints impo sed by resources that are highly specific to the mode decision following this we empirically investigate this contradictory tension by using a simultaneous equation model sem on a large sample of firms between 1981 and 1989 the results suggest that one antecedent factor internal funds act as the key mediating influence in the joint optimization and leads to a subordination of the mode decision in the joint optimization process however the existence of time compression economies and market power benefits are the exceptions to this subordination and trade off process

law finance and the international mobility of corporate governance we introduce the topic of this special issue on the role of financial and legal institutions in international governance with a particular emphasis on a notion of international mobility of corporate governance our discussion places the special issue at the intersection of law finance and international business with a focus on the contexts of foreign investors and directors country level legal and regulatory institutions facilitate foreign ownership foreign directors raising external financial capital and international m a activity the interplay between the impact of foreign ownership and foreign directors on firm governance and performance depends on international differences in formal regulatory institutions in addition to legal conditions informal institutions such as political connections also shape the economic value of foreign ownership and foreign directors we highlight key papers in the literature provide an overview of the new papers in this special issue and offer suggestions for future research

a tale of three countries italian spanish and swiss manufacturing operations in china in this paper the choice of joint venture versus wholly foreign owned enterprise wfoe made by italian spanish and swiss multinationals in china as shaped by the risk of dissipation of intangible assets is investigated probit estimates based on an entirely new firm level dataset constructed by the author show that wfoe is more likely to emerge when know how easily spills over namely for firms endowed with more intangible assets or belonging to high tech sectors in line with the theoretical expectations

negative equity and foreclosure theory and evidence abstract recent declines in housing prices have focused attention on the relationship between negative housing equity and mortgage default theory implies that negative equity is a necessary condition for default but not a sufficient one this often misunderstood result is clearly illustrated in a dataset of massachusetts homeowners during the early 1990s fewer than 10 percent of borrowers likely to have had negative equity at the end of 1991 experienced a foreclosure during the following three years an econometric model of default estimated on two decades of massachusetts housing data also predicts low default rates for current negative equity borrowers we develop a simple theoretical model to interpret these empirical findings and to assess potential foreclosure reduction policies our results imply that lenders and policymakers face an information problem in trying to help borrowers with negative equity because it is hard to determine which owners really need help in order to stay in their homes

institutional cultural and transaction cost influences on entry mode choice and performance in this study we examine foreign market entry mode choice and firm performance for a sample of european union firms examining both financial and non financial performance measures we attempt to determine if firms that select their entry mode based on transaction cost institutional context and cultural context variables perform better than firms that make other mode choices we found that mode choice did matter firms whose mode choice could be predicted by the extended transaction cost model performed significantly better on both financial and non financial measures than did firms whose mode choice could not be predicted by the extended transaction cost model implications for future research are discussed

conceptualizing and measuring distance in international business research recurring questions and best practice guidelines distance is a central concept in international business research yet there is debate about the construct as well as its operationalization in this editorial we address three of the most important recurring questions posed by authors editors and reviewers by examining the theory methods and data of distance research we discuss 1 how to theorize on distance and 2 what method and 3 what data to use when constructing a distance index we develop practical recommendations grounded in theory illustrating and supporting them by calculating cross country distance indices for all available country pairs and two of the most used distance indices cultural and institutional we show that whereas a specific method to calculate distance may matter to some extent the choice for a specific cultural or institutional framework to measure cultural or institutional distance has a major impact on country pair distances overall this editorial highlights the importance of matching data and method to the theoretical argument

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

adjusting to and learning from institutional diversity toward a capability building perspective this paper identifies two main dimensions institutional diversity and dynamism in the research stream that has substantively engaged with the important contribution of jackson and deeg j int bus stud 39 4 540 561 2008 taking into account their core criticism that institutional analysis in international business research is often de contextualized and building on these two dimensions we present two possible paths for institutional analysis that are sensitive to context the first is a methodological shift towards configurational analyses and specifically the analysis of counterfactual scenarios that could reveal new information about decision alternatives the second is a shift away from a focus on costs and towards the possibility of mnes building capabilities in an exploratory manner when confronted with institutional diversity both approaches build on an understanding of mnes as strategic actors that co evolve with their environments

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

international business responses to institutional voids for nearly two decades scholars in international business and management have explored the implications of institutional voids for firm strategy and structure although institutional voids offer both opportunities and challenges they have largely been associated with firms efforts to avoid or mitigate institutional deficiencies and reduce the transaction costs associated with operating in settings subject to those institutional shortcomings the goal of this special issue is to advance scholarship on this topic by a exploring institutional voids that are new to the literature b providing a deeper assessment of the different ways in which firms respond to these voids and c utilizing diverse disciplines and theoretical approaches to do so in this introduction we first review and synthesize extant research on institutional voids tracking the evolution of institutional void scholarship since the inception of the concept khanna palepu journal of economic literature 45 2 331 372 1997 and providing our perspective on its contributions and limitations we then summarize the contributions of the articles included in this special issue in addition to identifying an array of institutional voids economic and social the articles highlight four different strategies for responding to them internalization substitution borrowing and signaling drawing on these we develop new insights on the implications of institutional voids for firm behavior we conclude with suggestions for future research

angel investors around the world we document that the choice between disintermediated individual angel investments and intermediated private equity and venture capital investments depends on legal economic and cultural differences we find evidence of this using pitchbook s comprehensive data on more than 5000 angel and 80 000 private equity and venture capital investments in 96 countries from 1977 to 2012 the data further indicate that investee firms funded by angels are less likely to successfully exit through either an ipo or an acquisition these findings are robust to propensity score matching methods as well as to clustering standard errors and excluding u s observations among other approaches

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

phasing the operation mode of foreign subsidiaries reaping the benefits of multinationality through internal capital markets the lifetime of foreign equity partnerships is often limited research suggests that mncs abandon their local partners when the need for sharing ownership in foreign subsidiaries has diminished this study shows that mncs may abandon their local equity partners to reap the benefits of multinationality as mncs gain a competitive advantage from leveraging resources across borders they will initially benefit from sharing ownership with a local firm to embed their foreign subsidiaries in the local environment and access local resources more effectively later they will benefit from taking over the local partner s equity share to better embed their subsidiaries in the parent organization and transfer locally accessed resources to the mnc s other locations moderated mediation regressions provide evidence of such practice in the context of cross border transfers of capital resources this strategy seems to work as a corollary of our model panel regressions suggest that sharing ownership with local firms in a host country with a capital resource advantage is associated with appropriating more capital resources from the local debt market while abandoning these partner firms later is associated with transferring more capital resources from this host country via internal capital markets to other parts of the mnc

rational prepayment and the valuation of mortgage backed securities this article presents a new model of mortgage prepayments based on rational decisions by mortgage holders these mortgage bolders face beterogeneous transaction costs which are explicitly modeled the model is estimated using a version of hansen s 1982 generalized method of moments and is sbown to capture many of the empirical features of mortgage prepayment estimation results indicate that mortgage holders act as tbougb tbey face transaction costs tbat far exceed tbe explicit costs usually incurred on refinancing they also wait an average of more than a year before refinancing even when it is optimal to do so the model fits observed prepayment behavior as well as thee recent empirical model of schwartz and torous 1989 implications for pricing mortgage backed securities are discussed

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

how mncs choose entry modes and form alliances the china experience this study examine two dimensions of firms foreign market entry strategy mode of entry and formation of alliances based on the existing literature we propose a model that describes how host country home country and industry specific factors affect foreign firms decisions on how they enter the market and whether they will enter with a partner firm or not the model also describes how operation related factors i e the location and the level of local government affect these decisions seven major hypotheses were tested using a longitudinal sample of 2 998 foreign business activities in china between 1979 and 1993 our sample consists of foreign investing firms from the u s europe japan and other asian countries by choosing china as a host country the study offers insights into how firms of different regional groups adapted their strategies to a changing host environment

the impact of order and mode of market entry on profitability and market share market share performance and profitability of overseas business activities has long been an important issue in international business in this study we explore the impact of order and mode of market entry into an overseas market we find that early entrants have significantly higher market shares and profitability than late followers we also find that equity joint ventures have a higher profitability than either wholly owned operations or contractual joint ventures a significant interaction exists between order and mode of market entry as expected firm efficiency and size affect the performance of firms these results are based on the business activities of a sample of 14 466 foreign firms in china in 1995

solving theoretical and empirical conundrums in international strategy research linking foreign entry mode choices and performance several theoretical and empirical developments in the literature on foreign entry mode and performance and on international strategy more generally were influenced or prefigured by brouthers 2002 jibs decade award winning paper regarding theory brouthers is an archetype of the integration of transaction cost and institutional perspectives i argue that it is also relevant to the growing literature that aims at synthesizing these and other perspectives methodologically brouthers 2002 contributed several uniquely direct and rich measures furthermore it not only displayed awareness of endogeneity specifically self selection issues but also was among the pioneers in the comparative analysis of governance choices for a given firm or transaction i elaborate on the promising if challenging use of such what if imputation to identify the impact of more or less well aligned choices overall i argue that such methodological advances cannot be decoupled from the conceptual advances that enable them and which they reinforce

beyond entry mode choice explaining the conversion of joint ventures into wholly owned subsidiaries in the people s republic of china while there is a vast amount of research on firms choice of ownership form when entering a foreign market little attention has been paid to changes in ownership forms of operation abroad after initial entry using transaction cost economics and institutional theory we identify a number of factors that may help to explain the likelihood of foreign firms converting their joint venture with a local firm into a wholly owned subsidiary we formulate a number of hypotheses and test them against data collected through a questionnaire survey of managers representing foreign subsidiaries in the people s republic of china prc that are run either as international joint ventures ijvs or as wholly owned foreign subsidiaries wfoes that have recently been converted from ijvs into a wfoe the paper contributes to research by showing that transaction cost based thinking is useful for explaining not only the initial choice of ownership mode when entering a new market but also the potential subsequent changes of this ownership mode by combining transaction cost theory with arguments from institutional theory the study identifies a number of factors that contribute to explaining post entry changes of foreign firms ownership forms in the prc and provides empirical evidence of this phenomenon

mortgage terminations heterogeneity and the exercise of mortgage options as applied to the behavior of homeowners with mortgages option theoiy predicts that mortgage prepayment or default will be exercised if the call or put option is in the money by some specific amount our analysis tests the extent to which the option approach can explain default and prepayment behavior evaluates the practical importance of modeling both options simultaneouisly and models the unobserved heterogeneity of borrowers in the home mortgage market the paper presents a uinified model of the competing risks of mortgage termination by prepayment and default considering the two hazards as dependent competing risks that are estimated jointly it also accounts for the unobserved heterogeneity among borrowers and estimates the unobserved heterogeneity simultaneously with the parameters and baseline hazards associated with prepayment and default functions our results show that the option model in its most straightfolward version does a good job of explaininig default and prepayment but it is not enouigh by itself the simultaneity of the options is very important empirically in explaining behavior the results also show that there exists significant heterogeneity among mortgage borrowers ignoring this heterogeneity results in serious errors in estimating the prepayment behavior of homeowners

the effect of mean reversion on investment under uncertainty abstract mean reverting processes are appropriate for most real option investment models yet geometric brownian motion gbm processes are generally used for tractability hassett and metcalf j econom dyn control 19 1995 1471 1488 argue that using a gbm process is justified because mean reversion has two opposing effects it brings the investment trigger closer and also reduces the conditional volatility thereby lowering the likelihood of reaching the trigger and the overall effect on investment should be negligible for most reasonable parameter values this paper extends the hassett and metcalf model by incorporating a third factor the effect of mean reversion on systematic risk the main result is that mean reversion in general does have a significant impact on investment moreover this effect could be either positive or negative depending on various factors such as project duration cost of investing interest rate etc thus it is generally inappropriate to use the gbm process to approximate a mean reverting process

unraveling the mne wage premium whereas ib has extensively studied mnes generic positive impact on host economies but rarely on employee wages economics research has only shown an overall mne wage premium we unravel this premium considering multiple levels of analysis and accounting for host country contextual contingencies to unveil mnes different positive or negative distributional effects using unique micro level data from over 40 000 employees in 13 countries we examine mnes distributional effects for employees gender experience and immigrant status the influence of host country property rights protection and labor regulation and interplays with region and industry effects mnes distributional effects show marked differences that largely depend on the host country context and that are positive for experienced and foreign born employees in developed countries but negative for females working in developing countries whereas in developed countries the gender wage gap is smaller in mnes than in domestic firms as hypothesized we find evidence of a larger wage gap in developing countries the analysis also reveals that the higher host countries level of property rights protection the lower the mne wage premium our study points at the need to reassess statements about the generic positive impact of mnes in host countries particularly in developing countries and discusses further research implications

the role of global dynamic managerial capability in the pursuit of international strategy and superior performance we develop the construct of global dynamic managerial capability gdmc and identify its underlying sources 1 international human capital 2 international social capital and 3 international managerial cognitions consistent with dynamic capabilities view and upper echelons theory we suggest that gdmc leads to global asset orchestration which in turn results in superior company performance in a two stage process first gdmc leads companies to adopt global strategies that spread the risk of internationalizations across different entry modes and geographic regions second the re configuration of global assets positively influences subsequent firm performance and thus mediates the relationship between gdmc and performance recognizing the triad of factors that form global dynamic managerial capability is crucial when selecting future managers of multinational corporations hence firms with increasing international exposure both domestically via foreign competition and internationally via foreign market presence may seek to compose their upper echelons with a suitable combination of international human and social capital as well as internationally diverse cognitions in the pursuit of sustained competitive advantage

equity joint ventures and the theory of the multinational enterprise this paper extends the internalization approach to the theory of the multinational enterprise mne to include an expanded role for equity joint ventures using the transaction cost paradigm of williamson this paper explains why joint ventures may sometimes be preferred over wholly owned subsidiaries also presented is empirical work on joint venture performance in developing countries which demonstrates that under certain conditions joint ventures can be the optimal mode of foreign direct investment

translation in cross language international business research beyond equivalence in this paper we problematise the way translation has been treated in international business ib research we start by conducting an interpretive content analysis of both qualitative and quantitative cross language studies published in four core ib journals over the course of a decade our analysis shows the dominance of a technicist view of translation associated with the equivalence paradigm in contrast we advocate a shift to a more contextualised approach informed by theoretical developments in translation studies more specifically we focus on two theoretical perspectives skopos theory and cultural politics which offer related but distinct approaches to rethinking equivalence we conclude by advocating that the translation process be reframed as a process of intercultural interaction rather than a lexical transfer of meaning this reconceptualisation would we argue open up what is currently a black box in most ib studies the contextualised approach that we offer has the potential not just to enrich the findings of studies but also provide insights that are of multidisciplinary relevance

the regional dimension of mnes foreign subsidiary localization this paper examines the regional effect of mnes foreign subsidiary localization we hypothesize that the number of subsequent foreign subsidiaries in a country is in part determined by a firm s prior foreign subsidiary activity at the regional level we test our hypotheses using data on 1076 japanese mnes that created 3466 foreign subsidiaries 1837 wholly owned fdis and 1629 joint ventures over the period 1996 2001 we use a multilevel negative binomial approach with three levels of analysis localization decisions in a country 49 countries in a region six regions and at the headquarters level in this way we test the regional effects controlling for country and corporate dimensions we also run separate models to differentiate wholly owned and joint venture localization decisions our results strongly support the semi globalization perspective in that the regional level effects are significant and different from the country level effects for all foreign subsidiaries for wholly owned subsidiaries and for jointly owned subsidiaries japanese mnes adopt a regional perspective that complements their decisions at the country and firm levels they seek regional agglomeration benefits and make arbitrage decisions between countries in the same region

yes we really do need more entry mode studies a commentary on shaver in a recent commentary published in this journal shaver raises the provocative question of whether we need more entry mode studies after assessing the reasons for shaver s doubts and further developing his broad research suggestions we conclude that this question should be answered affirmatively we derive three important questions for future entry mode research 1 what determines the evolution of operations resulting from suboptimal mode choices 2 what causes the replication of past mode choices 3 how is the entry decision process structured focusing on these questions should assure a bright future for entry mode research

theoretical foundations of emerging economy business research in probing theoretically into central and eastern europe transactions resources and institutions we outlined the contributions of research in central and eastern europe cee to theoretical debates in business research in this retrospective we reflect upon the evolution of the field over the past decade with the fading impact of cee s distinct shared history we suggest that cee best be analyzed as emerging economies rather than as a distinct geographic entity emerging economy business research is converging on common themes and shared theoretical ideas while identifying critical variations that constrain generalizations among and beyond emerging economies this research thus highlights the need to develop a better understanding of the boundary conditions of scholarly theories of business knowledge over the past decade the institution based view has emerged from distinct intellectual traditions in institutional economics organizational theory and the analysis of business government bargaining research in these converging lines of theorizing places contextual variations at the center of explanations of business phenomena around the world we suggest that the institution based view is evolving toward a paradigm and offer suggestions on how to advance this research agenda further in particular by exploring how firms engage with different sets of potentially conflicting institutions at multiple levels and locations

on solving the multirotational timber harvesting problem with stochastic prices a linear complementarity formulation this article develops a two factor real options model of the harvesting decision over infinite rotations assuming a known stochastic price process and using a rigorous hamilton jacobi bellman methodology the harvesting problem is formulated as a linear complementarity problem that is solved numerically using a fully implicit finite difference method this approach is contrasted with the markov decision process models commonly used in the literature the model is used to estimate the value of a representative stand in ontario s boreal forest both when there is complete flexibility regarding harvesting time and when regulations dictate the harvesting date

which factors improve the performance of the internationalization process focus on family firms abstractthis study aimed to analyse the impact that the financial features and characteristics of the ownership structures of international companies exert on the performance of their internationalization process as perceived by managers and attempted to detect differences between family firms ff and nonfamily firms non ff in addition the impact of these characteristics and others related to ff such as family ownership and generation on the perceived performance of their internationalization is analysed based on a sample of spanish companies with direct investment in china the results indicated that from the managers perspective being an ff and having lower financial leverage exerted a positive effect on the performance of the internationalization process moreover the study proved that this performance was strongly and positively related to the financial results of the company and this positive effect was even stronger in the case of ff finally the findings also showed that ff with a h

acquisition or greenfield start up institutional cultural and transaction cost influences in this paper we develop and test a model of diversification mode choice how firms decide between acquisitions and greenfield start up ventures which includes institutional cultural and transaction cost variables using a sample of japanese firms entering western europe our results show the model correctly predicts over eighty seven percent of the mode choices thus we provide strong initial evidence to support using institutional cultural and transaction cost variables to predict firms choices between acquisitions and greenfield start ups in international expansion our findings also suggest that organizations which have developed strong intangible capabilities may be able to more readily leverage these capabilities through greenfield start ups copyright 2000 john wiley sons ltd

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

the lognormal diffusion is hardly an equilibrium price process for exhaustible resources abstract in a model of a competitive spot market for an exhaustible resource under demand uncertainty it is shown that the lognormal diffusion the geometrical brownian motion can hardly be an equilibrium price process under the reasonable assumptions that suppliers choose the time to extract and deposits have different costs each supplier will start extraction when price first exceeds a boundary which depends on that supplier s costs but no new extraction will start during periods when the price is lower than the previously recorded high it is highly unlikely that aggregate demand responds to prices in the same way as supply

accounting for endogeneity when assessing strategy performance does entry mode choice affect fdi survival firms choose strategies based on their attributes and industry conditions therefore strategy choice is endogenous and self selected empirical models that do not account for this and regress performance measures on strategy choice variables are potentially misspecified and their conclusions incorrect i highlight how self selection on hard to measure or unobservable characteristics can bias strategy performance estimates and recommend an econometric technique that has been developed to account for this effect although this concern applies to a wide range of strategy questions to demonstrate its effect i empirically examine if entry mode choice acquisition versus greenfield influences foreign direct investment survival in specifications that do not account for self selection i find that greenfield entries have survival advantages compared to acquisitions this confirms previous findings however the significance of this effect disappears once i account for self selection of entry mode in the empirical estimates the results confirm that estimates from models that do not account for self selection of strategy choice can lead to incorrect or misleading conclusions

drivers of institutional change around the world the case of ifrs today more than ever it is crucial to understand the dynamic and intricate institutional landscape that mnes operate in however the drivers of institutional change are still little understood we focus on a recent fundamental institutional change the worldwide switch to international financial reporting standards ifrs the switch to ifrs was unexpected and not particularly welcomed by mnes given that most national accounting systems in the pre ifrs period were considered to be well aligned to the local cultural and environmental characteristics of each country we test the drivers of this institutional change in a sample of 168 countries between 2002 and 2012 using empirical constructs from policy diffusion theory our findings show that the country level decisions to adopt ifrs are not driven by local determinants but instead by adoption decisions by other neighbouring countries and influential organizations we find evidence for competition learning and emulation as driving forces for the international spread of ifrs we conclude that the switch to ifrs was not driven by an economic rationale only and diffused beyond the influence and interest of mnes understanding these drivers is essential because it enables management to anticipate and respond to institutional changes and consequently enhance performance and create competitive advantage

make buy or ally a transaction cost theory meta analysis since the publication of williamson s markets and hierarchies many empirical articles have investigated the tenets of transaction cost theory using meta analytic techniques we quantitatively syn

mode of international entry an isomorphism perspective the determination of entry modes is examined using an institutional theory framework two sources of isomorphic pressures affect a strategic business unit s sbu entry mode choice 1 host country institutional environment and 2 internal institutional environment the parent organization sbus were hypothesized to adopt similar organizational forms structures policies and practices thus becoming isomorphic based on felt pressures to conform to behavioral norms within the environments the results indicated that sbus using wholly owned entry modes demonstrated high levels of internal parent isomorphism those using exporting joint ventures or licensing agreements demonstrated external isomorphism and those using multiple or mixed entry mode demonstrated low levels of isomorphic pressures

effective interim collaboration how firms minimize transaction costs and maximise transaction value this study of automotive transaction relationships in the u s a and japan offers abta which indicate that transaction costs do not necessarily increase with an increase in reiation specijk investments we empirically examine the conditions under which transactors can simultaneously achieve the twin benejits of high asset specificity and low transaction costs this is possible because the dtfferent safeguards which can be employed to control opportunism have different set up costs and result in different transaction costs over dl erent time horizons we examine in detail the ractices of javanese firms which result in effective inteq n collaboration 1997 by john wiley sons ltd

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

dimensioning the housing crisis the author argues that more than one borrower in every five could face foreclosure absent stronger policy measures the solution is to 1 reduce the housing supply through a modification program that explicitly addresses negative equity and 2 increase housing demand by expanding the availability of credit to investors

strategic loan modification an options based response to strategic default abstract this paper presents a parsimonious barrier model for the optimal principal reset in a loan modification thereby maximizing the loan value to the lender bank and minimizing the likelihood of strategic foreclosure by the homeowner writing down the loan to value ltv ratio will reduce the present value of future payments on the loan but will also reduce the probability of default thereby saving foreclosure losses the optimal trade off of these two countervailing effects will pinpoint the optimal ltv at which the loan must be reset we present a simple barrier option decomposition of the loan value that makes the optimization of ltv easy to implement an extension of the model is shown to account for varying growth rate assumptions about house prices the model in this paper specifically accounts for the homeowner s willingness to pay and uses the framework to model shared appreciation mortgages sams