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

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

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

product stereotypes strategy and performance satisfaction the case of chinese exporters does following a product strategy of price leadership result in superior performance satisfaction for chinese exporters does branding products and targeting less developed countries significantly improve chinese exporters satisfaction with export performance results indicate performance satisfaction decreased when chinese firms pursued price leadership product strategies while performance satisfaction increased when chinese exporters used a branding product strategy branding products and targeting other less developed countries with these brands significantly increased performance satisfaction over branding alone

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

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

internationalisation conceptualising an entrepreneurial process of behaviour in time this paper presents a three stage process of conceptual development in response to the call for a unifying direction for research in the emergent field of international entrepreneurship drawing on classic approaches to internationalisation and importing insight from entrepreneurship as a separate and distinct field of study the paper develops three potential models of internationalisation as a time based process of entrepreneurial behaviour the models evolve from the simple through general to precise levels of conceptualisation research implications are discussed

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

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

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

securities transaction taxes an overview of costs benefits and unresolved questions many major developed countries including germany japan and the united kingdom have some form of tax on securities transactions the clinton administration recently considered imposing fees of from 14 on transactions in futures contracts past budgets have considered fees of from 6 to 15 proponents of a securities transaction tax in the u s argue that it would tap into a significant source of revenues and would in addition act to reduce excess volatility in securities markets by discouraging speculative and noise trading some have argued that it would also increase investors expected holding periods hence encourage corporate managers to build for the long term opponents argue that any benefits from such a tax would be overwhelmed by its costs they point out that a tax on transactions would increase the cost of capital reduce market liquidity and bring down security values furthermore as the tax would change the relative costs of holding and issuing different classes of securities it might be expected to change capital structures and investment portfolios too at its worst a securities transaction tax could drive trading in some securities to overseas markets not burdened by taxation the economic and societal distortions resulting from taxation and avoidance would likely be large

the chinese warrants bubble in 2005 2008 over a dozen put warrants traded in china went so deep out of the money that they were almost certain to expire worthless nonetheless each warrant was traded more than three times each day at substantially inflated prices this bubble is unique in that the underlying stock prices make warrant fundamentals publicly observable and that warrants have predetermined finite maturities this sample allows us to examine a set of bubble theories in particular our analysis highlights the joint effects of short sales constraints and heterogeneous beliefs in driving bubbles and confirms several key findings of the experimental bubble literature jel g12 g13 o16 p34

creating markets for air pollution control in europe and the usa this paper surveys recent efforts to relax the rigid regulatory frameworks for air pollution control in europe and the usa european policies have mainly taken the form of bubbles and compensation or offset schemes emission trading has been limited to intra firm solutions for various reasons industry structure absence of real scarcity and too restrictive trading rules bubbles have been granted to homogenous sectors only and can be characterized as direct regulation for a group rather than tradable permit systems by contrast the sulphur allowance program in the usa has laid down the foundation for a pollution permit market with few formal restrictions problems that arise are mainly related to local environmental and public utility controls europe can learn from the usa that regular national permit markets could be installed preferably for homogenous sectors in designing the permit system the differences between the usa and europe in terms of ecosystem sensitivity stringency of regulation and differentiation of regional environmental policy have to be taken into account

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

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

entrepreneurial proclivity capability upgrading and performance advantage of newness among international new ventures in spite of a notable interest surrounding the learning advantages of newness lan centered on the emergent international entrepreneurship literature we have only limited understanding of how young international new ventures invs acquire learning advantages and avoid the liabilities of newness and foreignness in order to achieve lan related performance from early internationalization in this article two related but conceptually distinct capability upgrading constructs knowledge capability upgrading and network capability upgrading are identified to serve as mediating mechanisms that link entrepreneurial proclivity and lan related performance our findings from a sample of 436 young invs from china provide supporting evidence for the mediating effect of capability upgrading particularly among relatively larger new ventures and those operating with cost price advantages in the international marketplace this study fills a gap in the under researched area of literature surrounding invs from emerging economies and demonstrates how young international venturing firms can leverage the entrepreneurial dynamics of learning to achieve growth opportunities from early internationalization

the survival of international new ventures international new ventures invs are a popular mode of entry into foreign markets invs those companies that enter foreign markets at inception often suffer the two liabilities of newness and foreignness which may increase the odds of their failure this paper empirically examines the survival of invs by comparing them with other sequential modes of international operations e g acquisitions data from 275 british firms show that invs have lower unconditional survival probabilities than other modes of foreign market entry our analyses also show that differences in survival probabilities disappear when the firms competitive strategies are considered

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

international expansion of emerging market enterprises a springboard perspective in this article we present a springboard perspective to describe the internationalization of emerging market multinational corporations em mnes em mnes use international expansion as a springboard to acquire strategic resources and reduce their institutional and market constraints at home in so doing they overcome their latecomer disadvantage in the global stage via a series of aggressive risk taking measures by aggressively acquiring or buying critical assets from mature mnes to compensate for their competitive weaknesses we discuss unique traits that characterize the international expansion of em mnes and the unique motivations that steer them toward internationalization we further delineate peculiar strategies and activities undertaken by these firms in pursuit of international expansion as well as internal and external forces that might compel or facilitate their propulsion into the global scene we finally explain the risks and remedies associated with this international springboarding strategy and highlight major issues meriting further investigation

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

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

the international entrepreneurial dynamics of accelerated internationalisation the initial stages of internationalisation prior to firms having established their definitive sources of advantage remain the relatively unexplored area of the international business ib literature at these early stages where firms are seeking to establish themselves and new multinational firms are appearing to exploit new opportunities created by globalisation the entrepreneurial aspects of internationalisation come to the fore in this paper we aim to delineate an emerging field of ib scholarship we use the appearance of international new ventures and the phenomenon of accelerated internationalisation that they feature to identify a set of issues that has slipped through the net of some of the existing ib frameworks we propose that the salient features of accelerated and early internationalisation by the newly internationalising firm are best captured in a framework that is found at the intersection of entrepreneurial and internationalisation perspectives which we propose be known as international entrepreneurial dynamics we discuss such a framework in terms of entry points and pathways mapped by firms as they probe the ib arena and the key factors that impinge on behaviour and strategic choices in line with recent developments in the entrepreneurship literature these are grouped into three milestones of entrepreneurial processes that extend across national boundaries 1 the discovery of new opportunities 2 the deployment of resources in the exploitation of these opportunities and 3 the engagement with competitors implications for mne and internationalisation theory are discussed

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

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

international new ventures revisiting the influences behind the born global firm there is a small but theoretically important literature on born globals or international new venture firms that positions itself in contrast to the more established sequential international entry literature in this paper we examine the pattern of entry into international markets for a set of international new ventures and show that they need not be a distinct breed of firms as previous research has portrayed absent a specific technological advantage the decision for a new venture to internationalize at inception is influenced by the size of its home market and by its production capacity as well as by cultural and economic forces that also influence other more traditional firms that stage their entry into international markets most importantly we demonstrate that the decision to internationalize or not should be considered jointly with the capacity allocation decision to specific international markets as analysing these separately may lead to biased results

routine microprocesses and capability learning in international new ventures drawing on the distinction between the ostensive aspects abstract patterns and performative aspects specific actions of organizational routines the paper offers a micro level explanation of capability learning in international new ventures invs that is firms that internationalize actively from inception the paper argues that variability in the performative aspects of internationalization routines is associated with improvisational learning and new capability development whereas variability in the ostensive aspects is associated with trial and error learning and existing capability improvement furthermore psychic distance moderates these relationships low psychic distance facilitates both improvisation and trial and error learning high psychic distance frustrates learning of both types moderate psychic distance makes the success of both learning forms more likely but only for more experienced invs the paper also argues that social capital may mitigate the negative effects of high psychic distance it contributes to the extant literature by providing a micro level explanation of how invs accomplish capability learning and avoid wasteful learning efforts and by theorizing the moderating effects of psychic distance on the relationships between routine microprocesses and capability learning

transaction taxes and the behavior of the swedish stock market abstract this paper studies the effects of transaction taxes on the behavior of swedish equity returns during the 1980 1987 period sweden provides an excellent laboratory style setting for such a study as taxes were imposed for political purposes rather than to alter the behavior of the stock market volatility did not decline in response to the introduction of taxes although stock price levels and turnover did large proportions of trading activity migrated overseas to london when the tax rate was increased to 2 in 1986

internationalization and the performance of born global smes the mediating role of social networks this paper offers a social network explanation for the purported relationship between internationalization and firm performance in the context of born global small and medium enterprises smes we argue that home based social networks play a mediating role in the relationship between inward and outward internationalization and firm performance the mediating mechanism is attributed to three information benefits of social networks 1 knowledge of foreign market opportunities 2 advice and experiential learning and 3 referral trust and solidarity using survey data from smes in the largest emerging economy of china we found some support for this mediating role of social networks in the form of guanxi the results imply that international business managers should consider social networks as an efficient means of helping internationally oriented smes to go international more rapidly and profitably

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

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

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

small firm internationalisation unveiled through phenomenography phenomenography is proposed here as a qualitative methodology for investigating how owner managers practise internationalisation in small firms and it is applied in an empirical study of internationalising owner managed small australian wineries the findings show a common internationalisation activity cycle but four qualitatively different ways in which these owner managers practise internationalisation we reveal that this variation in owner manager internationalisation practices is determined by their understandings of internationalisation which produce differences in the ways activities within their internationalisation activity cycle are orchestrated in particular phenomenography has enabled new insights into the multiplicity of firm internationalisation practices not able to be captured through other qualitative methodologies such as ethnography or semiotics as they are not designed to capture such variation based on our findings we propose an understanding based theory to explain the idiosyncratic nature of owner managed small firm internationalisation furthermore we suggest that phenomenography used independently or in conjunction with other qualitative methodologies also has potential to reveal the varying practices of internationalising large mnes by enabling an investigation of the collective or shared understanding of firm internationalisation within mnes finally we point out how phenomenography can be extended beyond firm internationalisation practices to investigate other topics within international business

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

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

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

social ties and foreign market entry the social dynamics which precede international exchange are considered in light of data collected on 133 foreign market entries from a sample of highly internationalized manufacturing firms consistent with research done in the social network field the findings support the hypothesis that knowledge of foreign market opportunities is commonly acquired via existing inter personal links rather than collected systematically via market research this study thus contributes towards an understanding of those antecedent conditions that lead to the formation of export exchange relationships

costs of a ceiling on kyoto flexibility this paper examines the potential costs of a ceiling on the use of flexibility mechanisms in the kyoto protocol using poles a partial equilibrium model of the world energy system the results suggest that if emission trading were restricted to annex i countries halving the traded volume would increase costs by 11 billion year if emission trading were to operate at a global level reducing the trade to half the perfect market volume would increase annual costs by 12 billion year global carbon emissions might however be 1 lower the sensitivity of the results is discussed c 2000 elsevier science ltd all rights reserved

international venturing by emerging economy firms the effects of firm capabilities home country networks and corporate entrepreneurship past literature on foreign direct investment generally supports an economics perspective that there is a direct relationship between firm specific ownership advantages and international expansion however in emerging economies with their institutional environment context characterized by low resource munificence and continuous economic liberalization a theoretical extension of the current perspective is needed this paper introduces new parameters by focusing on specific ownership advantages and strategic actions that firms have to develop in response to the institutional characteristics of the emerging economies when they decide to pursue outward fdi the focus here is on international venturing that requires a firm to engage in activities for new business creation in a foreign country rather than simply seek to distribute a product in another nation it is shown empirically that the relationship between firm specific ownership advantages and international venturing is moderated by the degree of home industry competition and export intensity in addition such a relationship is mediated by the intensity of corporate entrepreneurial transformation in the form of innovation new business creation and strategic renewal

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

markets for tradeable emission and ambient permits a dynamic approach this paper discusses trade mechanisms in pollutionpermit markets proofs are given that sequential bilateral trade in tradeable emissions permitsconverges to a market equilibrium with minimal totalcosts of pollution control if ambient or depositionpermits are traded the convergence of bilateraltransactions occurs only in the case of a singlereceptor for multiple receptors the proof ofconvergence for tradeable emissions and ambientpermits is given for two trade mechanisms sequential multilateral trade and a walrasian auction

carbon trading with imperfectly observable emissions the kyoto protocol foresees emission trading but does not yet specify verification of uncertain emissions this paper analyses a setting in which parties can meet their emission targets by reducing emissions by investing in monitoring reducing uncertainty of emissions or by bilaterally trading permits we derive the optimality conditions and carry out various numerical simulations our applications suggest that including uncertainty could increase compliance costs for the usa japan and the european union central europe and the former soviet union might be able to gain from trading due to higher permit prices emissions trading could also lower aggregate uncertainty on emissions

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

the network dynamics of international new ventures this study uses multi site case research to advance a set of propositions regarding the network dynamics of early stage international new ventures the investigative approach builds on arguments that network theory and analysis are fundamental to international entrepreneurship in the spirit of cross disciplinary research perspectives from the entrepreneurship literature are embraced to help inform our understanding of international new venture networks

a general theory of springboard mnes the springboard view has become one theoretic lens to analyze emerging market multinationals emnes in the past decade a decade after its first introduction in 2007 new developments offer keen insights on these firms and mnes in general that aggressively engage in critical asset seeking we compare this view with other ib theories highlighting their differences as well as complementarity we articulate unique strengths and weaknesses of emnes including their vulnerability and complexity caused in part by home country institutions we discuss amalgamation ambidexterity and adaptation advantages that differentiate springboard mnes from more established advanced country mnes and explain why and how springboard acts should be analyzed along with global competitiveness augmentation we introduce an upward spiral concept to advance our understanding of linkages between springboard and post springboard activities and explain some critical cross cultural and human resource management issues in the process to help continued research on springboard mnes we highlight macro and micro management issues that are particularly worth exploring

optimal design of a phase in emissions trading program abstract this paper studies a phase in emissions trading program with voluntary opt in possibilities for non affected firms and derives optimal permits allocations to affected and opt in firms when the environmental regulator has incomplete information on individual unrestricted emissions and control costs the regulator faces a trade off between production efficiency minimization of control costs and information rent extraction reduction of excess permits allocated to opt in firms the first best equilibrium can be attained if the regulator can freely allocate permits to affected and opt in firms otherwise a second best equilibrium is implemented the latter is sensitive to uncertainty in control costs and benefits

building capabilities for international operations through networks a study of indian firms in this study we seek to explain how firms from emerging markets build capabilities to operate in international markets through learning from parental networks the building of these capabilities is of particular interest as firms from emerging markets may not necessarily possess the monopolistic advantages commonly referred to in ib literature which allow a firm to succeed in international markets using lagged cross sectional regression models on a sample of 794 indian firms we found that firms draw on the international experience of their parental and foreign networks to build such capabilities findings also indicate that network scope is beneficial for increasing exposure to international markets only in the case of networks that are either small or medium sized additionally we found that firms lacking market power in their home market benefit through foreign partnerships when internationalizing operations

the born global firm an entrepreneurial and capabilities perspective on early and rapid internationalization our 2004 journal of international business studies article innovation organizational capabilities and the born global firm provided a framework for the phenomenon of early and rapid internationalization among young entrepreneurial firms this work can be characterized as an integration of marketing entrepreneurial and capability based thinking around exporting positioned as the born global exporter the article also reported findings from a national study of start up firms that expanded abroad early in their evolution in the present commentary we reflect on the contributions of the 2004 article review the scholarship on the topic over the past decade and offer suggestions for future inquiry while the incidence of early internationalization by firms was a novel concept two decades ago today such firms are found in abundance in many countries yet many unresolved research questions remain including the crucial topic of what happens to born global firms as they grow and mature over time similarly the issue of why some firms internationalize early others late in their evolution and still others choose to remain local is a fundamental question for international business scholarship

timing is everything curvilinear effects of age at entry on new firm growth and survival and the moderating effect of ipo performance abstract theory suggests that an earlier age at international entry results in improved growth but also decreased survival chances empirical studies tell a different story providing mixed and equivocal results that challenge the tenets of extant theory to begin to bridge the gap between theory and results we develop theoretical explanations for curvilinear inverted u shaped relationships between age at entry and both firm growth and firm survival as well as the moderating impact of resource providing initial public offering ipo on the resource intensive internationalization process our findings support the inverted u shaped relationships and that ipo performance steepens the growth curve and flattens the survival curve taken together our study enhances understanding of the effects of age at entry bridges the ipo and international entrepreneurship literatures and offers avenues for extending the micro foundations of the development of capabilities for new foreign market entry in doing so we advance knowledge about the conditions under which earlier or later internationalization leads some firms to thrive while others fail

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

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

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

speculation spillovers this paper demonstrates that speculative activities can be contagious and spill over across markets specifically we test the hypothesis that during china s warrants bubble period speculative activities in the warrants market grabbed investors attention and caused them to trade more speculatively in the underlying stocks consistent with this hypothesis we find that turnover and return volatility of the underlying stocks are positively associated with the warrants unexpected turnover and price deviation from their fundamental values during the previous day controlling for information driven trading and hedging motives and that such a spillover effect is more pronounced when warrants attract more investor attention data as supplemental material are available at http dx doi org 10 1287 mnsc 2014 1914 this paper was accepted by wei xiong finance