are more exports always better comparing cash and in kind export subsidies cash and in kind export subsidies are compared it is found that the ability to enhance real farm income via export subsidies is sensitive both to the form cash vs in kind and the point of policy intervention in kind subsidies of the type granted under the export enhancement program can in fact reduce real farm income export subsidies are examined under three separate scenarios no target price or nonrecourse loan programs a target price but no nonrecourse loan program and a nonrecourse loan program but no target price program the presence of a nonrecourse loan program dampens the impacts of both cash and in kind export subsidies before the introduction of the export enhancement program eep two types of export subsidies had been used by the united states a direct cash subsidy for wheat exports and an export payment in kind pik for feed grains cotton rice and nonfat dry milk under the original export pik program exporters showing proof of export sales were given certificates redeemable for commodity credit corporation ccc commodities to be exported cochrane and ryan the eep reintroduced in kind export subsidies in 1985 this paper compares the relative effectiveness of cash and pik export subsidies in increasing agricultural exports real prices and real incomes because agricultural policy ultimately must be judged by how it affects agriculture s relative position in the economy the framework is general equilibrium the model considers the interplay between farmers international middlemen nonfarm producers domestic consumers and foreign consumers the analysis shows that the ability to enhance real farm income is sensitive both to the form cash subsidies versus pik subsidies and point of policy intervention at the farm or export level in particular the results demonstrate that pik subsidies of the type granted under the eep can decrease real farm income from production agriculture s perspective an export pik program even though it raises total agricultural exports is not a sure path to improving agriculture s position in the general economy sometimes less exports are better we first introduce the model the second section reexamines solely for comparative purposes the consequences of introducing cash subsidies to commercial exporters the third section examines in kind export subsidies given to farmers and the fourth considers in kind subsidies to commercial traders the fifth section reexamines these results when the real target price of the agricultural good is fixed next tied pik export subsidies are considered finally the effects of contemporaneous existence of pricesupport operations on the results are discussed

meta paradigm change and the theory of the firm many seemingly unrelated debates on the theory of the firm are in fact part of a single deeper transformation of the social sciences as the foundational assumptions of 20th century social science have slowly been shown by science to be false new sub paradigms have emerged which cumulatively drop i theoretical assumptions about markets to explain firms ii epistemological assumptions about knowledge to explain diversity and iii metaphysical assumptions about causality to explain technical change debates occur across each of these levels

united states export subsidies in wheat strategic trade policy or expensive beggar thy neighbor tactic this paper examines the domestic and international impacts of the u s export enhancement program eep for wheat eep uses targeted in kind subsidies to expand u s exports and was designed specifically to compete with subsidized exports from the european community ec we argue eep cannot be welfare improving for the u s even considering strategic trade theory we then model eep as an in kind constrained targeted export subsidy and determine its price quantity and budgetary effects empirical results show that no exporting country gains from eep and that the intended loser the ec is only slightly harmed we find the export subsidies generate only a small increase in u s wheat exports eep is an expensive program based on our estimates for 1988 government cost of additional wheat exports under eep reached 469 per metric ton

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

evolutionary theorizing in economics modern economic analysis oriented toward understanding the workings of economies that make extensive use of markets came into existence with three guiding questions all central in adam smith s 1776 1937 the wealth of nations one question concerned order without any central authority guiding and commanding action how is economic activity coordinated the second question was the challenge of explaining the prevailing constellation of prices inputs and outputs what explains the price of labor and the rent of land the third question addressed the processes of economic progress or development smith and other early economists clearly were impressed by the inventiveness the energy and the growing productivity generated by the evolving market economy how to understand its dynamics the first two questions have defined continuing central concerns of the discipline of economics since they first were posed over two centuries ago when not posed in the context of an economy that is understood as in the process of developing they seem to pull the focus of theorizing toward equilibrium conditions the third question concerned with the processes driving economic progress pulls the theorizing toward an evolutionary orientation the question of economic development has waxed and waned in centrality to the discipline as has the importance of evolutionary theorizing during the first several decades of the twentieth century evolutionary thinking and language was widespread in economics but as one contrasts the economic

the international penetration of ibusiness firms network effects liabilities of outsidership and country clout the burgeoning of ibusiness firms in the modern digital economy challenges the received internationalization theory given that ibusinesses such as social networking sites create value by providing a digital platform for users to interact with one another we employ a user network perspective and externalization logic suggesting that ibusinesses internationalization process depends critically on users collective interactions instead of being solely driven by firms market commitments as noted by the uppsala model however ibusinesses may suffer from liabilities of outsidership due to the boundedness of international network effects drawing on social network theory we demonstrate that such liabilities can be mitigated by first diffusing the ibusiness platform in countries with higher clout our analysis using a unique dataset of mobile ibusiness platforms finds empirical support for the hypotheses we discuss theoretical implications for the network approach of the uppsala model in the digital era

a simulation model of the u s export enhancement program for wheat nash bargaining game models representing negotiations of export enhancement program eep sales are combined with a quarterly spatial price equilibrium model representing non eep world wheat trade to simulate the eep s impact in late 1985 and early 1986 the benefits of the eep in terms of increased u s export revenues adjusted for subsidy costs are estimated to be less than one percent of total u s revenues for the first quarter of 1986 model simulations also show a lowering of the ccc loan rate to have a much greater potential for increasing u s wheat exports than the eep as operated

soft related lending a tale of two korean banks abstract in this paper we present indirect evidence that the imfs insistence on foreign control of two large nationwide korean banks in exchange for short term support during the 1997 financial crisis helped restrain soft related lending practices news signaling the likely sale of a bank to a foreign financial institution yields an average daily decrease of about 2 in the stock price of related borrowers news indicating difficulty in finding an interested foreign investor generates an increase in the stock price of related borrowers of about the same magnitude these signals have larger impacts on less profitable less liquid and more bank dependent firms

asset stock accumulation and sustainability of competitive advantage given incomplete factor markets appropriate time paths of flow variables must be chosen to build required stocks of assets that is critical resources are accumulated rather than acquired in strategic factor markets barney barney j 1986 strategic factor markets expectations luck and business strategy management sci october 1231 1241 sustainability of a firm s asset position hinges on how easily assets can be substituted or imitated imitability is linked to the characteristics of the asset accumulation process time compression diseconomies asset mass efficiencies inter connectedness asset erosion and causal ambiguity

the casino model of internationalization an alternative uppsala paradigm forty years after the publication of the original uppsala model we revisit the empirical observations that inspired its conceptual development the empirical evidence we suggest invites the formulation of an alternative and complementary model of the internationalization process of the firm one that we have named the casino model of internationalization the casino model uncovers a number of new research issues pertaining to internationalization and to the nature of strategic decision making under conditions of environmental uncertainty and partial ignorance

towards more realistic conceptualisations of foreign operation modes we address a long standing discrepancy between theory and practice regarding how firms choose use and modify their modes of operation in foreign markets theory typically treats foreign operation modes as choices between well specified discrete alternatives observation of business practice reveals a messier reality we commonly observe mode packages within mode adjustments and mode role changes yet by and large these aspects of international business development have been relatively ignored in the literature and in theoretical and empirical research we propose richer and more realistic conceptualisations of foreign operation modes and look at their implications for theory and practice

the underdetermined knowledge based theory of the mnc in this note we revisit two core propositions of the knowledge based view of the firm found in the seminal work of kogut and zander 1 that multinational corporations mncs exist because transfers and re combinations of knowledge occur more efficiently inside mncs than between mncs and third parties and 2 that the threat of opportunism is not necessary although it may be sufficient to explain the existence of the mnc their knowledge based view shifted the conceptualization of the firm from an institution arising from market failure and transaction costs economizing to a progeny of superior knowledge governance we question these conclusions arguing that firms are but one of the many types of epistemic communities possessing and nurturing procedural norms identity and the cognitive linguistic and reflexive attributes conducive to efficient exchange and re combination of knowledge among their members important insights may be gained by applying the concept of epistemic communities implicit in the knowledge based perspective beyond firm level hierarchies journal of international business studies 2011 42 427 435

the role of business models in firm internationalization an exploration of european electricity firms in the context of the energy transition this article ties in directly with recently intensified interest in business models in international business ib using the energy transition as empirical context to explore their relevance in firm internationalization the global energy transition presents a challenge for almost all industries but some face specific difficulties particularly important from an ib perspective we study a set of european firms that used to operate in a highly regulated context with partial state ownership until government directed market liberalization started to allow further competition and internationalization existing firms were prompted to adapt their business models to these changes with new ventures entering the market to reap opportunities with novel energy related technologies and business models linking insights from strategic management to the ib literature we conceptualize business model related specific advantages bmsas and explore the role of bmsas in the internationalization of the firms in our sample we also uncover barriers to bmsa recombination in potential host countries consider bmsa location boundedness and discuss implications for firms international expansion by presenting a new framework consequences for the energy transition and the actors already involved and in directly confronted with it are explicated while outlining promising areas for further research building on the insights and limitations of our study

unpacking the uncertainty construct implications for entrepreneurial action abstract uncertainty is central to entrepreneurship however robust and generalizable findings that explain the conditions in which uncertainty may impede or promote entrepreneurial action remain elusive we operationalize uncertainty as a multi dimensional construct composed of state effect and response types of uncertainty milliken 1987 to investigate the relationship between uncertainty and entrepreneurial action we decompose more than 2800 exploitation decision policies nested within a sample of new product decision makers working in entrepreneurial software firms we focus on the primary decision maker s willingness to exploit a given opportunity in the face of varying combinations and manifestations of uncertainty and find that the type of uncertainty experienced influences the willingness to engage in entrepreneurial action differently further we find that differences in how each type of uncertainty is manifested in the environment the scale of exploitation i e large vs small and the entrepreneur s expertise serve to moderate the relationship between uncertainty and action in counter intuitive ways we discuss the implications for both theory and practice

a perspective on regional and global strategies of multinational enterprises multinational enterprises mnes are the key drivers of globalization as they foster increased economic interdependence among national markets the ultimate test to assess whether these mnes are global themselves is their actual penetration level of markets across the globe especially in the broad triad markets of nafta the european union and asia yet data on the activities of the 500 largest mnes reveal that very few are successful globally for 320 of the 380 firms for which geographic sales data are available an average of 80 3 of total sales are in their home region of the triad this means that many of the world s largest firms are not global but regionally based in terms of breadth and depth of market coverage globalization in terms of a balanced geographic distribution of sales across the triad thus reflects a special and rather unusual outcome of doing international business ib the regional concentration of sales has important implications for various strands of mainstream ib research as well as for the broader managerial debate on the design of optimal strategies and governance structures for mnes journal of international business studies 2004 35 3 18 doi 10 1057 palgrave jibs 8400073

concentrated control institutions and banking sector an international study abstract using a broad sample of listed commercial banks in east asia and western europe this paper investigates the relations among concentrated control a set of bank operating characteristics and legal and regulatory regimes we find that banks with concentrated control exhibit poorer performance lower cost efficiency greater return volatility and higher insolvency risk relative to widely held ones we also document that legal institutions and private monitoring effectively reduce the detrimental effects of concentrated control and that official disciplinary power plays a weak governance role whereas government intervention exacerbates the adverse effects further evidence shows that the relations between control concentration and bank operating characteristics are curvilinear and vary according to the types of controlling owners overall our findings support the contention that country level institutions play important roles in constraining insider expropriation and that private monitoring mechanisms are more effective than are public rules and supervision in governing banks

the globalization of swedish mnes empirical evidence and theoretical explanations we define globalization as the geographical dispersion of multinational enterprises mnes value chain in combination with increased inter regional coordination and use detailed firm level data to show that 12 of sweden s 17 largest manufacturing companies indeed are global by developing a globalization process model we theoretically argue in contrast to much of the existing literature that globalization may evolve to a more general phenomenon the globalization process is tortuous as mnes have to develop dynamic capabilities which make them gradually more competitive and able to cope with varying institutional contexts empirical testing on globalization of mnes originating from other home countries is suggested

the financial and operating performance of newly privatized firms an international empirical analysis this study compares the pre and postprivatization financial and operating performance of 61 companies from 18 countries and 32 industries that experience full or partial privatization through public share offerings during the period 1961 to 1990 our results document strong performance improvements achieved surprisingly without sacrificing employment security specifically after being privatized firms increase real sales become more profitable increase their capital investment spending improve their operating efficiency and increase their work forces furthermore these companies significantly lower their debt levels and increase dividend payout finally we document significant changes in the size and composition of corporate boards of directors after privatization the last fifteen years have witnessed a significant global shift away from state socialism towards entrepreneurial capitalism one of the most important and visible aspects of this trend has been the enthusiasm with which governments of all political persuasions have sold their state owned enterprises soes to private investors in hopes that the generally unsatisfactory economic performance of these firms can be improved by the discipline of private ownership this denationalization process given its current title of privatization by the conservative government of margaret thatcher in

the role of policy in energy transitions lessons from the energy liberalisation era the aim of this paper is to discuss the period of energy privatisation and liberalisation which began in the 1980s within its wider historical context the key issues are what has been learned from this recent period and how significant is it in the light of an energy transition to low carbon energy system by 2050 energy liberalisation has led to positive and globally widespread but modest efficiency gains but a lack of clearly visible direct benefits to households in many countries it has significantly improved the governance of monopoly utilities via independent regulators the prospects for competition and innovation and the quality of policy instruments for environmental emissions control through the emergence of trading mechanisms we conclude that it is not liberalisation per se that will determine the movement towards a low carbon energy transition but the willingness of societies to bear the cost which will be significant no matter what the extent of liberalisation

innovation and internationalisation processes of firms with new to the world technologies while there has been considerable research into the internationalisation of high technology firms it mostly assumes that these firms are pursuing global opportunities for technologies which are ready to be sold this assumption does not hold for firms with new to the world technologies still under development we investigate the internationalisation patterns of such firms by means of a qualitative case study our findings show the internationalisation patterns of the case firms to be uneven and discontinuous in nature we attribute these patterns to the dialectical tensions which decision makers confront between expanding internationally and developing their technologies the nature and duration of the uncertainty inherent to bringing new to the world technologies to global markets explains why tensions between innovation and internationalisation dominated rather than synergies in these conditions of fundamental uncertainty the case firms were unable to benefit from the positive self reinforcing learning mechanism that underlies both the uppsala internationalisation process model and the accelerated early and rapid internationalisation postulate instead the dialectical process model which we develop recognises the socio technical nature of technology the impact of fundamental uncertainty and the need to account for nonlinearity and interdependencies in the internationalisation process

explaining positive deviance in public sector reforms in development summary public sector reforms are commonplace in developing countries much of the literature about these reforms reflects on their failures this paper asks about the successes and investigates which of two competing theories best explain why some reforms are positive deviants solution and leader driven change sldc and problem driven iterative adaptation pdia the theories are used to analyze data emerging from a case survey involving thirty cases from princeton university s innovations for successful society iss program the bulk of evidence from this study supports a pdia explanation but there is reason to believe that sldc hypotheses also have value

ownership changes and access to external financing this paper examines access to external financing in the privatization context and provides new evidence on the effects of financing constraints on performance and investment ownership reforms increase firms reliance on external financing empirically performance and investment changes around ownership reforms are increasing in country level measures of access to credit the presence of a severe prior public financing constraint contributes to stronger investment growth after privatization privatized enterprises do not outperform publicly owned industries all else given our analyses rely on new international sector and firm level data and correct for potential endogeneity of ownership changes

global platforms and ecosystems implications for international business theories the emergence of digital platforms and ecosystems dpe as a venue for value creation and capture for multinational enterprises holds considerable implications for the theory and practice of international business in this paper we articulate these implications by considering the dual perspectives of cross border platforms and ecosystems as a venue for multifaceted innovation and as multisided marketplace and focusing on three overarching themes at the intersection of dpes and international business that is dpes as affording new ways of internationalization as facilitating new ways of building knowledge and relationships and as enabling new ways of creating and delivering value to global customers we explain specific dpe related concepts and constructs that underlie these themes and discuss how they could be incorporated into existing ib theories in ways that would enhance their richness and continued relevance as well as their ability to better predict a multitude of emerging ib phenomena

from state to private ownership issues from strategic industries abstract this paper investigates the effects of privatization for a panel of 189 firms from strategic industries headquartered in 39 countries and privatized between 1984 and 2002 strategic firms can hardly be compared to manufacturing or competitive industries as they are generally under state monopoly and involve specific issues such as regulation political and institutional constraints we examine the change in ownership and postprivatization means of control by the government and assess whether positive changes in performance obtain in these particular industries that include firms from the financial mining steel telecommunications transportation utilities and oil sectors we document that governments continue to exert influence on former state owned firms after three years by retaining golden shares and or appointing politicians to key positions in the firm our multivariate results reveal a negative effect of state ownership on profitability and operating efficiency which the presence of a sound institutional and political environment moderates

a dynamic capabilities based entrepreneurial theory of the multinational enterprise this paper develops a dynamic capabilities based theory of the multinational enterprise mne it first reviews scholarship on the mne with a focus on what has come to be known as internalization theory one prong of this theory develops contractual transaction cost informed governance perspectives and another develops technology transfer and capabilities perspectives in this paper it is suggested that the latter has been somewhat neglected however if fully integrated as part of a more complete approach it can buttress transaction cost governance issues and expand the range of phenomena that can be explained in this more integrated framework dynamic capabilities coupled with good strategy are seen as necessary to sustain superior enterprise performance especially in fast moving global environments entrepreneurial management and transformational leadership are incorporated into a capabilities theory of the mne the framework is then used to explain how strategy and dynamic capabilities together determine firm level sustained competitive advantage in global environments it is suggested that this framework complements contract based perspectives on the mne and can help integrate international management and international business perspectives

a re examination of china s share issue privatization abstract previous studies show that in contrast to evidence that share issue privatization sip in most other countries have improved firm profitability china s sip of the 1990s had no such effect we argue that the main reason for the failure of china s sip is likely to have been the weak institutional environment in place at that time we examine china s sip in a more recent period in which the institutional environment was greatly improved using a matching sample method we find that sip firms continued to experience negative post sip profitability changes in our sample period however their performance decline was significantly less than that of their matched non sip soes we also find that the introduction of the independent director rule helped to improve firm performance our results reconcile the findings of the sip effect in china with international evidence and illustrate the importance of a developed capital market to ensuring the success of privatization schemes

chinese multinationals fast internationalization financial performance advantage in one region disadvantage in another our study reveals the financial performance implications of the speed at which chinese multinational enterprises cmnes expand into intra regional versus inter regional host countries in doing so we propose a framework that integrates internationalization speed and home regionalization literatures using data from 767 publicly listed cmnes from the years 2002 to 2014 we discover that the faster the intra regional internationalization the better the firm s financial performance whereas faster inter regional internationalization demonstrates a poorer financial performance we also find that fast mover cmnes technological and marketing resources are valuable in intra regional host countries but vulnerable in inter regional host countries we discuss the implications of these findings for studies of the uppsala internationalization process model and regional mnes

born digitals thoughts on their internationalization and a research agenda johanson and vahlne j int bus stud 40 9 1411 1431 2009 articulate various theoretical mechanisms underpinning the internationalization process mechanisms they suggest are pertinent across firm type their argument builds on their earlier publications and in this spirit we consider johanson and vahlne 2009 in the contemporary context of digital firms in particular we revisit their theorizing as it relates to firms that had only begun to emerge when johanson and vahlne published their award winning paper born digitals we address how technological affordances especially direct engagement with stakeholders automation network effects flexibility and scalability affect the internationalization of born digitals we also develop a future agenda for international business research on born digital firms

investor protection and corporate governance recent research has documented large differences among countries in ownership concentration in publicly traded firms in the breadth and depth of capital markets in dividend policies and in the access of firms to external finance a common element to the explanations of these differences is how well investors both shareholders and creditors are protected by law from expropriation by the managers and controlling shareholders of firms we describe the differences in laws and the effectiveness of their enforcement across countries discuss the possible origins of these differences summarize their consequences and assess potential strategies of corporate governance reform we argue that the legal approach is a more fruitful way to understand corporate governance and its reform than the conventional distinction between bank centered and market centered financial systems

in kind export subsidies for processed and bulk goods this research analyzes the interaction between a bulk commodity and a processed good under in kind export subsidies an in kind export subsidy lowers the export price of the good on which it is paid the other price changes are ambiguous a numerical model for u s wheat and flour illustrates these conditions given the parameters of the model an in kind payment using wheat lowers flour prices and the export price of wheat the u s domestic wheat price rises when flour is used for the payment u s wheat and flour prices rise while the foreign flour price falls

from internationalization to evolution the uppsala model at 40 years abstract the original uppsala model that was published in 1977 explains the internationalization process of firms we have further developed the model several times in the intervening years the present article is our latest effort a general model of the evolution of the multinational business enterprise mbe from early steps abroad to being a global firm the updated augmented model explains mbe evolution in general not only characteristics of the internationalization process in a narrow sense we believe that the newest iteration anchored in process ontology will be useful in conducting longitudinal empirical studies

understanding the structural characteristics of a firm s whole buyer supplier network and its impact on international business performance building on the network theory and the concept of organizational ambidexterity we investigate the impact of structural characteristics of a firm s whole buyer supplier network network density betweenness centralization and average clustering coefficient on its international business ib performance we also explore the moderating roles of average path length and pagerank centrality using a manually collected dataset and a robust empirical methodology we find that while network density is negatively related betweenness centralization and average clustering coefficient have an inverted u shape and a u shaped relationship with ib performance respectively we also find significant moderation effects and in the process we show the economic importance of firms whole buyer supplier network to their ib performance we contribute to the international business and whole buyer supplier network literature

dynamic capabilities what are they this paper focuses on dynamic capabilities and more generally the resource based view of the firm we argue that dynamic capabilities are a set of specific and identifiable processes such as product development strategic decision making and alliancing they are neither vague nor tautological although dynamic capabilities are idiosyncratic in their details and path dependent in their emergence they have significant commonalities across firms popularly termed best practice this suggests that they are more homogeneous fungible equifinal and substitutable than is usually assumed in moderately dynamic markets dynamic capabilities resemble the traditional conception of routines they are detailed analytic stable processes with predictable outcomes in contrast in high velocity markets they are simple highly experiential and fragile processes with unpredictable outcomes finally well known learning mechanisms guide the evolution of dynamic capabilities in moderately dynamic markets the evolutionary emphasis is on variation in high velocity markets it is on selection at the level of rbv we conclude that traditional rbv misidentifies the locus of long term competitive advantage in dynamic markets overemphasizes the strategic logic of leverage and reaches a boundary condition in high velocity markets copyright 2000 john wiley sons ltd

adapting and sustaining operations in weak institutional environments a business ecosystem assessment of a chinese mne in central africa multinational enterprises mnes sometimes pursue opportunities in largely uncharted distinctive institutional environments how do these firms sustain operations in such settings we explore how mnes tailor and maintain operations in institutionally weak precarious and challenging host country environments such as those devastated by conflicts we draw on the business ecosystem framework and analyze a qualitative longitudinal case study of a chinese state owned mne that entered and developed its operations in the democratic republic of congo drc in central africa our findings indicate that after entry the mne sustained its operations in the drc by engaging in collective actions and coevolving with key stakeholders within its business ecosystem these stakeholders included the home and host governments state owned enterprises privately owned enterprises and local communities our qualitative data further suggest that the mne s business ecosystem evolved through three stages exploring establishing and embedding and that within this ecosystem the key stakeholders also coevolved with the mne by adopting new roles over time

privatization as an agency problem auctions versus private negotiations abstract this paper investigates the design of privatization mechanisms in emerging market economies characterized by political constraints that limit the set of viable privatization options our objective is to explain the striking diversity of mechanisms observed in practice and the frequent use of an apparently sub optimal privatization mechanism private negotiations we develop a simple model in which privatization is to be carried out by a government agent who plays favorites among bidders but is potentially disciplined by losing his private benefits of staying in office if the political environment is such that the privatization agent himself aims at raising the fair value for the company then privatization auctions and private negotiations are equally successful in raising public revenues if however political considerations distort the agent s incentives it may be that a seemingly transparent auction will raise less revenue than opaque private negotiations we also show that information disclosure laws may have negative welfare implications they may help the privatization agent to collude with some of the bidders to the disadvantage of non colluding bidders

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

do privatized banks in middle and low income countries perform better than rival banks an intra industry analysis of bank privatization abstract this paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the pre and post privatization operating performance and stock market performance of privatized banks and their rivals in middle and low income countries first we find that privatization announcements elicit negative abnormal returns for rival banks the effects are more pronounced for subsequent tranche sales where the proportion of government ownership in the privatized bank is reduced second we observe that the privatized banks underperformed the benchmark index in the long run investors who bought shares of the privatized banks on the first day of trading and held them for 5 years instead of investing in the market index lost 24 of their wealth the underperformance is consistent with the negative long run returns that have been documented for initial public offerings third we document marginal improvements in the post privatization operating performance of the privatized banks though the privatized banks in middle and low income countries are better capitalized than rival banks they carry higher problem loans and are overstaffed relative to other private banks in the post privatization period since most of the sample firms are partially privatized we submit that perhaps the continued government ownership of the privatized banks might have hindered managers ability to restructure the firms

capabilities structure agency and evolution this paper examines conceptual issues and reviews empirical results bearing on the relationship between research approaches emphasizing organizational capabilities and those based in transaction cost economics tce or in organizational economics more generally following a review of conceptual fundamentals what capability is and why organizations differ in capability it assesses recent progress toward an integration of the capabilities and transaction cost approaches primarily in the context of the analysis of vertical structure and related phenomena this review suggests that progress has been substantial and that the key elements of a promising dynamic synthesis have been identified the paper then considers issues that call for attention if further progress is to be achieved the first of these is the role of agency which must be seen in expansive terms relative to standard economic rationality if its evolutionary significance is to be fully appreciated the second is the role of structure or more specifically industry architecture which affects capability development by way of its effect on the feedback that firms receive after drawing on the recent financial crisis for an illustration of these ideas this paper considers the rise of interest in business models as a useful field of application and it concludes with a discussion of the role of organizational economics beyond tce we argue that whatever the theoretical perspective at the level of the firm analyses must reach beyond that level to grasp the important causal forces affecting capability development firm boundaries and structural features more generally

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

the theoretical evolution and use of the uppsala model of internationalization in the international business ecosystem the uppsala model typically viewed as an internationalization process model an internationalization stages model or a sequential internationalization model has served as a theoretical underpinning in the international business literature since johanson and vahlne s j int bus stud 8 1 23 32 1977 article incorporated thoughts by researchers at uppsala university in one all encompassing model major updates to the model were published in 2009 and 2017 by the original authors our work examines what has now become the time tested and decade award winning 2009 version of the uppsala model relative to the original model in 1977 we also provide an outlook for international business research within the scope of the 2017 version of the model this evaluation and dive across times into the nuances of the uppsala model capture aspects of the model s theoretical and empirical power as well as its limitations within today s international business ecosystem the international business ecosystem is defined as the organisms of the business world including stakeholders organizations and countries involved in exchanges production business functions and cross border trade through both marketplace competition and cooperation in the process we push the theoretical boundaries of the model and provide a unique connection to marketing thought

the financial and operating performance of newly privatized firms evidence from developing countries this paper examines the change in the financial and operating performance of 79 companies from 21 developing countries that experienced full or partial privatization during the period from 1980 to 1992 we use accounting performance measures adjusted for market effects in addition to unadjusted accounting performance measures both unadjusted and market adjusted results show significant increases in profitability operating efficiency capital investment spending output employment level and dividends we also find a decline in leverage following privatization but this change is significant only for unadjusted leverage ratios our results are generally robust when we partition our data into various subsamples

privatization and bank performance in developing countries abstract we examine the postprivatization performance of 81 banks from 22 developing countries our results suggest that i on average banks chosen for privatization have a lower economic efficiency and a lower solvency than banks kept under government ownership ii in the postprivatization period profitability increases but depending on the type of owner efficiency risk exposure and capitalization may worsen or improve however iii over time privatization yields significant improvements in economic efficiency and credit risk exposure iv we also find that newly privatized banks that are controlled by local industrial groups become more exposed to credit risk and interest rate risk after privatization

the export enhancement program prospects under the food agriculture conservation and trade act of 1990 abstract according to provisions of the 1990 us farm bill the export enhancement program eep will continue to be an important instrument in promoting us agricultural exports and in challenging subsidizing competitors like the european community ec with funding levels set at a minimum of 500 million annually through 1995 this research whose purpose is to evaluate the likely effectiveness of the wheat eep through 1995 concludes that the eep will have a significant effect on us wheat exports but will be subject to diminishing returns at levels higher than the annual minima and the ec will be only marginally affected by the eep as it can effectively counter the provisions of the eep at low cost

privatization and efficiency differentiating ownership effects from political organizational and dynamic effects this paper argues that the private public ownership factor should be differentiated from other factors that also influence the effect of privatization on efficiency this is empirically confirmed in a longitudinal study of 24 spanish firms for which several political and organizational factors are found to influence the estimated effects of privatization on efficiency the analysis of the timing of the effects reveals a strong significance for post privatization years 5 6 negative and 7 8 positive this suggests that the negative effect of these factors is transitional being eventually offset by the positive effects of the change to private ownership 2000 elsevier science b v all rights reserved jel classification l33

the influence of hymer s dissertation on the theory of foreign derect investment the great contribution of stephen hymer s seminal dissertation 1960 was to escape from the intellectual straightjacket of neoclassical type trade and financial theory and move us towards an analysis of the multinational enterprise mne based upon industrial organization theory the magnitude of this breakthrough can be put into perspective by considering the state of the art when hymer wrote twenty five years ago in 1960 the prevailing explanation of international capital movements relied exclusively upon a neoclassical financial theory of portfolio flows in this frictionless world of perfect competition with no transaction costs capital moves in response to changes in interest rate or profit differentials see carl iversen 1936 according to this arbitrage theory capital is assumed to be transacted between independent buyers and sellers that is there is no role for the mne at the time there was no separate theory of foreign direct investment fdi the work did not even ask the question of why is there fdi despite the evidence of sectoral cross investments and the existence of large mnes with intra industry trade if anything the early work on fdi focused upon the where of investment in a particular nation or industry for example dunning 1958 was chiefly interested in explaining u s fdi in britain there was little interest in understanding the reasons for the mne or the nature of its operations the pioneering conceptual insight of hymer was to break out of the arid mold of international trade and investment theory and focus attention upon the mne per se this permits us to treat fdi as a modality by which firms extend their territorial horizons abroad the unique feature of fdi is a mechanism by which the mne maintains control over productive activities outside its national boundaries that is fdi means international production in this view fdi is more than a process by which assets or claims are exchanged internationally see robert aliber 1970 1983 hymer s great insight was in focusing attention upon the mne as the institution for international production rather than international exchange until hymer articulated the process of fdi as an international extension of industrial organization theory it was not possible to understand why the mne transfers intermediate products such as knowledge or technology among its units across different nations while still retaining property rights over such assets today it is widely recognized that the theory of fdi i e international production is primarily about the transfer of nonfinancial and ownershipspecific intangible assets by the mne which needs to appropriate and control the rate of use of its internalized advantage s see rugman 1981 david teece 1981 1982 richard caves 1982 and mark casson 1983 in this paper we first acknowledge hymer s contribution to the theory of fdi and then move on to reinterpret his dissertation in the light of the modern theory of the mne we tdiscussants raymond vernon harvard university robert z aliber university of chicago paul streeten boston university

psychic distance and performance of mncs during marketing crises when multinational corporations face foreign marketing crises the psychic distance between the home and host country represents a distinct challenge this paper examines the curvilinear relationship between psychic distance and firm performance during marketing crises and the moderating role of marketing capabilities we test our hypotheses using an event study on a panel dataset of 217 firms based in 19 countries facing crises in 41 host countries the results show that 1 marketing crises are most harmful when the host country is either very close or far away and 2 firms can mitigate this effect with marketing capabilities

internationalization as an evolutionary process the johanson and vahlne model of internationalization has been the main foundation of process research in international business since 1977 this model also known as the uppsala model provides a useful general framework for interpreting firm level processes increasing and occasionally decreasing resources committed to international operations however the model does not provide theoretical explanations of non linear and discontinuous dynamics of the process over time nor does it offer testable propositions we focus on the longitudinal dimension of internationalization specifically path breaking commitments that increase a firm s exposure to risk on this basis we examine the idea that the ip model represents an evolutionary process by emphasizing the role of novelty and introducing selection mechanisms we explain non linear and discontinuous dynamics of internationalization processes path breaking resource commitments create novelty and deviate from a gradual path of growth as firms take higher risks and hence face more intensive selection pressures in consequence firms are more likely to experience outstanding performance but are also more likely to experience failure this variation of outcomes is moderated by the resources a firm can draw upon in its ecosystem and by the volatility of its environment based on these ideas we develop testable propositions to advance the internationalization process model

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

the uppsala internationalization process model revisited from liability of foreignness to liability of outsidership the uppsala internationalization process model is revisited in the light of changes in business practices and theoretical advances that have been made since 1977 now the business environment is viewed as a web of relationships a network rather than as a neoclassical market with many independent suppliers and customers outsidership in relation to the relevant network more than psychic distance is the root of uncertainty the change mechanisms in the revised model are essentially the same as those in the original version although we add trust building and knowledge creation the latter to recognize the fact that new knowledge is developed in relationships