Multinational enterprises' Entry Mode Strategies and Uncertainty: A Review and Extension

The issue of uncertainty has been one of the most important topics in the research on multinational enterprises' foreign market entry modes. This paper provides a conceptual review of the literature on the role of uncertainty in entry‐mode strategies. It is found that transaction cost theory has focused primarily on entry modes as a way of minimizing behavioural uncertainty, while research using the more recent real options approach has distinguished between endogenous and exogenous types of uncertainty and provided evidence that managing uncertainty through appropriate entry modes may lead to competitive advantage. By synthesizing the relevant literature, this paper provides some new perspectives and avenues for future research on uncertainty and entry‐mode choices by considering the impact of firm learning, prior experience and host market attractiveness.     

The impact of tax uncertainty on irreversible investment

Traditional models of capital budgeting with taxes are based on deterministic tax rates and tax bases. In reality, however, there are multiple sources of tax uncertainty. Frequent tax reforms make future taxation of investments a stochastic process. Fiscal authorities and tax courts create additional tax uncertainty by interpreting current tax laws differently. Moreover, simplified models that anticipate the actual tax base incorrectly contribute to tax uncertainty as perceived by investors. I analyze the effects of stochastic taxation on investment behavior in a real options model. The investor holds an option to invest in an irreversible project with stochastic cash flows and stochastic tax payments. Pre-tax cash flows and tax payments are assumed to be correlated. Increased tax uncertainty has an ambiguous impact on investment timing. For low tax uncertainty, high cash flow uncertainty and high correlation of cash flows and tax payments, increased tax uncertainty is likely to accelerate investment. A higher expected tax payment delays investment. A higher after-tax discount rate affects investment timing ambiguously.     

A real options model of market entry: Endogenous uncertainty and exogenous uncertainty

We develop a real options model of market entry that focuses on the dueling growth and deferral options by differentiating between endogenous uncertainty and exogenous uncertainty. While exogenous uncertainty influences the growth option market value or price, it is endogenous uncertainty that influences the value of the growth option through the ability to create a competitive advantage from preemptive market entry. First, the firm can decrease the exercise price of the growth option (i.e., the cost of the follow-on investment) through experiential learning that reduces endogenous uncertainty. Second, the firm can increase the relative discounted cash flows of the follow-on investment due to its ability to influence market demand that reduces endogenous uncertainty. On the other hand, the value of the deferral option increases with exogenous uncertainty as firms cannot influence exogenous uncertainty, and therefore, should invest elsewhere while waiting for the exogenous uncertainty to subside. As such, we provide a solution to the conundrum that the value of both the growth option and the deferral option increase with uncertainty. Finally, we demonstrate how the model addresses sequential market entry; irreversibility and market entry mode; competition; scarce strategic resources; host country development level; and industry life cycle stage.     

基于协高阶矩检验体系的中国资本市场开放与风险传染效应研究

近年来,我国资本市场的开放不断向全面纵深推进,但有关这一进程中风险传染的研究却存在诸多待改进之处。以2000年后我国资本市场开放的若干重大事件为节点,运用协高阶矩风险传染检验体系,对我国资本市场与国际主要资本市场之间的风险传染状况及动态趋势进行了全面系统的考察,取得的主要结论包括：我国资本市场与国际主要资本市场之间的风险传染更多发生在波动、偏度和峰度等高阶矩层面;全球主要资本市场对我国资本市场的风险传染经历了上升—下跌—上升的非线性过程,其间,2006年合格境内机构投资者(QDII)正式进军国际市场和2018年A股正式纳入MSCI指数体系,对我国资本市场与国际主要资本市场之间的风险传染具有极为重要的影响;各国(地区)资本市场对我国资本市场的风险传染呈现聚集性,并在我国实施各类资本市场开放政策的前期更为显著;中国香港市场和日本市场对我国内地市场的风险传染效应最为显著,而2018年A股正式成为全球配资标的后,美国市场对我国内地市场的影响跃居第一,美国市场的影响力随着资本市场的逐渐开放而日益凸显。     

Risk Uncertainty and Supply Chain Decisions: A Real Options Perspective

Supply chain risk uncertainty can create severe repercussions, thus it is not surprising that research interest in supply chain risk has been growing. While extant inquiry is informative, there is a lack of investigations that center on supply chain investment decisions when facing high levels of risk uncertainty. Given the potential dollar value involved in these decisions, an understanding of how these supply chain decisions are made is of significant theoretical and practical importance. Real options theory, with its focus on decision making under conditions of uncertainty, is an appealing theoretical lens for this endeavor. In essence, real options theory asserts that managerial decisions center on creating and then exercising or not exercising certain opportunities. To date, theorizing about and investigations of real options have used firms as their focus. Not yet examined are real options within supply chains that cross firm boundaries and drive much of the competitive activity in the modern economy. Accordingly, we extend real options theory to the supply chain context by examining how different types of options are approached relative to supply chain project investments. Specifically, we theorize how the options will be related to perceived value under conditions of high supply chain risk uncertainty. Overall, our investigation builds knowledge by extending real options theory to the supply chain context and by providing evidence suggesting some options operate differently in supply chains than they do in firms.     

Location-boundedness,investment irreversibility,and divestment of international joint ventures under host market demand uncertainty

We employ the real options perspective to examine how the irreversibility of location-bound assets and resources affects the divestment of international joint ventures (IJVs) under exogenous uncertainty in host countries. Utilizing a large sample of Korean IJVs and addressing a sample selection of IJVs and the endogeneity of firms’ choice of location-bound investments, we find that high host market demand uncertainty interacts with localized products or local sales forces and reduces divestment rates of IJVs. We also find that the deterrent effects of these two country-specific investments are more salient for IJVs with local sourcing and sales. These findings imply that the deterrent effect of location-boundedness is congruent with the uncertainty-based real options theory when explaining IJV divestment.     

Bayesian Modeling of Measurement Errors and Pesticide Concentration in Dietary Risk Assessments

We propose new models for dealing with various sources of variability and uncertainty that influence risk assessments for dietary exposure. The uncertain or random variables involved can interact in complex ways, and the focus is on methodology for integrating their effects and on assessing the relative importance of including different uncertainty model components in the calculation of dietary exposures to contaminants, such as pesticide residues. The combined effect is reflected in the final inferences about the population of residues and subsequent exposure assessments. In particular, we show how measurement uncertainty can have a significant impact on results and discuss novel statistical options for modeling this uncertainty. The effect of measurement error is often ignored, perhaps due to the laboratory process conforming to the relevant international standards, for example, or is treated in an  ad hoc  way. These issues are common to many dietary risk analysis problems, and the methods could be applied to any food and chemical of interest. An example is presented using data on carbendazim in apples and consumption surveys of toddlers.     

Options Contracts with Overbooking in the Air Cargo Industry

In today's world economy, which is marked by intensified international trade, air cargo acts as a key facilitator. However, cargo airlines continue to struggle to be profitable because of very high asset costs and substantial demand uncertainty. To improve upon this situation, we propose an options contract. Our model captures the main features of cargo trade between an airline and a freight forwarder and allows us to derive an optimal reservation policy. We then go on to analyze the impact of overbooking on the profit of the cargo capacity provider. The model is subsequently applied to real‐life booking data provided by a major cargo carrier. This enables us to compare current contractual arrangements with the ones proven optimal in the model. A numerical study provides insights about the impact of overbooking on contract parameters and profitability. Managerial insights to be drawn conclude this study.     

Unfavorable Market Conditions,Institutional and Financial Development,and Exits of Foreign Subsidiaries

In this paper, we examine how market conditions in host countries affect the entry and exit decisions of multinational corporations' foreign subsidiaries. Taking the real options perspective, we expect that smaller investments will be associated with more flexible entries and exits. We also predict that better-established host countries with greater institutional and financial development will facilitate the exits of foreign subsidiaries with smaller investments under unfavorable market conditions. We run a Cox proportional hazard rate model with a dataset of Korean foreign direct investments, and find that when market conditions become more unfavorable, foreign subsidiaries making smaller investments that were endogenously chosen under the influence of market demand uncertainty are more likely to engage in earlier exits than subsidiaries making larger investments. We also find that strong institutional and financial development positively moderates small subsidiaries' exits under conditions of unfavorably resolved uncertainty.     

基于实物期权的新技术投资决策实证研究

本文基于对我国高新技术企业的实际调研,从实物期权视角检验不同类型不确定性对企业新技术投资决策的影响。研究结果表明,市场与政策不确定性对投资的延迟作用与技术不确定性对投资的促进作用得到不同程度验证,而竞争强度与投资不可逆程度对不确定性与投资关系的调节作用则不完全符合实物期权的理论预期。论文结果揭示了我国高新技术企业进行投资决策的一般规律,可为企业应用实物期权方法提供参考。     

The Impact of Uncertainty Shocks

Uncertainty appears to jump up after major shocks like the Cuban Missile crisis, the assassination of JFK, the OPEC I oil‐price shock, and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. This paper offers a structural framework to analyze the impact of these uncertainty shocks. I build a model with a time‐varying second moment, which is numerically solved and estimated using firm‐level data. The parameterized model is then used to simulate a macro uncertainty shock, which produces a rapid drop and rebound in aggregate output and employment. This occurs because higher uncertainty causes firms to temporarily pause their investment and hiring. Productivity growth also falls because this pause in activity freezes reallocation across units. In the medium term the increased volatility from the shock induces an overshoot in output, employment, and productivity. Thus, uncertainty shocks generate short sharp recessions and recoveries. This simulated impact of an uncertainty shock is compared to vector autoregression estimations on actual data, showing a good match in both magnitude and timing. The paper also jointly estimates labor and capital adjustment costs (both convex and nonconvex). Ignoring capital adjustment costs is shown to lead to substantial bias, while ignoring labor adjustment costs does not.     

发行管制条件下的股权再融资市场时机行为及其对资本结构的影响

本文基于A股市场再融资管制环境,检验了A股上市公司股权再融资行为中的市场时机特征及其对资本结构的影响.研究发现,再融资中的市场时机行为显著,表现为两方面:(1)市场高涨时,会有更多的公司申请再融资;(2)申请再融资成功的公司,市场时机适合时融资规模更大.进一步分析发现,无论是申请再融资公司的数量还是再融资规模,市场时机都包括了两部分:一部分是基于股价的时机,另一部分是基于再融资管制政策的时机,后者在配股中约占36%.基于市场时机的更大融资规模导致再融资当年杠杆率下降更多,但由于存在发行价格和规模限制,市场时机对资本结构的 影响短暂.     

基于建设时间的企业投资期权博弈均衡分析

本文在对称双头垄断时机选择期权博弈模型基础上引入了建设时间变量并进行了扩展,对企业研发投资策略均衡进行了分析.分析表明根据模型参数和投资初始时机不同,可能存在非约束共谋、序贯和同时投资策略均衡,随着项目建设时间的增加,企业的投资价值下降而投资临界值上升,市场需求波动对重复投资倾向产生主要影响,而与经济直观相反,建设时间和投资成本对重复投资没有影响,并为产业重复投资提供了一种解释.     

序列投资下的石油勘探投资最优时机选择

综合考虑石油勘探投资的不可逆性、序列性和不确定性，结合市场需求和勘探储量的不确定性刻画勘探储量转让价格的随机动态变化，运用实物期权思想下的序列投资决策方法探究了石油勘探项目的最优投资时机选择问题，得出各阶段最优投资时机临界值的解析表达式，并与一次性完成投资的决策结果进行对比，进而剖析了不确定性参数对各阶段最优投资时机的影响。结果表明，序列投资决策模型能够弥补一次性投资决策模型容易错失投资机会的局限性；各阶段最优投资时机临界值同市场需求波动率、勘探主体价格控制能力呈同向变动，同市场需求漂移率呈反向变动；随勘探进程的不断深入，最优勘探投资时机临界值对以上参数的敏感性程度不断增强。     

基于中国上市公司的实物期权价值创造的实证检验

以1998年以前上市的657家上市公司为样本,对实证检验实物期权的价值创造功能做了探索性研究。研究结论表明,内含有价值实物期权的上市公司,即具有高管理弹性(灵活性),同时又面临高度不确定性市场环境的上市公司,获得了显著高的收益率,为股东创造了更多的财富,从而证实了实物期权的价值创造功能。     

期权方法在专利开发中的应用

分析了专利的性质,引入了专利的期权概念,利用随机微分过程的方法,在前人的研究基础上 讨论了三种专利开发的期权:研究期权,专利申请期权和开发期权. 指出专利开发的时机选择,开发 的初期投入,竞争对手进入的概率等是影响专利开发各阶段的最主要因素.     

货币政策规则对国际资本流动与人民币汇率的时变影响——基于TVP-SV-VAR模型的实证检验

本文从货币政策理论出发,构建以稳定国际资本流动与人民币汇率的“多目标”货币政策规则理论模型,并采用1998年1月至2019年11月的月度数据,建立开放经济下的TVP-SV-VAR模型,实证检验不同货币政策规则下货币供应冲击、利率冲击对国际资本流动与人民币汇率的时变与动态影响。结果表明：(1)不同时间阶段,货币政策冲击对国际资本流动和人民币汇率的影响存在较强的时变特征。(2)等间隔脉冲响应表明,货币政策冲击对国际资本流动的短期影响效应要高于中长期,而对人民币汇率的影响却存在一定滞后性和扩散性,且价格型规则更有利于熨平外部冲击对国际资本流动与人民币汇率的影响。(3)时点脉冲响应表明,利率冲击对国际资本流动和人民币汇率的影响弱于货币供应冲击,且利率冲击对国际资本流动的影响回到稳态均衡的速度更快。总体来看,在调节国际资本流动和稳定人民币汇率的效果上,价格型规则优于数量型规则,我国央行货币政策选择应逐步从数量型规则向价格型规则转变。     

具有后发优势的不完全信息专利竞赛

先发优势和后发优势会同时存在于专利竞赛中,它们的相对大小将决定两对称企业在专利研发投资时机选择博弈中所产生的均衡类型并影响企业的研发投资决策。考虑不完全信息和技术不确定性,引入信息披露及其滞后效应使得追随者和领导者分别具有后发优势和先发优势,建立实物期权投资决策模型。通过对各最优投资临界信念的计算和分析,结论表明,一定参数条件下,占先博弈和消耗战均有可能发生。信息披露滞后时间越长、技术不确定性程度越低、随机信号到达速度越快、信号质量越高,领导者先发优势就越明显,越易产生占先博弈;反之,追随者后发优势就越明显,越有可能发生消耗战。     

Equity Ownership in Cross‐border Mergers and Acquisitions by British Firms: An Analysis of Real Options and Transaction Cost Factors

The authors investigate the factors influencing the share of equity ownership sought in cross‐border mergers and acquisitions (CBM&As). Drawing on real options theory and transaction cost economics (TCE), they address and hypothesize key factors linked to commitment under exogenous uncertainty and the separation of desired and non‐desired assets’ influence on share of equity sought by acquiring firms in CBM&As. Empirical analysis based on 1872 CBM&As undertaken by British firms in both developed and emerging economies shows that British MNEs are more likely to pursue a partial acquisition in a target foreign firm when those foreign firms are from culturally distant countries. Further, findings support the view that the high cost of separating desired assets from non‐desired assets motivates firms to make a partial acquisition rather than acquire the target completely. This is one of the first studies to use real options theory to address the cost of commitment under exogenous uncertainty, as well as TCE logic to address the separation of desired and non‐desired assets in the target firm while analysing equity ownership sought in CBM&As. Empirically, this paper contributes by examining CBM&As by British firms in both developed and emerging markets.     

有效税率、投资与经济增长:来自中国数据的经验实证

本文测算了我国劳动、资本和消费的有效税率,以反映这三种要素的真实负担情况,然后,利用结构VAR模型分别研究三种税率的结构性冲击对投资和经济增长的动态影响。结果表明:消费支出有效税率的正冲击对投资率和经济增长率的影响程度最大,短期内有利于投资率的增加,长期来看有利于经济增长;劳动收入有效税率的正冲击对投资率和经济增长率的影响,短期效应为正,长期效应为负;对资本收入征税,短期内不利于投资率和经济增长率的提高,长期来看具有一定的正效应,但是影响程度相对较小。因此,我国税收政策调整的中长期目标应尽量选择以消费支出为税基,以促进经济的长期快速增长。