International joint venture partner origin,strategic choice,and performance: A comparative analysis in an emerging economy in Africa

This study examines the competitive strategic choices of international joint ventures (IJVs) and their performance implications in a low-income emerging economy in Sub-Saharan Africa — Ghana. Using the resource-based view of the firm, it is argued that IJVs with partners from emerging economies are more likely to pursue an efficiency-oriented business strategy to strengthen their strategic positioning, competitiveness and performance. Conversely, IJVs with partners from advanced industrialized economies would be more likely to pursue a market effectiveness-oriented strategy to strengthen their strategic positioning, competitiveness and performance. The findings from 76 IJVs offer support for the hypothesized relationships. IJVs with partners from emerging economies implementing an efficiency-oriented strategy of cost leadership outperform those with partners from advanced industrialized economies implementing the same strategy. In contrast, IJVs with partners from advanced industrialized economies implementing a differentiation strategy outperform those with partners from emerging economies implementing a differentiation strategy.     

When are acquisitions a viable catch-up strategy? Some empirical evidence from China

How emerging-market firms can catch up with forerunners from advanced economies is a key issue in the economic and technology literature. Research has suggested that acquisitions are a viable tool for firms in emerging markets to reduce the productivity gap with global leaders, but the empirical evidence on this matter is still far from conclusive. Contributing to this debate, this paper examines the impact of cross-border vs. domestic acquisitions on the labor productivity of firms across different sectoral environments. Studying the acquisitions pursued by Chinese listed firms over one decade, we find that cross-border acquisitions are positively associated with firms' labor productivity and that this effect is particularly strong in high-tech sectors and among leading firms. We also find that domestic acquisitions are positively associated with firms’ labor productivity and that this effect is particularly strong in low-tech sectors and among laggards. We further investigate the mechanisms underlying the acquisition–productivity link and contend that “technological innovation” is the primary mechanism by which acquisitions enhance firm productivity in high-tech sectors, whereas “enhancing operating efficiency” is the primary mechanism by which acquisitions enhance firm productivity in low-tech sectors.     

制造企业服务业务扩展及其认知因素研究

制造企业的竞争越来越激烈,几乎所有的企业都要面对快速反应多变市场和应对价格压力的要求,面对越来越小的产品利润空间和越来越复杂的客户需求,本文从对工业服务管理文献分析和制造企业的调查研究入手,揭示了制造企业从纯粹的产品生产者向客户支持方案提供者发展的转移趋势.通过对瑞士和德国30多家机器和设备制造企业进行的调查研究,说明了服务业务对制造企业在开发财务、营销和战略机会上的重要作用,并对转移过程中服务业务的扩展过程进行了总结.结合具体企业实践,本文对制约制造企业扩展服务业务中在管理动机上的认知因素进行了分析和研究.结合中国加入WTO后,中国制造企业将全面融入国际竞争的背景,本文期望对中国制造企业的发展和竞争地位的提高提供理论和实践上的指导.     

Internationalization paths of Indian pharmaceutical firms — A strategic group analysis

This paper is an attempt to throw light on the internationalization paths of emerging economy firms through a strategic group analysis of internationalizing firms in the Indian pharmaceutical industry. Strategic group analysis of a proprietary data set of strategic variables from forty firms revealed significant variation in their internationalization strategies. The distinct strategies exhibited different value creation potential, but led to similar levels of performance in terms of return on assets, thus indicating equifinality of different paths to multinationality. Inductively drawing from in-depth analysis of firms from each of the strategic groups, the paper proposes a conceptual model of internationalization for emerging economy firms through a combination of exploitation and exploration strategies along the dimensions of products and markets. Firms that are able to supplement the conventional exploitation strategies with exploration through new products and new markets, by taking advantage of increasingly liberalized economies, could emerge as Third-world multinationals with capabilities that could potentially challenge even MNCs from the developed world.     

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.     

Modelling the effects of institutional support and international knowledge on competitive capabilities and international performance: Evidence from an emerging economy

This paper explores the process through which institutional support initiatives contribute to the international performance of firms from the small open economy of Malaysia. We examine both direct and indirect causal effects of institutional support (informational, training, trade mobility and financial aid-related support) on internationalization. We develop a model to address how institutional support initiatives affect the performance of export-oriented or so-called born global firms. From a survey of 250 firms from Malaysia, an emerging Southeast Asian market, we find that government support initiatives do not have significant impacts on firm performance unless examined based on processes of government support initiatives, international knowledge, commitment, competitive capabilities, and international performance. Government support initiatives play a critical role in export-oriented firms from small open economies (SMOPECs) in emerging markets by contributing to a number of contextual deficits that determine the international performance of a firm. This study provides guidelines for policy makers and business owners on how institutional support can facilitate the accumulation of knowledge about international markets, enhance commitment to exports and help firms gain competitive capabilities in the export market for greater success in international markets.     

Market Penetration and Acquisition Strategies for Emerging Economies

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) are expanding their global reach, carrying their products and brands to new and diverse markets in emerging economies. As they tailor their strategies to the local context, they have to create product and brand portfolios that match their competences with local needs. A multi-tier strategy with local and/or global brands may provide MNEs with the widest reach into the market and the potential for market leadership. However, it has to be supported with an appropriate combination of global and local resources. Foreign entrants therefore have to develop operational capabilities for the specific context, which requires complementary resources that are typically controlled by local firms. As institutional obstacles and weaknesses of local firms often inhibit the direct acquisitions, foreign investors may pursue unconventional strategies to acquire local resources.We outline the strategies for penetrating local markets through multi-tier branding and the acquisition of local firms, and offer new typologies that describe staged, multiple, indirect, or brownfield acquisitions. We illustrate them by analysing the entry and growth of Carlsberg Breweries in four very different emerging economies: Poland, Lithuania, Vietnam and China.     

Was müssen Führungskräfte können?

Ethics Education complements business administration only if it teaches strategic competencies that help managers to become better leaders. To this end, this article sketches an ordonomic approach to an economic ethics for competitive markets, to a business ethics for firms (corporate citizens), and to a process ethics for new governance. The core idea of this ordonomic approach is the win-win concept of mutually beneficial value creation. Thus, ordonomics is compatible with the market economy and at the same time supplements the management education in business schools: This approach systematically identifies strategic competencies that enable managers to display the kind of entrepreneurial leadership that is necessary for firms to fulfill their social function of value creation—by making use of moral commitments as a factor of production.     

Managerial Risk‐taking in International Acquisitions in the Brewery Industry: Institutional and Ownership Influences Compared

This paper deals with the role that institutional differences play in managerial risk‐taking when firms engage in international acquisitions. It is assumed that multinational corporations (MNCs) have different interests and capabilities when dealing with international acquisition, which in the authors’ view are significantly shaped by specific home country institutional influences. This study concerns the question of how different forms of ownership – concentrated (e.g. family and bank based) and dispersed (stock market based) – influence risk‐taking and managerial decision‐making in large international acquisitions. Comparing a total of 12 large acquisitions of four leading MNCs in the global brewery industry, the paper shows that mutually reinforcing influences of country of origin (coordinated vs liberal market economies) and ownership (family ownership vs stock market ownership) lead to different risk profiles and managerial risk‐taking with regard to international acquisitions.     

Catch-up as a Survival Strategy in the Solar Power Industry

We evaluate the strategies of the emerging market firms in the context of nascent industries. We use the Indian solar power industry as the empirical setting, against the backdrop of the evolution of the global industry, While in traditional industries emerging market firms learn from advanced economy multinational enterprises (MNEs) and slowly upgrade their capabilities, in the intensely competitive environment of nascent innovative industries, emerging market firms are exposed to global competition in their home market right from the early years. This shortens their catch-up clock. As a result, their long-term survival depends on their ability to catch-up fast, both in output and innovation capabilities. In the solar power industry, we find that innovations stem, in the main, from advanced economy firms. Further, Chinese firms are beginning to move from cost-based imitation to innovation. In contrast, with a few key exceptions, most firms in the Indian solar industry remain locked within a narrow niche of downstream site-based installation. Their operations are opportunistic, short term, and without specific catch-up goals, a scenario that does not bode well for the industry's future in India.     

Assigning migrants to customer contact jobs: a context-specific exploration of the business case for diversity

Ethnic diversity of both their labor forces and customer bases presents a challenge for companies and fuels debate on the business case for diversity: the view that diversity positively impacts firm performance. This study enriches the business case debate by focusing on a particular organizational activity, customer contact. It combines theory from strategic human resource management (SHRM), research on diversity, and research on marketing to analyze what drives companies to assign migrants to customer contact jobs and which performance impacts ensue. We test our hypotheses in data from 338 German business companies. Companies that recognize the value in ethnic diversity and seek to respond to customer diversity are especially likely to assign migrants to customer contact jobs. The analyses reveal a positive impact of migrants in customer contact jobs on company profitability. This impact is enhanced by a broad range of equality and diversity practices and a supportive works council. These moderators have stronger effects than two other moderators related to business strategy: the market served by a company, and its competitive strategy. The paper contributes to SHRM research in general and diversity research in particular through its original examination associating the business case for ethnic diversity with the role of equality and diversity practices and institutions. The study findings can help managers to decide whether to leverage staff ethnic diversity and show that collaboration between HR management and marketing functions is useful to achieve a strategic fit among practices.     

Internationalization,Innovation and Institutions: The 3 I's Underpinning the Competitiveness of Emerging Market Firms

The past decade has seen an increase in the extent of research focused on and around emerging market firms (EMFs) and their rising levels of competitiveness in both their home markets and more importantly in the global market place. At the same time, the practitioner-oriented literature has been documenting a growing number of corporate success stories that originate in emerging market economies. We posit that the growing prominence of EMFs is a result of three interrelated phenomena: the fast-paced internationalization of EMFs into both developing and developed market economies; the rapidly increasing extent to which business enterprises in emerging economies are focusing on knowledge-intensive processes and innovation; and the continuous evolution of institutions in these markets, particularly in terms of economic liberalization.     

新兴国家企业选择专业化战略的情境识别及机制探讨--基于深圳企业的多案例研究

已有研究将发达国家高比例的企业专业化归因于其长期发展形成的强制度环境,那么,弱制度环境下的新兴国家如何推动企业采取专业化发展方式?现实中,中国一些地区(如深圳、广州)已表现出明显的专业化倾向,原因在哪?文章基于环境依赖视角探讨新兴国家的企业专业化问题,通过对深圳的三家专业化企业进行多案例研究,旨在识别该地区影响企业采取专业化发展方式的情境框架,并分析具体的影响机制。研究发现:(1)识别了支持型营商环境、高度市场化、敏捷供应链构成的企业战略选择情境框架。受到改革开放政策、内地庞大市场容量、近港区位优势和全价值链分工等外力作用,以及营商环境、市场环境、供应链之间相互作用内生关系影响,形成了螺旋演进式的情境正向优化模型。(2)外部情境会引致企业固化甚至暂时锁定在专业化战略上。支持型营商环境产生资源集聚效应,高度市场化引导行业分工出现,敏捷供应链形成专业化固化效应。研究解释了新兴国家为何会出现专业化比例提高现象,从情境构建角度拓展了企业战略选择的环境依赖理论,对新兴国家的产业政策调整和企业战略选择实践具有指导意义。     

Are multinational enterprises from the emerging economies global or regional?

While there is ample statistical evidence that the top 500 multinational enterprises (MNEs) are predominantly home-region-bound or bi-regional, the operations of MNEs from the emerging economies have not been comprehensively analyzed. This constitutes a vital gap since firms from emerging economies have been making prominent acquisitions in recent years, and these economies are expected to post impressive growth despite the global economic slowdown. MNE managers cannot ignore such opportunities and threats. This study analyzes the operations of MNEs from four leading emerging economies – Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC). Since aggregated FDI data often lack transparency due to off-shore tax havens, we supplement that analysis by examining 1430 mergers and acquisitions undertaken by MNEs from BRIC economies during 2000–2007. We also develop insights into their dispersion pattern across five industry sectors in six geographical regions.     

Strategic responses to institutional changes: ‘Indigenous growth’ model of the Indian pharmaceutical industry

This paper examines the strategic response of the Indian pharmaceutical industry to the dual institutional changes arising from economic liberalization of the Indian economy and the WTO mandated intellectual property regime. An analysis of the relative position and growth of Indian firms vis-à-vis foreign multinationals, changes in the resources and capabilities of these firms, and scope in terms of product market internationalization and overseas acquisitions during the 1995–2005 period, suggests an ‘indigenous growth’ model in the Indian pharmaceutical industry which is in contrast to the FDI initiated growth witnessed through full or partial privatization of state-owned firms in other geographical contexts. Second, internationalization of both inputs and product markets has been the dominant mode to overcome the pressures arising from institutional changes. We discuss the drivers of this model and provide implications for future research on strategic responses to institutional changes within other industries in India as well as for comparative research across different political and institutional settings.     

Greenfield or M&A? An institutional and learning perspective on the establishment mode choice of Chinese outward investments

We develop and test a model of Chinese greenfield investments using institutional and learning theories. Both the host country institutional context and the firm's international characteristics affect the establishment mode. Using 152 Chinese emerging market multinationals (EMNEs) with 401 subsidiaries distributed in 26 countries from 2003 to 2013, we build a database of 284 pairs of host country/Chinese firms to test two hypotheses. We find that, first, governance environment affects the establishment mode: greenfield investments are preferred over acquisitions in relation-based host markets, and M&As are preferred in rule-based countries. Second, the depth of Chinese EMNEs' international experience (i.e. the amount of previous investments in the same host market) moderates the effect of the governance environment on the establishment mode. Firms with greater international depth use more M&As in relation-based markets and more greenfield investments in rule-based markets, suggesting that previous investments in the same host country provide a type of learning that reduces acquisition uncertainty in the former case and increases the self-confidence of Chinese EMNEs in the latter.     

The implications of internationalisation for the management of the vehicle components industry in Britain,Germany, Japan and the U.S.A.

The vehicle components industry, which in recent years has become subject to a more international pattern of competition, provides a good example of how internationalisation forces companies to re-appraise their strategic priorities. The industry's breadth and complexity afford rich international comparisons and suggest conclusions of broader relevance.Thirty British vehicle component manufacturers and thirty from Germany, Japan and the U.S.A. were matched on the basis of six specific components. Field research, entailing discussions with senior executives and factory visits in all four countries, was complemented with desk research analysing the industry more comprehensively.The dramatic decline in company performances, particularly in Britain, reflects over-reliance on higher-level strategies such as diversification, acquisitions, mergers and industrial consolidation, the pursuit of scale economies and the restoration of financial positions through restructuring and retrenchment. Internationalisation calls for competitive strategies that are coherent in the face of powerfully supported international rivals, and generally requires greater market focus. Secondly, basic issues such as manning levels and productivity, quality and flexible manufacturing systems have increased in importance due to radically improved international standards of best practice, established by countries such as Japan.     

The role of reference groups in international investment decisions by firms from emerging economies

Investments in China by firms from emerging economies were studied to determine how various reference groups affect their foreign market entry behavior. Imitation was shown to be an important factor, but the mechanism seems to vary depending on the institutional environments in the host and the home market. Firms from emerging economies seem to rely on copying the entry decisions of peers from their home country, especially in locations where the risk of government meddling is greatest. The example of firms from developed economies was found to be less influential.     

The micro-foundations of industrial diversification through foreign acquisitions: The multifaceted role of CEO experience

This paper examines the micro-foundations of cross-border industrial diversification strategies. We study the impact of observable CEO experience attributes on the propensity to acquire foreign target firms in unrelated (versus related) industries. Our findings, based on a sample of UK-based firms that engaged in cross-border acquisitions between 2010 and 2016, support an inverted U-shaped relationship between life experience of the CEO and the likelihood of engaging in unrelated foreign acquisitions. Further, we find that CEOs' broad-based work experience, across countries or industries, is associated with a higher propensity to engage in unrelated foreign acquisitions. Finally, CEOs’ education experience in MBA-type qualifications is associated with a preference for related foreign acquisitions. We discuss the theoretical implications of these findings and outline directions for future research in the context of micro-foundations in international business, strategic leadership, and upper echelons theory.     

Developing new innovation models: Shifts in the innovation landscapes in emerging economies and implications for global R&D management

Over the past two decades, there has been a substantial shift in the global innovation landscape. Multinationals from developed economies are increasingly globalizing their R&D activities and are developing an “open innovation” model to source innovations from outside the firm, including from emerging economies such as those in Asia. In addition, emerging economy firms, which traditionally have played a secondary role in the global innovation landscape, have now begun to catch up in developing their own innovative capabilities. This study explores the implications of this new innovation landscape for CEOs of multinationals and emerging economy firms, as well as for international management scholars and educators. While the multinationals might appropriate rents from their existing capabilities and source new ones in emerging economies, they may be threatened by weak intellectual property rights regimes and unintended knowledge spillovers to local firms, creating potential competitors. Firms in the emerging economies can learn from and catch up with investing multinationals, but to do so they need to develop their own innovative capabilities and move from a process to a product focus and from imitation to innovation.